Ab ripper X - get all your reps!

The_Dude

Well for an inaugural post in the group I thought I'd share one of my favorite P90X tips that I'm sure I'm not the first to think of.

I doubt anyone not already doing P90X or in amazing shape can do all 339 reps in the 16 mins that they do in ab ripper X. When I first started and needed a break I took it. But I didn't pause the video I just did my best in that 16 minutes and maybe if I was lucky I got 100 reps or so and could of even missed whole moves.

The trick that accelerated my ab ripper performance significantly was to do all 339 reps EVERY TIME! I did this by pausing the video whenever I needed a break (which was a lot). The key here is time yourself and write down how long it takes you to do the full ab ripper routine with their default stretches. You will quickly see yourself making progress by knocking of a minute or two or more each week.

I started doing this around week 3 the first time I did P90X and I think my first time was around 40 minutes. However, a month later I was able to do the whole thing in 16 minutes. I did it in 16 minutes at my own pace, so I didn't wait for Tony the first 4 or 5 moves and then on some of my weak areas (pfifer scissors anyone?) I took a bit longer but we finished at the same time.

I've been doing core workouts off and on for the last month including ab ripper so when I started P90X yesterday I was able to do Ab ripper in 20 minutes. Can't wait to drop that time a bit!

tawnierose

I started doing this too. Takes longer.. but you feel so GREAT knowing you DID get 339 ab/core exercises done!

I've also heard take your shoes off.. at least initially.. it helps!

And for this first month I'm doing it BEFORE the main workout.. I run out of steam tacking it on the end.

Insanity2bSane

Thanks for the tip. Right now I am just doing what you did, taking my rest but not hitting the pause button. I will try it your way, only thing is that I have to do the ab ripper in the evening, otherwise if I do it in the morning and keep hitting the pause button I may never get to work, LOL!

fitQueenbeast

Thanks for the tips. I did Ab Ripper today for the first time and got a good dose of reality. lol I cannot do floor sit ups whatsoever. Now, mind you, I can do five full inverted sit ups from my inversion table, which are HIGHLY intense, but not on the floor. Go figure. I need to work more on those. Overall, I DID enjoy Ab Ripper and I especially enjoyed the shoulders and arms workout.

Erica

mets86champs

I do it a little different. I do what I can in the time that they do it in the video. I track my reps each time and the improvement is there.

On day 1 (3 weeks ago) I could do 43% of the reps. Yesterday (day 19) on the 9th Ab Ripper I did 82%

FitMommaD

i do what Mets86 does. but Ab Ripper was a MASSIVE wake up call to me! i am in good shape but OMG these workouts (the whole series) i thought were going to kill me the first few days. i'm on my second week and i'm getting used to them a bit more but love every second of them

The_Dude

I've got a lot to be excited about today! I hit two goals with P90X today. Completed 10 days of P90X workouts AND completed all 339 reps of the ab ripper x workout without hitting pause!!!

Now I did do half a dozen ab ripper workouts in the weeks leading up to my start of P90X. I started them to build core strength and they in turn motivated me to try the full P90X program. So this was number 10+ of doing all 339 reps of the workout in recent times though today is the first time I didn't hit pause.

I still have a lot of room to improve in ab ripper and I can't follow Tony's pace. As soon at the timer starts counting down I start my reps and I went straight through to fifer scissors without taking any breaks. Then for fifer scissors, wide leg things, and heals to the heaven I take some breaks as they are hard for me to do 25 a pop and Tony catches up. When he didn't catch up on fifer scissors today I turned on the FIRE and really started pushing. He caught up in the v up roll ups and I thought aww man I will have to pause at least once but I pushed hard and was able to do all the rest of the reps right with Tony and the gang.

So yeah I'm pretty damned pumped up right now even if the scale said I gained a pound over the past week.

wilder94us

Because i workout during my lunch hours I set a goal, track it and increase my reps each time I do abs ripper.

fallonrhea

I do all of the reps - plus some >.<

But it took awhile to get there!

See, when you're a P90X grad, it's GORGEOUS, bro :P

The_Dude

I do all of the reps - plus some >.<

Today was the first time I've done ab ripper since reading this post. You inspired me I continued to make tweaks here and there to improve form or make it harder (toe grabs without grabbing leg anyone?).

But as I was doing Mason Twists I thought of this post and busted out another 20 more for a total of 70. 359 reps today!!

The_Dude

Since fallonrhea's motivation and idea to do extra reps I've been trying to do a little more each ARX session. Not sure I will be able to do more than this morning without my form suffering so I'm going to try and maintain the level I did today.

Today's stats

In/outs - 27 reps - hands held above head
Forward bicycle - 27 reps - hands held above head
Reverse bicycle - 27 reps - hands held above head
Crunchy frog - 27 reps
Wide leg sit ups - 26 reps
fifer scissors - 26 reps - still have to take a mini break at 15 reps. So hard to do these when you can't get your leg even close to vertical
Wide leg things - 26 reps
heals to heaven - 26 reps
v up roll up - 28 reps - back all the way off the floor
oblique v ups - 32 reps each side - touch elbow to leg but still bending my knees just a tad (same as Tony in the video even though he says to keep em straight)
Leg climbers - 14 reps each side - zero grabs, leg next to but
Mason twists - 75 reps

If I did my math correctly that is 405 reps. EDIT looks like 407 reps