Hurray! Restarted an exercise programme, feel great. Knackered, of course, but great.

10 Minute Trainer day one today, I did all three (well, as much as I could). Which is about 42 minutes* if you don’t pause, or just under an hour if you faff about as I did. But hey, it was the first time trying, so every so often I had to pause and go “I do WHAT now?”.

In case anyone’s actually reading this for information – if you get the Basic version of the 10 Minute Trainer, you get 5 workouts, and a schedule that has 3 recommended workouts daily for 4 weeks. A few of the days have just one workout – they’re kind of recovery days. If you get the Deluxe version, you get an extra three workouts (plus a different warm up and cooldown), and an extra schedule for “accelerated results”.

I got the Deluxe version, but I’m starting with the basic schedule anyway, so that I can switch over after month 1 and not get bored. My logic is, if I do the version with all 8 workouts, then switching down to 5 will be boring. Whereas if I start with 5, then adding 3 more after the first month will keep things fresh. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong – to be honest, as long as I do a hard 1/2 an hour of exercise each day, it probably doesn’t matter too much.

The schedule for day one is Cardio, Lower Body, Abs. I made it through the whole of the Cardio workout, nearly all of the Lower Body workout, and about half of the Abs one, if I’m being honest. Although not the first half. More an intermittent half – maybe every other move. I really enjoyed it, in between the bits where I felt like I was dying. And I feel REALLY great now it’s over.

Plus, I had a crap day today, so I enjoyed practising the kicks. I’m not mentioning any names, but I was definitely imagining a face on that target today.

It feels really great to be exercising again – can’t wait to start slimming down again (whether or not it helps me lose weight).

* Each workout is 10 minutes of exercise, but just a little more in elapsed time. That’s because Tony takes a few seconds here and there to explain the moves, and because of a few seconds of stuff of intro/wrap-up. There’s also a 2:20 warm-up, and a 1:20 cooldown. Those both seem a bit short to me to be honest so I’d recommend doing a little more, especially on the cooldown.

So, after some time messing about trying all sorts to find a solution, here I go again.  P90X? No. Failed? No. Why? Read on.

In September, just around the time of my last post, for family reasons I changed the hours I work at my job (increased them 25%), and generally changed around my whole schedule. P90X, which was taking me about 2 hours each evening, just didn’t fit any more. I tried to carry on, but I was exercising at the expense of sleep, and it just didn’t work – I was exhausted inside a week.

I’ve spent the time since then looking for solutions – P90X for a shorter time? Do the first half? Go to a gym and do exercise? None of them have quite worked for me, not enough to get into a routine. I won’t go into the whys, I’ll just say the new plan: 10 Minute Trainer.

Yep, I’m still sticking with Tony Horton – I really enjoyed the P90X workouts (until I got too tired), and felt better for them. I’ve hated watching myself gradually slide back to unfit. I know the 10 Minute Trainer won’t give me the quick results that P90X did, but it’ll get me fit gradually and it’s do-able with my lifestyle.

For anyone who hasn’t looked at 10 Minute Trainer, it’s a set of 5 (or 8, with the Deluxe version) 10-Minute workouts – you can do 1, 2 or 3 of those a day, depending on how much time you’ve got free. I’m going to shoot for 2, but see how it goes. I find these always take a bit longer than they say (I’m slow at learning physical moves) and I’m shooting for a hard 1/2 hour of exercise every day. Maybe 40 minutes. If I can do all 3, then I will, but I’m expecting that 2 will be about right.

I’ve watched the DVDs through already, and they’re clearly not an easy option! One of the things I like about them is that they’re not one-muscle-at-a-time: in order to get a decent workout in the time, Tony’s packed a lot of complex moves into the workouts. It’s going to be tough, but the plus side is that those were the exact type of exercises I enjoyed most from P90X. Think Core Synergistics, or Yoga. Using all your muscles at once. I’m really looking forward to trying this, but I’m expecting the first couple of weeks to be tough.

I ordered the Deluxe version, which has 8 different workouts, but I’m going to start with the basic plan so that when I start getting bored with those I’ve got something to add.

So, I’ll be restarting the exercise this evening, with (definitely) Cardio, (probably) Lower Body and (maybe) Abs. I’ll post again whenever I can on how it’s going – as much to keep myself honest as anything else!

**EDIT**: I also realised I didn’t mention the caffeine & diet thing. Just before I stopped P90X, I said I was cutting caffeine and improving my diet. So, you’re wondering (or not) how that’s going? Great! I’m not drinking caffeine at all now for nearly 2 months, and my diet is much improved (although I still have bad days there). Hopefully those improvements will help give me a solid base to start from as I start working out properly again.