Brad Gibala

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Archives for November 2008

My Butt Is So Sore It Hurts To Walk

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Yesterday I did the P90X Legs and Back dvd. It had been a couple of weeks since I did that P90X DVD. I have been doing a lot of swimming lately instead of doing P90X. I can tell when its time to pull out a P90X workout while I am swimming. Even though I know I am getting a great workout in the water my arms do not feel as strong. The legs and back dvd always helps me get back into the groove with all of the pull ups that you do. I was able to finish the whole workout with no problem. My results were pretty much the same as they have been which is nice to know that I can maintain those muscles with out working on them for a couple of weeks.

 Well, today I can barely walk. My back is a little sore but not so bad. My ass and legs are so sore that it hurts to move from room to room. Even though the leg workouts don’t seem all that extreme at the time I guess they do the job. Its got to be all of those lunges. Who would of thought doing a workout with no weights can put a guy in so much pain the next day. I’ll probably be sitting on my couch all day today watching football so I guess I can recover doing that. Hopefully it won’t hurt as much tomorrow as I plan to go swimming.

Beat Old Man Swimming

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Two or three times a week I head up to LifeTime Fitness to go for a swim. Swimming has been a great workout to compliment all of the exercises I do with P90X. Its good to switch it up every once in awhile and after doing P90X for 9 months now it only helps build on the muscles I have gained. I usually do 30 laps (60 lengths) when I go and this was my plan for today.

Anyways, there is always this older guy who swims around the same time of day I do. This old guy is the kind of guy who brings four different types of flippers to swim in. He even has the flippers where it is a one piece flipper. I kind of want to use them because it is going to make you use your abs the whole time because your legs can never get out of sync. Of course he has a speedo like every old guy has. I think there must be an unwritten rule that says if you are over the age of 60 you have full rights to wear a speedo in any setting including grocery shopping. Old dudes are the only guys I ever see wearing speedos.

So what you need to know is that this guy is intense. He probably could hang with Martin Strel. If you do not know who Martin Strel is, he is the guy who swam the entire length of the Amazon River. Yup, all 3,274 miles. Pretty amazing knowing that we all know there are Piranhas and other creepy fish in there.

It just so happens that every time I go swimming the only lane open is the one next time him. The first couple times I started swimming he always seemed to be just out of my reach. Its not like I started or waited for him to get to the same end of the pool I was at but it worked out that way. We were always neck and neck with each other. He did not know we were racing but we were. It was my mission to beat his ass in a race officiated by me. How could I keep on losing when I make the rules? He did have a small advantage over me. He could do the turn where you do a flip before you hit the wall. I would go all out touch the wall and push off. With the spring action he was getting from the wall he always popped up for air at least a body length ahead of me. I would chase and catch up just to lose him at the turn.

He was not going to beat me today. I was feeling fresh from taking a couple days off from P90X on a trip I was on. I let him get one length ahead of me and my goal was to catch him and pass him before I did 10 laps (20 lengths). This was going to be quite a feat because he usually beats me heads up. It looked like he had been in the pool for 15 minutes so to be fair I figured the one length was good.

I felt so good in the water today. I got onto the same length as him after 8 lengths. It was going to be close but I had 12 more lengths to go. With 6 lengths to go I was half a length behind him. I could not see him under water yet but only on the turns when I had to come out of the water to turn. Down to 3 lengths and I could start to see his wake under water through my goggles. Your within my reach old man!! With 1.5 lengths to go I was neck and neck with him. I caught him. Was I going to tire? Was he going to turn on the after burners? Did he know he was going to lose the race in which he did not know he was racing in?

Yes. Old man river got beat. I pulled ahead of him and beat him by about 4 body lengths. I was tired as hell from all of that swimming. Looking back at it I had to swim twice as hard to catch him. Of course he did not stop. Probably had another 500 laps to go. Til next time old man!!

Elliptical Machines Are Dumb

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For the past couple of days I have been out of my home state of Michigan on business. I enjoy going on trips for business or pleasure. The one thing I always try to squeeze in is some form of physical activity. Sitting in my hotel room after what I needed to do during the day can get quite boring. The hotel I was staying at is a very nice hotel. Coincidentally this is the second time I have stayed at the same Wyndham hotel.

Last time I only stayed for one night and did not have that much time for a workout because it was one of those fly in the night before and leave the next day. This time I am in town for three days. It has been quite some time since I took a break from P90X and I needed to do something on my last day before I came home. My morning appointments did not start until 9:30am so I figured I would get up around 7:30 and hit up the workout room at the hotel.

Its one of those exercise rooms which has 1 treadmill, 2 sit down bike machines, 1 Bowflex looking contraption, and 3 elliptical machines. I really wanted to get on the treadmill and get some running in. When I showed up there was some lady was on it. She said she only had 15 minutes left. No big deal. The elliptical machine was there and I only wanted to workout for about 30 minutes anyways. I figured 15 on the elliptical and 15 on the treadmill.

After 10 minutes on the elliptical I didn’t even break a sweat. Keeping at it, I increased the weight resistance and grade level of the hills. Nothing. The lady wasn’t getting off of the treadmill either.

After 30 minutes of being on that stupid elliptical machine I had barely even got my heart beat up. It felt like I didn’t even do anything. I remember why I always stayed away from those machines when I was going to the gym for other things than swimming. I felt sometimes the people who go on an elliptical are the type who show up to the gym, do that machine for 30 minutes at a slow ass pace and say they got a workout.

They then talk about how they never lose weight or just can’t get into shape eventhough they go to the gym 4 days a week. There are just to many opportunities to “half ass” a workout. You can hold onto the handles or go slow with the foot pedals. Thinking about it more I can only think of one person an elliptical machine is good for, senior citizens.

This machine is perfect for them because its a “low impact workout” where your not putting a lot of pressure on the joints. Unlike plyometrics where you are constantly putting stress on your ankles and knees. Besides for senior citizens I do not see how this machine can be effective for anyone.

This is the kind of machine Tony Horton would talk about when it comes to plateauing your muscles. I am sure that if you did this dumb machine for an hour you would build up some kind of sweat and your legs would be on fire but why spend all of that time when you could of just gone for a run for 30 minutes and do 100 pushups for better results? I hope nobody feels offended from this but its the truth. I think next time I go travelling I might bring my P90X DVDs with me and do one of those in my hotel room.

2008 Golf Recap

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Golf season just about ended today here in Michigan. We have received some unseasonably warm weather for the first week of November. I was walking around outside today in shorts and a long sleeve shirt. It looks like winter is going to be creeping in by the weekend so I’m glad I got in a round of golf the other day.

Golfing is one of my favorite activities to do. I am not on a league but probably get out 4 times a month. During high school I played on the golf team so I was not so bad. My average was in the low 40’s back then when I was playing 4 days a week. Should have been better thinking about it now and I know why I was not. Its all because of fitness. I was not a “fat kid” to say but I could have enjoyed playing sports and golf more if I was in shape.

This was my first summer playing golf while doing the P90X workout. Some of the courses I usually play are Fern Hill, Rammler, and Plum Brook. I live in Sterling Heights, MI and these courses are about a mile away. Prices are reasonable and usually you can just go up there with out a tee time. I guess that’s what happens in a crappy Michigan economy.

The first thing I noticed this year was how much farther I was hitting my clubs. I bought myself a Taylor Made R5 Draw Driver for me for Christmas two years ago. I thought I was crushing the ball last year, you should have seen how surprised I was this year when I put another 15 yards on top of the 25 I put on last year just because of the club. My brother was even amazed with it. He was doing P90X with me in the beginning but did not stick with the program the whole way through. He did not quite get the same P90X results as I did mainly because he did not work as hard.

What I noticed a lot over the summer was the same par 4 holes I was hitting driver and 4 iron into, I was now hitting driver and 8 iron. What a big difference it makes when you know you can hit the golf ball 70% of the way to the green on the first swing. My confidence started to grow very quickly. I hit the ball straight most of the time but even when I would slice one it would still get way out there. Compared to last year I would still be some 50 yards further and even if it was not a great lie I could get out of it or at least be able to advance the ball further where my next shot I was still hitting a 8 iron (my money club) instead of a 4 iron.

More scores on average probably dropped about 2 shots per round than from last year. It probably would have been 2 more if I would have been practicing my short game and putting. That old saying of “drive for show and putt for dough” could not be any truer. My wedges and putter did not get me that much help in the score column. I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t go for a couple shots that I knew I could not have cleared last year and almost did it this year. Even though its not tournament play I still count my penalty strokes. This way even if I shot the same score as last year but had 3 more penalty strokes trying to see how far I could crush it I felt like I was improving. This way I now know my strength. Next time those 3 penalty strokes will not be there and I will probably be shooting in the high 30’s.

Some of the highlights of this year where playing at some nice courses. I was two months into P90X when I went down to Cancun, Mexico. I played a course called Iberostar. Very nice course with Iguanas every where. This is when I first started feeling the new strength. I was out driving the people in my group by 30-50 yards every time with a rental set of clubs.

Probably the biggest highlight of the year came when I played at Sanctuary Lakes Golf Course in Troy, MI. It was a windy day out there but their 10th hole is up on a hill and is about 420 yards long. Its pretty much a straight shot to the hole but I was feeling like I wanted to unload on a drive. I crushed a drive and the wind was pushing it back from right to left. When the ball came down it hit the cart path and bounced towards the middle of the fairway. That ball ended up going 360 yards!! I was so pumped. Sure, the cart path added another 15 yards on the hop, but it still went over 330 with out it. Definitely my longest drive ever. This was only a couple weeks ago too.

I wish I could have gotten out more than I did this year but it still was an enjoyable year. Knowing that I can hit the long ball it made my game that much easier to control. With more practice on the short game and putter along with P90X I could definitely be shooting in the high 30’s for 9 holes. If you are looking for a great golf workout then I highly suggest buying the P90X DVDs. You will not only help your golf swing but your overall fitness.

2008 Softball Recap

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Last Wednesday ended my softball season. I played in two seasons. One started back in April and ended in August and the other was a quick 6 week fall league. The first team I played on was a solid team. We played 24 regular season games winning 19 of them. We ended up losing in the playoffs to a team that brought in a “hot bat.” It really pissed us off because we played this team six times and none of them hit a ball over our outfielders heads. Then we get to the playoffs and half of them hit the ball to fence. We noticed that they were all using the same bat. We challenged the bat but it was not on the list of illegal bats because it was a new model. It was a bunch of crap to say the least. We finished in second using the same guys the whole season. This same team brought in 4 “ringers” for the playoffs. The league we play on does not do a good job of checking id’s or rosters. During the fall league we finished in second in the regular season and in the playoffs. The team we lost to was better than us. They beat us in the regular season and playoffs straight up. It was a fun year of playing softball. Our team was solid up and down and the guys were easy to get a long with.

One of my goals for this year was to hit a home run over the fence. The field I play at is 330 feet down the lines and 390″ dead center. Its not a small field by any means. We also play with the “Gold Dot” softballs. They are a little softer than the “Red Dot” softballs so they do not travel as far.

Growing up I was never a power hitter. My dad always told me to hit up the middle in softball and to just get the bat on it in baseball. Hitting up the middle is not such a good idea in our leagues. Its a unspoken rule that you do not hit it anywhere near the pitcher. Even in our league there where some choice words passed along when a pitcher was hit. Of course nobody wants to hit the pitcher but with a softball being so easy to place you just don’t do it.

One thing I learned how to do at the end of softball last year was to pull the ball. My main goal before was to hit ground balls between the infielders and just get on base. If I could get a double, then great but I knew my team needed me on base.

When I started doing P90X last winter I never expected to put on 10 pounds of muscle. My biceps, shoulders, legs and back started to develop very quickly. All of this muscle was going to help me drive the ball this up coming softball season.

Going into the spring season it took me a couple weeks to get my swing together. Even though I was in pretty good shape I was still a bit rusty. My hits were my normal singles and occasional doubles. Nothing fancy but sound hitting. After 2 months of playing I started loosening up a little bit and decided one day to start pulling the ball down the line. What I did next opened up my eyes to how much stronger I really was. The ball I hit went right down the left field line and hit the fence staying fair by about 4 feet. Another 3 more feet in the air and it was gone. I got a triple out of it and was amazed. My teammates were even more surprised than I was. During those two months I had not even hit one over a outfielders head and now I crush one. This gave me a lot of confidence to keep on swinging for the fences. During the first season I hit the fence 3 more times and rolled about 4 more to the fence. What I noticed was now the outfielders were backing up about 15 feet from where they stood the first time I came up. Sometimes I knew it was not worth trying to hit a home run because if I did not hit it out then it was going to be long fly ball and more than likely would be caught on the warning track. What I did now was hit line drives over the short stops head into the gap. I am fast enough to leg this into a double every time. The outfielders had to respect the long ball so by backing up they gave me more room to hit lasers at them. Since they were playing so deep there was no way they would catch me by the time they field the ball. So I pretty much would get one chance a game at hitting a home run. If it didn’t go over then at least I could help me team by hitting what would have been singles into doubles.

The fall season was more of the same. I still kept on doing P90X. My swing was still on. With the air getting a little bit colder the ball was like hitting a rock. I live in Michigan in case you didn’t know. Going through this fall season I kept on getting close. More deep hits landing on the warning track, rolling on the warning track, but nothing over. One time I hit one down the line and the wind blew it foul by about 5 feet and it went over. Needless to say, but I was disappointed. If it was fair it was still gone. Playoffs came around and last Wednesday was cold as hell. It was a single elimination playoff format. Three games had to be won that night. Two more triples again for me with one single. Not bad. Both triples went down the line and off the fence. We won. On to game two. Another two triple game with a double and a single. I hit the ball very well in both games. Its like that damn 330 foot fence was just taunting me all year. We made the championship game but it started at 9:55pm. It was 30 degrees out. Definitely the coldest game I have ever played softball in. Our team had a one hour break between games where we stood inside to keep warm. Bad idea. When it was our time to play our bodies were not ready to get cold again. We came out flat and stunk it up. We were mercied. Since I bat near the end of the lineup I only got one at bat. What really sucked was that I was pissed we were playing so bad that I was ready to just crush one. The left fielder was playing me shallow so I had a feeling I could at least get it over his head. I crushed this ball. When I rounded first the ball was still in the air and watching it start to come down. After rounding second I saw it hit the bottom of the fence. Since it was not down the line the ball traveled 340 feet and needed to go 342 to go out. I did get a inside the park home run (about time). It was my first inside the park home run where there where no errors involved. My teammates said the ball looked like it was going out but the wind was blowing in and it knocked the ball down. At least I did get one home run but I really wanted one to go out.

P90X helped me out so much this year playing softball. I went from being able to hit 290 foot pop ups to 340 foot bombs. Since my goal was to hit a home run I spent more time trying to bulk up than working on my cardio. I’m not slow by any means but I know next year I need to work on my sprinting. Maybe some of those triples I hit would have been home runs if I was a half a step faster. My fielding was great. My arm was much stronger than previous years and my range from doing P90X Plyometrics helped my lateral movements playing second base. If you play softball and are looking for a great softball workout, I highly suggest doing P90X. You can take a look at my P90X Results to see what kind of shape you can get in. Next year I am definitely going to hit a home run.