P90X Questions Please someone answer them

My husband is pretty muscular and I think he only had 35s as the highest dumbbells he needed to do this at home.

P90x is great. If you are doing the workouts right - really pushing yourself, you don't need anything else. If you look at the FAQs, they say pretty much just that. If you have energy left at the end to run, you should have lifted harder! After doing plyo, that last thing I wanted to do was run!

They tell you EXACTLY what to do and on what day. Day one 1 one workout, Day 2 is another, day 3 is another, etc., each week is the same for three or four weeks. Then you do something different for a week before phase 2 starts and they prescribe exactly what you do the same way for the same three or four weeks, rest phase for one week...then begins the last phase. You do some of the same DVDs throughout, but you will not get bored. They are GREAT workouts and I have to admit, I adore Tony Horton now. At first I thought he was a geek, but you can't help but love him after a week or so. He's got a fun personality. You'll see what i mean.

Oh, they also have three different "prescriptions" for whatever your end goal is. If you're just doing it to do it, there's the standard version which will kick your butt. If you want to do a fat burning version there is a different plan for you to follow that gives you more cardio. If you're looking for extreme results, there is a prescription for that as well.

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it when I did it. for me, it was more of a pain to move the furniture out of my small living room every day to make room to do it. You will DEFINITELY see changes.

The diet has recipes that are good. It will tell you exactly what to eat, but if that is too much for you, you can choose to do it in a different way. They give you a little grid (eat "x" servings of this food group, eat "y" servings of this food group, don't eat a, b or c., yada yada.

does that help?

Buy it. You won't regret it!

P. S.
What is this "bump" thing i keep seeing on MFP?

"BUMP" is what someone will type into a post when they want to save it to their topics too. When you go to Community, you'll see one of the links says "My Topics". Any time you type in a post, it gets added to this My Topics page.....makes it so you can go back to see what you've posted recently and keep up with links easier.

Some people do this especially for recipes and exersize tips etc that you might want to re-read later.

Does that help?

You won't burn muscle after 45 min of cardio...you will actually start to burn fat between 30-60 minutes of cardio. Before 30-60 minutes your liver has an extensive storage of glucose ready for your use. After that you start to burn fat, and should add in some simple carbs to help your muscles get the nergy they need as your body converts the fat. The more often your practice this, the better your body gets at it. Your muscles store more glycogen to start, your liver stores a little more glucose, or body gets better at using those stored sugars and at converting the fat. You're getting in shape.
don't skip on protein, especially after a workout as then your muscles need the amino acids it breaks down to for repair of the microscopic tears the work created. repair those tears and you get stronger.

wow i should learn to write quicker oh well!!!
Ben

bump is a way to keep a forum topic on the front page of a thread.

p90x or any weight lifting - in general the idea is to lift 6-8 for size, 12-15 for lean. You should be maxed out at your intended target. Your husband will probably need more weight, but there are options to keep 45's working.

For example - 1.5's. You lift the whole way up, then 1/2 way down, then back up to the top again. That's 1 rep. If 45's are too light for a given exercise, do 1.5's and I assure you, it won't be too light...

Im on week 4 and havent gone over 35 lbs yet

My wife and I have done a couple rounds of P90x. We love it and we can workout together which makes it easier to complete and fun (yes working out can be fun!). . The amount of weight depends on your goals. P90x can be either higher rep/lower weight or lower rep/higher weight. To build muscle mass you will need heavier weights and 6-8 reps per set. You can also do lighter weights in the 12 rep per set range. P90x is always encouraging you to push yourself whether it is increasing the weights or increasing the reps. I personally lean toward the heavier weight philosophy for both men and women. We started with the bands. I didn't particularly care for them but they do suffice. I like using dumbbells for the workouts. I am not a large man by any means (5'11", 180 lbs.) and I do some of the P90x exercises with up to 50 lb dumbbells. I love the adjustable weight dumbbells made by Powerblock. My wife and I each have a set. She has the Sport 2.4 and I have the Sport 5.5. I love that they are adjustable and that they do not take up much space. another plus is that some of these sets (such as the 5.5) can be expanded in the future. P90x does map out your workouts so there is no guessing. There are three phases in P90x. The first two phases are three weeks including strength training with kenpo, yoga and plyo mixed in. After each three week timeframe, there is a recovery week of working out without strength training (yoga, cardio, etc.). The last phase is four weeks of working out with strength training included. I do not workout any extra beyond the time required for the P90x and I was able to go from 210 lbs. down to 180 lbs and lose two inches in my waist. There are a few ways that the fitness guide allows you to track your food. They do give snack and meal suggestions and do have recipes. I'm not a calorie counter so I found their general guide to be more valuable. This is a guide that basically says you should have x number of servings of protein, x number of servings of vegetables, etc. I photocopied and laminated this and use it as a check off sheet on my fridge. The beachbody website also provides some assistance in this area. Overall, I highly recommend the program. It is also not a big deal if you can't get through all the exercises at the beginning. Don't let this discourage you. As Tony says, "Do you best and forget the rest!"

What everyone has said is really accurate? There's only one or two exercises where heavy dumbbells are used (Lawnmowers for one). Most others it seems that anything under 50lbs will do if you have adjustable ones. Personally I bought an adjustable set of 55lbs so they go from 2.5lb to 55lb. I'm pretty soon going to max on the Lawnmowers. I don't want to spend the extra money on on heavier ones so I may get some resistance bands and experiment with the tension.

Diet and Nutrition guide is fairly good. Personally I don't use it other than to use the protein, carb and fat ratios which i put into MFP goals and track my food intake that way. It's what works for me. The recipes do look good but most I can't do because of other family members with food allergies.

I love P90X and would recommend it to anyone.

@CanuckFit

" I'm pretty soon going to max on the Lawnmowers. I don't want to spend the extra money on on heavier ones so I may get some resistance bands and experiment with the tension."

I have the same issue. I used to do these in the gym as part of the normal wimpy 2 min rest workouts and i needed 80's.

I got the heavy tension bands....they really suck for lawnmowers because you essentially have to step on the band close to the handle then pull and it really really doesn't feel right....the bands suck in general for any exercise that requires you to 'shorten' the band by bundling up its slack, but work really well for all the shoulder and bicep types generally. so definitely try it before you buy if that exercise is one you are thinking of using them on.

right now im just skipping the lawnmowers, they really aren't that great an exercise unless you can get a heavy enough weight.

@CanuckFit

" I'm pretty soon going to max on the Lawnmowers. I don't want to spend the extra money on on heavier ones so I may get some resistance bands and experiment with the tension."

I have the same issue. I used to do these in the gym as part of the normal wimpy 2 min rest workouts and i needed 80's.

I got the heavy tension bands....they really suck for lawnmowers because you essentially have to step on the band close to the handle then pull and it really really doesn't feel right....the bands suck in general for any exercise that requires you to 'shorten' the band by bundling up its slack, but work really well for all the shoulder and bicep types generally. so definitely try it before you buy if that exercise is one you are thinking of using them on.

right now im just skipping the lawnmowers, they really aren't that great an exercise unless you can get a heavy enough weight.

ok thanks, I do have a weight machine too so that may be able to get me by. I was thinking resistance bands might be a good purchase anyways in case I'm ever away from home and need to do a workout.