© Tim Pannell Photography

I just got back from playing racquetball for 2 hours and I’m absolutely hammered.  I did a round of P90X Shoulders & Arms this morning and felt great afterwards.  It’s still my favorite P90X workout.

I was sore, but it was the good kind of sore.  I still have soreness in my left elbow, but nothing near as painful as a month or two ago.  I do have something going on in my right shoulder and tricep area.

I had to lower the weight on my dumbbells on most of my bicep exercises by 5 pounds.  I kept the same weight on all the tricep exercises, but fell short of my goal of 25 per side with the side tri rise exercises.  I also lowered the weight in most of my shoulder exercises by 5 pounds as well.

I really struggled playing racquetball.  I played great the first game winning it easily 15-3.  I lost the next two – 15-14 and 15-9.  By the fourth game my arms were feeling like jello and my legs were starting to feel a bit like tree trunks.  I got a second wind for the last few games winning 2 of the 3.

I’m exhausted at this point.  I’m sitting here in my bed typing this up and feeling like I have zero energy.  Food doesn’t sound real appetizing at this point, but I know I need to go downstairs and find something moderately healthy to eat.  I’ve lost about 6 or 7 pounds of the extra weight i picked up this last month…so that’s a good thing.

I’m just going to keep doing the workouts everyday and play racquetball at least 4 times a week for at least 2 hours a whack.  Sooner or later…..somethings gonna have to give……it better be the weight and not one of my knees.

P90X – Shoulders & Arms – Racquetball – Exhaustion is a post from: Losing weight with P90X

© Tim Pannell Photography

Again I’m guilty of not writing for a while.  I’m making it a habit of not staying up on this blog.  P90X has definitely been part of a healthier lifestyle for me, but my wife and I are still trying to get a better handle on her schedule at work and make our P90X routines more………well…….routine.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how random things can be in life and appreciating all that I have to be grateful for.  I have a very dear friend who was just diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer.

They never smoked a day in their life, run 6 to 8 miles 6 days of the week…religiously, lift weights, teach gym at elementary school, play tennis and eat healthy 99.9% of the time.

I’ve known since I was a kid that there was no fairness in life, but this seems so far beyond unfair.  Here I am, a schlubb with a huge weight problem and they get cancer and are in a battle for their life.

They are strong and extremely healthy other than that small mass of cells and I believe that they will beat this thing down into submission.

I think about Lance Armstrong and his very public fight with cancer.  He was such a healthy individual and came out on top in the end.  My friend will do the same……I’m sure of it.

I know that the numbers of success stories are few and far between for this type of cancer, but the number of extremely fit and healthy people to get this type of cancer is few and far between as well.  In the end, my friend is the kind of person that will triumph over this stupid disease.

Today, I’m just grateful for my health, I’m grateful for my amazing wife….my soul mate….my best friend and our 5 wonderful kids.  Life is good.  I need to make the most of every minute I have.  I will be fit again…I will most likely never have the “8-pack” I had in High School and college, but I’ll be healthier and more fit.

If you took a snapshot of my lifestyle 7 or 8 years ago and compared it to today….I have a much healthier lifestyle today and P90X has a big part of that.  I’m playing racquetball again several times a week and I’m doing at least 3 rounds of P90X each week.  I have a lot of room for improvement so I will recommit again to doing what’s best for my health.  My wife and I will find a way to make this more of a routine and get consistent with our P90X schedule.

If any of you have cancer success stories you’re aware of and wouldn’t mind sharing them, I’d love to be able to share them with my friend so they can hear some positive re-enforcement.  Thanks in advance!

P90X – Healthy Lifestyle is a post from: Losing weight with P90X



© Tim Pannell Photography

Today my wife and I did the P90X Chest & Back workout together.  We both love it!

It has been a rare occurrence for us to be able to do P90X together . Her work schedule has been really difficult this last month.

She has to be at work by 6 am so she hasn’t been able to do any of the P90X workouts for over a month.  I haven’t been able to consistently workout for over a month either.

My big problems have been health related for the most part.  I did have 2 weeks when I was shooting photo assignments and was away from home and did a poor job of staying on top of my workouts.

I did push ups and crunches , but that was about all.

Once I got home i tried getting back inot the flow, but struggled this last week.  I finally went and played racquetball on Tuesday night just to try to jump start myself back into doing something physical.

It was fun to play again, although I pushed myself too hard and pulled a muscle on my right side.

It felt better this morning so I decided to put in the P90X Chest & Back DVD and do it with my wife.

Her sister can’t workout for a while since she just had her gall bladder removed.

It was nice to be working out with my wife again….it just makes the whole thing more fun to do.  We both noticed a drop in our ability to do the exercises.

My numbers dropped off by about 25% on half of the exercises and stayed the same on the rest, but I was a lot more out of breath than I was a month ago when I was doing P90X on a more consistent basis.

I know I will be sore tomorrow, but it’s a good sore.  I love feeling the muscles in my body and these workouts really do bring that about.

Kim might be changing jobs in the next week and we’re looking forward to being able to do P90X together every morning.

It helps us both with our overall attitude and well being.  We both have better outlooks when we’re working out and the benefits show up in just about every aspect of our lives.

Stress is reduced, we get some valuable time to spend together and everything else seems to fall into place.

I’m looking forward to next week……I really do love the P90X workouts!

P90X – Chest & Back – I Love This Workout is a post from: Losing weight with P90X

© Tim Pannell Photography

Well……..P90X workout failure is a bit of a stretch.

This last month has been a series of setbacks, starting with illness.

I have been sick off and on for the last 4 months plus.

I chalked it up to having the flu or a cold or a combination of the two, but when it just kept going and coming back and continuing I finally went into the doctor’s office.

I was having a hard time catching my breath on some days and no problem on others…..my throat felt like I had strep.

I just felt like crap most of the time.

The doc determined it was allergies.

Well, after 3 weeks of being on meds I’m finally starting to feel better.

My other setback has been work.  Not that I’m not thrilled with having some assignments…. I love ‘em!!!

They just add a new wrinkle when it comes to doing P90X.

I’ve had a couple of photo assignments the last 2 weeks.

I was in LA shooting a series on community service and back home in Arizona for over a week shooting for a luxury apartment developer.

I brought along my workout bands, but have to admit that I didn’t use them at all.

I did push ups and chair dips and some side tri rises, but that was about it.

I was still pretty tired so I just took it easy.

Now I’m back home and feeling better physically and mentally than I have in quite a while.

It’s time to get back on the horse so to speak.

These last 4 weeks don’t really add up to failures as much as they are setbacks.

Sometimes crap happens that we don’t like.

Things that are more or less out of our control sometimes take over for a little while.

I have had to learn when to take my foot off the gas and just take what life hands me.

In the past I would get injured playing racquetball and just play through the pain and end up doing more damage than good.

In that sense I had a classic “old school” mentality about pain….”just rub some dirt on it and get back out there!”

I would also beat the crap out of myself if I didn’t perform to my highest expectations.

I’m doing my best to not get down on myself when I experience temporary setbacks.

It serves no purpose to dwell on past difficulties……it actually keeps me from moving forward.

Today is a new day.  I’m no longer as sick as I was a month ago…..I still have junk in my lungs, but not like before.

I can breath, I can take in oxygen, I can start back up on my P90X program.

Today will be  P90X Chest & Back.………Bring it!

P90X Workout Failures is a post from: Losing weight with P90X

© Tim Pannell Photography

This was a crappy week for P90X!   There’s no other way to describe it.

I had a number of setbacks this week, mostly soreness in my left elbow and a fair amount of lower back pain.

I did the P90X Chest & Back workout on Monday and the P90X Shoulders & Arms workout on Tuesday.

On Wednesday I could barely move my left elbow.

This type of pain would come around fairly often in my right elbow when I was playing racquetball.

This is the second time I’ve experienced this in my left elbow.  If you’ve ever had tennis elbow…….that is what this feels like.

It got so bad I could barely play any low notes on my guitar without serious pain.

The twisting motion is just horrible.

I decided to take it easy the rest of the week……thinking that it would get better.

Well, it hasn’t really.  The left elbow is still really sore.

I’m guessing I overdid it with any of the bicep exercises in the P90X Shoulders & Arms routine.

I’ve added a lot of strength to my arms and I guess I just pushed it too hard.

As far as my lower back is concerned….I haven’t got a clue.  Throughout most of my experience with P90X I’ve been pain free in my back.

I did P90X Kenpo X yesterday with my wife, sister in law, brother in law and niece.

I figured this wouldn’t hurt my elbow any.  It was more painful than I expected it to be, but not too bad.

This workout actually helped stretch out my back and as of this morning the pain in my lower back is almost gone.

There is still some pressure, but nothing like the last couple of days.

I think this next week I’ll stick to the P90X Yoga X, Kenpo X and Aerobics X workouts to give my elbow some rest.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

P90X Setbacks is a post from: Losing weight with P90X

© Tim Pannell Photography

I’ve done pretty well with the workouts for the last several months.

I’ve added quite a bit of muscle to my frame, but I haven’t lost any real weight….maybe 5 pounds.

I’ve said in earlier posts that I wasn’t going to let myself get too down if I wasn’t successful at dropping the weight.

I’m pleased with my efforts as far as the p90x workouts are considered, but I want to do better in the weight loss category.

I have to admit that my diet throughout my previous p90x cycle has been the ultimate problem.

We got into the habit of eating ice cream almost everyday and I know that I can’t keep doing that and expect to drop the weight.

I’ve cut out soda from my diet almost completely – maybe 12 oz. every week or 2.

On a typical day I’ll get up at 6 am, do a little work on my blogs and my commercial photography website.

At around 8 am I’ll pop in a P90X DVD and do an hour workout.

About 1/2 hour after my workout I’ll mix up a Shakeology Shake.

I’ll usually make an egg sandwich for lunch…nothing too crazy.

I haven’t done a good job snacking on healthy options in the middle of the day.

By the time dinner rolls around I’ve been starving and I’ll overeat.

Chicken, salmon, lean beef, pasta, salads, veggies.

They’re nutritious and healthy dinners, just too much of them……portion control will be the answer.

I’m trying to keep things simple and balanced.  No crazy diets…nothing overly complicated…..in other words just common sense.

I’ve got grapes and carrots lined up for gnoshing today.

My kiss of death over the last 3 months has been after 9 pm when I’m still winding down.

I’ve eaten junk to be honest – ice cream and chips and crap.

This time around with this P90X sequence I’ll do better with my diet.

The rule this time around is – no junk food during the week.

I’ll let myself eat ice cream or whatever on the weekend, but that’s it.

I should drop 5 pounds a week if I stick to these principles.

If I don’t drop a bunch of weight in the next couple of weeks I’ll have to go back to the drawing board as far as the diet is concerned.

P90X Diet Tips is a post from: Losing weight with P90X

© Tim Pannell Photography

The P90X workout schedule is pretty ambitious.

I’ve had quite a few people ask me over the last several weeks what the actual P90X schedule is.

For any of you wondering about that….this post should explain it……….here goes:

There are a total of 12 DVDs that make up the P90X Exercise series.

The basic P90X schedule is broken up into 11 dvd routines plus an additional 12th dvd that focuses on your abs, called Ab Ripper-X.

DVD #1 –   Chest & Back
DVD #2 -    Plyometrics
DVD #3 –   Shoulders & Arms
DVD #4 –   Yoga X
DVD #5 –   Legs & Back
DVD #6 –   Kenpo X
DVD #7 –   X Stretch
DVD #8 –   Core Synergistics
DVD #9 –   Chest, Shoulders & Triceps
DVD #10 – Back & Biceps
DVD #11 – Cardio X
DVD #12 – Ab Ripper X

There is also a “How to Bring It” Instructional DVD included with your P90X Workout Schedule which gives you an overview of the entire set of P90X exercises.

Here’s what the classic P90x workout schedule looks like:

P90X Workout Schedule for Weeks #1, #2, and #3:

Day 1 – Chest and Back, plus Ab Ripper X
Day 2 – Plyometrics
Day 3 – Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
Day 4 – Yoga X
Day 5 – Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 6 – Kenpo X
Day 7 – Rest or X Stretch

Weeks #4, #8 and #13 of the P90X workout schedule  are designed as recovery weeks.

P90x Workout Schedule for Week #4:

Day 1 – Yoga X
Day 2 – Core Synergistics
Day 3 – Kenpo X
Day 4 – X Stretch
Day 5 – Core Synergistics
Day 6 – Yoga X
Day 7 – Rest or X Stretch

P90X Workout Plan for Weeks #5, #6 and #7:

Day 1 – Chest, Shoulders and Triceps, Ab Ripper X
Day 2 – Plyometrics
Day 3 – Back and Biceps, Ab Ripper X
Day 4 – Yoga X
Day 5 – Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 6 – Kenpo X
Day 7 – Rest or X Stretch

P90x Workout Schedule for Week #8 (Recovery Phase):

Day 1 – Yoga X
Day 2 – Core Synergistics
Day 3 – Kenpo X
Day 4 – X Stretch
Day 5 – Core Synergistics
Day 6 – Yoga X
Day 7 – Rest or X Stretch

P90X Workout Schedule for  Week #9 and Week #11:

Day 1 – Chest and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 2 – Plyometrics
Day 3 – Shoulders and Arms, Ab Ripper X
Day 4 – Yoga X
Day 5 – Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 6 – Kenpo X
Day 7 Rest or X Stretch

P90X Workout for Week#10 and Week #12:

Day 1 –  Chest, Shoulders and Triceps, Ab Ripper X
Day 2-   Plyometrics
Day 3 – Back and Biceps, Ab Ripper X
Day 4 – Yoga X
Day 5 – Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 6 – Kenpo X
Day 7 – Rest or X Stretch

P90X Workout Schedule for Week #13 (Final Week):

Day 1 – Yoga X
Day 2 – Core Synergistics
Day 3 – Kenpo X
Day 4 – X Stretch
Day 5 – Core Synergistics
Day 6 – Yoga X
Day 7 – Rest or X Stretch

The basic P90X Workout Schedule has you working out 6 days a week for 13 weeks from 1 to 1  1/2 hours each session.

It is a great set of workouts and I highly recommend sticking to the schedule if at all possible.

Good luck!

BRING IT!

P90X Workout Schedule is a post from: Losing weight with P90X

© Tim Pannell Photography

Man, what a weird week!

I love P90X, but this week I’ve had some problems with it.

My wife and sister in law headed out of town Monday and Tuesday….leaving me all by myself.

Monday morning I got up and dutifully did my P90X Back and Chest workout.

It was great!  I felt good afterwards and was pleased with myself for doing it even though I was alone.

Tuesday………I don’t even remember Tuesday.

That wouldn’t bother me if I was a drinker, but I’m not.

I just know I didn’t work out that day.

Kim got back into town Tuesday night.

For whatever reason, we didn’t work out Wednesday morning either.

Yesterday I got up at 5 am because Kim started her new job and had to be there at 6 am.

I got up with her and took her to work and then got home to get the youngest of our kids off to school.

After that I went out and did some photography….shooting scenic backgrounds for a photo project I’m working on.

I spent the whole day after that at the computer processing and retouching….at least until I went out and shot scenics for another 3 hours in the late afternoon – early evening.

Right now it’s 5 am and I’m going to shoot outdoors again at sunrise.

Kim will head off to work at 6 and won’t get home til this afternoon.

Here’s the question – When in the crap are we going to work out?!?

For almost 3 months now, we had a nice little system in place.

We’d get up, get the kids off to school.

Kim’s sister would come over around 8 am and we’d pop in a P90X workout and we’d get moving.

We were really consistent with this P90X routine.

It was really nice starting the day off with a great sweaty workout.

It was also nice having 2 other people there to keep me motivated.

Afternoons are busy around here and I’m worried we’ll find excuses.

Melanie won’t be able to work out at that time every day.

Kim really enjoyed the P90X workouts and was getting stronger and stronger by the day.

It was fun watching everybody make a lot of progress from week to week too.

It’s always a drag when a good routine comes to an end.

I guess we’ll see what happens today.  The plan is to workout at 2:30 when Kim gets home.

I’ll keep you posted.

P90X – Problems? is a post from: Losing weight with P90X

© Tim Pannell Photography

Yesterday we woke up to 12 inches of snow and that was just enough to give me a new P90X alternative.

With shovel in hand I shoveled six driveways and a couple hundred yards of sidewalks.

After shoveling I did a series of photographs for my stock agency of my nieces, nephew and son playing in the snow

I actually like shoveling snow….maybe proof of my low I.Q.

I remember watching my mom shovel snow when I was a kid and throwing snowballs at the big picture window my sisters and I would watch her through.

I was really excited once I got old enough to go out and shovel and through snowballs at the big window while my sisters watched me shovel…….a winter right of passage of sorts.

We’ve lived in Arizona for 22 years before moving up here to Utah so I’ve avoided snow shoveling for almost half my life.

I still enjoy it.  It’s actually a great workout.

There were several people on the block with snow blowers, but they didn’t finish their driveways any faster than it took me doing it “manually.”

How many things are sold to us in order to make our lives easier?

Save time, save energy, save effort etc.

Many of these things might make life easier, but the real question is…….do they make our lives better.

We’ve sought out ease of living at the expense of our health in many cases.

We use our lungs less, we use our legs less, we use our backs less, we use our muscles less.

We get weaker and more and more out of shape as we seek a life of ease.

In the long run, so many of these things we do to make our lives easier actually make it worse as we lose more and more of our physical abilities.

I have no plans to buy a snow blower…..on this one….I’ll stick to the old fashioned way of doing things.

Heaven knows I can use the workout.  I spent 2 hours yesterday morning shoveling snow.  It felt great.

The really cool thing though is this……because I’ve been doing P90X consistently over the last 2 months, my back isn’t sore at all today.

No pain, no soreness, no side effects from 2 hours of shoveling……not bad.

Doing the P90X Legs and Back workout is probably responsible for my lack of pain.

P90X does such a good job of exercising all areas and muscle groups in your body that there are very few if any that don’t get worked out, so when you do something physical that is different from your normal routine you don’t end up paying the price of a super sore rarely used muscle group.

I know that in the past, even as a young kid that was in great shape….and I was.  I was always sore the day after shoveling our super long driveway.

Today I’m pain free……cool!

So what if I didn’t end up doing any P90X workout yesterday……shoveling snow for 2 hours sure seemed to be a great P90X alternative for just one day.

P90X Alternative is a post from: Losing weight with P90X

© Tim Pannell Photography

Here I am, 1 day shy of 3 weeks into the P90X workout routine.

Today, Kim, Melanie and I did P90X Plyometrics and it absolutely kicked my butt.

My legs burned bigtime during this workout.

I have to be honest.  Most of the P90X workouts have numerous exercises that I enjoy and look forward to.

This one does not until the very end when it mimics baseball pitching, basketball shooting and football drills.

I have spent a lot of time over the last year riding a recumbent bike, but that did not prepare me for this workout.

This was the first time I did Plyometrics because of my left knee missing close to 80% of its cartilage.

I managed to do all of the exercises, when I got overly exhausted I would slow down the pace.  THe only exercise that I could not do was “hot foot.”

Instead of jumping on just one foot at a time I had to use both feet to stabilize my left knee.

This workout has a lot of aerobic emphasis on it and left me out of breath more than almost all the other P90X workouts.

So far, Plyometrics is my least favorite of the P90X series.  It’s the one disc where my lack of fitness is extremely self evident.

There are a number of exercises on the Plyometrics dvd that leave me feeling a little spastic and uncoordinated.

That’s not a bad thing, it just shows my weaknesses in a major way.

From this point on I will be doing this workout routinely in order to work on those weaknesses that it exposed today.

If you try this one, make sure you were well rested and hydrated.

There are good examples on the dvd showing how to do these workouts ranging from high to low intensity.

One of the trainers on the dvd has a prosthetic leg which ensured that I wouldn’t belly ache about my knee.

It was impressive to see this guy working out hard and keeping up.

Inspirational to say the least.

Here’s my review of the P90X Plyometrics disc – I am more spent and tires after doing this workout than any of the other 11 except maybe ab ripper X.

It’s a great workout that will leave you exhausted if you watch your form and do the exercises right.

P90X Review – How Plyometrics Kicked My Butt is a post from: Losing weight with P90X