Rest day summary

I thought I might write a little bit about Power 90. The ninety stands for 90 days, and that's how long you do it. The first series, the original Power 90, came out five years ago. Think infomercial, and that's how they sell it. I saw an infomercial for Power 90X while I was in Hawaii, and I was like, damn I want to buy that. Pretty slick.
Power 90 has six different videos. Sweat 1-2, Sculpt 1-2, Sweat 3-4, Sculpt 3-4, and two short ab videos, one 100 reps, the other 200. You start of with the easier ones, Sweat 1-2, Sculpt 1-2, and the 100 abs. Sweat is the cardio, which is a lot of jumping, kicking, and punching, and Sculpt is the weights. You do the abs exercise after Sweat. Sweat and Sculpt go for about 40 minutes each, and abs goes for about 5 minutes.
They look easy, but they are a pretty good start if you're not really fit. Tony Horton, the guy who does it, is pretty funny, and doesn't drive you mad like I imagine some of these guys might. Starting off, you alternate. Sweat & abs, Sculpt, Sweat & abs, Sculpt, Sweat & abs, Sculpt, rest. That's a week. After a few weeks they might start feeling a little easier, which is when you go to the 3-4 videos, and the 200 rep abs video. They are just longer and more intense, and the abs video fucks you up. 90 days of these exercises gets you in pretty good shape, and if you are dieting as well, you can lose a lot of weight. Some people's befores and afters are incredible. Mind you, they were fat bastards before.
A few years after P90 Tony Horton made Power 90X for people who had finished P90 and wanted to do more. It is much harder and more extreme. 12 different workouts, some targeting different parts of the body, as well as stretching and yoga. It looks pretty full on. I haven't done that one yet.
I'm doing P90 Master, which is the newest, and of a level that sits in between P90 and P90X. Definitely not as scary as P90X. I think they realized there was a market for people who had finished P90 but were turned off by the intensity of P90X. There are 6 different workouts. Less emphasis on weights, more on core strength. Legs, waist, shoulders. Lots of squats, jumping, and knees up exercises. There's Cardio Intervals, Core Cardio, Plyo Legs, Sculpt 5-6, Sweat 5-6, and Upper Middle Lower. There are other series like Power 90X+, which is four extra workouts for psychos doing Power 90X, and recently "One on One With Tony," which I think is like P90X, but you have to subscribe to get a different video each month with Tony in his home gym. Intimate.
One thing I like about the Power 90 series is that it's hard, but not ridiculous. And there are no gimmicks. No special equipment either. Just a mat and some dumbbells. The set is sparse, and at the bottom of the screen is a progress bar so you can always see how long there is to go.
I don't really have anything negative to say about it. People complain about the music, but you can turn it off. People complain about Tony, but many more people love him. Sometimes the transition between exercises is too short, especially with the weights, but like Tony always says, just press pause.
My goal is to complete Power 90X around the beginning of August, which is Will's 4th birthday, the anniversary of mum's death, the peak of Summer, and the holidays (if I still have a job). After that, I'll probably ease off for a couple of months until it cools down and start up again. Doing what I don't know.
Choushi wa dou? How is my current condition? Some left knee soreness. Right hip pops decreasing in frequency, but persistent. Left shoulder aches entirely gone. Asthma – almost gone. Dropped a kilo since I started. Constipation gone. Protein shakes making me fart though – I will change brands when this batch runs out this week. Coffee headaches gone (1 coffee a day seems to do the job). Energy levels sky high, except for mid afternoon which I am addressing with fruit bars. Basically I feel great.
This week, the 4th week, I want to concentrate on form and intensity. I've done the workouts twice each and know what they're all about, so I want to start counting reps and pushing as hard as I can.
P.S. You might wonder why I'm posting so often. It's quiet at work at the moment, but if I type, I look busy.