[TalonChief]

Decided I was interested in more functional strength and less pushing heavy things around in the gym due to the aches and recovery periods increasing exponentially, so I opted to give this program a whirl. I chose it largely due to its portability derived from not requiring anything other than a couple of rubber resistance bands, a pair of weighted gloves, and a towel. It's loosely based on MMA moves.

The first workout in the series is called Cross Core Combat. It's all about core stability and has you do various "combat" strikes while keeping the core engaged--it's also very sphinx pushup-centric. The pace is grueling (for a beginner) and your heart rate will go up pretty quickly as you engage stabilizer muscles you're not used to using on top of other major muscle groups in executing the strike moves.

I regularly squat ~380 and still bench ~180 even after the shoulder surgery, but this flat wore my butt out. P90X was not nearly as difficult to keep up with. My wife regularly does P90X workouts and runs 5 mi several times a week and even she balked at some of this.

Tomorrow: Strength Force Upper & Abs, so if'n I ain't dead in 90 days.....