Second segment of alternate modified P90X (after a year off)

So we did our second round of our alternate modified P90X yesterday. This is DVD 3 from the P90X series. It was a lot easier than DVD 1 and, though I feel sore today, it's nothing like the soreness I felt after we did DVD 1 last week.

Why is that? One reason is undoubtedly the fact that exercises on this particular DVD are much closer to those we've been doing over the last year than are those on DVD 1. Probably most importantly, the pull-ups were absent from yesterday's workout.

Also, I've had some strange soreness in my left shoulder and may have injured something there (torn muscle, perhaps?). So I've been taking it very easy on exercises like shoulder flys and upright rows--which are the exercises that bring on the pain in that shoulder. I'm definitely doing some relaxed intensity in certain parts of these routines.

I also came to an important realization yesterday about the relatively low aerobic intensity of these workouts. They're much less aerobically intense than the shorter variants we've done over the last year or so, in large part because of relatively longer breaks inserted between exercises. These breaks are deliberately included as part of the routine's emphasis on tracking progress: participants are supposed to note down the number of repetitions and/or weight used after every exercise. That break offer a pretty good breather (though, for reasons I've discussed previously, I don't write down any of that stuff).

Anyway, DVD 3 has had a much less pronounced effect in the aftermath than did DVD 1. I'll be blogging next week about how the next DVD we'll do (DVD 9) feels after having had a long break from P90X.

On the cycling front, we could only do stationary bikes for one of our cycling days this week owing to weather conditions. The weekend looks to be nice weather though, so we hope to up the mileage.