After one week down I'm really impressed. P90X is a really great program. Make no mistake, it's crazy intense, though. All six of last week's workouts left me completely spent and extremely sore for at least 36 hours. It's obviously well planned though, several times I noticed that the most sore parts of my body were the first ones stretched out in the next day's workout...I was grateful to say the least.
The diet portion of this program is going really well also. Lot's of protein, very little carbs. In my opinion the diet pales in comparison to the workouts though.
Here's the basic workout schedule for weeks 1-3.
- Monday - Core Synergistics - This is a whole lot more than a core workout in my opinion. It really works everything from the shoulders down to the quads with a good bit of flexibility and cardio work built in. I should really say that every single one of these workouts has been a cardio beat down for me with each one pushing me up to at least 180 bpm at least once. This one is about an hour long.
- Tuesday - Cardio X - As the name implies this one is a cardio fat burner. Honestly, my only complaint about this one is that it's not quite long enough. So far this is the shortest of the complete workouts clocking in at 47 minutes. It combines yoga, kenpo and plyometrics to get that heart rate up and keep it there for duration.
- Wednesday - Shoulders and Arms/Ab Ripper X - This is the first true weight training workout of the week targeting the shoulders through a bunch of butterfly type lifts along with the biceps and triceps. I used very little weight in week one as I just didn't know what to expect and wanted to at least try each exercise. This resulted in a pretty good shoulders and triceps workout but a waste of time for my biceps. I'm anxious to give this one another try. I'm not, however, anxious to repeat the Ab Ripper X routine. It's a killer for me. It's obvious that my abs need a lot of work, several of the exercises were simply too difficult for my weak body to handle more than a couple of reps. My abs are definitely a target area for improvement over the 90 days. 60 minutes for the Shoulders and Arms, 15 minutes for the Ab Ripper X.
- Thursday - Yoga X - Three words: I HATE YOGA. Ok, I'm mostly joking about this but this is by far the most difficult video for me to get though. I'm nowhere near flexible enough to even complete about half of the positions and it's just very difficult for me to 'calm the storm' in this one. All you manly naysayers out there need to know this though: Yoga Ain't No Joke. This is the longest workout as well at a full 90 minutes.
- Friday - Legs and Back/Ab Ripper X - This is a great hour-long workout. My legs were sore for two days after this one. Since we're doing the Lean version of P90X this is the second of only two true weight training workouts weekly and it's a beast. I feel like I largely chose the right starting weight for the majority of these exercises, but I'm anxious to get to this one again on Friday. Last Friday my pull up bar wasn't installed yet and so I missed virtually the entire back portion of the workout. I can't wait to be able to start ripping off the unassisted pull ups...hopefully I can get to that point by the end of the 90 days because I'm sure not there yet! The 15 minute Ab Ripper X is just an added 'bonus' for day 5...ouch.
- Saturday - Kenpo X - I really enjoyed this martial arts based workout. It was honestly a lot of fun and will really improve my balance, functional strength, and flexibility. It really stretched out my sore legs from the previous day. It's 60 minutes long but this one really flies by.
- Sunday - This was a much needed day of rest! I was almost ready to go again Monday morning!
The schedule will change to a 'recovery' week in week 4 (that 'recovery' week still looks pretty tough!) and then a completely new set of workouts starts in weeks 5 continuing through week 8.
Motivation is still high and we're seeing some minor weight drops. We're definitely seeing some performance improvements already though so that's fun to experience.
What are you doing to stay fit? Leave a comment and let us know!