A few questions about P90x

spaboleo

Hey guys,

I think P90x can help me as I am at a real training plateau with my gym workouts :sad:
But I have a few questions on beforehand:

1) I am not allowed to install a pullup-bar in my rented appartment, BUT there is a childrens playground around the corner...is it possible to maybe run to the playground for the pullup workout? Or are the pullup-exercises always in between the other ones?

2) As space is very limited in my students appartment...how much room do I really need to do all the exercises?

3) Is it possible to do this at a gym...there I would have more space to excercise? (Do you really need the DVDs...maybe use a transcript of the workouts?)

4) Do I need to workout everyday at the same time or can this vary (once in the morning, once in the evening)?

5) How much time will the workout really occupy?

6) Is the cardio part (on the regneration days) reglementated, too? Or is it possible to integrate my spinning and cycling rounds into P90x?

7) What are recommended weights for dumbells in an already trained physical state? (As I need to get mine from home first, I'll need to have to improvise )

8) Is the nutrition plan combinable with the MFP-dieting and does it leave enough freedom for own foods or is it strictly planned?

9) How much kcal do you regularly burn? (Just outof curiosity.)


It is a large amount of money...I want to be on the safe side
Thanks a lot!

Shua456

1) I am not allowed to install a pullup-bar in my rented appartment, BUT there is a childrens playground around the corner...is it possible to maybe run to the playground for the pullup workout? Or are the pullup-exercises always in between the other ones?

The pull-up routines are in between other activities. Running to the playground will not be a feasable solution because you'd be running out there 6-8 times during the workout.

2) As space is very limited in my students appartment...how much room do I really need to do all the exercises?

It doesn't take a lot of space. I set up a 10x10 area in my basement for working out and that was plenty of room.

3) Is it possible to do this at a gym...there I would have more space to excercise? (Do you really need the DVDs...maybe use a transcript of the workouts?)

No, you need to follow the dvd's. He switches things up too much for you to remember the routines

4) Do I need to workout everyday at the same time or can this vary (once in the morning, once in the evening)?

You can do it whenever you want, just so long as you do it every day.

5) How much time will the workout really occupy?

The workouts range in timeframes from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours - most of them are an hour but the yoga is 90 minutes (of torture)

6) Is the cardio part (on the regneration days) reglementated, too? Or is it possible to integrate my spinning and cycling rounds into P90x?

The cardio is an integral part of the routine and it's in between the strength building. You can do your spinning in addition to but not instead of.

7) What are recommended weights for dumbells in an already trained physical state? (As I need to get mine from home first, I'll need to have to improvise )

This is going to depend on what you can handle. He uses between 10 and 20 pounders, I didn't come anywhere close to that.

8) Is the nutrition plan combinable with the MFP-dieting and does it leave enough freedom for own foods or is it strictly planned?

You can follow mfp. His nutrition plan is really more of an outline

9) How much kcal do you regularly burn? (Just outof curiosity.)

Go to exercise here and log in 60 minutes of aerobics to see what mfp tells you that you'll burn. Everyone is going to burn more or less depending on where they're at right now. I think my average burn that mfp gave me was about 600 but higher on the kenpo days and way lower on the yoga days.

bakerp90x

1) I am not allowed to install a pullup-bar in my rented appartment, BUT there is a childrens playground around the corner...is it possible to maybe run to the playground for the pullup workout? Or are the pullup-exercises always in between the other ones?

A. I can't install a pull-up bar either, so I have a bungee that I put over the corner of the door and use that instead of pull ups. You could, theoretically, do the pull ups afterwards, but because you are normally switching from doing push ups and then doing push ups, it would be rather difficult.

2) As space is very limited in my students apartment...how much room do I really need to do all the exercises?

A.The dvd that I use the most room for is Plyo, and essentially you have to jump as far as you can. So, if you have enough room to have a full, long jump/leap, then you will have enough room for P90X.

3) Is it possible to do this at a gym...there I would have more space to excercise? (Do you really need the DVDs...maybe use a transcript of the workouts?)

A. I know several people who, after having done the DVDs several times, bring the workout sheets to the gym and do it there. I would recommend at least doing the first and second phase by watching the DVDs as you learn the program and perfect your form, but afterwords you could go to the gym.

4) Do I need to workout everyday at the same time or can this vary (once in the morning, once in the evening)?
A. I never work out at the same time every day. You can even do doubles where you do cardio in the morning and lifting in the evening (or vice versa)

5) How much time will the workout really occupy?
Lifting days are about an hour and 15 minutes (the lifting regiment is about an hour and the ab video is 16 minutes). Yoga day is 1hr 36 min. The only days that are an hour are the two cardio days, kenpo and plyo.

6) Is the cardio part (on the regneration days) reglementated, too? Or is it possible to integrate my spinning and cycling rounds into P90x?
A. You could def mix it up. It's structured in the program to follow their workouts, but feel free to swap in extra workouts to keep it interesting.

7) What are recommended weights for dumbells in an already trained physical state? (As I need to get mine from home first, I'll need to have to improvise wink)
A. Depends on what you are used to lifting. You need a weight that you use for shoulders, what you use for shoulder presses, arm curls, and a heavier weight for calf work.

8) Is the nutrition plan combinable with the MFP-dieting and does it leave enough freedom for own foods or is it strictly planned?
A. The nutrition plan wants you to eat a certain percent of cabs, fats, and proteins. It changes every phase. Everything is extremely clean and you aren't supposed to drink any caffeine or alcohol. I don't follow his eating plan, and instead follow MFPs and I've had good results. I just find that MFP is more mangeable and liveable. Not to say I don't think they have a good diet, but I prefer to count calories. You could prob change the MFP counters to whatever percent of carbs, fats, and proteins you are supposed to be eating and do it that way.

9) How much kcal do you regularly burn? (Just outof curiosity.)
A. I really need to get a HRM, so I don't have a good answer to this question. Supposedly, according to the eating plan, I think you burn 600 calories a workout - but, I don't think that's how much I personally burn, so I don't eat that much back.

Hope that helps. That's just what I've found doing the program (I'm still on my first round in phase 3), and there are quite a lot of very helpful fellow P90Xers on here.

Good luck!

bakerp90x

Oh, and the other reason that I don't follow his nutrition plan is b/c I felt like I needed to buy the shakes and bars to do it, and since I don't live in the U.S, I can't order it where I live. So that's another big reason why I decided to just follow MFP nutrition. I've heard awesome things about Shakeology, I've just never personally tried it.

spaboleo

Hey,

thanks a lot to you two!

Ok...maybe I could install a pull-up bar in between my only doorframe (it is a very tiny student appartment so I only have one).
But the frame is only a few inches (5cm) wider than my shoulders are wide.
Is it necessary to be able to do wide gripped pull-ups? And if yes, how often?
Chin-Ups will be possible to perform...anything else gets tricky :ohwell:


The weights for shoulder press and arm curls will depend on the number of reps.
If it is around 3 x 10 reps for each exercise I will be around weights like that:

Shoulder Press: Sitting freely without back-support: 17kg (~38lbs) - 20kg (~45lbs) each hand
With back-support to lean at even a little bit more...mostly around 25kg (55lbs) each hand

Arm Curls: very depending on the exercise. Normal biceps curls maybe at 15kg (~30lbs) each hand

As I am a cyclist my calves are pretty worked. Lifting aroung 105kg (~230lbs) at a standing calves gym machine (front support, weight applied to the shoulders)


Ok, these weights are the maximum with only 3 sets of 10 reps...
I think the workout will be harder, due to doing more reps, right?

Thanks a lot


edit:
10) Oh and what to do to stay in that trained body state?
Does the program give any further advices?


11) Is is possible to combine the P90x plan with my workouts at the gym? I'm not really trying to integrate my gym routine...just thinking about doing both.
I think P90x is good for training endurance strength, whereas my gym routine trains the max power...

AlyssaC2010

You could always use resistance bands instead of a pull up bar. One of the people demonstrating always does. That's just what I always use and I feel it works just as well. For the calories burned...maybe some people burn more but I have a HRM and I find I burn no more than 350 calories, even w/ the cardio workouts. So I always implement running and using the elliptical machine along w/ the program to burn extra calories. Some people continue doing rounds of P90X afterwards to keep their muscle tone or to build up more. I know P90X is coming out w/ P90X MC2 which is like a step up from P90X at the end of the year.

JustMichelleB

My husband uses a pull up bar that does not get installed (it can be taken down). Maybe someone else knows what I'm talking about.

I use a resistance band.

I sub the cardio exercises at times (for running usually).

You don't need that much room, enough to take 3-4 lunges forwards/backwards

You could probably do the strength workouts at the gym, if you can remember them, but i prefer oding them at home (which i why i like p90x, all at home).