Category: P90X

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What you need to know before you start P90X – Part 4

This is Part 4. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

RULE #12: ADJUSTABLE DUMBBELLS ARE GREAT.

When I was preparing to start P90X, I didn’t even know about adjustable dumbbells, nor was I aware that regular dumbbells cost so frickin’ much!

I was torn, because either way I was going to be shelling out a few hundred bucks. I was going to be working out  in my living room, though, and the space saving nature of adjustables came into play.

Still torn, I walked into my Costco just to have a look, and I found some great adjustables for only $300, including stand. They don’t have them at Costco anymore, and they are a bit more than $300 now, but they are called Ironman Leverlock Adjustable Dumbbells, and they have been great. (Great, that is, as long as you ensure the levers are indeed locked before you pick them up. You should do that anyway, but I’m just sayin’, because I remember reading bad reviews about these things, probably from people who did not bother to check the locks.)

I did an online search and I see these things are available at Sears and Kmart, so check ’em out. Here’s a link so you know what they look like. They come with the stand, which is great, because when you are picking up a dumbbell, it sure is nice not to have to go all the way to the floor to get it.

And, yes, in case you are wondering, I found the 55 pounds per side to be more than enough for my current strength level.

Another thing to keep in mind is the ability to adjust throughout the set at 2.5-pound increments. I found that to be useful. Adjusting in 5-pound increments would have been too much. Stepping up from 15 to 17.5 to 20 pounds works very well.

As I said, I’ve heard great things about the Bowflex ones, and they have come down in price, so here’s a link to them, if you want to check them out. I’m sure others have hit the market in the couple years since I’ve shopped for them, so shop around.

RULE #13: USE A HEART RATE MONITOR.

P90X is an extreme exercise program, so you should get a checkup from your doctor before you start it. Did I do that? No. But I should have, I guess.

What I did do, though, was get a heart rate monitor and use it to decide when to slow down. Those first few weeks of Plyo and other aerobic/anaerobic activities will send your heart rate through the roof, if you are not in top shape, so the heart rate monitor made it easy for me to gauge my exertion level.

To figure out your max heart rate, just subtract your age from 220. If you are 50-years-old, your max heart rate is is 170, so I figured about 80% of that as an initial target. 170 * 0.8 = 136. I rounded to 140 and kept an eye on that. Once my heart rate went over 140, I slowed down a bit, then picked it back up to try to stay in the 130-140 range. After a while I raised that high target to 150, and after another while I stopped using the heart rate monitor altogether. But it was a valuable tool at the beginning to keep me informed about how hard my heart was working, because it was often beating much harder than I realized.

There are many models out there, but I wanted to go cheap, so I went with this one from Omron, and it’s served me very well.

ADDED SEPTEMBER 2, 2012: When my Omron gave out, I bought a Polar. I like it better than the Omron. It’s better constructed and easier to wear, but, of course, it’s a lot more expensive. Check it out here.

RULE #14: IF YOU FIND PULLUPS TO BE VERY DIFFICULT-TO-IMPOSSIBLE, TRY AN ALTERNATIVE.

Pullups are hard for most people, because we just don’t use our backs that much. Of course, that is the root of many of our back problems, so pullups are important to work through, even if you can’t do more than one right now.

During P90X, Tony offers a couple of alternatives to pullups.

The first pullup alternative involves using a chair to assist with the pullup.

I tried this. It was problematic for two reasons:

  1. The chair would slip often on my tile floor, and
  2. I found myself using the chair and my legs far too much.

I don’t recommend chair-assisted pullups, but please give it a shot, so you can decide for yourself.

The second pullup alternative Tony recommends is using a resistance band. So you attach the resistance band to something above you, then from your knees or your butt, pull the band down toward your chest, arms spread, in a pullup motion.

I tried this, too. It was better than chair-assisted, but was problematic for three reasons:

  1. It was a pain in the butt to get the band looped around my pullup bar so it would provide enough resistance to make the exercise worthwhile,
  2. You really need a heavy-duty band to get enough resistance, and I didn’t have that, and
  3. I pulled the pullup bar down on top of myself one time doing this.

Again, you may want to try this — maybe you’ll love it — and I used it for a long time, actually, before coming up with what I do now.

The third pullup alternative is one I came up with myself, and I think it works great. It’s this — DO PULLUPS! Okay, that’s not really an alternative to pullups, but the methodology is different than what goes on in the program. When it’s time to do pullups, you simply set a timer — I use our kitchen timer — for one minute, and do as many pullups as possible in that one minute. Take all the breaks you need during that minute, but always keep working to get one more pullup until the timer goes off.

You may need to pause the DVD while you do your minute, but it’s worth the small hassle, because the only way to get better at pullups is to do pullups. Do as many as you can in a minute.

ADDED AUGUST 22, 2012: There is yet another way to do pullups now, and it is with the Beachbody Chin-Up Max. It hooks over your pullup bar, you slip your foot into it, and you get pullup assistance. The Chin-Up Max is adjustable, so you can get just as much assistance as you like. Check it out here.

RULE #15: BE SAFE

Safety is very important when you are engaging in any kind of physical activity, not only because you need to understand the limitations of your body, but you need to also, if the activity is new, be aware of any issues you may not already know about.

When you are in program like P90X, a program that is designed to get you into better shape, it’s natural for you to want to overwork. You’re feeling good. Surely you can lift more weight than that. And. Then. Uh oh. Down for the count.

But you already know that, so here are a few safety tips you may not be as aware of.

Keep your core tight. Tony does not mention this much in P90X. Shaun T harps on it, though, in Insanity, and it’s really important, not only because it helps build your abs, but also because it keeps your back safe. If you just keep those abs at least somewhat engaged, no matter what you are doing, you’ll notice the difference in performance, balance, and muscle tone.

Lift and replace the dumbbells gently. This just means that you need to not yank at the dumbbells when you pick them up and you should place them back carefully. In other words, stay in control. There are some exercises that are exceptions to the “placing them back carefully” rule — sometimes you have to just let them drop, but the key is to not hurt yourself. Yanking at them when picking them up can strain your arms, shoulders, and back, while dropping them can damage your feet and toes, when the dumbbell bounces from the floor onto them. Trust me, this one I learned from experience.

Watch out for equipment and furniture. Really, this is a no-brainer, but those are the ones that get you. Don’t be lazy about putting dumbbells back, because, sure enough, at some point you’ll stub your toe and that can put you out of commission for the day. If you work out in your living room, coffee tables, also, can be dangerous, especially once you lose that layer of fat you have on your shins. You may not know it’s there, but, believe me, when you hit your fat-free shin on the coffee table, if you catch it just wrong, it’ll bleed like a sumbitch, and leave a permanent scar, too. Been there, done that.

Make sure your pullup bar is secure. Many of those over-the-doorframe pullup bars have little clip to help keep them in place. Use it. This is especially important if you are wrapping exercise bands around the pullup bar to do band pullups from the floor, because that can cause the pressure on the bar to be different from the manufacturer’s design, and…. Okay, yeah, been there, done that, too. Mine doesn’t have the clip to hold it in place, but I am much more careful with it these days.

And that about wraps up this 4-part series. I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, but this should be enough to get you started.

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What you need to know before you start P90X – Part 3

This is Part 3. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

RULE #11: DON’T SKIP YOGA!

I’m going to devote this whole post to this one rule, because I believe it’s that important.

I had never done any yoga before P90X. I had been warned by my brother that I would probably want to use an alternative to Yoga X, because that workout is 90 minutes, and who has time for that, right?

As an alternative, I got the “Fountain of Youth” DVD from Tony’s “One on One” series. The first few weeks of P90X, though, I did do the Yoga X workout, primarily because I like to make my own decisions about such things, and I like those decisions to be informed.

Yoga X is, indeed, pretty long and boring, but it was necessary to introduce me to the moves and terminology. Tony’s One on One workouts are much less formal than  P90X, and he doesn’t often take time to explain things in them, assuming — usually accurately — that we should already know what he’s talking about and how to do the moves.

Let me say this here, because you may not know this about yoga … it’s hard! At least the way Tony does yoga, it’s hard, quite a workout. I remember the first time I tried floating my leg in the air from downward dog and then trying to swing it through. Not an easy task, and it got harder from there. That is one of the reasons I like it so much. I know it’s working my body and improving it.

Anyway, when I felt pretty comfortable with Yoga X, I moved to the “Fountain of Youth” workout from One on One. It’s a 45-minute routine that covers strength, stretching, and balance. And I was only finally able to do it all the way through without stopping … last week.

There is a part in the middle where we do a sidearm balance, three slow-motion pushups, a sidearm balance on the other side, then go right into an intense downward dog routine, and it has always made me take a break in the past. But I finally made it through last week, and to prove it’s not a fluke, I made it through today, too!

And this is about 18 months since I started  P90X.

I was noticing today how smoothly I can swing my legs through from floating them during downward dog, a move I found so difficult — even wondered if it were really possible for me — when I first started. Now it’s routine.

Here’s the real point: This is not an overnight conversion. There are no magic elixirs to help you get fit. You have to work it, and yoga is a big part of not only helping you get into shape, but also helping you gauge the shape you are in.

So, when you decide to dive into P90X, don’t skip the yoga. It’s probably the most challenging part of P90X, possibly because it’s the least familiar, and you may be tempted to write it off as some throwaway stretching routine, but it’s not. You can build endurance, balance, strength, all that, with yoga.

In fact, I have considered creating a hybrid workout series based on yoga, and I may yet put that together, test it out for a few months. That sounds like it might be a good thing to do after P90X2.

Okay, next post will be more P90X tips, Part 4.

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What you need to know before you start P90X – Part 2

This is Part 2. You can read Part 1 here.

RULE #6: GET THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT.

When I started P90X, I started with basic necessary equipment:

  • yoga mat and blocks,
  • pullup bar,
  • heart rate monitor, and
  • adjustable dumbbells.

You need all those, and the latter two are important enough that I’ve covered them individually.

But there are a couple other pieces of equipment that I wish I’d had from the beginning. Even though they are not required, they sure help a lot.

The first is pushup stands. You can use dumbbells for this, but dedicated stands are really nice to have, especially if they are Tony Horton Power Stands. Those things are brilliant, because they won’t tip sideways on wide pushups. Plus they are very comfortable. They are expensive, so rest assured, you can use either your dumbbells or a less expensive stand. But I do love my Tony Horton Power Stands.

[ NOTE: I don’t pay as much because I am a Team Beachbody Coach. Become a Team Beachbody Coach and SAVE 25% on all Beachbody products. I only did this because, when I added up the savings and subtracted the monthly, this saves me money. ]

You may be thinking, “Why do I even need pushup stands?”

It’s a wrist thing. When you do a lot of pushups — and in P90X you will be doing a lot of pushups — your wrists are turned at that 90-degree angle that could be bothersome. It was for me.

Using pushup stands allows your wrists to stay straight throughout the move. Plus, as a bonus, you now have that 6 inches the stands put you above the ground to intensify the pushup by going lower than you could if your hands were on the floor.

The second piece of equipment that I consider essential, even though I worked out without it for a long time, is an exercise mat.

I work out in my living room, on the carpet. Of course, this wears out the carpet, but, also, that means I am sweating onto the carpet. That can’t be good.

An exercise mat provides a better grip for my bare feet — I don’t wear shoes during workouts — and also extra cushion.

Finding a 6×6 mat proved impossible on a budget. I considered turning my extra bedroom into a workout room and tiling the floor with foam rubber gym flooring, but, again, that ain’t cheap.

As it turned out, the answer was right in front of me.

I had bought a 2×6 exercise mat to use for Ab Ripper X. It is a really durable and comfortable mat, under $20 (when I bought mine), and I thought, “I wonder if I could buy two more and tape them together?” I did just that and it works great! The only thing I try to do when I work out is turn the mat so I don’t stress the seams too much, but this thing has held up for 10 months now, and it’s still in great shape. I used Gorilla Tape to connect them, because I had it around, but I imagine any decent duct tape will do.

The only real problem with the mat is that it does tend to slide around a bit, and I need to adjust it every so often, but the benefits of it far outweigh that small issue.

RULE #7: EVEN IF YOU DO GET INJURED, KEEP GOING!

All right, now, I don’t mean you need to be stupid about it, but even if you are being careful, when you are pushing your body, you can expect pulled muscles and some hyperextended connective tissue. You will know when it’s serious enough to quit.

I am not a doctor, but my rule is this: If it hurts when I work out, I may need to pay more attention to it as a medical condition. If not, well, let’s work out!

I have worked through many an ache and pain that, once I started moving, doing the workout, whaddayaknow? No more pain.

If you do feel intense pain when you work out, maybe you are really hurt, so give it a rest, see a doctor.

My doctor told me, though, that working through an injury, with modifications, i.e. babying the injured area a bit, but still working it, is the way to go.

That’s how I discovered using an exercise band to modify pullups, because I pulled a back muscle. Instead of saying “screw it” and quitting the program, I modified with the band and was able to keep pushing through.

Again, don’t be stupid, but don’t give up too easily, either.

RULE #8: “PRESS PLAY EVERY DAY.”

This should probably be rule #1, but that ship has sailed — I’m on #8 now. Suffice to say, this little mantra that can be heard in the P90X infomercials is important, and will help you get your workout in every day (unless you skip the 7th day each week, X Stretch, which is optional).

To be successful at anything, you have to commit to it, and the way you commit to P90X is to follow the program without fail.

Don’t think you can get that workout in because you are too busy? Find a way to work it in.

Stayed out too late last night and don’t feel like working out? Do it anyway.

Someway, somehow, get your workout in. You’ll feel better for it, especially on those days where you really need to push through it.

Make P90X part of your lifestyle.

RULE #9: NO SHOES WORKS GREAT.

When I first started P90X, I did not know which shoes to buy for it. I searched the online boards, got all kinds of recommendations, mostly for either Vibrams or some kind of cross-trainer. I bought some cross-trainers, but really didn’t like them too much, plus my feet got HOT!

So I tried the shoes without socks. Still sucked.

Then I thought, “Why not try without shoes?” Great decision.

It seems very natural to me to work out that way. Of course, it’s best on a mat, okay on carpet, no bueno on hard floors.

If you are struggling with which shoes to wear, try none — you might like it! (Just be careful about stubbing your toe on dumbbells. Ouch!)

RULE #10: GET ACQUAINTED WITH LOW-CARB PROTEIN SHAKES.

When I started P90X, I went on the 50% protein – 30% carb – 20% fat diet. I’ve already discussed why this is essential to  P90X success in Part 1, so if you are going to follow that diet, you may be surprised to find that eating that much lean protein is not easy.

That’s how I got to know low-carb protein shakes.

There are plenty of them out there. I prefer the type without artificial sweeteners, so I use Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard Natural Whey. It tastes great mixed with low-carb almond milk and mixes well with fruit, too, when I want to add some to the shake.

I’ve tried others, including premixed shakes, and some of them are really good, but I settled on Optimum’s product because it’s so much cheaper to mix them myself, plus I have more flexibility with the ingredients.

Wow, that went quick, and I can see that I’ll need a Part 3.

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What you need to know before you start P90X — Part 1

I am just a regular guy. I am not a gym rat. I have no desire to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger (or, rather, what he used to look like).

If you are just a regular guy who is wondering if P90X is right for you, read on, because it just might be exactly what you need, so I’ve put together a set of “rules” that I came up with based on my experience with P90X.

RULE #1: YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE — OR WANT TO BE — A MUSCLEHEAD TO BENEFIT FROM P90X.

What I usually tell people is that my primary fitness goal — as far as looks go — is to make sure my chest sticks out farther than my gut. To measure this, I simply put on a properly sized t-shirt and stand up straight. Is my gut pushing out against the shirt? If the answer is “yes”, I have more work to do.

If you are, like myself, a man of a certain age, i.e. 40-plus, your fitness goal probably also includes the shrinking of a lifetime’s worth of accumulated gut fat. You may have tried other fitness programs. You may have looked around at your peers, noted that most of them are even fatter than you — except that one skinny guy, who you’re pretty sure is an alcoholic, and the well-built dude, who must just have good genes — so you have resigned yourself to the fact that as we get older, we just get fatter, nothing can be done about that.

Yeah, I thought the same thing. I figured I was out of time and out of luck. I was walking a lot (15,000 to 25,000 steps per day), I could do 200 pushups in an hour, I was doing crunches, I, er, owned a pullup bar. My age, I figured, must just be doing me in.

I had not heard of Tony Horton”s P90X — I guess I don’t watch enough late-night tv, or, maybe, on second thought, I watch just the right amount — until my brother told me about it. He had always been a stocky guy who had to watch his weight, and he’d been in-and-out of bodybuilding all his life, so when he described the program to me, I figured it was only for guys who loved to wear speedos, shave their body hair, and stare at themselves in the mirror all day, so I didn’t bite.

I guess I reached the tipping point in February 2010. I was tired of spending hours a day walking for exercise with no apparent health benefit. I was treading water — at best — with my weight. Well, okay, it was steadily creeping up from a recent low of 180 to a precarious 195. Still quite a way from my peak of fatness at 235, but I knew the signs. It was only a matter of time before I would be there again … and beyond.

I told my brother to order me P90X. That was easily the best fitness decision of my life.

All that leads me to the gist of the matter, which is that if you are a regular guy who just wants to get into shape, you may have seen the P90X infomercials and thought, “That’s not for me.” But it worked for me, and it can work for you, too.

RULE #2: STICK TO THE DIET PLAN.

Your body composition is determined 80% by what you eat and 20% by what you do.

I knew this going into P90X, so I was very willing to adjust my diet to 50% protein – 30% carbohydrate – 20% fat, as prescribed by the program’s diet guide.

“Diet!” you exclaim. “I thought this was an exercise program.”

Sure, it is, but please refer back to the first sentence of this section. “Your body composition is determined 80% by what you eat and 20% by what you do.” You can work out all you want, but if you are going to eat like a pig, you’ll continue to look like one, although, admittedly, you will probably have a pretty decent body underneath all the fat.

But this is no regular diet, so don’t worry that you will be starving yourself. According to the P90X calorie requirement calculator, I could have eaten about 2400 calories per day on their plan. I cut that back to a goal of 2000, so that way if I went over a bit, I was okay. You may not think that is a lot of calories, but when half of them are protein, it’s pretty challenging to hit that goal.

One thing I will tell you right now is that when I started P90X, I gave up all sugary sweets. Everything. No cake, no pie, no candy, no you-name-it. You obviously don’t need to do that, but I had to do it that way — go off it completely — because I am not good at moderation. I can honestly say that I haven’t missed that stuff at all. Perhaps in the future there will be a time when I can add some of it back into my diet — in severe moderation. I do still eat fruit and other naturally sweet things, but sugar for me is a no-no.

RULE #3: PUSH THE ENVELOPE, BUT TAKE IT SLOW AND STAY WITHIN YOUR ABILITY.

P90X is tough. You may find that you cannot, even at the end of the 90 days, finish the routines without modifications. For sure, for me, the pullups will take a lot more time to get where I want them to be. I can’t even come close to putting up the numbers they do in the videos.

That is really one of the beauties of the program. I mean, what good is an exercise program, if you can complete all the moves right from the start? I was on that program, and it involved walking for hours on end every day. Where did that get me, besides from here to there and back again?

My greatest fear when I started P90X was getting hurt, because that’s what I do – I tend get all excited about a program, and I throw myself in there, push it too far, hurt myself, and I am out of commission. That’s why I say “push the envelope, but take it slow”. You surely need to push yourself to improve, but don’t go overboard and get hurt.

Tony provides modified moves for many of the exercises. Use them, if you need to, with the goal being to keep working, and testing the water every so often, until you don’t need the modification — you may find this happens rather quickly.

RULE #4: TAKE EXTRA BREAKS WHEN YOU NEED THEM.

This is really a continuation of the last thought, but it’s important, so I want to beat it to death.

It’s a DVD. Hit pause. Take a few extra breaths, then start back up again. You will be amazed at how fast you improve.

RULE #5: WRITE IT DOWN!

Speaking of how quickly you improve, the best way to see it, besides looking in the mirror, is to use workout sheets to write down your reps and the weights you used.

This will also assist you next time you go to do the exercise, because you will easily be able to see how much weight you did last time, so you can quickly adjust the dumbbells. Trust me, it’s tough to remember, so writing everything down is a must.

And that’s it for this post, but I’ll post more P90X “rules” in the next few days. In fact, here’s Part 2.

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Okay, so I got sick …

Shaun T's AsylumI don’t know what happened. I so rarely get sick that it always surprises the hell out of me when it happens.

I felt fine when I went to  bed on Sunday, but I woke up around 4:00am on Monday and I was not well. I’ll skip the details.

That little virus — I assume it was — put me out for Monday. I mean, I slept almost all day,  joined the land of the living for six hours or so, then slept from 10:30 to 6:00 the next morning.

I felt a lot better on Tuesday, but when I started my workout, I could barely make it through the warm-up. So I stopped, not wanting to push my body too far.

It seems my trek through The Asylum has been aborted by a virus!

Yeah, I have a big weekend of traveling and partying coming up, so I cannot pick back up when I’m back to 100% (which should be tomorrow). I guess I will have to try again in the future.

You know what? That’s okay. Truth be told, I was really burnt out, anyway, and I think I know why.

I tend to work out in a 3-weeks on / 1-week off pattern, with the off week consisting of some aerobics and yoga. Sometimes I stretch it to 4-weeks on, but not beyond that. I learned this routine in P90X, and it’s served me well. The off week always seems to come at the right time.

When I started The Asylum, I did it on a whim, not thinking about my previous schedule. As I look back, I had already been on for two weeks, and that was when I started the hardest workout program I’d ever been through.

Not smart, and it’s no wonder I broke down. In fact, that may have very well been why I was susceptible to that virus that hit me.

Anyway, this experience will make me more mindful of proper rest in the future.

As for The Asylum, I enjoyed pieces of it — “Strength” especially, and “Vertical Plyo” — quite a bit, but much of it I found just too  cumbersome, with my needing to move the ladder, readjust my foam pad, too often. If only I had a bit more space, but I don’t.

From a physical standpoint, wow, The Asylum really does reach beyond Insanity! There is so much full body stuff going on, and great back work, which was missing almost completely from Insanity.

I would highly recommend The Asylum, if you are trying to push your body to extremes and want a program that will take a body that is already in great shape … and … make … it … even … better.