Before Starting P90X

Welcome to P90X – Phase 1. Here you’ll find an honest review about all 28 days of phase one and what you can expect to get from this program. Does P90X work? Is P90X worth it or is it just a scam? I'm not a "coach" that signs up on the Beach Body program to sell P90X DVDs and products so I don't have some hidden agenda. If something worked for me - I'll let you know. If I felt like something wasn't right - I'll tell you that too.

On April 4^th, 2009 I completed P90X for the first time and almost all of what you’ll find here comes from my personal experience, but I’ve also included some good stuff from many other P90Xers out there. So thanks for stopping by, please be sure to leave a comment to let me know what you think.

WHAT IS P90X?

P90X is an extreme home fitness exercise program produced by Beachbody and hosted by fitness expert, Tony Horton. P90X is comprised of 12 different workout routines, a three phase eating and nutrition plan, and a supplement system. Beachbody's marketing angle on P90X is based on a concept called ‘Muscle Confusion’ which basically means that by continually changing the workouts that you’re doing, your body won’t ever have a chance to ‘plateau’ – and avoiding plateaus is what allows people to get the extreme results that you see on the infomercial.

DOES P90X WORK?

Without question! P90X absolutely works and if you follow the program you will find yourself in the best shape of your life! But, I personally believe that getting into shape has more to do with basic math than muscle confusion and the formula is really very basic: burn more calories than you take in and you'll lose weight. However, that’s obviously easier said than done and one of the greatest benefits of P90X (that I don’t hear anybody talking about) is the road map that it gives you. Many people simply don’t know how to exercise, or only do one or two to exercises and eventually get bored and just quit. P90X removes the confusion for lots of us by giving us an easy to follow A – B – C guide for getting in shape, and because there are 12 different workout routines, it’s anything but boring!

BEFORE STARTING P90X – HOW TO BRING IT

Before you start P90X you should watch the How to Bring It DVD that comes with your DVD set. It is only 13:09 long and begins with Tony Horton talking about the muscle confusion concept and the three different versions of P90X that you can do:

1. P90X Classic Version. This is the standard and most common version of P90X; it’s the routine Tony himself follows. One workout a day - about an hour a day time commitment.

2. P90X Doubles Version. This is extra extreme – similar to what a college or professional athlete might do to get ready for an event. Doubles is done by following the Classic version and adding an extra cardio workout in the morning or evening. It’s a big time commitment (up to two hours per day), but it is the best and fastest way to get results.

3. P90X Lean Version. Lean does not mean easy. The lean version is more cardio routines and less upper body resistance workouts – many women prefer this version because they don’t want to “bulk up.”

After explaining the different versions of P90X that you can do on the How to Bring It DVD, Carrie Wiatt, the nutrition and diet expert who designed the P90X nutrition plan, talks a little about the importance of a good diet while doing P90X. It’s important to make the right food choices and if you choose to follow the P90X nutrition guide, Phase 1 is the ‘clean up’ section that will help you eliminate all the crap in your diet and get into a mindset of new and better eating habits.

Following Carrie on the How to Bring It DVD is Mark Sisson, the fitness and sports nutrition expert hired by Beach Body to put together the supplements they say you’ll need in order to see the best possible results. The P90X supplement package includes a the Peak Performance private labeled multi-vitamin, recovery drink, and nutrition bar. Yeah, yeah - whatever! This is nothing more than Beachbody's way of making a few exta bucks off of you by peddeling their expensive version of the same stuff that you can get at your local health food store. Don't get me wrong - I believe in taking the supplements, I just don't think it matters where those supplements come from. Save yourself a few bucks and keep your money in your own neighborhood by picking up this stuff at your local store.

Finally, the How to Bring It DVD wraps up by telling you what equipment is needed to complete P90X. The equipment list is comprised of the following:

1. Pull up bar

2. Resistance bands and/or dumbbells

3. Workout or yoga mat

4. Yoga blocks

5. Heart rate monitor

Don’t let anybody fool you - P90X can be done with a set of resistance bands and nothing else. You probably won’t see the extreme results like you see on the infomercial, but I guarantee that you’ll still get into incredible shape with just the bands. In P90X you do a lot of pull ups and if you’re going to use the bands to do ‘pull downs’ instead, keep in mind that you’ll need to hook your band to some type of an attachment that will support the weight of you pulling down on it.

For me, the ideal P90X set up includes a pull up bar (I love the Iron Gym pull up bar. You can get it for $30 at any Target, WalMart or Walgreens and it works beautifully!), a set of dumbbells and yoga blocks (because I’m not very flexible). I personally don’t see the need for a yoga mat and even though I have and use a heart rate monitor, it’s really not that necessary.

** Side note - I started P90X using the bands and finished up with the dumbbells. If you are looking to gain muscle mass and bulk up your arms, then dumbbells are the only way to go. I got a set of 5 lbs - 45 lbs and they worked great. Also, don't feel like you need to buy then new - you can save about 50% off the retail price if you keep your eyes on Craig's List or your local online classifides website. **

As Tony says, “P90X is for everyone – but not everyone is ready for P90X!” You don’t need to be in great shape to do P90X, but you should at least be able to get off the couch and manually change the TV station if the double As in your remote run out. The P90X fit test is the ‘minimum’ fitness level that you should be at before starting the program. What is the P90X fit test? I’m glad you asked – it takes about 40 minutes to complete and, in addition to seeing if you are physically ready to start P90X, it also gives you a benchmark that you’ll use to judge yourself against after you complete P90X. The P90X fit test is:

1. Max pull ups. Men should be able to do 3 minimum, women 1

2. Vertical leap. Men should be able to jump 5 inches, women 3

3. Push ups. Men should be able to do 15, women 3 (or 15, ladies, if you are doing them from your knees)

4. Toe Touch (flexibility). Men and women should be able to reach within six inches of your toes.

5. Wall Squat. Get in a sitting position with your back against a wall and hold it for at least one minute. Don’t use your hands to stay up. You can gradually start to go lower, but once your butt hits the floor – you’re done.

6. Bicep Curls. Men, at least 10 reps with a 20 pound weight. Ladies, 10 reps with an 8 pound weight.

7. In & Outs. Sitting on the floor, pull your feet off the floor and your knees up into your chest, then kick your feet straight out – repeat. Minimum is 25 reps.

8. Jumping Jacks. 2 minutes straight at a quick pace. Your last 30 seconds should be done as fast as you can. If you are still standing and breathing at the end of the two minutes then congratulations – you are ready for P90X!

Finally, it's time for the hard part! The 'before' pictures. There's something very painful about the brutal honesty of seeing yourself in all your out of shape glory. But stop worrying abuot it and just strip down to your skivvies and take the bloody pictures – 6 total.

1. Front shot, hands on hips

2. Front shot, flexing biceps

3. Side shot with hands down

4. Side shot, twisting towards camera

5. Back shot, hands on hips

6. Back shot, flexing biceps

Here, a kind P90Xer demonstrates the 6 different poses that you'll need:

As much as I HATED taking my before shots, I loved comparing them to my after shots. It’s a great feeling to be able to see how far you’ve come in 90 short days. So stop worrying about the photos – you’re out of shape and they will not be very flattering, but that’s why you’re here isn’t it?

P90X is a 90 day commitment so decide right now that you are going to finish the program. Don’t worry about anything else, just “do your best, and forget the rest!”

P90X Phase 1 Workout Schedule

P90X Phase 1 Workout Schedule is comprised of eight different P90X workout routines. Each of the first seven days introduces a new workout; the eighth routine doesn't show up until Day 23 - the second day of your recovery week.

Week 2 and week 3 repeat the first week. The fourth and final week of phase one is a 'recovery week.' Here's how the phase one schedule breaks down:

P90X Phase 1, Week 1:
Day 1: Chest & Back with Ab Ripper X
Day 2: Plyometrics
Day 3: Shoulders & Arms with Ab Ripper X
Day 4: Yoga X
Day 5: Legs & Back with Ab Ripper X
Day 6: Kenpo X
Day 7: Rest or X Stretch

P90X Phase 1, Week 2:
Day 8: Chest & Back with Ab Ripper X
Day 9: Plyometrics
Day 10: Shoulders & Arms with Ab Ripper X
Day 11: Yoga X
Day 12: Legs & Back with Ab Ripper X
Day 13: Kenpo X
Day 14: Rest or X Stretch

P90X Phase 1, Week 3:
Day 15: Chest & Back with Ab Ripper X
Day 16: Plyometrics
Day 17: Shoulders & Arms with Ab Ripper X
Day 18: Yoga X
Day 19: Legs & Back with Ab Ripper X
Day 20: Kenpo X
Day 21: Rest or X Stretch

P90X Phase 1, Week 4 - Recovery Week:
Day 22: Yoga X
Day 23: Core Synergistics
Day 24: Kenpo X
Day 25: X Stretch
Day 26: Core Synergistics
Day 27: Yoga X
Day 28: Rest or X Stretch

Ab Ripper X Workout Routine

Ab Ripper X

Tony Horton’s thoughts on Ab Ripper X:
“What’s really, really amazing about Ab Riper X is it gives people an opportunity to get the best, most ripped abdominal area they’ve ever had in their lives. We’re doing over 300 moves here. But the only way that you’re going to get the results, and the sculpted abs that you want – is you’ve got to bring it! Ab Ripper X – I hate it, but I love it!”

Tony’s ‘Tip of the Day’ for Ab Ripper X:
“Don’t do this every day. You don’t’ need it. You don’t work other parts of your body every day, you shouldn’t work abs every day – especially Ab Ripper X!”


Equipment Needed:
· Mat
· Water and Towel


P90X’ers on Ab Ripper X:
· Tony Horton
· Adam – Dancer, personal trainer. Makes Tony ‘look like a fat guy.’
· Jason T. – P90X graduate
· Audra S. – P90X graduate

Ab Ripper X - 11 moves, 25 reps each. – About 16 minutes
1. In & Outs – Pull your knees into your chest and extend them out. Hands on or off the floor.
2. Bicycles – With hands on or off the floor, move your feet forward in big circles as if you were riding a bike. 25 reps forward, 25 reps backwards
3. Chrunchy Frog – Just like In & Outs but your hands are off the floor and they wrap around your knees each time you bring your knees to your chest.
4. Cross Leg or Wide Leg Sit Ups (Wide legs is easier) – With on hand behind your head, reach up and over to your toes as you do your sit up. Switch hands after each sit up.
5. Fifer Scissors – Put your left leg out, about an inch off the floor and raise your right leg up as high as you can get it. Hold that for about 2-3 seconds and then switch legs.
6. Hip Rock & Raise – With the bottoms of your feet together, and your hands on the ground beside you, pull your knees into your chest. When your knees hit your chest, lift your butt up off the floor and kick your feet straight up into the air. The bottoms of your feet stay together the whole time.
7. Pulse Ups (Heels to Heaven) – With your back on the floor, straighten your legs as much as you can at a 90 degree angle and lift your butt off the floor like you are trying to touch the ceiling with the bottoms of your feet.
8. C-Up / Roll Up Combos – With your legs flat on the ground, do a sit up and touch your toes with your outstretched hands (that part counts as one move). As you are bringing your back, back to the ground, raise your feet up in the air at about a 45 degree angle and then do a crunch-type move as you touch your toes with your fingers (that counts as a move also).
9. Oblique V-Ups – Lying on your right side, with your feet out at about a 30 degree angle and your right hand on the ground at your side and your left hand behind your head, lift your legs and shoulder off the ground so that your hip/butt is the only thing touching the ground. Try to make contact with your elbow and knee. Once you get started, don’t let your legs and shoulder touch the ground. After 25 reps on your right side, switch to your left side and repeat.
10. Leg Climbs – Raise right leg into the air at 45 degrees. Left leg is flat on the ground (the closer your left leg is to your butt, the harder the move is, so adjust according to the level that you are at). Once in position, “climb” your leg and touch your toe. You can either go straight up and touch your toe (difficult) or grab your raised leg and pull yourself up (the more grabs, the easier it is). Do 12 reps per leg.
11. Mason Twist. Sitting on your butt with your knees bent and your feet on the floor, bring your hands together and interlock your fingers to make a fist. Lift your legs off the floor and move your fist to your left side, then your right side touching the floor with your fist each time. Do 50 reps.

Ab Ripper X Cool Down – About 1 minute
· Upward dog or Cobra stretch.
· Child’s Pose

P90X Chest & Back Workout Routine

In Phase 1 of P90X you'll do the Chest & Back with Ab Ripper X workout on days 1, 8, and 15. Total workout time, including Ab Ripper X: 1:12:58.

Tony Horton’s thoughts on Chest and Back:
“Chest and Back is push and pull to the extreme. What’s nice about it is the variation of hand grips, distance, push-up bars. If you can eliminate that mindset that ‘I can’t. I can’t do pull ups.’ Forget I can’t – say ‘I presently struggle with’ and if you keep that mindset then over the course of time, someone who’s dream was to do two or three could turn it into twenty and more! Some folks are gonna have to dig down and see what they’re made of for the second round of this thing. But in the end they’re gonna discover that this is a world class upper body workout – guaranteed!”

Equipment needed:
· Weights or Bands
· Push up bars
· Pull up bar or bands
· Chair
· Fitness guide and pen
· Water and towel

P90X’ers on the DVD:
· Tony Horton
· Moraine – Modified moves. P90X graduate. “She’s bad. She’s bad ass!”
· Scott Fifer – On the bands. P90X graduate. Wrote the copy for P90X website
· Bobby Stevenson – Advanced moves. Tony’s buddy. Also on the Power Half Hour DVD
· Martin – One of the cameramen!

Warm-ups – About 9 minutes
· Knees up
· Run in place
· Jumping jacks
· Run lunges
· Shakers
· Head rolls
· Chest stretch
· Toppa stretch
· Side stretch
· Arm circles
· Ballistic stretches: Shakers/Huggers
· Back/Front strokes
· Reachers
· Shoulder – Tricep combo stretch
· ‘Chicken wing’ stretch

Chest & Back Workout – 12 sets, repeated – About 40 minutes
1. Standard width pushups – Maximum number of reps
2. Wide front pull ups (hands shoulder width apart) - Maximum number of reps
3. Military pushups (hands directly underneath your shoulders) – Max reps
4. Reverse grip chin-ups – Max reps
*** 45 second water break!
5. Wide fly pushups (hands out past shoulders) – Max reps
6. Close grip overhand pull ups (about six inches in between your hands) – Max reps
7. Decline pushups (feet on a chair, hands on ground at regular width) – Max reps
8. Heavy pants (in a lunge position with a flat back, pull up weights or bands like you would pull up your pants) – If you are going for larger muscles, pick a weight that will let you do 8 – 10 reps. For tone, defined muscles do 12 – 15 reps.
*** 45 second water break!
9. Diamond pushups (With wide feet, your pointer fingers and thumbs come together to make a diamond shape. Hands are underneath your head. Pushup should be low – chest should make contact with your hands) – Max reps
10. Lawnmowers (from a lunge position, left arm rests on left leg while you pull up your weight or band. When finished with the left side switch and do the right side). 8 -10 reps for size, 12 – 15 reps for definition.
11. Dive bomber pushups (wide hands and feet with your butt in the air, dip down as if you are sliding ‘under a fence.’ Come back up in the same ‘under the fence’ motion.) – Max reps
12. Back flys (sitting on the edge of a chair, with weights behind your ankles, pull the weight up in a fly motion. Be sure to lift with your back and not shoulders (collapse your shoulder blades together)). 8 -10 reps for size, 12 – 15 reps for definition.
*** End of round one - 60 second break!
*** Repeat!

Cool down – About 4 minutes
· Shakers
· Huggers
· Front / Back stroke
· Side stretches
· Wide feet, touch the ground with hands
· Cat stretch (spinal stretch)
· Child’s pose

Immediately following Chest & Back is Ab Ripper X. Click HERE for the Ab Ripper X workout routine.

P90X - 1 day down, 89 more to go

Day 1: Chest and Back and Ab Ripper X is officially in the books and I’m officially feeling it. The workout was something like 56 minutes long (plus 15 minutes of Ab Ripper X) and I’ll admit it, I was nervous to get started. But I popped in the DVD and there was no turning back. In my mind I was thinking “ Okay, 10 minutes of warm ups then 10 minutes of cool downs will only leave about 30 minutes of actual workout time, how bad can this really be?”

Holy crap, I was feeling the burn and starting to sweat during the bloody warm ups. Once they actually starting working out I was totally hosed. No chance in hell that I was going to keep up with the guys (or gal) on the DVD so I just cranked out as many pull ups, push ups and curls as I could and called it good.

I’m not sure if it was good enough, but it’s all I had. Later, as I was getting ready to go to work, I could hardly lift my arms to shampoo my hair, brush my teeth or shave!

Once the Chest and Back workout ended, I was completely spent but Ripper X started almost immediately after……forget about it. That is a ridiculously insane workout if your fresh, but I was already so spent that I could barely do anything. If the Chest and Back routine wore me out, Ab Ripper X made me want to puke and I hardly even did any of the routines.

I’m tired and sore (I’m sure I’ll be much more sore in the morning) but it’s a good tired and sore! Tomorrow is Plyometrics (what in the hell are Plyometrics?) and I can’t wait!

P90X day two is in the bag

P90X Day 2: Plyometrics. Phew, I’m glad that one is over – for this week anyway. On the DVD, Tony defines Plyometrics as “jump exercises” but plyometrics actually comes from the Latin words Plyo and Metric which, when put together literally translates into “workout from hell.”

This is the type of workout that I expected to get from P90X. High energy, high movement, high heart rate and lots of sweat. This type of workout comes more naturally to me and I’ve never been a big weight lifter so I actually kept up in today’s workout much better than I did in yesterday’s.

With all of the ups and downs and jumping around, I’m guessing that my sleeping family didn’t really appreciate this workout. I liked it though and I’m feeling pretty good right now, but I’m expecting to be very stiff and sore for tomorrow’s workout: Shoulders & Arms with a little Ab Ripper X.

P90X Day 3: Shoulders and Arms

This is getting ridiculous. The soreness is getting worse with each glorious new day. Even my knuckles hurt! Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but dang I’m sore.

Today was Shoulders and Arms. If you’d like to try this workout at home, but you don’t have the DVD, let me help you out: just go and do some curls until your arms feel like they are on fire, then do them for another 45 minutes. Oh, and when you’re done with that, top the workout off with a little Ab Ripper X (Mandy, you don’t think Ab Ripper X is bad? You are freaking Iron Woman!).

I was initially thinking that tomorrow’s workout, Yoga, would be somewhat of a break, but after three days of P90X I’m sure that Tony has figured out a way to make you want to beg for mercy 10 minutes into the routine.

Day 4: Yoga X

I’ve never done yoga so I wasn’t really sure what to expect from today’s routine. I’ve always pictured someone sitting on a mat, legs crossed and chanting ooohhhhmmmmm, ooohhhmmmm. Wrong!

Three things were quickly apparent about Yoga X:

1) It was a workout! None of the other workouts had me sweating so much and so fast. I’ve broken a sweat in each workout, but this was crazy. I had to keep a towel by me for the first 45 minutes (the last half wasn’t that bad).

2) This DVD was 90 minutes (30 minutes longer than anything else so far) I’ll need to plan accordingly next time I do this DVD.

3) I’m not flexible AT ALL! With the other workouts I can totally see how I’ll eventually be able to keep up with the trainers, but I’m just not seeing it with this one. I’ll have to accept that I’m not very limber.

Overall, this is a great workout, even though if anyone were to watch me do it they would be crying with laughter at my ridiculous attempts at 98% of the poses. Yoga X was the perfect answer for the stiffness that I talked about yesterday. My arms are still pretty sore, but overall, I’m feeling a lot better.

I’m really enjoying P90X and find myself looking forward to my 5:30 AM alarm each morning; however, tomorrow is Legs and Back and I’m really not looking forward to the pull ups that almost certainly await me.

Read other P90X posts HERE.

Legs and Back – P90X Day 5

I hate wall squats.

Not as many pull ups today as I was expecting, just four different sets. Today was mainly a lot of lunges and squats so I’m sure that my legs will be aching tomorrow. It’s only day five so I can’t really see any results yet, but I can feel them coming on. Makes me excited!

Ab Ripper X ended today’s workout. It’s still brutal but it gets slightly easier each time I do it.

A couple of side notes. I’ve been using bands instead of weights and I think that’s a mistake. I’m sure it’s fine, but I just don’t think that I’ll get the size I’m looking for out of bands. Also, for some reason I got the feeling that one of the girls on today’s DVD has got a thing for Tony (the girl with the Union Jack on her sports bra for those of you that have seen this DVD). It wasn’t one specific thing, just my 2 cents, but it was cracking me up.
Tomorrow is Kenpo X. Should be a fun one.

Read other P90X posts HERE.

P90X Day 6: Kenpo X

Week one is done and is has been VERY satisfying to have finished this first week of P90X! The next few weeks repeat the week that I just finished so I’m not going to do daily blog updates. Maybe weekly updates or maybe I’ll say something when a new workout is introduced, we’ll see.

The final workout of the week was Kenpo X, which was pretty much 45 minutes of kicking and punching. This is a total cardio workout and according to my heart rate monitor I ended up burning 953 calories. That seems to be about what I’m burning with each workout, but I’m somewhat disappointed that, as of last night, I haven’t lost any weight. Not sure why since I’m eating good and burning tons of calories? I’m weighing in each night before I hop into bed, so maybe tonight I’ll be down a little bit. I'm not too worried though because I really do feel great.

Day 7 of P90X is either a rest day or you can do a stretch workout to take care of your aching muscles. Right now I’m feeling really good, but my soreness usually comes the day after I workout so unless I’m achy tomorrow, I’m planning on just resting and starting over on Monday.

Read other P90X posts HERE.