P90X was my 2nd BeachBody program to tackle, although it was the first one I had heard of. I won't lie, the thought of P90X was intimidating, the set was intimidating... I don't know, it just seemed like some hardcore, back alley gym with these buff men and women working out... kind of like "gymtimidation" but at home. I was wrong, Tony Horton seemed really down to Earth, was cracking some cheesy, but funny, one liners, and the other people where great as well.
With any BeachBody program, P90X offers modified moves for those of us that aren't at the level as some others. Lighter weights, resistance bands, push ups on the knees, using bands for pull up. Tony is accompanied by 3 others and out of the 4 people on the videos, there are about 4 different way to complete the exercise, from modified to regular to extreme.
P90X is a 90 day package, "get it P NINETY X" but EXTREME, as opposed to Power 90.
The P90X program is divided up into 3, 1 month sections, with 3 different schedules to follow, "Classic" "Lean" and for all you crazy kids "Doubles." Basically the difference between the different schedules is, Lean focuses a bit less on weights and more on the cardio workouts and Doubles, you basically do 2 workouts a day, mainly another cardio added to the mix everyday.
The schedules follow a week 1-3 then recovery week 4, then weeks 5-7, then recovery week 8, then weeks 9&11 are the same, and weeks 10&12 are the same, then followed by recovery week 13 (weeks 4, 8, & 13 are the same as well).
On the weight/resistance training workouts, you typically will workout 2 or more muscle groups, such as "Back and Biceps" "Legs and Back" "Chest and Shoulders" etc. Some days you will add AbRipperX to the workout as well. On days you aren't doing weight or resistance training, you will do some cardio based workouts, like KenpoX or Plyometric training, also there are XStretch and YogaX routines as well.
Weeks 5-7 add different DVDs/workouts than weeks 1-3, this is designed to workout different sets of muscle groups together and keep from hitting a plateau in your progress. This method is also called "muscle confusion." You can get into a stagnant routine/plateau if your body gets used to do the same thing over and over, instead of "Chest and Shoulders" you may now be doing "Shoulders, Bis and Tris." In the last month you alternate, weeks 9 & 11 is the same schedule as weeks 1-3, while weeks 10 & 12, are the same as 5-7. This not only helps your muscles not to get bored, but it helps you not get bored, hearing the same cues and commentary ALL the time.
With that said, some people choose to mute the workouts and just follow along the cues at the bottom of the screen, while listening to their own music or something like that. I personally liked listening to the commentary and banter between Tony and the rest of the cast. Its all personal preference, which is one of the great things about doing these programs in your own home. Also, you can always push pause if you need a longer break or something like that, and even Tony mentions it numerous times during the DVDs, telling you push pause if you need to "they'll be right here waiting."
Also, P90X is a lot slower paced than Insanity, but that is the nature of weight training vs cardio, you have to have some breaks to let your muscles recover before doing your next set. One drawback of P90X is/was the time commitment, most DVDs were 45 minutes to an hour, plus the days you have AbRipperX, which added another 15 minutes, and then the king of them all, YogaX was a MASSIVE 90 minutes. So P90X does take a time commitment, but its really doable, I know a lot of people that spend more time than that in the gym, plus when you take away travel time to and from the gym, it kind of evens out a bit. But for those of us that have SUPER BUSY schedules, that is what T25 and P90X3 are going to be good for, and you can read about those reviews as well.
Back to P90X, I really enjoyed the program, I did it twice at home and ended up joining a local gym and completing my 3rd round of P90X at the gym. I guess that is another downside of P90X is the equipment you need. You don't really need a lot, but if, say you start with a set of 10-15- or 20lbs dumbbells, you might outgrow those pretty quickly and you might need some heavier weights. You can always do the resistance bands, and you can really get a good resistance workout with bands, although you want to test them out, get good quality bands that don't stretch out and lose their resistance, but they are a lot cheaper than weights, so you can have a variety, and most have clip on handles, so you can use more than one band to get a bigger pump without having to buy heavier bands right away.
I give P90X a lot of credit for me joining a gym. I was nervous and scared to join a gym, you hear those horror stories of getting looked at or laughed at by the big muscle guys. P90X gave me more confidence in my own strength (I am nowhere near the level of those gym guys still, but I have confidence to go) and gave me the confidence in myself to go. I learned one thing about working out, is the worst thing you can do is compare yourself to people at the gym or even people on the videos. These people have been doing it a lot longer than I have, Tony Horton has been working out his whole life, when I started P90X, i had been losing weight not even 2 years and not really yet focused on weight training. Compare yourself with yourself, if you are making improvements then that is all that matters!
So, I really do recommend P90X if you have the time to commit to it, give it 90 days, really, what is 90 days, its a 3 month commitment to making a new and healthier you that will last the rest of your life.
With any BeachBody program, P90X offers modified moves for those of us that aren't at the level as some others. Lighter weights, resistance bands, push ups on the knees, using bands for pull up. Tony is accompanied by 3 others and out of the 4 people on the videos, there are about 4 different way to complete the exercise, from modified to regular to extreme.
P90X is a 90 day package, "get it P NINETY X" but EXTREME, as opposed to Power 90.
The P90X program is divided up into 3, 1 month sections, with 3 different schedules to follow, "Classic" "Lean" and for all you crazy kids "Doubles." Basically the difference between the different schedules is, Lean focuses a bit less on weights and more on the cardio workouts and Doubles, you basically do 2 workouts a day, mainly another cardio added to the mix everyday.
The schedules follow a week 1-3 then recovery week 4, then weeks 5-7, then recovery week 8, then weeks 9&11 are the same, and weeks 10&12 are the same, then followed by recovery week 13 (weeks 4, 8, & 13 are the same as well).
On the weight/resistance training workouts, you typically will workout 2 or more muscle groups, such as "Back and Biceps" "Legs and Back" "Chest and Shoulders" etc. Some days you will add AbRipperX to the workout as well. On days you aren't doing weight or resistance training, you will do some cardio based workouts, like KenpoX or Plyometric training, also there are XStretch and YogaX routines as well.
Weeks 5-7 add different DVDs/workouts than weeks 1-3, this is designed to workout different sets of muscle groups together and keep from hitting a plateau in your progress. This method is also called "muscle confusion." You can get into a stagnant routine/plateau if your body gets used to do the same thing over and over, instead of "Chest and Shoulders" you may now be doing "Shoulders, Bis and Tris." In the last month you alternate, weeks 9 & 11 is the same schedule as weeks 1-3, while weeks 10 & 12, are the same as 5-7. This not only helps your muscles not to get bored, but it helps you not get bored, hearing the same cues and commentary ALL the time.
With that said, some people choose to mute the workouts and just follow along the cues at the bottom of the screen, while listening to their own music or something like that. I personally liked listening to the commentary and banter between Tony and the rest of the cast. Its all personal preference, which is one of the great things about doing these programs in your own home. Also, you can always push pause if you need a longer break or something like that, and even Tony mentions it numerous times during the DVDs, telling you push pause if you need to "they'll be right here waiting."
Also, P90X is a lot slower paced than Insanity, but that is the nature of weight training vs cardio, you have to have some breaks to let your muscles recover before doing your next set. One drawback of P90X is/was the time commitment, most DVDs were 45 minutes to an hour, plus the days you have AbRipperX, which added another 15 minutes, and then the king of them all, YogaX was a MASSIVE 90 minutes. So P90X does take a time commitment, but its really doable, I know a lot of people that spend more time than that in the gym, plus when you take away travel time to and from the gym, it kind of evens out a bit. But for those of us that have SUPER BUSY schedules, that is what T25 and P90X3 are going to be good for, and you can read about those reviews as well.
Back to P90X, I really enjoyed the program, I did it twice at home and ended up joining a local gym and completing my 3rd round of P90X at the gym. I guess that is another downside of P90X is the equipment you need. You don't really need a lot, but if, say you start with a set of 10-15- or 20lbs dumbbells, you might outgrow those pretty quickly and you might need some heavier weights. You can always do the resistance bands, and you can really get a good resistance workout with bands, although you want to test them out, get good quality bands that don't stretch out and lose their resistance, but they are a lot cheaper than weights, so you can have a variety, and most have clip on handles, so you can use more than one band to get a bigger pump without having to buy heavier bands right away.
I give P90X a lot of credit for me joining a gym. I was nervous and scared to join a gym, you hear those horror stories of getting looked at or laughed at by the big muscle guys. P90X gave me more confidence in my own strength (I am nowhere near the level of those gym guys still, but I have confidence to go) and gave me the confidence in myself to go. I learned one thing about working out, is the worst thing you can do is compare yourself to people at the gym or even people on the videos. These people have been doing it a lot longer than I have, Tony Horton has been working out his whole life, when I started P90X, i had been losing weight not even 2 years and not really yet focused on weight training. Compare yourself with yourself, if you are making improvements then that is all that matters!
So, I really do recommend P90X if you have the time to commit to it, give it 90 days, really, what is 90 days, its a 3 month commitment to making a new and healthier you that will last the rest of your life.