Week One - P90X

OK I am officially one week into the P90X fitness programme. It is indeed intense. All the standard workouts are fine - I'm using bands to simulate pull ups. Even the squats and lunges, which I'm not so good at, are fine. I didn't do YogaX, simply because I needed a recovery day and wanted to do some restorative yoga that day - so I did an hour of yoga with lots of breathing. Plus it is hard for me to think of yoga as just a fitness practice - I like the spiritual aspect and it was often incorporated into my own personal devotions. I did like StretchX today - which is more like my own practice. Just missed the shavasana and praying at the end. I wasn't too fussy about Plyometrics - my heart rate spiked at 216 in that one, had to sit down! And it was the only one that got my heart rate to go too high. Even KenpoX only had me hovering around 145.

Speaking of KenpoX, that was my least favourite workout. I think I would be more comfortable doing that in a class where I can get some guidance on technique. Yoga was better after practicing in a studio for about a year. Those little adjustments start to build muscle memory so you can just feel when something is not quite right. All through KenpoX I was second guessing my moves, and not getting how they were combining all the movements through the body. I need the moves done in slow motion until I know what is going on - then put them into a practice. It isn't martial arts - I used to do Karate as a youth and loved learning kata. But this isn't kata, it is aerobics with intricate (and I bet helpful) moves.

I've lost 4 pounds this week - 4 good pounds because I'm 4 lower than the low end of my usual weight fluctuations. And the pain of the first couple sessions has subsided - I can really feel the work outs but they aren't killing me anymore. In fact my body is starting to feel good! I need to work on sleep and I also need to adjust diet this week. I was hoping to be further into this before school started back up, but better late than never.

Note: this is my before picture, I'll post another at the next fitness test.

I Must Be Insane

I started the P90X programme today. Yeah, I still feel the shoulder work out. It actually feels good. I wanted to start this at the first of the month, but Sharon wasn't ready. Seems that after today she still isn't ready but I'm waiting no longer. Tomorrow I do plyometrics - apparently it is pure evil. I'll be doing it on my own too. I'll let you know how it goes, if I just get rid of my belly and am able to resume my regular yoga practice then I'll be happy.

Course Prep Continues

I finally have ordered both courses and have begun putting the actual lectures together. I'm hoping to keep two lectures ahead of the class. I have an idea for the Intro to theology class that might be a bit tricky to pull off. I want them to read a short snippet from a theologian doing theology from the framework we will be discussing that day. But I do not want them to know who they are reading until we take the article up in class. I'm probably messing with copyright laws to do that - but we'll see what I can pull off. Perhaps I can find stuff that is useful and I can obtain permission to withhold the credit for a week.

I will want an article for each of the following: Historical (descriptive), Political, Liberationist, Feminist, Hermeneutics, Dogmatics, and Biblical. I've laid out the texts I'm drawing the lectures from, but I would think working with actual theological writing will be very helpful for students. I'm determined to make this course something that will serve these students for their whole academic careers - their first methodology course. Should be fun.

I'm getting excited about this coming semester.