The Beginning of P90X - Plyometrics, Shoulder and Arms, and Ab Ripper X

As of yesterday, I have started the P90X workout program. My husband and his coworkers have been doing it. As a woman, I felt hesitant to try it at first. The workouts seemed a little militaristic. I prefer dancey, or body/mind programs like yoga, pilates, or Zumba. Also, the workouts seemed hard. I tried the first program, Chest and Back a few months ago, it's really a full hour of pushups and pullups, and I was so sore and intimidated, that I stopped for a while.

Well, now I am going to begin for real. My local gym shut down this past week. And I also found out that I gained 10 lbs over the last 8 months! This is like, 10% of my body mass! I thought I had been exercising a lot, but apparently, I need to rev it up a notch, so here I am.

Review so far:

Yesterday, I did the Plyometrics program as the opening of my program (I did not want to start with the suggested "Chest and Back" because I've already done it twice on separate occasions previously and I don't want to get bored). I managed to finish the whole thing, which is better than the first time I tried the program when I had to stop with 20 minutes to go. This time, I modified the jumps a little bit so that my feet barely left the ground, and I was able to finish it. But I was still out of breath and dripping with sweat. Today, my hamstrings and abductor muscles are feeling pretty sore. My calves are also feeling a bit tight.

Today, I did the "Shoulders and Arms" and the "Ab Ripper X" according to the program. I don't have a plethora of weights at my disposal, so I used my rubber band. Note to self, must wear sneakers. The band hurt my feet, and one time the cord slipped and snapped and hit me in the inner thigh. That hurt. The rubber band was hard to calibrate to get the right amount of repetitions (I am aiming for the 12 to 15 rep range). I am actually not certain that I worked my arms enough. But I won't be able to know until tomorrow when my muscles get sore. I had a bit of difficulty completing the Ab ripper X, which is a 15 minute blast of stomach exercises. But my stomach was sore from working abs 2 days ago. I have tried this program previously with my husband and I have been able to complete it in the past, due to my months and years worth of pilates training. (When I went to my gym, I used to also to to 1 hour of abs class, so that certainly helped as well.)

All in all, I am excited, and hopefully I can keep this up.