P90X - Don't Do It
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Tried it, like everything else & failed because it is so insanely hard! I can see it being beneficial to someone who has plateaued or is taking their work out to the extreme but for the average Joe/Jane I agree with the OP... skip it!
Really, come on. I was the average Joe and I did it. You can do anything you put your mind to.
Cool--I have a "mind" to win the Tour de France next year. I'm going to look great in the maillot jaune.0 -
Cool--I have a "mind" to win the Tour de France next year. I'm going to look great in the maillot jaune.
Good luck with that! I hear the mountain stages are a killer but you should be able to handle it.0 -
I guess I should have defined what I mean by decent shape. Most people who would buy P90x want to have the fitness level of the people in those infomercials or perhaps some of the more fit celebrities. That's the kind of fitness level I'm talking about. If you want to be at that kind of level you have to train with a lot more intensity than most people are willing to do.
If you just want to lost a few inches and gain a bit of stamina then I agree with you, you don't need that type of intensity.0 -
Tried it, like everything else & failed because it is so insanely hard! I can see it being beneficial to someone who has plateaued or is taking their work out to the extreme but for the average Joe/Jane I agree with the OP... skip it!
Here is a list of average Joe's and Janes that didn't want to be average anymore. I didn't want to be average. The average 40 year old female has a 40 inch waist, divorced because her husband left her for a 20 year old, and gets winded while going up one flight of stairs. Average sucks.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/Sgorrie
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/june_warner
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tenaarnett
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/lewis2583
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/frankbo25
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/roylawrence870 -
I guess I should have defined what I mean by decent shape. Most people who would buy P90x want to have the fitness level of the people in those infomercials or perhaps some of the more fit celebrities. That's the kind of fitness level I'm talking about. If you want to be at that kind of level you have to train with a lot more intensity than most people are willing to do.
Not ripping on your post because I understand what you're getting at.
When I started I was 288 lbs, 34% bodyfat and wore a size 48 jean. I got winded, big time, just doing the warmups. I stuck with it and after my 2nd round I was 222 lbs, 8% bodyfat and a size 31.
I've seen people 350-400 lbs do this program. They aren't going to jump through the roof, like Dom, during plyo. They"modify" to their fitness level. Eventually they will get there.
This program is a marathon, not a sprint. People who WANT (I agree that it's not to everyones tastes) to do this program should ENJOY the journey....:flowerforyou:0 -
I guess I should have defined what I mean by decent shape. Most people who would buy P90x want to have the fitness level of the people in those infomercials or perhaps some of the more fit celebrities. That's the kind of fitness level I'm talking about. If you want to be at that kind of level you have to train with a lot more intensity than most people are willing to do.
Not ripping on your post because I understand what you're getting at.
When I started I was 288 lbs, 34% bodyfat and wore a size 48 jean. I got winded, big time, just doing the warmups. I stuck with it and after my 2nd round I was 222 lbs, 8% bodyfat and a size 31.
I've seen people 350-400 lbs do this program. They aren't going to jump through the roof, like Dom, during plyo. They"modify" to their fitness level. Eventually they will get there.
This program is a marathon, not a sprint. People who WANT (I agree that it's not to everyones tastes) to do this program should ENJOY the journey....:flowerforyou:
Your accomplishment is great and anyone who pursues their dreams should be respected.
My only quibble (and not with you personally, but just in general with some of the other comments) is with the idea that because someone decided to push their physical training to a higher or more athletic level, they are somehow superior to others who chose not to do so. I read a lot of comments about "if you have the will to succeed blah, blah, blah" implying that those who try something like P90x and give it up are somehow weak and undisciplined.
That's an ego trap that's easy to fall into. Being fit just means that's something you chose to spend your leisure time doing. And I like doing tough workouts and I like pushing myself. At my age, I get an infantile amount of pleasure and satisfaction to know I can work out harder than a lot of people 20 years younger and that I am older than most of my coworkers' parents. But I also have the perspective to know that, from a value, moral or ethical standpoint, it means precisely d**k.0 -
I hate doing this, but I'm busy. Tag for later.0
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I love it. I think it is a great set of DVDs to have as a complete workout routine or individually. I rely on them. They incorporate classic moves and a lot of variety. If you are trying to lose some weight (less than 40 pounds) this is great. It requires though a bit of athletic background, in my opinion. I am comfortable with it because of my lifestyle and physical history.
Too long? Too complicated? Too hard? No. No. No. Commit. Commit. Commit.0 -
I have to say that your approach to P90X is not the best at all and let me explain myself. Personally I believe that if you're a personal trainer and you can't even keep up with the program and can't find the motivation to finish the workouts, you should really change careers. In my experience with workouts and martial arts, hard work gives results unless you just want to go for a walk by the beach and enjoy the ocean breeze. Come on, seriously? If I was a potential client of yours, and I asked you that I want to get in shape in 90 days, do you really think that walking out 30 minutes a day while watching a comedy show on tv will really make me lose lots of body fat and gain muscle mass? I think that's why I hate personal trainers, because all they do is think about money while people spend thousands of dollars on them, and after months and even a year people can't get to see the results they wanted, and all because they don't want to push their clients hard enough so they don't quit and lose a client.
P90X IS an EXTREME workout. Is that a secret? No. P90X IS NOT for BEGINNERS. Is that a secret? No. P90X IS for people who WILL WORK HARD and DO THEIR BEST even if they don't finish the workout for the day. Is that enough to get amazing results when done along with the proper diet? Yes.
Personally, I think people should research about it before buying any fitness program, whether is P90X, or any other program. It would be wrong to go ahead and invest money in stuff you're not sure if is right for you, if it doesn't work or if you don't have at least the chance to return the product if you find out that you made a mistake. I don't know about any other programs but P90X gives you the option of returning the program if you don't want to keep it, you get free online support from an independent coach who will tell help you to succeed and people like you working out with you.
So to finish this, everyone here has the freedom of deciding what works for them or not, and what they should try, but coming to a website where people are actually looking for ways to get in shape and trash a fitness system that works for real, that's crap. If anyone ask me about P90X, I would tell them about my experience, ask them about their level of fitness and probably suggest them to get something less extreme to get their bodies ready for P90X, but I would never talk crap about any system that makes you work your *kitten* off instead of enjoying the sweet life and do nothing to lose weight.
Just my personal opinion.0 -
I have actually done P90X a few tiimes and I agree it is a tough workout to start out with however, I think you need to try multiple things to find what you love. If you think P90x or any workout out there is something you might like you need to try it! You will not know what is your "soulmate" workout until you do it!
If you order P90x through the company that distributes it they have a money back guarantee. Find the workout you love and do it! No one can tell you not to do something because they didn't like it. Just sayin.0 -
I didn't have the knowledge or back ground to design my own work out plan, nor did I have the time to research it.
Well...with 20+ years experience training athletes, powerlifters, bodybuilders and just good old fashioned "old men" just looking to improve their "alone time" with their wives & girlfriends, I DO and I can tell you after experimenting with every known training/nutrition program available this is THE BEST program I've run into. This wasn't my first "rodeo" with working out. I also have a college minor in nutrition.
If the person has the WILLPOWER/DISCIPLINE to put the effort in and follow the guidelines, it's idiot proof and you WILL get results! It isn't EASY but it is effective. I've personally tweaked the nutrition to my needs because I prefer more of a paleo lifestyle.
I ABSOLUTELY agree. My husband and I did the program and then moved on to working with a friend who's a college football weight training coach. We're now the strongest, leanest we've ever been. My knee injury is non existent. The trouble I used tohave with my shoulder is gone. We both started P90X with knowledge, but the drive wasn't there. Together we worked through the soreness and made it through. Id highly recommend it to anyone0 -
The fact that some untrained and unfit people claim to have experienced "success" with P90x does not really mean much.
Oh seriously! Azdak, some of your replies are just downright insulting. Just because the rest of us didn't ditch our office jobs & pick up a career in nutrition like you doesn't make us "untrained"! It doesn't take a "trained" person to see muscle development or the scale decreasing. Furthermore, "success" is subjective - there isn't a single, static definition. :grumble:
?????
Reading comprehension.
Ur doin' it wrong.
Social grace and spelling.
YOU'RE doing it wrong.
To put it more simply: you aren't the be-all, end-all of fitness and nutrition. People can recognize "success" in their own bodies without extensive fitness education. Not sure how much clearer I can make that!0 -
PROs:
It gives you a workout plan
It gives you a diet plan
It tells you to modify and quality vs quantity
Hit pause if you have to
Cons:
Its hard
It takes discipline and dedication.
The real question is how bad do you really want to be fit?:) Just press play and forget about it. Modify modify and modify:)0 -
So I went & read the OP's website. I think I have a better understanding of some of his concerns. One of his biggest concerns with p90x is that it is only for 90 days. So you finish the program & then what? (which is why I think his screen name has '52' in it...refers to all 52 weeks of the year). It is a valid concern. You do the program then on day 100, you're back to sitting on the couch eating chips. The problem is...I don't know of anyone who has actually completed p90x & then didn't know what to do next so they just stopped doing anything.
When I did my p90x round 1, I joined a check-in group on MFP. Of all the friends I made on that thread, we ALL went on to become almost 100% clean eaters (I just can't seem to give up Coffeemate!). Everyone went on to incorporate new challenges into their fitness routines...some have become runners, almost everyone is now into yoga, some are adding kettlebells, signing up for Warrior Dashes....etc. Everyone from that thread went on to do p90x again & almost everyone went on to do other programs like Insanity, Chalean Extreme, mixing the programs into hybrids....So day 90 wasn't the end point, it was the starting point of a whole new way to live...eating cleaner, finding new fitness challenges, becoming more active in general, finding great reward & feelings of accomplishments in discovering how strong your mind & body can be....p90x was the catalyst of all that for many people.
I seriously don't know of 1 person who has completed P90x & then went back to their old way of life. Now I know of at least 2 people who started p90x & only made it through a few weeks before quitting. Those people are both still doing what they were doing before...eating crap, working out a few times a week, doing the same-old same-old. Maybe the type of personality that is drawn to p90x & feels compelled to finish it is the type of personality that thrives on reaching goals, gets high off of the feeling of accomplishment, lives for challenging themselves, is amazed at the changes their body can make, loves to learn new things...and that's why when the 90 days of p90x ends the fitness journey doesn't end for them it actually just accelerates. This is just my own personal experience of what happens based on myself & a small little group of folks I met here on MFP doing p90x. Maybe that's not what happens with everybody??? (& I'm not saying if you have no desire to do p90x then you aren't goal-oriented, etc. I'm only talking about those that finish p90x. I realize p90x doesn't appeal to everyone. Heck, one ofmy most in shape friends doesn't even lift heavy weights. She does barre, kickbox, a little Tracy Anderson & runs)0 -
So I went & read the OP's website. I think I have a better understanding of some of his concerns. One of his biggest concerns with p90x is that it is only for 90 days. So you finish the program & then what? (which is why I think his screen name has '52' in it...refers to all 52 weeks of the year). It is a valid concern. You do the program then on day 100, you're back to sitting on the couch eating chips. The problem is...I don't know of anyone who has actually completed p90x & then didn't know what to do next so they just stopped doing anything.
When I did my p90x round 1, I joined a check-in group on MFP. Of all the friends I made on that thread, we ALL went on to become almost 100% clean eaters (I just can't seem to give up Coffeemate!). Everyone went on to incorporate new challenges into their fitness routines...some have become runners, almost everyone is now into yoga, some are adding kettlebells, signing up for Warrior Dashes....etc. Everyone from that thread went on to do p90x again & almost everyone went on to do other programs like Insanity, Chalean Extreme, mixing the programs into hybrids....So day 90 wasn't the end point, it was the starting point of a whole new way to live...eating cleaner, finding new fitness challenges, becoming more active in general, finding great reward & feelings of accomplishments in discovering how strong your mind & body can be....p90x was the catalyst of all that for many people.
I seriously don't know of 1 person who has completed P90x & then went back to their old way of life. Now I know of at least 2 people who started p90x & only made it through a few weeks before quitting. Those people are both still doing what they were doing before...eating crap, working out a few times a week, doing the same-old same-old. Maybe the type of personality that is drawn to p90x & feels compelled to finish it is the type of personality that thrives on reaching goals, gets high off of the feeling of accomplishment, lives for challenging themselves, is amazed at the changes their body can make, loves to learn new things...and that's why when the 90 days of p90x ends the fitness journey doesn't end for them it actually just accelerates. This is just my own personal experience of what happens based on myself & a small little group of folks I met here on MFP doing p90x. Maybe that's not what happens with everybody??? (& I'm not saying if you have no desire to do p90x then you aren't goal-oriented, etc. I'm only talking about those that finish p90x. I realize p90x doesn't appeal to everyone. Heck, one ofmy most in shape friends doesn't even lift heavy weights. She does barre, kickbox, a little Tracy Anderson & runs)
This is SO spot on. I completely agree with your second paragraph about moving on to other programs/hybrids, etc. If the OP's major concern is "what happens after 90 days", I think that most people either move on to another round, another program or integrate other programs in (Insanity) with P90X.
P90X, as it is comprised, will eventually become stale or too easy for some. After awhile I outgrew Kenpo & Cardio X so I got P90X+ and subbed it out with Kenpo/Cardio+ and Interval X+. After plyo became easy I purchased Insanity to continue to challenge myself. I'm constantly changing things up to keep it fresh & new. Besides, obviously, for profit, I believe this is why Beachbody is coming out with new dvd's. Just when you think you've mastered P90X, P90X:MC2 will be released.
Will I do P90X/Insanity hybrids ALL of my life? Very doubtful but I will keep major components (pushups, pullups, the ab dvd's and Insanity workouts for cardio) as building blocks for my fitness program. As I get in better shape I may WANT to go back to doing compound exercises (deadlifts, bent rows, squats, cleans, etc) but I will still include some of the pushup/pullup exercises.
P90X is designed, in 90 days, to get you in the best shape of your life. Where you go with it from there is up to you!0 -
PROs:
It gives you a workout plan
It gives you a diet plan
It tells you to modify and quality vs quantity
Hit pause if you have to
Cons:
Its hard
It takes discipline and dedication.
The real question is how bad do you really want to be fit?:) Just press play and forget about it. Modify modify and modify:)
In the movie White Christmas there is a disussion early in the movie about Angles. In other words what's the motivation. The OP has clear business interest in building a case against P90X, and the rest of team Beach Body in order to help sell HIS services as a trainer. That's fine. I used to be a Finacial Services Pimp. I get the need for self promotion.
However, Some of you P90X'er and other TBB Fans are being a little militant. This quote here: "How bad do you want to be fit?" Well Aperantly not bad enough that I'm going to spend $150 on DVD's. If I'm going to drop that kind of money I've getting a new driver, or upgrading the shifters on my Mt Bike.
Just because someone isn't doing P90X doesn't mean they're not dedicated. It doesn't mean they don't know how to "bring it"
It doesn't mean anything, really. There are 3 million ways to get in shape. However someone acheives their goals is fine, as long as it's healthy and it actually works.0 -
P90X works. Yes its hard, but why would anyone want to sell their self short of their FULL potential?!?!?!
My theory has always been go big or go home! :laugh:
I am on my second round of P90X and have had amazing results. I started to use the system 6 months ago as a "cross training" for my non-running days. Totally kicked my butt, but I am also in a size 4--from an 8/9, and that's after 2 kids.
I was in pretty good shape before starting the program, but still had trouble spots. P90X took care of those.0 -
I'm a little late to this discussion, but I'd like to add my opinion.
My wife and I are about to start our P90X journey. I did a lot of research on the different fitness programs before we got to this point. We both started out with low impact Wii Fit exercises and slowly progressed into higher and higher impact ones. Eventually this got stale, but we both knew we weren't ready for P90X. So I went ahead and bought Power 90 (the Tony Horton series before P90X). I would HIGHLY recommend that for anyone who is in that transition stage where they need a more challenging workout but physically they are not ready for P90X.
The nice part about Power 90 is that the workouts are 30 minutes and you can go at your own pace. Eventually for us, things became a little repetitive on the cardio so we moved to the fat burning workout. We ended up purchasing P90X because our Power 90 is coming to an end and we are both ready for the next step. We are still watching the videos to see what challenges are ahead for us. We saw that we need to get used to longer workouts, so we doubled the Power 90 fat burning workout. Now we are up to workout out 70 minutes every other day and burning 1000+ calories in that workout (we both have HRMs).
The nice part about this gradual increase in our workouts is that we are not intimidated by P90X. A good example is yesterday I did 5 decline pushups. I *NEVER* could do even one of those when I played Varsity Basketball and Soccer back in the day. I may not be quite ready in the upper body for P90X (I can do 10 pushups, not quite 15 yet), but I will do what I can and I know it will get better.
P90X is not for everybody, it does require a time committment. My wife is a stay-at-home mom, so she is able to get the workout done in the morning. I usually workout when the kids are going to bed. It is a little harder to go to sleep, but at the same time, I don't seem to need as much sleep as I used to. I still wake up after about 6 - 7 hrs of sleep refreshed.
Just wanted to give a counterpoint to the OP.0 -
Just because someone isn't doing P90X doesn't mean they're not dedicated. It doesn't mean they don't know how to "bring it"
It doesn't mean anything, really. There are 3 million ways to get in shape. However someone acheives their goals is fine, as long as it's healthy and it actually works.
I agree with this completely. I'm a 'p90x'er' but I stated this exact same thing in my post above. I hope I didn't make anyone feel like I was saying if you're not doing p90x then you're not dedicated, etc. I tried to make sure I made it clear that I, personally, was only talking about those who have finished p90x. I wasn't making any claim about those who have no interest in p90x or BB. As I mentioned, my best friend is 100% dedicated to fitness & she uses non-Beachbody things to achieve her goals.0 -
Just want to chime in and say that I think the OP is spot-on. I know there's a P90x fanbase and a lot of 'true believers' here, but he's right when he says it's not for everyone (most people). Most people need sustainable routines and lifestyle changes... if that's what P90x gives you, more power to you, but I agree that it could be demoralizing when simpler options are available.
Controlling your calories, lowering your fat %, building muscle and cardio are what people need. It's a gradual and lifelong process, not an *kitten*-kicking all-out workout. You can get the same results by practicing your elementary and middle school calisthenics combined with sensible eating (and if you want to be super-cut, just ramp it up!).
As for "muscle confusion:"
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Biggest-Muscle-Building-Fallacy-in-Bodybuilding&id=553415
The 'trick' to fitness is sticking with what you're doing and having a balanced workout. There is no silver-bullet. If that's what P90x does for you (gives you a plan and the motivation to keep to it) then I'd say it's worth every penny. But for those who haven't started doing it already / want to save $150, there's other ways to reach that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
. It's great if something works for you personally, but that doesn't mean it's going to work for the next person. 0
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