Day 28 - P90X Legs & Back - 12/4/11

So, after a week off where I was hoping to do a couple Yoga sessions, and a few P90X Core Synergistics session - none of which happened - it's time to get back on track and continue on with Phase II of P90X.

Phase I had Chest & Back, Legs & Back and Shoulders & Arms for the strength days.  Phase II changes things up a bit - Legs & Back stays, but we have Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, and then Biceps & Back.  So, still two back days, and still a legs day.  This last part was rather important to me - throughout the 12 weeks of P90X, Legs & Back is done 10 times.  Of all workouts, that is the one that I am most concerned with.

I ended up skipping plyo during Phase I due to some residual inflammation on the top of my right foot that just hasn't completely gone away.  It's markedly better, but instead of getting noticably better by the day, it seems to take 3-4 days before I notice a difference.  Oddly enough, the two times I've noticed the biggest difference is after Yoga, even though I feel like I stress it out more during class by sitting with my legs under me and my ankle at full flexion (which is, actually, why I chose to do a P90X workout today instead of tomorrow, so that I could get to Yoga tomorrow).  Anyhow - I'm thinking that I'm probably ready to introduce plyo into the workout routine now.  Although not completely gone, I'm thinking that the inflammation is gone down enough that I don't have to let it keep me from doing that workout.

So with the return to Legs & Back, after a week and a half, I'm not at all surprised that initially I was able to bust out more reps, but the stamina definitely started to dwindle.  Even still, last time I did 63 total pullups, today I upped that to 66, so thats improvement.  But most excitingly (is that a word?) - I was able to get into double digits on a single set!  Sure, it was the first set, and it was reverse grip chin-ups, where you can use your biceps, but it's still something I'm rather proud of.  The idea of being able to do 20 is, like, rediculous - but this is the danger with this kind of thing - I figure that if I can go from 0 to 10, then going from 10 to 20 is also possible.

Regarding the legs workout - it's definitely getting easier, but I still find myself having to hit pause after certain sets because they are so draining (sneaky lunges and chair salutations, primarily).  And of course, single leg wall squats.