by Robert White

Bobby “Extremely” White is currently in the middle of P90X, a 90-day work-out regimen that’s growing popularity with swing dance instructors. Each week, he reviews one of the program’s 12 exercises, and gives an update on how it’s going and where it hurts.

DAY 70

At the writing of this post, I began the second week of my final month of P90X, which starts off with a First Month workout week, followed by a Second Month work out week, and then repeats that two-week chunk, ending with a final recovery week.

This weekend, one of my closest friends, Andrew Thigpen, came to visit, and jumped in on a few exercise days. Having him present turned on the testosterone-fueled male mindset of me of trying to impress him with how hard I work. The result was the best Plyometrics workout I’ve done yet. I worked so hard I felt like I was going to throw up afterwords…so maybe I worked too hard. But at least I know I can work too hard, you know?

Anyway, as Tony mentions in the videos, having friends around helps a lot in a workout—you give each other support, you have a healthy competition that helps each of you push yourselves, and you share in the post-workout exhaustion of having worked hard and accomplished something. I had that experience with only a few workouts with a friend; I can only imagine what its like with, for instance, people in the armed forces who go through boot camp, and perhaps combat, with each other.

Workout breakdown: GUNS (BACK AND BICEPS)

This is probably the least exhausting workout in the series, at least for everything but your biceps. It introduces some new pull-ups, like the Corn-cob pull-up and the towel pull-up, but otherwise, it’s almost all curls. It’s a nice mid-week break.

STATS
Total abs ripped: 8,376

X-TREME COSTS
For the final month, I’ll be completing most of my protein regimen to the GNC brand Wheybolic Extreme 60 Shake (which is rated below.) The final phase of P90X cuts the protein regimen in half, I believe in order to stop adding mass and shape up the available mass into lean attractive muscles for the after pictures. So, I’ll get most of my daily dose with this expensive protein shake. $50

Last week, at a Balboa workshop, I had to get a taxi to and from a gym to work out so that I could get my hand on some weights. And this time I was pumping iron in loafers in front of a bunch of non-dancers. $30.

My Other Personal Trainer, Nick Williams, showed me his trick for traveling; he put all of his p90X onto his ipod, and bought an athletic arm strap. He then just listens to the exercises being called off, and if he needs to see what they are, he just looks at his arm. In order to test this, I needed to go to the Apple store to get an arm band for my ipod. I had a gift card, which apparently they could only run off in this one register. That register, however, was occupied for the next fifteen minutes because someone was paying with a check, and the Apple store isn’t apparently ready for that kind of technology yet. The piece of elastic and Velcro cost me. $35.

TOTAL COST SO FAR: Approx. $1,405

X-TREME EPICURISM:

GNC WHEYBOLIC 60 EXTREME (CHOCOLATE). After my last experience with powdered whey beverages with the words “extreme” in the title, I was very hesitant to try this particular brand recommended to me at GNC. It’s expensive, looks like a computer in Sweden designed it, clumps in milk, and is actually pretty damn good. Also, it packs in 60g of protein into one drink, and apparently that’s a special kind of protein.

Filed Under: Dance Advice, Trends | Trackback