Absent-Minded Jay

P90X has been temporarily put on hold. I sprained my right ankle playing tennis about two weeks ago. That was approximately the end of week five of the P90X routine.

The ankle was sort of a jam/sprain with a twist. I bought some new tennis shoes and put them on for the first time one Saturday morning. After an hour of warm up and about four games into a set, I was running down a lob. I stopped to turn and hit a ball when I planted my right foot and it hit wrong. I felt a jar from my ankle up to my knee. It tingle like a hit to the funny bone or the way a doctor tests reflex by hitting below the knee cap. I kept playing that day for four hours and, in fact, I played again the next for another four or so hours.

I tried to start back up Monday night with P90X day 1 week 6 since Saturday was only Kenpo X which I figured tennis substituted for and Sunday was a rest or Stretch X day but it didn’t happen. The ankle was very tight and stiff. The warm up was slightly painful and I knew it wasn’t going to make for a good work out whether it was just upper body or lower body. If the warm up hurt, it wasn’t going to be a good exercise hour.

So, I’ve taken a couple of weeks off. The ankle is still stiff and a little sensitive to certain movements. I am able to still play tennis although it does tinge a bit when I push off my right foot. I think I may be able to start P90X again. What sucks is that I probably will have to start over at day 1 week 1. I’m not sure what is recommended as most posts on the web mention missing one or two days not an entire week or two. I really don’t mind though. The workouts are enjoyable to me and although it’s difficult for me to get motivated initially (just like getting up for tennis at 8am on a Saturday), once I get into the warm up and then the work out, I’m glad I did…95% of the time (LOL).

Something positive for me to take away from starting the P90X routine is that at times I did feel like I had more energy, was a tad faster and smoother in my tennis game, and slightly leaned down in certain areas. I found out I was doing P90X classic. I did have slight definition in my triceps and my “man boobs” (A-cups) began to tighten. The obvious change I can read is that the scale now says, “212″ which is 14lbs lighter than when I started five weeks before. It’s not a huge weight loss but seeing that 1) I was doing “classic” and 2) I wasn’t following the nutritional guide, I would say it’s a positive outcome. Once I restart the program, I think I will be more in tune with what to expect from the exercises themselves, how to push myself and look more to quantity versus quality, and possibly fit a little of the nutritional advice into my diet. It’s tough giving up the majority of the foods that Master Tony may consider junk.

So, here’s to restarting P90X. And now that I had some downtime to read the manual and know there are different routines, “Classic,” “Lean,” or “Doubles,” I may go with doubles. It’s not so much that it’s more of a difficult routine as it is for me to get the maximum exercise I can get because that’s what I feel like I really require. The only problem is that the AM exercise will be tough for me to fit in because I’ll have to get up really early in the morning to fit the routine in before it’s time for the kids to get up, get ready and be dropped off a school. I have a hard enough time now fitting the once-a-day “classic” routine in the evenings as it is. Luckily, it looks like the classic and doubles routines have the same first four weeks. The doubles don’t start until week five. I’ll still have to dwell on it and see what kind of time commitment I can give. Time is short between family, work and school especially when I really like my “down” time.

Anyway, here’s to a good, productive, healthy start on either this coming Sunday or next Monday. I kind of like have my “rest” day over the weekend but you never know, I could get motivated to push the (re)start to tomorrow, the next day or the next. Who really knows!?

We’ll see.