P90x for the win?

lilawolf

Hey all. I 5'9 and I am down to 27.5 body fat percentage and 162lbs. My goal is to get down to 22-24%, so 6-10 more pounds of fat. Currently I aim to NET around my BMR of ~1550. I am set to sedentary because of my desk job, and log and eat back my exercise. I try to get 100g net carbs or less and over 100g of protein a day.

Here is my plan to finish getting lean and mean:
Eat when I'm hungry focusing on protein and limiting simple carbs (but not veggies or low glycemic fruit)
I will not be able to count calories because I will be in China eating unidentifieable food.
I will be in a fairly active new job (12 hours a day too!) so that will be a more calories burned

2 days a week: P90x
1-2 days a week: 30 day shred (thank you 20 minutes)
1-2 days a week: swimming or zumba or kickboxing or tae bo
1-2 days a week: Heavy lifting at the gym
1-2 days a week: Rest

Is this too much cardio to maintain and gain muscle? Should the P90x be classified as cardio, strength training, or a mix?

Your trolls are hillarious, but I would appreciate a little real advice mixed in with the sarcasm. Yes, I will go make a sandwich now ;-)

BOLO4Hagtha

P90X is supposed to be a comprehensive program. I find their cardio not to be as challenging as do many others. If you could do Ripped in 30, rather than 30DS, you will find that its like P90X but in 30mins. On the days I don't run I do the P90X strength training dvds. I did the whole program in the beginning of the year and lost a lot of inches, but because its time consuming I don't think I can do it 6days a week.


Sounds like you got a solid plan.

Determinednoob

My real advice is to lift weights like a man. Cardio optional. Srs.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/686963-large-collection-of-info-for-beginners

lilawolf

Hey Determined. Looks like a lot of great info! I will read it all when I get off of work. Lifting weights is a big part of my plan. Big weights, 8-10 reps to muscle failure. Love it and it makes me feel good. Those are the workouts that I would skip last.

Do you think that P90x would also increase muscle mass and endurance or do you believe that it would fall under the cardio category?

Thanks!

Determinednoob

Hey Determined. Looks like a lot of great info! I will read it all when I get off of work. Lifting weights is a big part of my plan. Big weights, 8-10 reps to muscle failure. Love it and it makes me feel good. Those are the workouts that I would skip last.

Do you think that P90x would also increase muscle mass and endurance or do you believe that it would fall under the cardio category?

Thanks!

Mass slightly for a noob maybe. After that endurance. And yeah i guess its cardio but why do such grueling workouts just to help with calorie deficit? I just did basic treadmil. One could also just eat less food.

lilawolf

I wanted to do videos because I will be working 12 hour days. I can do the video for 20-40 minutes in my apt, instead of spending more time to get to the gym. Eating less food is hard, because, as I said in the beginning, I will be eating chinese food for 1-2 meals a day prepped in ways I am unfamiliar with. No way to count calories. Even packaged foods that I get will probably not have calorie counts on them. I also prefer cardio mixed with strength instead of just straight up cardio. I don't have a lot of fat left to lose, and I want to gain muscle.

DavPul

bumping because Noob is right. Starting duplicate threads is detrimental to the forums.

My personal take is that if you have P90x, why don't you just follow the P90x protocols? I design my own workouts, so P90x isn't for me, but I've looked at the plans closely and it seems like it would get you to where you want to go pretty easily and without any guesswork at all. IIRC some of the workouts are cardio days, so there's no reason to mix it with 30DS or anything else.

Is there a particular reason you don't want to just follow P90x, like you're bored with it or something? Seems the cardio stuff would work in your apartment the same as 30DS would

birdieaz

I did 90x and lost about 15lbs, it seems like overkill adding other things in addition to it.

Rayman79

I was in a situation where I was between gyms for a few weeks (and travelling a bit) so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try out P90x, and I also did some insanity sessions.

P90X is a strange beast in my opinion, it focuses on maintaining a high (ish) level of intensity throughout the workout, and often uses a REALLY high number of reps. On the back days you will end up doing over 100 pull-ups, and a similar number of pushups in the chest workout.

It certainly has proven to be very successful foa a whole lot of people, and I found it very challenging so I'm not going to knock it, but it feels to me like trying to do both muscle building and cardio, and doing ok but not excelling at either.

Insanity on the other hand, is an amazing high intensity cardio program. I have a reasonable level of fitness and could keep up on most of the sessions, but my heart was through the roof! I'm talking a max of close to 200bpm during one routine!

Perhaps the biggest message out of this is that I am back at the gym, lifting really heavy stuff, and 1-2 times a week I'm getting in some intense cardio. I think I'd rather do one (or both) things to my maximum potential rather than trying to have 'a buck each way'. That's just my thought anyway.

lilawolf

Hey guys. Sorry for the breach in protocol. I made a new thread because I thought that the name for this one was a bit misleading since it certainly isnt all about P90x. Here is the link to the other thread if you are interested: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/753484-gain-muscle-lose-a-little-fat

The reasons I planned to put in other workouts like 30DS, were because a) I didn't want to get bored, and b) I wanted shorter easier workouts interspersed in case I wasn't feeling the long and grueling P90x after my 12 hour work day. Speaking of pullups, it looks like I *have* to have a pullup bar and resistance bands to do this workout. Is that true? I better go shopping before I leave!

I think this might be a better plan
2-3 days heavy lifting
2 days P90x
1-2 days swimming or whatever video catches my fancy

Determinednoob

Hey guys. Sorry for the breach in protocol. I made a new thread because I thought that the name for this one was a bit misleading since it certainly isnt all about P90x. Here is the link to the other thread if you are interested: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/753484-gain-muscle-lose-a-little-fat

The reasons I planned to put in other workouts like 30DS, were because a) I didn't want to get bored, and b) I wanted shorter easier workouts interspersed in case I wasn't feeling the long and grueling P90x after my 12 hour work day. Speaking of pullups, it looks like I *have* to have a pullup bar and resistance bands to do this workout. Is that true? I better go shopping before I leave!

I think this might be a better plan
2-3 days heavy lifting
2 days P90x
1-2 days swimming or whatever video catches my fancy

I would
3 days heavy lifting
2-3 days moderate cardio
7 days proper eating

Did I say "would" when I should have said "did?"