I know I had promised to get these pictures posted yesterday, however, I went golfing on Friday and ended up with a ridiculous "farmer's tan." Therefore, an emergency trip to the tanning salon and an extra day has "evened it out a bit," so I snapped these photos last night and here is my recap of my third round of the P90X program.

When I started my first round of P90X on March 4, 2010 I weighed 221.5 pounds and was approximately 31.5 percent body fat. After two, back-to-back rounds of P90X I was at 171.5 pounds and about 8.3 percent body fat.

Approaching my third round, for the first time in my adult life, I felt like I was too skinny! Wow! So, my intent during this third round was to gain weight and build muscle mass. I've heard all too often that "real muscles" can't be built with the P90X. Honestly, I was a little skeptical as well, but I love the program so much and it's so compatible with my lifestyle that I thought I'd give it a go.

I engineered my third round with three specific things in mind:

1) run a "positive calorie balance," meaning that I'd need to ingest more calories than I was burning each day

2) lift "heavy and hard" – take more breaks than what's allowed in the dvds in order to allow myself to push maximum weight every single exercise

3) research and ingest the "right" supplements

Running a positive calorie balance was difficult, because I had been running a significant "negative" one for so long. I figured, through my "lifestyle calorie burn" and the workouts I was enduring, I was probably burning about 3,500 – 3,600 calories per day. Therefore, I targeted 4,000+ calories per day for my diet, and it took a little while for me to figure out how to get there consistently.

I "tweaked" the P90X program a little bit (okay, a lot) in order to more clearly target my goals. I feel a weakness of the P90X program is that it doesn't really target the chest or trap muscles as effectively as I'd like. Doing hundreds of push-ups is hard, yes, but not the most effective way to actually BUILD those pectoral muscles. Therefore, every time the dvds would move to a "chest" exercise, I'd jump on my bench and do Flat, Incline or Decline dumbbell bench presses. I did as heavy of weight as I could handle – something that would have me at muscle failure by repetition number 8. I upgraded from the Bowflex 552's (52.5 pound max) to the 1090's (90 pound max), and I believe it really benefited my muscle growth. I also threw out the Arm Circles, Scarecrows and Pour Flyes in favor of just straight-up Military Presses, Dumbbell Shrugs and Upright Rows.

Finally, I targeted supplements that would help me be stronger, lift heavier weights and ultimately build denser muscles. I settled on a T-booster called Prime, which is made by USP Labs, which is a great company. I also stacked it with Pink Magic (another T-booster type supplement from USP Labs) about halfway through and really felt the power of this stack. Finally, for pre-workout supps I went with NO Bomb by MHP (another great company) and Monster Pump by Cytosport. These supps really helped intensify my workouts and kept me as focused as possible while I was really beating my body up. I also used Shakeology every morning, usually my "Gorilla" recipe, which goes for about 600 calories, 55 grams of protein and 45 carbs – now that's a powerful, healthy meal (Shakeology has 70+ vitamins, minerals, amino acids and nutrients, so I dropped my daily multi-vitamin long ago).

So now, looking back, I can say two things firmly:

1) I consider this round to be a resounding success – I figured my body fat would creep up a little higher while taking in 4,000 calories per day - I expected a little "goo" around the waist. That said, I'm still in all the same belt loops and my waist only went up by an inch or so.

My goals were to hit 190.0 pounds and stay at or under 12.5% body fat. I actually finished at 193.0 pounds and about 11.3% body fat! Xcellent! Although there are many variables when calculating body fat, I went with the following numbers:

Day 1: 178.5 pounds, 37 y/o, 31.5 inch waist, 6.0mm naval reading with medical-grade body fat caliper = 10.5% body fat

Day 90: 193.0 pounds, 37 y/o, 32.5 inch waist, 7.0mm naval reading with medical-grade body fat caliper = 11.3% body fat

So, I gained 11.9 pounds of lean body mass and 2.6 pounds of body fat in 90 days. I'll take it!

2) I'm glad this round is over. Seriously, my body is fatigued and lifting so heavy, so consistently has taken its toll upon my joints and ligaments. I've suffered more "nicks" and "dings" in the past 90 days than I did in both Rounds 1 and 2 combined.

Today is Day 4 of Insanity, and it's been a killer so far! After doing minimal cardio during the past 90 days, and now carrying an extra 14.5 pounds around – Lord have mercy have the past 3 days been a wake-up call!

In conclusion, I want to say a sincere "Thank You" to everyone who followed my Round 3 Blog and sent me kind comments and support – I REALLY APPRECIATED THAT! If anyone has any questions or comments, I'd be happy to help you in any way that I can.

"Bring It!"......er, I guess I mean "Dig Deeper" for the time being!