You mean I have a muscle there?

I can't get over the severity of the soreness I'm experiencing today. I could barely get up out of bed to press snooze on my alarm when the increasingly loud beep sounded over and over again. Even getting back in bed- which I do every morning after I hear my alarm- was a difficult task. Instead of the usual fall into the mattress and throw the covers over my head move I do, I kept hunched over and carefully slid into a laying position, mostly curled in a ball. Straightening out my torso felt like what I imagine a cardboard box would feel like when packing tape is being ripped away from it. Ouch. That's when I realized there's a reason P90X has many success stories... and many drop outs, I'm sure. If you haven't heard of P90X, it's an at-home workout video that's probably the most intense of all at-home workouts. It blows Chuck Norris's Total Gym out of the water (and trust me, it takes a powerful force to blow anything that Chuck Norris is associated with out of the water). And it makes Winsor Pilates look about as relaxing as floating in the pool.

Okay, maybe I'm over exaggerating. After all... I've only experienced p90X three times; the last time I went for a ride on a Total Gym was in 6th grade (and we might as well have called it a Jungle Gym); and two summers ago when I decided to test my pilates skills I probably put in 50% of my effort. I did, however exert all my energy into my recent P90X workouts. And I'm feeling the effects of it today, for sure.

Monday night I went over to Shayla and Melanie's house, prepared for a great workout. P90X Ab Ripper. Shayla's been keeping up with these workouts pretty dang good for a couple of weeks now, so she knew what all to expect. I, on the other hand, didn't know what was coming. Sixteen minutes of hard core abs straight through, making for a total of 349 major muscle contractions. Now I'm sure 16 minutes doesn't sounds like any big deal, but trust me, this is no simple crunch or sit-up you're doing. The moves are challenging and even leave you breathless. Twenty-four hours later the soreness hit me. And like I said, the next morning was no easy task.

Tonight we all three got together again to do the chest and back workout, followed by more abs. Holy cow... talk about a challenge. Forty-five minutes of intense strength training exercises all in a row, which left me flat on my face at several points. By the end of the workout, I burned 469 calories according to my awesome Polar watch and heart rate monitor. And that's just from strength training! Not cardio... not running... no; push-ups, pull-ups, and other crazy weight lifting moves. No wonder P90X will get you fit. It pushes you to some serious limits!

After a lot of water and some muscle relaxation in the hot tub, we were already making plans for tomorrow's workout- Plyometrics at 6:30 in the morning! I better get some sleep... it's almost 2AM. (Typical Kate staying up way too late...) Shayla's supposed to give me a wake up call... hopefully I don't pansy out.

For Whatever Wednesdays,
Kate