Day 8 P90X - week 2 Chest and Back -1/28/12

Day 8 - round 2 - Chest and Back 1/28/12
Alright Day number 8, the start of the 2nd week. In preperation of the 2nd week, I went ahead and printed out all of the P90X official workout forms, with all the exercises listed on them, so I can better track what I am doing. Last week, you may recall that I was writing everything down on a pad of paper. So I transferred all of that information over to the sheet, and will now have a weekly track of all my reps and weights. My goal today was to do at least one more rep, or a bit more weight, than I did in the first week. This is the importance of writing everything down. If you want to push yourself, you need to have a goal, and you need to know what you're capable of, so you can work harder to push past it. Through this workout, I wanted to stop so many different times, my body was dying, but I saw that I did 10-12-15 reps the week before (whatever the numebr was) and even though I watned to stop, I took a breathe, a shrot break if needed and then busted my ass to get at least one more this week. If I didnt write that stuff down, I would have stopped way to soon. It is that last little bit of effort, those last few reps that are the difference between improving, and getting results and not.

Ab Ripper: I did Ab Ripper X today after the chest and back workout, and today I was up to 20 reps of the 25 they are doing on the DVD. The Ab Ripper killed me. I was tired as hell after the chest and back workout, especially from pushing myself so much harder to out do my numbers from the previous week, that the Ab Ripper just kicked my ass. I did it though, I did 20x of all the exercises, up from 18 the time before, and as tired as I was, as much as I wanted to stop, I pushed throuhg and did it. Dont get me wrong, I had to take breaks. I had to stop and breathe. I had to pause the DVD sometimes as I rolled around in discomfort cause my stomach muscles were so tight and I needed to let them loosen up, but damn it I DID IT!

The thing that I am learning, as i move into my 2nd week, is that it is going to come down to me pushing through, and having MENTAL toughness, if I am ever to allow myself to work hard enough to gain the PHYSICAL toughness. Getting up early, going to the gym, pushing yourself harder than you did the time before, all of that is about mental toughness, being disciplined, and holding yourself accountable. These are things that I used to think I had, and am seeing now ,that I have plenty of room for improvement. It is kind of cool to see that I am being tested, and learning about more than just how to get fit.