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I’ve tried it a few times in the past and kept telling myself I would give it a real shot. After no action on my part for a few years, I finally signed up for a one-month beginner’s course today. I start on Wednesday, June 16 if anyone else is interested in joining me!

I can consistently do one pull-up a day–the fruit of my labor of 5 weeks of P90X.

There are two reasons UC Davis alumni go to Picnic Day every year:

1. You are an alumnus looking to reminisce,
2. You are looking to party like you did in undergrad, or
3. You REALLY like the Doxie Derby (and who wouldn’t?).

To be fair, #2 is probably be a subset of #1, but partying with undergrads is reeeeally weird. We steered clear of  that.

For me, being in Davis means that I should buy a Memorial Union burrito, a one-dollar 750mL mug of coffee, and complete half of the daily crossword puzzle. I might even go to the Games Area and yell at drunk frat boys for playing Human Bowling Ball down the slick bowling lanes. Being in Davis as an alumnus feels strange. It’s not “home” anymore, even though you used to know all the shortcuts around campus and the best place to take an undisturbed nap. You feel like a visitor and you wonder when downtown Davis got so rowdy with fist-pumping frat boys. And you also wonder who those unfamiliar people in the Wushu club are and if they feet the same sense of commaderie with their club members as you once did.

Aye, there’s the rub. Wushu defined my time at Davis, and 3 years later I still have trouble letting go of the one competitive sport I ever enjoyed. It was the first time I ventured alone outside of my comfort zone to try something new, worked to excel at it, and actually stuck to it regardless of who else was doing it or what others thought of it. It’s not really Wushu in of itself that I am attached to, but the fact that I loved what I was doing and was proud of the effort I put into it and the results I got. I just don’t have the energy nor motivation to dedicate the time that I would need to reach a personally-satisfactory level, and because being unable to is frustrating, I quit altogether. As you might guess, with the nostalgic sentiments appearing on this blog every so often, I still wonder about that decision.

For old time’s sake, here’s the last Picnic Day demo I participated in from 2008. Yours truly at the 0:59-seconds mark. It’s not my best, but the shoddy zooming makes it look more exciting than it really is. Plus my hair looks kinda cool.

You didn’t think I fell off the P90X wagon, did you? DID YOU?

WELL, then. Yes, you’re kind of right. There was one day in Week 3 I was wasted after work and another where I simply couldn’t bring myself to do “kenpo”, so I ran 2 miles instead, which is 2 miles more than I run, ever.

Week 4, the “Recovery Week” was a bust as well. I don’t have a good excuse for my laziness, except that it was awesome.

But hey, I’m back on the wagon! I’ve been able to complete the workouts with more intensity and more reps than I was able to in the past month. My progress with Ab Ripper X is a high point, considering that I couldn’t complete any of the reps without at least one break in my first week. I’ve also been vomit-free since ‘93 Day 3, so, you know, that’s usually a good sign.

I haven’t seen differences in the mirror, except in exceptionally creative lighting setups (Whoa, is that a bicep?!), and I don’t want to subject anyone to my pastiness so I’ve refrained from taking progressive pictures of my totally bodacious bod. You’ll just have to take me for my word when I say I’m gaining weight, but not shedding any fat—probably the result of slack restrictions on caloric intake. Damn. On the upside, I was able to complete a 2-mile jog in 30 minutes last week, which is kind of amazing for me.

Yes, that is 4 MPH. Yes, I could probably walk it but I was totally jogging it like yeah.

Yes, I have jumped on the P90x bandwagon after several wushu and triathlete friends promoted the good results from the intense workout regimen that you can do in the comforts of your home with your very own cheesy video instructor.

My initial assessment is that anyone could probably get similar results if they worked out an hour with the same intensity. However, something like P90X works because it hands you a schedule and regimen to follow, and it definitely helps that you can do all these at home without any fancy equipment, and without having to drive the 10~ minutes to the gym and back. I don’t think this will replace old-fashioned cardio, but at very least, if anyone is moving this much over a span of 3 months starting from zero to no physical activity, this will guarantee, at minimum, muscle tone. We’ll see how I feel about this in the next few weeks, and I’ll be able to make a better assessment then.

The following is the weekly routine for the first phase:

Day 1: Chest & Back, and Abs. I went from virtually zero physical exercise to an hour of pull-ups, push-ups, and core/ab-work. I’ll spare you the details, but there was bile involved. And for about 3 days I could hardly lift my arms. I’m pretty sure P90x wasn’t designed for those with my level of sedentariness.

Day 2: Plyometrics. I feel these are kind of silly compared to what we used to do in KFClub for warm-up, but I guess that’s not the point. I think the difference is that with these drills, you are doing them simply for the sake of the jumps, and for me, there is a lack of “intent” or development of skill to motivate me. At the end of the hour, I was definitely feeling the burn, but I wasn’t spent afterwards. Perhaps I’m only going through the motions and need to increase the intensity. That is not to say I was not sore. I was definitely limping the day after. But maybe that’s due to the heels that I, stupidly, decided to wear that day.

Day 3: Arms and Shoulders, Abs. I’m using resistance bands which are too complicated to use and less effective, but weights cost too much money; it’s a trade-off. My upper body still hurts from the first day, so I can’t tell if I’m in more or less pain. Shortly after Day 3, DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) was in full effect, so all the discomfort quickly built up and hit me like a lead brick.

Day 4: Yoga. This was kind of a relief. I had some yoga background from my month at Yoga@Cindy’s, so I knew what to expect and how to utilize the hour-and-half well. It’s a good tension and pain, and the muscle soreness relented after the exercise.

Day 5: Legs and Back. This burned but not too badly. I’m a bit out of shape, but I’m used to similar drills in Wushu and welcomed the burn.

Day 6: Kenpo. This is my biggest gripe about P90X. You should never, never learn martial arts by video. You can develop bad habits or worse, injure yourself. I don’t know the slightest thing about kenpo but even I could tell the people in the video here have pretty bad form. I understand that this kenpo section is just to provide some variety and a good cardio workout, but I couldn’t keep my heart rate up. Someone with some martial arts background should be fine here, but Wushu isn’t exactly the jab-hook-punch kind of martial art so I spent more time trying to figure out the correct move more than getting a good workout. Eventually, I substituted some moves here with Wushu combos that are comparable in core- and cardio-work. I will probably continue to do this for the next few weeks.

Day 7 is a rest/stretch day, and then I’ll have to repeat this regimen for another 2 weeks before changing it up in Week 4 according to the program.

It’s good motivation that Reid and I are doing this together because I don’t think I could do this for more than the suggested 3 months. I’m not the gym rat type of person, and though this daily video is short and quick, it is way too repetitive for me.  I personally prefer to dedicate time/effort to learning a sport or developing a physical skill where the exercise just becomes the means to the end. Wushu can’t be it anymore, so I need to find a new sport.

In the meantime, P90x is a good start. I want to take a 4-day hike on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru at ~10,000 ft. elevation, and I need to get into better shape (and “round” is not a shape, Jon Li) if I want to do that next year.

Additionally, it’s a good time to start preparing myself for backpacking/camping in the upcoming summer months. (Guess whose idea that is, given my last three near-death experiences with overnight backpacking.) I ought to find some friends with hobbies that don’t require an hour of pull-ups and cheesy encouragement. The sport of Internet surfing and competitive eating are like attractive substitutes.

I jest. I enjoy looking like a fool dangling from the pull-up bar when Reid can do, like, 10 of them. Gotta get swollllll.

I take back any bad things I have ever said about yoga, ’cause today, it kicked my butt! I signed up for an introductory month of yoga today and attended my first ever yoga session—90 minutes of 95-degree-Farenheit heated vinyasa yoga at Yoga @ Cindy’s—in part to strenghten my failing knees, in part to tone up these muscles that have been neglected since I stopped practicing Wushu, and mostly because relying on my willpower to swim consistently is more difficult than attending classes with a regimen and instructors.

Within the first hour, I drank a whole liter of water—literally. Liter-ally! HAHA, get it?! (Oh man, I’m so lame. How do I have friends?) I got owned in that 90-minute session, but I’m fairly content that I was able to keep up to a certain extent for my first time. It was so warm and the dynamic (vs. static) positions really got me sweating, so I feel like I got a good workout. I’m much more used to the high-impact type of exercise that makes me feel like I’m really getting a good workout, so this is really different in that I am basically doing stances, stretches, and strenghtening for 90 consecutive minutes—a building, burning pain versus the sudden, sharp, Oh-God-I-just-tore-a-muscle-I-didn’t-know-I-had kind of pain.

While I’m excited to see how a month of this will be reflected on my body, I may need to continue swimming for resistance and cardio training. I would also like to learn how to rock climb properly, play tennis, dance the Lindy Hop, and so many other physical/recreational activities, but there’s just never enough time in addition to working and studying! Guess I’ll see how this month goes first :)

I drove up to Davis this past Saturday to revisit my old haunts in conjunction with the 95th Annual UCD Picnic Day. I don’t remember quite so many people participating in the festivities on Picnic Day, but then I realized it is UCD’s 100th year anniversary. Woo, go Aggies!

While I normally don’t have too much school spirit, I did want to return as a UCD KungFu Club alumna and perform with some of my other KFC alumni brethren. It was then that I realized I hadn’t done a whole half-form with any sort of intensity since the last Picnic Day; as a result, Wushu felt incredibly awkward, as my body has acclimated to a soft easy lifestyle, yet kind of familiar and exhilarating. I’m still feeling the sore hamstrings 4 days later, so I don’t think I’m in any sort of rush to return to old training days. In any case, it’s good to see that the club is still alive and kicking (pun intended! haha!) with new members–those cats were fast as lightning!–it makes me feel a bit less guilty that the club has diminished a bit since our good friend and founding member Alan left a 50-member roster in our hands when he left Davis.

Unfortunately, we missed the annual Doxie Derby, where tons of little dachshund hounds race against each other. How is it that I’ve seen the races only ONCE since I started attending UCD? Ri-diculous. We actually missed a lot of events that we had hoped to see, but I was content just to do the things we used to do–sit at the lounge, eat subpar-yet-expensive baked goods from the MU Bakery, eat bagels, drink Arizona Sweet Tea at the MU in between classes while working on crossword puzzl homework.

We also visited the MUGA (Memorial Union Games Area), where Eric and Linda used to play SUPER. SEGA. GT. everyday while waiting (and thus, missing) the bus. I used to work as a student manager there, and the bowling customers would say things like, “I think your lanes are tilted; my ball keeps rolling to the right.” WELL! MAYBE, you suck at bowling! (I’m terrible in bowling too, but you don’t see me blaming it on the lanes!) Ah, good times.

I finally picked up the “UCD Cow Tipping Team” shirt I had been wanting for a year. Since there’s never much to do in Davis, people tend to ask if I used to tip over unsuspecting bovines in the middle of the night. I might as well advertise that I’m part of a very elite, competitive team.

The one thing I discovered this year is the Battle of the Bands, where different university bands come together and play in rotation starting at 8am. Each band drops out of the rotation when they run out of new songs to play. They do this until there’s a winner or 10pm, whichever comes first.  Stanford played a 30-minute piece and all the university bands joined in; the percussionists took turns with solos while running across the lake, lying on the ground, and pulling a bunch of other stunts. There were an insane number of people at Spafford Lake watching on the lawn, and the atmosphere was really fun and crazy. I’ve been totally missing out!

Anyway, it was good to be back for just the day, from the all-familiar KFC demo to the post-Picnic-Day red-cup parties. I do miss having so many friends and peers close by everyday, since I took it for granted when I was still in school, but if given the choice, I don’t think I’d go back to that life; I’m definitely enjoying work and the “real world” more and always excited to see what’s coming up next.

…Speaking of which, I came down with a fever yesterday while flying to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a 4-day business trip. THIS part of the “real” world, I’m not enjoying much. :(

Started off the weekend very nicely with an amazing Moroccan-Mediterranean Californian fusion dinner at Aziza in SF! The piquillo-almond spread on flatbread was especially delicious, and I can see why the lamb shank comes so highly recommended.

Headed to Local Kitchen & Wine Merchant shortly after dinner to meet Kim and company, and then to Kate O’Brien’s, where the entire bar busted out singing along with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” - all kinds of awesome!

On Saturday, I attended (for FOURTEEN HOURS) the 17th Annual Chinese Martial Arts Tournament. As always, I regret not participating in the competition. But I wouldn’t have been able to compete anyway, since I haven’t trained since the the 16th CMAT last year and have virtually quit since then, due to changes in priorities and the frustration associated with the lack of drive and thus, the lack of improvement. Perhaps if I can pick up Wushu recreationally and just constantly remind myself that I can train without the competitive edge and simply for appreciation of the art.

In any case, Linda performed really well. I am amazed that she was able to recover from a torn ACL two years ago and train to compete again! Eric did very well, too; solid performances all around, and especially impressive in the advanced division of staff and broadsword - respectively, 2nd and 3rd place winner! WINNARRR!

Friends have really improved in the past year, and I was especially impressed with Evelyn, gold medal winner in Intermediate Female Changquan, and Ashley, who medaled in the Intermediate Female jianshu (straightsword) event!

In any case, tournament and afterparty were fun for the most part, nice to be reunited and it feeeeeels so gooood with lots of old faces! (Cookie for the person that can identify title and artist of that song!)