The Good Pain

"Good Pain?  What the hell is good pain?"  

I'm sure that was the first thought of most people.  Yeah, pain is generally bad, nearly always in fact.  However there is a pain that accompanies working out that I actually don't mind at all.  That dull ache in the muscles that tells you that what you did worked something and gives you reason to believe that what you're doing is worth it ... that pain I can handle.

So what is it I'm doing?  P90X.  This is our first full week (or first 5 days anyway) of doing this workout program in our household and thus far it has proven just how out of shape I am but also given me great hope that will change over the next few months.

The program is a set of rotating workouts that gets shuffled every few weeks.  One night will be a arms and back workout, next night might be Yoga or Kenpo.  The workouts thus far and my initial impressions on them...

• Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X : Push up, pull up ... repeat.  Lots of push ups and pull ups throughout.  Certainly had some aches after this one, even using the bands to get more reps in given that I'm not quite to the point of doing that many pull ups on a bar.  Ab Ripper which is a every other night thing basically kicks your but if your abs aren't in good shape...
• Plyometrics : Jump training.  Lots of jumping around, lots of energy required.  Some high impact stuff that can stress knees, bad ones like mine especially, but one can "do their best and forget the rest" which allows me to get a great workout in and still not stress my knees.
• Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X : Some weight lifting among other things that I didn't push myself enough on so I didn't feel as if I got the best workout I could have.  Have to fix that next time around.  Ab ripper still tore me up...
• Yoga : Ok, I thought Yoga would help with my flexibility and balance and perhaps my strength a bit.  Boy did I underestimate it.  I think I sweated as much during Yoga as any other exercise, maybe more.  A lot of the techniques were hard and my flexibility and balance both definitely have a long way to go but they will get there.  It also challenged my strength, especially in the arms with all the downward dogs and all that ... and the ache is definitely there where it wasn't after the arms workout (though that could have added to it and I've already admitted that I could have pushed myself more that night).
• Legs & Back, Ab Ripper : When I previewed this one they rarely used any weights.  I always thought my legs were pretty strong so worried that this wouldn't challenge enough.  Wrong again.  The movements worked the legs well and while my knees at times didn't want to cooperate it definitely will do the job without a bunch of heavy lifting.

The next couple of nights will be Kenpo (think TaeBo) which should really push my endurance which is a good thing and then the Stretch program, also an area that I'll be happy to work on.

The program does come with a meal plan that is to help ensure that you eat right, getting the proper calories, not getting lots of fat, and so on.  We tried it for a bit but it wasn't to our liking.  Instead we're going to be continuing to create our own meal plans.  While we don't always choose the healthiest options we are going to try to snack right, eat better, and generally improve our eating habits.

Thus far I've really enjoyed the program and have very high hopes for it.  There are even a handful of programs that get introduced after the first few weeks to change things up which should keep some of the repetition from creating boredom.  For anyone looking to get into shape this is a good option, though if you have "a long ways to go" you might want to start with a less demanding program and work your way to this one.  Hopefully after the 90 day transformation they advertise I'll see great results.