P90x: Share your very first day(s) experience!

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DaveGlasnost
DaveGlasnost Posts: 146 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
For the P90Xers out there: can you relate some of your experiences from the very first time you used the program? Reps, failouts on exercises, etc? I'm just a little disappointed in myself right now as I wished I could do better. Not being able to do even 1 of some exercises(even adjusting to Tony's "this will be a little easier" suggestions), resorting to knees for pushups, really struggled on the AB Ripper X portion of the program, etc.

I just want some positive stories that started looking pretty negative at first....

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  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
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    This is from my blog:

    My husband brought home P90X at the beginning of February 2010 from Iraq. Said he wanted me to try it. He droned on about resistance bands, working out at home, blah blah blah. Fine, I'll try it but I'm not ending our gym membership. We started February 15th and on February 16th we did the 2nd DVD; P90X Plyometrics. It kicked my butt. We got through a half hour of it and I had to stop. But we have to keep trying to do the things that are difficult for us if we expect to get better, right?

    Fast forward to summer, we completed a round of P90X (90 days) and completed two more months of it. We were going to Palm Springs in July for a Party in Palm Springs weekend. My husband wanted to borrow the Insanity workout from a friend. I was scared out of my mind. I kept saying that I can't move this 40 year old body like those 20 year olds in the infomercial!!! This friend (a former pro football player) that we borrowed the program from completed one week of Insanity and never went back to it. Well, that was motivation enough for us to give it a try. We have now completed 63 days of Insanity and a round of a hybrid of both programs.

    For Christmas my family got me a weighted vest for the chest workouts. This morning we did P90X Plyo. I wore the weighted vest. I only had 4 pounds in the vest, but it did well in keeping my heart rate elevated. The last time I did this workout I burned 791 calories. This morning I burned 875 calories. As we were finishing the workout, I was thinking about the 30 minutes I could only complete back in February and now I'm doing it with a vest.

    2011, let's keep pushing ourselves. Tell the negative thoughts to shut up. Ignore yourself if you say you can't do it. Just get up, put your shoes on, stop thinking about it, and PUSH PLAY!!!
  • AdamATGATT
    AdamATGATT Posts: 573 Member
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    I rather enjoyed my first day on P90X, having just completed Power 90 two days before. It's definitely a lot different, and challenges you.

    One of the oft repeated phrases by Tony is "Do your best, and forget the rest". Do what you can, attempt all the moves. If you fail, try them again the next go around. You may not be able to do them now but you will later. Even one more rep than where you started is progress! Chest and Back was tough for me. I couldn't do 20 pullups. Five was my max...and that dropped off to four and then three then two on the next sets. But I didn't give up. I kept pushing. When I had to drop off, I moved to the alternate moves and did as many of those as I could.

    I could barely do half of the Ab Ripper X exercises the first time through. Now at the end of the first week I can do all of them. Not full sets of every single exercise, but I can atleast do more than when I started. And that's all that matters.

    Don't think about how many you cant do now. Think about how many you will be able to do later.
  • glfprncs2
    glfprncs2 Posts: 625 Member
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    I couldn't do a single push up on my toes until week #6 of my first round of P90X. Do them on your knees and each week, try to start on your toes and then drop to the knees when you can't do anymore. You'll be surprised how quickly you progress.

    With regards to ab ripper, I found that it was my hip flexors that failed on me before my abs. So, I made a goal to do 18 of the reps at first (rather than 25), and tried to do more each week. Also, do ARX without your shoes on at first...MUCH easier.

    Also, you're going to be sore...like hold onto the seat of the toilet in order to sit down sore. Walking down stairs will be agony. Just remember, it does go away!
  • DnAmommy
    DnAmommy Posts: 47 Member
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    Yes, P90x is by no means easy. I am not a pull up/push up person at all. I was amazed all all the different "types" of push-ups I could NOT do so don't get too down on yourself. The "heart to heart" push-ups I tried to do on my toes after a few weeks on my knees and I was able to go down about 2 inches. My husband was watching me and was barely able to see the difference but I could feel it! If you can only do 3 the first week, try to do 5 the following week. It WILL get better. You won't come out of the 90 days looking like Tony Horton but you will get stronger and leaner. Just don't quit! By about the 5th or 6th week, you will start to see definite changes and improvements. Hang in there and know that there are lots of other people pushing through it too. You may also want to post a topic on the Message board to find others starting p90x and get a group that are in the same cycle with you so you can discuss your progress together... or at least keep each other motivated day to day. You can do it!
  • meanness67
    meanness67 Posts: 366 Member
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    Had my first workout yesterday. I could barely turn the steering wheel on my car this morning! I can not do pull ups at all. I used the dark green band hanging from the pull up bar and followed Scotty on the tape since he was using bands. I hope to work up to being able to do regular pull ups but the band works and is no joke! As far as the push ups, I would do as many as I could on my toes and then stop. I will just have a goal to do more each time I do the workouts. Out of the 300+ ab ripper moves, I did 182 and will try to increase each time until I can do them all. Good Luck with your journey...it will get better!
  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
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    Whenever you feel like you want to advance from the green band you can check out Sports Authority for more bands. They even carry the hand grips that hold three bands at a time. Good luck!!!
  • BR1986FB
    BR1986FB Posts: 1,515 Member
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    Having been a very heavy bench presser for 25+ years before starting this program I thought the pushup aspect would be a walk in the park. Not so.

    Not the following day, but the 3rd day (it's ALWAYS the 2nd day after the workout, for me, where you feel the most pain) I felt like someone had taken a filet knife and split me, up & down, at the sternum. I was hurtin' for certain.
  • meanness67
    meanness67 Posts: 366 Member
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    Whenever you feel like you want to advance from the green band you can check out Sports Authority for more bands. They even carry the hand grips that hold three bands at a time. Good luck!!!

    I will probably move up to chair assisted pullups once the green band isn't working since ultimately I would like to be able to do the pull ups.
  • vanessawaw
    vanessawaw Posts: 18 Member
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    hey tomorrow I will started to do p90x workout, what should i do first??
    stright into "day 1 schedule" or "how to bring it"?

    thanks ^^
  • timeasterday
    timeasterday Posts: 1,368 Member
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    I started 3 weeks ago and that first day was a killer! Pullups were a major challenge, and still are. But at least I have gone from barely doing 1 pullup to almost doing 3-4 (but not continuously). Not a big jump but it's something. I had been doing pushups before and could get 30 standard pushups in the first round but my strength fades after that. My reps on the other types of pushups are much less but I manage to squeeze out a couple more reps each week. I was in a lot of pain that first week but now it's not so bad. Still sore but it's a good pain now.

    Shoulders & Arms is by far my favorite workout and I am making some nice gains in weight & reps already. The Legs workout is pretty good too - I always get my heart rate up pretty good on that one.

    As far as the other non-strength type workouts I have not been following those very much. Yesterday I did Plyo for the first time. I've been skipping that due to tendonitis in my leg (from running). Even though I did mostly low-impact moves, I still managed to burn a lot of calories. And my leg started hurting again so maybe I'm not ready for that yet. The Kenpo is OK - I get bored by a lot of the moves. I would rather do more kicking and get tired of all the blocking moves. I haven't attempted that crazy-long Yoga routine but I might give it a shot next week.

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