Today is a relief day for The Asylum, so I thought I’d pass along a distilled version of this article I read about the difference between P90X and P90X2.
P90X — as the people who’ve completed it (including myself) will attest — is still a viable exercise program. P90X2 does not take its place, P90X2 is more of an extension of the Muscle Confusionâ„¢ (that’s a Beachbody trademark) we started in the original.
By the same token, P90X2 is not necessarily harder than P90X, but, because of the muscle confusion thing, it will seem that way at first. And, I will bet, when I am done with the new one, and go back to do the original, the original will be tough the first few weeks. That’s the essence of muscle confusion and why it is so good for you — you are continually challenging your body in new ways!
One big change with P90X2 is that it is only a 5 days per week program. The official line is that when you are working out so intensely, you need more rest, but my take on it is that most people want the weekends off, and so, to reach a wider audience, they adapted the program to that. No big deal! If you really want to work out 6 days, you can always add a workout, and if you want a kick ass 5-day program — well, now there is one!
The new program, P90X2, now has 3 phases. I’m not sure how that pans out, like how the phases are separated, but Phase One is Balance, Phase Two is Muscles, and Phase Three is Agility. Sounds to me like Shaun T may have had some input here. I like the idea of it, for sure, and I know, from having done many of the One-On-One routines that turned into P90X2, that there are weighted exercise balls involved, including balancing on them to do pushups, as well as a stability ball, also used for adding balance training to otherwise familiar exercises.
All in all, P90X2 sounds great to me, but, then, I am biased, because Beachbody products have been so great to me. I am in the best shape of my life — and continuing to get even more fit — thanks to Tony Horton and Shaun T. I am really looking forward to continuing my journey with P90X2.