Tag: P90X

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The difference between P90X and P90X2

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.

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Muscle soreness and the power of muscle confusion

I am sore today. My inner thighs are feeling the effects of yesterday’s workout.

Why am I sore?

Let’s put aside the fact that no one really knows for sure why muscles get sore from being worked out, and just know that they are sore from being worked out.

“But,” you may ask, “why are your legs sore? Don’t you work your legs out? Insanity is a lot of leg work, isn’t it?”

True enough, but this is why mixing up my routines is so important. Mixing it up confuses my muscles, working them in ways they are not accustomed to, and making them stronger in the process.

I touched on this subject in the post “Cardio: How much do we need?“.

The gist of the concept is that when you want to be really good at one particular activity, you do that activity over and over. If you want to be a good runner, you run. If you want to be a good cycler, you cycle. That trains your muscles to optimize themselves for that particular activity.

But don’t think that a world-class cyclist — a guy you would certainly say is in shape — can jump off his bike and run a marathon. Sure, he’ll be further along the training path than someone who sits on the couch every night, but he will need to train to be able to run that marathon, because his body is maximized for cycling.

And that is the basis of muscle confusion. If you want to be generally fit — and that is my goal — you need to do a variety of exercises to keep your muscles guessing, keep them from establishing a routine.

Tony Horton’s P90X, among many other strength-training programs, are built on that approach.

Anyway, back to my personal muscle soreness.

Yesterday I did for the first time since mid-February Tony Horton’s “Base & Back” from his One-On-One series. (FYI, that particular workout is in Volume 3.) The last time I did that routine was about six months ago, so, even having done a round of Insanity and many other leg workouts in between, I am sore today, because, apparently, “Base & Back” made me use some muscles I haven’t used quite so much recently.

In an effort to keep my muscles confused, I try to only do a particular series of routines for 3 or 4 weeks. I will then take a recovery week and start a new series. That’s how Tony Horton’s P90X works, so I kept that strategy in place after I completed that program.

For what it’s worth, I think the confusion could probably be achieved by just reversing the order of the exercises in each routine, if you want to keep it really simple. But I get a kick out of creating new routines and weekly programs.

So, yeah, my muscles are a bit sore, and I like it. That soreness tells me that my general fitness strategy is working.

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My P90X – One On One – Insanity hybrid

After completing Insanity about a month ago, I felt great and ready to go into a hybrid of that program and Tony Horton’s P90X. However, when I scoured the internet for such a program, they all looked pretty much alike and rather uninspired.

Plus, I knew I wanted to include some of Tony’s One-On-One routines in my hybrid.

So that’s what I’ve been doing for the past 4 weeks, creating my own hybrid. As it happens, I ended up with no P90X routines, so really it’s an Insanity / One-On-One hybrid, but it turned out nice.

It goes like this:

  • Day 1 – Steve’s 30/15 (based on One-On-One 30/15)
  • Day 2 – Plyometric Cardio Circuit + Cardio Abs from Insanity
  • Day 3 – Steve’s Shoulders & Legs (based on One-On-One Diamond Delts & Plyo Legs)
  • Day 4 – Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs from Insanity
  • Day 5 – Base & Back from One-On-One
  • Day 6 – Fountain of Youth Yoga from One-On-One
  • Day 7 – OFF
  • Day 8 – Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs from Insanity
  • Day 9 – Steve’s 30/15 (based on One-On-One 30/15)
  • Day 10 – Plyometric Cardio Circuit from Insanity
  • Day 11 – Steve’s Shoulders & Legs (based on One-On-One Diamond Delts & Plyo Legs)
  • Day 12 – Cardio Power & Resistance + Cardio Abs from Insanity
  • Day 13 – Patience/Hummingbird Yoga from One-On-One
  • Day 14 – OFF

Days 15-28: Repeat the above.

All in all, I am very happy with the program. I’m going to take a week off to recover, doing yoga and Core Cardio & Balance from Insanity, then I’ll do another 4 weeks of the above.

If you want to try it out, you’ll need some of the Insanity and One-On-One DVDs, and you can download my Excel worksheets (in PDF format) for the non-cardio / non-yoga days here: Worksheets For One-On-One-Insanity Hybrid (PDF).

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

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P90X: A Lifetime Commitment?

A friend of mine told me the other day that she was interested in Tony Horton’s P90X, but didn’t want to be stuck doing it for the rest of her life.

I laughed, because those are almost the exact words I said to my brother when he was trying to get me into P90X. I wanted to be in better shape, but I didn’t want to commit my life to it, ya know? I have other things to do besides spending all my time working out.

Having been through the program a couple times, and now nearing the end of Insanity, I was able to tell my friend in all sincerity, “You won’t be stuck doing it for the rest of your life. But you will be so impressed with the results, you will want to do it for the rest of your life.”

And that is a fact, or, at least, that’s how it worked for me.

P90X is a very well thought-out program. As I was going through it the first time, I noted that the exercises flowed well together, the routines were well-placed, the recovery days came at just the right time.

In addition to the exercises, though, along with P90X you get:

1. A Nutrition Guide. This is very important, because you truly are what you eat. Exercise is great for toning and building muscle and other parts of your body, like your brain and skeleton, but when it comes to losing fat, you will have a hard time doing that without watching what you eat.

This is not as restrictive as it seems. I went on a 50% protein, 30% carb, 20% fat diet the day I started P90X, and in order to consume all the calories I needed, I had to add protein shakes!

Here is a calorie calculator that is pretty cool, if you want to see how many calories you’ll need to consume: http://bit.ly/l41F21. Select “5 times/week (intense)” for exercise your level.

You’ll see this is no 1200-calorie/day diet. You need the extra calories to allow you to “bring it” during the workouts.

2. A life-after-P90X plan. This the part that really impressed me as I read it before I started the program. I knew I didn’t want to be Mr. Gym Rat. I wanted to get fit, then maintain what I had, not necessarily keep growing muscle and getting fitter.

The Life-After-P90X plan includes a workout schedule that is very much toned down, but still allows you to keep 80% of what you’ve gained from P90X. Should you do another iteration of the full program from time to time? Sure.

But here’s the key: You will want to.

My body was in so much better shape after just 4 weeks of P90X, I had no doubt that I would keep doing this, or something like this, for the rest of my life.

So, is P90X a lifetime commitment? It doesn’t have to be … but, if your experience is the same as mine, you’ll want it to be.

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How many reps should you do in P90X?

When I started Tony Horton’s P90X, one of the first decisions to make was whether to go for larger muscles or simply toned muscles. Tony would repeat over and over: 8-10 reps for mass or 12-15 reps for lean.

I have no desire to look like Tony Horton. He’s very muscular, has a bodybuilder’s body, and that’s just not me. But, hell, I could stand for my muscles to be a bit larger, so I decided to go the route most men take through P90X and shoot for 8 to 10 reps of each move.

To explain a bit more, the idea is to adjust the weight you use to work properly for the number of reps. That is, regardless of how many reps you do, the last two or three should be difficult. So if you’re shooting for 8-10 reps, you should be struggling on reps 7, 8, and 9. If you are not, you need to increase the weight.

Tony never gets into the lower rep side of things, probably because he is a bodybuilder, not a powerlifter, but you should know that HEAVY WEIGHT + LOW REPS = STRENGTH! You won’t necessarily get the muscle size, but your strength will increase dramatically with this approach.

Here, then, is a quick rundown on the whole number of reps concept. Tom Venuto includes this information in his article on his website.

  • If you are trying to improve strength, then most of your weight training will be in the 3 to 5 rep range. You may even do some 1 and 2 rep moves. This will make you stronger and faster without bulking you up.
  • Bodybuilders work on muscle mass, so most of your training will be in the 8 to 10 rep range. Doing some heavier weight training at lower reps makes sense, too, because you may not want to simply look strong.
  • To tone up, you should work in the 12-15 rep range. This is also useful for bodybuilders, to smooth things out.

I spend most of my time doing 8-10 reps. When doing body weight exercises, like pushups, I do as many as possible, so I have the high-rep end covered.

I have not, however, done anything in the lower rep range, and it seems to me I need to do that, so I’m going to try to work that into my workouts starting after this current recovery week.

Remember that fitness is not just finding one thing and doing that. That’s a good start, but fitness is really a lifelong commitment that involves reading and learning and implementing new techniques to stay as fit as possible.

So be sure to determine your fitness goals and then make an informed decision about how many reps to do based on those goals.