Just now saw this. Sorry.
The noob effect is basically when you start utilizing muscles for the first time, your body compensates by putting all of its resources behind growing them. For instance, when you first start lifting, you'll probably suffer from DOMS (delayed onset muscle syndrome). There are a million theories about why it happens. The one I like is that your muscles are kind of like an engine and when you're first putting them under stress that they aren't used to, they have no idea how to burn the fuel you're throwing at them, so they struggle withi t. After a few days and subsequent workouts, your body starts focusing on your muscles during its repair cycle (sleep; the reason it's important to get adequate sleep while working out), and grows them with available resources (protein) so that it's easier for you to work them out. At the beginning, it's really easy for your body to do this and you're going to see a lot of great results. But as your body gets used to working out, it stops putting as many resources behind growing those muscles to compensate for what you're throwing at it.
This is actually one of the reasons why it's better to talk to someone who has been doing a specific routine for quite awhile on whether it's a good routine or not and not some guy who has been doing it for a couple weeks.
Gotcha! Thanks for letting me know. Very interesting stuff.
Did Chest and Back again today. I was able to do more push ups!!! I was really happy about that. Pull-ups, though....not so much. Can still only do 1-2 unassisted (not using my feet), which is a bummer for me. I'm thinking about skipping them during P90X and going to the gym afterwards to use a machine that works the same muscles. I feel like that would be more effective for me since I'm fatiguing on, like, the first rep. Also, can't use the bands because there's no place in my house to drape them around for the appropriate height that's strong enough to not break. So...yeah...
Okay, so I finally got around to measuring my body fat percentage
using this and following
this guy's directions (just by measuring the suprialiac only, though) and I got a reading of 11.6% body fat. That seems low already, doesn't it? Is it because I'm already skinny? I kept remeasuring and kept getting this same result. How low is TOO low to go for body fat percentage? Is it realistic to want to go down to 7% body fat? Is that even possible within the 3 months of P90X?
The rest of my stats for reference:
5'10"
158 lbs.
32" waist
35" chest
Ideally, I'd like to get down to a 30" waist. That would make me happy. What body percentage would I need to shoot for? And am I being unrealistic? I know I sound really skinny, and I am, but my midsection is not. I have unproportional fat around my butt and abdomen in relation to the rest of my body, which is why I want to lose it. I also want to be safe, too. (I can't help but think that a picture here would really help, but I'm not one to do that
)
Also, about the alcohol, I'm only a week in and I drank one night (not shitfaced or anything) and probably will tonight, too, since I have a friend coming in from out of town)....is that too much? What is the primary concern with drinking alcohol? Is it just the extra empty calories or the fact that you won't be at your fullest the next day to do your workout? Because if I drink tonight (not excessively, but just enough) and can still do Plyo tomorrow EVENING instead of the morning, is that really a bad thing if I count in the alcohol calories in my diet? I'm thinking it'll be okay if I just promise not to have any other drinks for the rest of phase 1. I mean, if I have a friend coming in town, I don't want to just sit around without a cocktail, you know?
