Treadmill? Thoughts and experience

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DR,

Have you tried all of the P90X workouts yet? Of the four I listed, believe it or not, I think I've come to like Yoga the best - it's really grown on me. It's broken down into two parts, each about 40 minutes long. The first is the actual Yoga part, and the second is the balance positions. I usually do the former, and skip the latter. The Yoga part is where the actual workout happens and you're sweating and burning calories. The balance positions are more like stretches and one legged stuff - you aren't sweating, you're just falling over... a lot. Maybe that's your thing, but I highly recommend the first half, and rather dislike the second half.

Next would be Kenpo, which I think is a very fun workout. You'll probably burn the most calories in this one, and maybe I just like it because it's one of the few cardio videos I can do without taking a break, but it's fun thowing kicks and punches.

Plyometrics is the hell video. Not only can I not do this one without taking breaks, but I actually require about twice the number of breaks as provided in the video. This one kicks your ass. I've been doing P90X for about six months now, and Plyometrics was the hardest video at the start of the program, and remains so to this very day. Don't get frustrated if you have probelms with that one.

Cardio X is a combination of the previous 3. It's 15 minutes Yoga, 15 minutes Kenpo, and 15 minutes Plyo. (In my defense, I can make it through the 15 minutes of Plyo without taking a break - it's the 50 minutes of plyo in the video where that's all you do that kicks my ass.)

The other video where there is a large aerobic content would be Ab Ripper. It's the shortest of all the videos - just 15 minutes - so you can piggyback that onto another workout.

The only other one I would recommend is X Stretch. I thought that was hopelessly boring and useless the first time I tried it, but I stuck with it, and my improved flexibility really helps with a lot of the other workouts - especially Yoga. Tony is also a little bit more humble in that video, as it turns out he pretty much sucks at stretch techniques, and spends more time showing you how others do it correctly that demonstrating himself!

The only downside is you're going to have to go through the videos 3-4 times each to get the form down, and you have to write down all the exercises if you have any hopes of doing it without the video in there. With the exception of Ab Ripper, there's simply too many moves to reasonably remember going strictly from memory.

 

Thanks, Aldeth. I'll have to give more of the programs a try. I've mainly done the muscle group-targeted ones, and Plymetrics (which, yes, destroyed me). Given my martial arts background you'd think I'd have tried Kenpo X, but alas, I haven't. I'll try it now. The Yoga too.

Suck it, treadmill!

 

DR, currently using a treadmill is the only way I work out. I feel purchasing the treadmill was one of the best purchases I ever made. Park it in front of the tube and watch 6 straight episodes of your favorite show off of your DVR. OR, drop in one of the Lotr trilogy or any other long film. Lately, I have been cranking up some Zepplin instead of the staring at the tube, when the wife and kids are gone of course.

But, it's no different than any other machine or work-out plan though. Either your mindset is focused on using the tool for weight loss/muscle gain or it's not. Treadmill, Stationary Bike, Eliptical, whatever... I found that as long as my mind is occupied with other things I can run all day. But when I try to run outside, I get bored and stop doing it.

 

Honestly don't waste your money. If you lived nearby I would drop off one of the many treadmills that is now sitting in my basement. My mother in-law has a nack of buying exercise equipment, using it for a month and than bringing to my house. I have about 10-15 machines downstairs collecting dust.

Instead of using the worthless equipment I have been using P90 and P90X. At least with those videos I use them and they don't collect dust. Even after falling due to my knee giving out on me I'm back at it after 3 weeks.

Get something that doesn't take up space that both you and the wife can do at the same time, like going for a walk outside (much better than a treadmill), going to the gym or finding an exercise video that both of you can do together.

 

I am exactly the opposite. I enjoy running outside but doing it on a treadmill is just tedious. I used to run with music, but I don't even take music any mor, because I want to concentrate on the running and how my body is moving. The last thing I want to do is to take my mind off it.

 

I use to workout with music but now I like to hear myself breath and concentrate on the moves inside of getting to a grove with the music.

 

The muscle-targeted ones are the easiest to do without the videos, actually. Last night I did chest and back, and there's really not too much technique with those moves. I mean, with the different types of pullups, all you really need to know is the hand positioning, as they are all "pull until chin above bar" exercises, and pretty much all the pushups are the same except for hand positioning as well.

With the muscle ones, one viewing is probably sufficient to get the technique.

 

I have yet to do plyometric. I'm still using the lean program which uses the cardio, kenpo, and core syn. DVD's with two of the target muscle group DVD's but you repeat the same rountine for 3 week and have a break which removes the target muscle group DVD's and than the final month of the lean is the first month of P90X classic. Since I lost a full month with my knee injury I'm doing P90 for 2 weeks and than going back to P90X for the rest of the lean program and starting the first Monday in January I will be starting P90X classic. My goal after that is to do P90X doubles.

 

So DR, what do you think of the videos? How is it going thus far?

Also, I just saw this:

F--- THAT! I assume P90X doubles mean you do two videos a day?!?! Aside from simply not having time for two workouts a day, I don't think I could handle it - I'm pretty tired after the first one!

 

It's going well so far. Minus the 4 days I was out of commission last week for the flu, I get up in the morning and do 25 minutes of a varying P90X video, 5 minutes of good stretching, and 20 minutes of supersets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I just do stretching and light cardio. Weekends I take off. I eat nothing but eggs, fish, chicken, green veggies, sweet potatoes, rice, some fruit, whole wheat bread, coffee, tea and water to drink. My only indulgences are diet soda and Special-K cereal bars. Lost 10 pounds so far.

Also, I was given a treadmill by a friend who (surprise!) had one that her dad bought several years ago, they barely used it and it sat in their garage for years. I tried it out one morning and it didn't seem to work very well, so I've kept to other means of cardio since.

 

Out of curiosity, why do you consider diet soda an indulgence? It's like, one calorie.

 

In order to make it one calorie, they add in all sorts of synthetic crap and artificial sweetening. And the whole point of the nutrition and diet plan I'm on (which is, for all intents and purposes, South Beach Diet) is that you're supposed to be eating clean and natural exclusively. So even though it's 1 or no calorie, it's still not really good for you. Not as bad as regular soda, but still.

I just can't live without the stuff, unfortunately. I'm a coke junkie. Suckin' down a diet coke lime as I type this, in fact.

 

Diet coke has no place in any proper diet.

 

OK - I get it. Yes, I know they load it with synethetic crap, and yes, there is nothing of nutritional value in a Diet Coke (although I don't know if the synthetic crap is worse than the high fructose corn syrup in the regular variety). I'm just saying that you really aren't hurting your diet if you drink a diet coke every once in a while. I'm not a soda junkie, but I probably drink a diet soda or two over the course of the week.