Monday's Workout

I'm a little under the weather, but not enough to justify scuttling my workout.

After some warm-up (I did 2 double-unders!), we practiced power jerks again -- and I think I tried to go too heavy. On my last rep, I attempted to heave a barbell loaded with more weight than my own bodyweight, and ended up awkwardly throwing it to the floor. I hope I didn't tweak my lower back.

As usual, the metcon was an ass-kicker:

AMRAP in 10 minutes:

• 10 Hanging Toes-to-Bar
• 20 Dumbbell Snatches (25% of bodyweight)
• 10 Push-Ups

I did 4 rounds and 12 reps before time ran out.

After I got home, I threw in my Tony Horton Killer Abs DVD for good measure, which was probably a mistake. Not only was my midsection wrecked from the toes-to-bars, I haven't attempted any kind of workout that isolates the core like this in a while. I used to whip through this workout with no problems, but by the end of today's session, I was wiped out.

Round 3 / Day 85: One-on-One with Tony Horton - 30-15 Upper Body Massacre + Killer Abs

Arms. Too. Sore. To. Type.

Round 3 / Day 71: P90X+ Upper Body Plus + Abs / Core Plus (+ ChaLEAN Extreme - I've Got Abs!)

I struggled a little bit during my morning session of Upper Plus. Every time I cycle off of a Recovery Week, I come back feeling a little...off. This was most evident in my pull-up sets -- I petered out much sooner than I expected. After finishing the workout, I decided to take a raincheck on Abs / Core Plus.

But feeling guilty, I decided to knock off Abs / Core Plus tonight, after the kids had gone to bed. I felt much better this evening; not only did I find Abs / Core Plus to be less than challenging (I much prefer Killer Abs from Tony Horton's One-on-One series), I joined M as she did the "I Got Abs!" workout from Chalene Johnson's ChaLEAN Extreme program. You wouldn't know it from Chalene's exercise garb (she's clearly a Bedazzler fan) or from the cheesy name of this video, but it delivered a pretty damn decent core workout.

Round 3 / Days 69 & 70: One-on-One with Tony Horton - Killer Abs + P90X X Stretch

Sorry about not posting for the past couple of days -- I've been traveling for work and insanely busy.

In any event, I'm happy to report that my hotel room not only has a DVD player, but also ample room in which to exercise. (Thank you, W Hotels -- but free WiFi would have been nice, too.) Also? It's the end of my Recovery Week, and my low-key workouts haven't required any extra equipment. I didn't even need to venture down to the hotel gym.

Business travel is unfun, but there is a silver lining: I was able to treat myself to a deep tissue massage at the hotel spa today. The therapist told me that my back is waaaay too tight and that I need more frequent massages. I'm skeptical -- she also tried to sell me a pair of $30 acupressure balls that look no different than the little super-bouncy rubber balls you get for 25 cents each in supermarket vending machines -- but I'll use any excuse to indulge in a monthly massage.

Round 3 / Day 66: One-on-One with Tony Horton - Killer Abs

I bought the entire Volume 1 set of Tony Horton's One-on-One series, but I wonder if anyone who made a standalone purchase of the Killer Abs DVD feels gypped. Including shipping and handling, it costs about one-fifth of the price of the entire P90X set, and consists of just two of Tony's previously-released ab workouts -- Ab Ripper 200 and Ab Ripper X -- back-to-back. (And he manages to forget to do one of the exercises to boot.) Don't get me wrong: It's a good, gut-churning session and all, but couldn't Tony (and BeachBody) have thrown in a few new moves just to lend this disc the illusion of being different enough to justify the $23 price tag?

Round 3 / Day 62: 2K5 Turbulence Training Workout B + RKC Get Ups + One-on-One with Tony Horton - Killer Abs

I feel like I'm struggling (more than usual) to finish my sets of pull-ups and chin-ups. It's probably because I haven't been diligently "greasing the groove" by cranking out short sets of pull-ups every time I pop into the garage. In other words, I've been lazy.

Plus: I secretly hate pull-ups.

Round 3 / Day 52: One-on-One with Tony Horton - Killer Abs

I know, I know -- I'm a weasel for settling for a quick ab workout today. But you try working out on a hotel room floor with the lights out and your spouse and two kids sleeping less than ten feet away.

And while I know it's not an Insanity workout or anything, lugging a wriggling two-year-old and herding a punchy five-year-old around Disneyland isn't a cakewalk, either.

Round 3 / Day 35: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit + One-on-One with Tony Horton - Killer Abs

I'd planned on just doing Killer Abs today, but threw in Plyometric Cardio Circuit for good measure. And M joined me for it!

Sweaty, good times.

Round 3 / Day 27: 2K5 Turbulence Training Workout A + RKC Get-Ups + P90X+ Abs / Core Plus

2K5 Workout A starts with two rounds of three warm-up moves: Prisoner Squats, Elevated Push-Ups, and Stability Ball Leg Curls. And for the main event, we have (as usual) three supersets, each repeated three times:

Superset One:

• Squats (8 reps): You can choose to do 1-Leg Squats (a.k.a. Pistol Squats) instead, but I'm still not yet able to do 'em using my left leg, so I opted for regular old Squats instead.

• Dumbbell Chest Presses (6 reps): I've totally run out of things to say about chest presses.

Superset Two:

• Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts (8 reps): While doing this exercise, I sometimes fear that my lower back is going to just snap, and my upper body's going to separate from my pelvis and topple to the floor.

• Spiderman Push-Ups (5 reps per side): After having done a billion Oblique Push-Ups, these are a (welcome) piece of cake.

Superset Three:

• Dumbbell Step-Ups (10 reps per side): I'm not a super-heavy guy, and I only carry a 30-pound dumbbell in each hand when I do my Step-Ups, but I'm worried that one of these days, my weight bench is going to collapse while I'm doing this move. For some reason, this entire workout is suffused with dread. I need to stop watching "Lost" on my TiVo while doing Turbulence Training.

• Dumbbell Rear-Deltoid Raises (12 reps): Fun! Round 3 doesn't contain much in the way of isolation moves for my shoulders, so I really dig this exercise.

And then I proceeded to suck at Get-Ups for 5 minutes.

Lastly: Abs / Core Plus. This is a perfectly fine core workout, and as I've mentioned before, the hanging leg raises are awesome. The rest? Ehhh. The other moves are decent, but pale in comparison to Ab Ripper X or Killer Abs from the One-on-One series.

Off to bed now, where I can try to crack open one of the four or five books I've started (but will probably never finish) reading.

Round 3 / Day 15: One-on-One with Tony Horton - 30-15 Upper Body Massacre + Killer Abs

In just 60 minutes, the One-on-One 30-15 Upper Body Massacre workout video perfectly encapsulates the very best and worst of Tony Horton.

First, the bad: Tony has plenty of time between exercises to indulge in his usual preening theatrics -- which, admittedly, have finally become more amusing than irritating to me. (Tony's like the loud, close-talking uncle who drops in for dinner and cracks stale, vaudeville-era jokes while poking a finger into your chest to punctuate his punchlines; it used to piss you off, but now you just roll your eyes and chuckle at how he can't seem to help himself.) And once again, Tony plugs his overpriced PowerStands, though to be fair, he also points out that if you bought a door-mounted P90X Chin-Up Bar, you're not going to be able to do all the pull-up variations in this workout.

But enough about the negatives. The good stuff vastly -- VASTLY! -- outweighs the bad. I kid you not: This is hands-down the best upper-body bodyweight resistance workout I've come across yet.

Details after the jump.