P90x advise....not doing it EVERY day

Sorry I don't have the answer but want to keep an eye on this as well..

YES! Just get rid of the Cardio from P90X and do your own. Plyometrics is awesome though....but Cardio X and Kenpo X are garbage. You barely work up a sweat in Cardio X

it really needs to be done as its set out..as its done so your body doesnt plateau

it really needs to be done as its set out..as its done so your body doesnt plateau

If she eats correctly she wont plateau for quite a long time if ever.
that is IF shes eating correctly.

While it is best to stick to the program, it is totally fine to pick and choose. Remember that doing something is always better than doing nothing. So if you want to do 3 days a week, do 3 days a week, if you want to do half a workout, do it. Even 10 minutes are better than skipping a full workout.

As for Kenpo not bringing a sweat, yeah at first it kicks your butt, but I have to agree after a while it becomes trivial. While sweat isn't an indicator of a cardio workout, the heart rate is. After several months Kenpo was not getting my heart rate above 120 and I wasn't happy with it. But I modified it. I held 2,2 lbs weight plates in my hands throughout the workout and it worked better. And what worked even better was putting on gloves and hitting a target. If you have someone to hold pads for you or you have a heavy bag then use it, hitting the target instead of thin air increases the intensity by a lot!

Yes!! I have a couple of friends who went running instead of doing the cardio, kenpo, and yoga DVDs. So basically they did the strength workouts, plyo, and running. They both lost a ton of weight and got really ripped up!

I am in my first week of P90X leans, and I am modifying it a little as well. I am doing ballet classes and running instead of cardio X and yoga X (on tuesdays and thursdays). For what it's worth, I already lost 2lbs this week.

There will probably be different opinions about this, but from what I've seen it can definitely be done. Good luck!

I agree with the overall concensus...do the strength parts and skip the cardio. It runs pretty much some form of strength one day, some form of cardio the next.

The way I look at exercise is this:

Rest is more important than actual exercising!

Why?

Because when you're resting is the only time you're actually repairing your muscles/getting stronger. Every time you work out, you're damaging all your muscles (including your heart), making little microscopic tears in it. By working out every single day, you're not giving your body adequate time to heal itself completely before you're damaging it again.

I've noticed this in the past, when I used to ride my bike frequently - when I wasn't able to ride for a few days, I was always faster the day after 2-3 days of rest than when I was riding every other day. I felt a heck of a lot better as well.

Now, I strength train twice a week. I don't do cardio-specific exercises because of poor joints and not having enough strength to hold them together. Don't bother making suggestions, I've already looked at all my currently available options. I can't change this until I get stronger or make more money.

Anyway, that's my opinion, it's what I do. I'm making HUGE progress every week, even though I only work each muscle group once a week. Take it or leave it. I'm not going to argue it.

I am doing P90x currently. I do the weight DVD's as the calendar says 3 days a week. The cardio days I either run, do Insanity or Turbo Fire. I didn't really find the cardio discs very satifying follwing Insanity. I have a pretty low heart rate so I needed something more challenging.

it really needs to be done as its set out..as its done so your body doesnt plateau

I don't agree with this. I usually do 2 P90X workouts a week, sometimes 3 if I do the yoga instead of my regular class, and I run 3 days per week. Like others said, I just do the strength workouts. You will see results. Any exercise is better than no exercise!

The way I look at exercise is this:

Rest is more important than actual exercising!

Why?

Because when you're resting is the only time you're actually repairing your muscles/getting stronger. Every time you work out, you're damaging all your muscles (including your heart), making little microscopic tears in it. By working out every single day, you're not giving your body adequate time to heal itself completely before you're damaging it again.

I've noticed this in the past, when I used to ride my bike frequently - when I wasn't able to ride for a few days, I was always faster the day after 2-3 days of rest than when I was riding every other day. I felt a heck of a lot better as well.

Now, I strength train twice a week. I don't do cardio-specific exercises because of poor joints and not having enough strength to hold them together. Don't bother making suggestions, I've already looked at all my currently available options. I can't change this until I get stronger or make more money.

Anyway, that's my opinion, it's what I do. I'm making HUGE progress every week, even though I only work each muscle group once a week. Take it or leave it. I'm not going to argue it.

You don't have to do anything "by the book" but that's the way all of the test groups and people who got the best results did it...I followed the classic version for 6 months and lost 30 lbs and dropped from 25% body fat to 9% cause I stuck with the plan. I think the cardio workouts are much more challenging than running, but if your a runner and that's why you want to do then substitute it or just add it if you have enough energy. The one thing I will say is do not skip the yoga - so many people including the bunch who said they have skipped it here don't like the yoga because it's hard and challenging and your not moving around a lot, and you have to calm your mind - pretty much the exact opposite of society today. But that is exactly why it is so important, everyone needs that balance in their life and if you spent that 90 mins on yoga (or get one of the other p90x yoga ones that are shorter so time isnt an excuse) your entire week will be better. Plus what I consider the most important thing with yoga is that it will absolutely prevent injury because your stretching out your entire body. And people don't realize that benefit until they get hurt, so if you want AVOID injuries and have a clamer mind and build balance and strength so you can perform better in everything DO THE YOGA! Otherwise if those things don't sound good to you then just skip it...

I did p90x one time straight through and one time as the OP mentioned, with running days mixed in. I also found that switching out some DVDs for other DVDs I owned was fun and helpful too. I'm a bit hyperactive so I lose my drive and motivation and attention span with repeating workouts. The second round of p90x was much harder for me. I think that as long as you're moving, you're splitting up leg / arm days (not doing a week with running, legs, running, legs, running, legs, etc.) then you should be golden. Keep active, work hard and just keep pushing play!

I did running instead of the cardio, and man, it completely ruined my life. LOL. j/k yeah, but, the secret service and IRS and CIA did pay me a visit and tell me to knock it off. LOL

I am on Week 8 of P90X lean. I don't like Kenpo X very much, but I have to say I sweat a lot. I did a round of P90X in 2010 and didn't. I think the difference is that I push myself now. I make sure my hips and feet are moving when they're supposed to - and my breaks are not really breaks.. I think that's when my heart rate really increases. Anyway.. I found aa awesome P90X/Insanity hybrid and I'm going to start after this recovery week is over. While the P90X cardio is fine with me, I'm ready to push myself more. This will be P90X weight days and Insanity Cardio Days. I'm scared!

To a novice in martial arts, punching and kicking air in Kenpo X could really be challenging, cause at first you have to coordinate your movement to get the punching sequence down, then figure out how to engage your hips and feet, but I've done boxing for 4 years and have gone through the combinations thousands of times before. I know for sure how to properly engage muscles and joints to throw a good punch. Trust me, I was working almost twice as fast as Tony in the videos, but my heart rate just would not climb, only during "breaks" when I was doing star jumps, I was reaching 140 bpm for few seconds, and as soon as I started punching and kicking HR would drop down to 120 and below.

My Kenpo X punching and kicking air
https://www.polarpersonaltrainer.com/shared/exercise.ftl?shareTag=e2b623d129d56bd07bceadf5bc1b78a7

My Kenpo X punching and kicking air with 2,2 lbs weights
https://www.polarpersonaltrainer.com/shared/exercise.ftl?shareTag=3c6294a4015a5599d38bc4b92226b48c

My Kenpo X punching and kicking pads
https://www.polarpersonaltrainer.com/shared/exercise.ftl?shareTag=76bef202b6c9bb1e92ceafa9cad72a18

As you can see the intensity is really high when I have to hit targets.

And as for your hybrid of P90X/Insanity, if you feel ready, then go for it! It's always great to see someone pushing their limits, just be safe and maintain good form!