P90X Day 132 (Day 146): Sunny Day

Today was much sunnier and I wasn't absolutely sure that we got the final picture in yesterday's shoot. So we went out and shot again. This time I didn't do any crazy run to remove all the water (and beer) from my body. In essence I wanted to shoot again after the party last night. After I ate a bunch of junky fried food, drank beer and had some sodas too. I thought it would put an exclamation point on what I was trying to prove here. I worked my ass off for almost 5 months and didn't have to change what I eat to get the body I always wanted.

And in this shoot we got the final shot. The first one shown here was the winner. It was tough to choose as there were a few decent contenders.












Go get your P90X

Day 12: P90X Fit Test

Weight: 210 lbs.

Measurements:
Chest: 42"
Waist: 38"
Hips: 39"
Right Thigh: 25"
Left Thigh: 23.5"
Right Arm: 15"
Left Arm: 15"

Stats:
Resting Heart Rate: 67 bpm
Pull-Ups: 4
Vertical Leap: 19.75" (this is pathetic, especially for a volleyball player that used to jump 30" in high school)
Push-Ups: 30
Toe Touch: +5
Wall Squat: 1:39
Bicep Curls: 18 x 25 lbs.
In & Outs: 35

Pre Day 1: The Plan

We returned from Italy on Saturday and it is now Sunday. I'm all set to begin some serious working out. I know this isn't going to be easy especially since Italy was not so kind to the midsection.

Some stats...
Height: 6'0
Weight:: 215 lbs.

The plan for the cardio workouts is to drive down to Chris's house in South Redondo and bike to Marina Del Rey to a gym near work. That bike ride is about 14.5 miles. The bike ride back from work is about 15 miles. That should be a little less than an hour each way for cardio.

While we were in Maryland at Giannina's mother's I saw an informecial for P90X. Chris had mentioned that workout regimen a few months back and after seeing the informecial I was convinced. At least convinced to give it a shot. The workouts and goals seem realistic. It looks like a lot of very hard work - that sounds like somethng I can be inline with. So I ordered the program. It comes with 12 DVD's, a workout book, a nutritional guide (which I would have to ignore completely), and some resistance bands. I also ordered the P90X pull-up bar. That will arrive in about a week or two. Until then, the plan is to do a more traditional weight lifting regimen at the gym after the bike ride and before heading in to work.

Tomorrow will be the first day I make the full 15 mile ride from Chris's house. Until now, I was riding in to work 2-3 times per week from a mid way point (closer to my house). I have been doing that for a little over a month with little to no signs of improvement in the physique. I hope that kicking it into a higher gear will change things.

The $1000 Bet is Introduced

Chris and I were riding our bikes to work and started talking about getting in shape for the Summer. We went back and forth on what kind of workouts we should do and dieting and such. I'm not a big fan of changing how I eat. I don't eat that bad to begin with and had already eliminated a bunch of fast food. I basically just don't want to eat things which make me sick later. So the conversation quickly turned into something like this...

Arbel: I'm going to get ripped for the summer.

Chris: Okay, but you need to change your diet. You eat a bunch of crap and you just don't eat well enough to get really ripped!

Arbel: Nah, I'll just workout real hard - like supersonic hard. I've already cut out fast food minus Chipotle, In-N-Out, Baja Fresh and the occasional Fat Burger. Those all stay.

Chris: Yeah right. There is no way you can do it without changing how you eat.

Arbel: I'll put some money on that!

And thus began the bet. We originally were going to make it just $100. But once we got in to the office and started talking about it a co-worker (Craig) convinced us that we needed to make it worth our while. Why even go to all that trouble for just $100. He was right. We decided to up the ante and make it $1000 to the winner.

The bet was that I'd have to get as ripped as this picture we found of Ryan Reynolds without any major dietary changes. There would be no Protein shakes, no supplements, no steroids, no creatine, no calorie restriction. Basically I would have to eat pretty much the same as I currently ate without paying any attention to the nutritional value of what I was eating.



So I was leaving for Italy with the family for a couple of weeks and I decided that the real workouts would start as soon as I returned (4/2/07).