Cancel Gym and go with P90X?

xboomerx
xboomerx Posts: 29 Member
edited September 23 in Fitness and Exercise
First - I love to lift weights. It gets me pumped up and I enjoy the heck out of it.

I'm in the middle of two different contests the main one is only a 12 week deal and I started officially yesterday. The other is a 6 month contest and I started the last week of December.


For both contests the main goal is to drop the fat and tone up. I eventually want to bulk up a bit so I kept my gym membership so that I could continue to work toward that goal.

My question for everyone is this: For the next 6 months I should really be in a fat loss mode and not worry about building a lot of muscle mass so should I save my money and just do P90X at home? (I have the program already but have not started it) or should I keep on doing what I have been which is working but maybe not as fast as P90X would?

Thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Replies

  • marinabrazil
    marinabrazil Posts: 106 Member
    Do P90X!!! It will burn the fat AND give you muscles!
  • luv2ash
    luv2ash Posts: 1,903 Member
    I would start it first and make sure it is something you can stick with. Don't they work on muscles as well?

    here is my mantra: MUSCLE BURNS FAT! I am doing ChaLEAN Extreme (same maker as P90X) and wow, I am srhinking because of this. I am not after building huge muscles, and Chalene will emphasize we are not going to bulk up, just get sexy muscles. Which is what I am after. I would not cancel the gym until you are satisfied with P90X.
  • areay22
    areay22 Posts: 150 Member
    P90X Bring it!
  • Influence2
    Influence2 Posts: 9
    This is just my suggestion:

    If you want to cut fat and get toned and you have pretty good endurance right now.. go with p90x. After you finish a rotation of p90x and you have toned up a lot. Then go back to the gym and hit the bigger weights with lower reps.

    Yet others will suggest just to stick with bigger weights. Which will most likely work but not as quickly.
  • daj150
    daj150 Posts: 815 Member
    If you are not tied into any gym contract and you have any equipment you will need for P90x, which isn't much, then as long as you won't incur a start-up fee when you reopen your gym membership, then I say it's always good to save money where you can.

    Although I think P90x is very good, and know many people who have had success from it, keep in mind you will constantly need to change up your routine, as the body will get used to repetitive exercises. So, make sure you have the whole P90x set and are following the schedule. Most people I know stick with it for a 3-6 months, then go back to a normal gym routine mixing some P90x stuff into the mix.
  • Bigpelly8
    Bigpelly8 Posts: 504 Member
    You burn more fat with muscle bro. I would still do a couple days of weights as well. You don't wanna burn fat, and muscle. Cardio will burn cals while your doing it, but lifting will continue to burn calories the entire time your muscles repair themselves!!
  • Vipecap
    Vipecap Posts: 166 Member
    You said you love to lift weights, right? Well stay in the gym and do what you enjoy, just make sure your diet is in check and you do cardio and you will be fine.
  • lacroyx
    lacroyx Posts: 5,754 Member
    gym.
  • novatri
    novatri Posts: 262 Member
    Both. Gyms give you tons of equipment you don't have to maintain or store. Many also have classes that mimic p90x routines. And you get to glance at the cuties. At home you can exercise whenever you want, but your faced with distractions so it can be harder to focus on exercise.
  • xboomerx
    xboomerx Posts: 29 Member
    This is just my suggestion:

    If you want to cut fat and get toned and you have pretty good endurance right now.. go with p90x. After you finish a rotation of p90x and you have toned up a lot. Then go back to the gym and hit the bigger weights with lower reps.

    Yet others will suggest just to stick with bigger weights. Which will most likely work but not as quickly.

    This is the about the same thought process I'm having. 12 weeks to get ripped as possible for the contest and then probably back to my strength routine with maybe some P90X thrown in the middle. As far as being able to handle P90X I used to do 8hr competition martial arts workouts, many resulting in puking in the Dojo parking lot LOL, so I think I should be able to handle it or push though it :)
  • tgh1914
    tgh1914 Posts: 1,036 Member
    IMO, I think you should go for P90X & cancel the gym membership - for now. P90X will definitely help burn the fat and you will not be losing any of your muscle. P90X is great for increasing your strength although the diet portion is not designed as a bulk up phase, it's definitely like a "cutting" phase diet. But you will NOT lose muscle; there's plenty of weights work to ensure that (as long as you have some dumbbells to work with at home).

    Then maybe after 1 or 2 rounds of P90X, if you're wanting to bulk more the gym might even offer you one of those promo rates to get you back in. Save more $$$.

    Just my .02.
  • mandypizzle
    mandypizzle Posts: 633 Member
    If you have the time, motivation and ability to do it at home every day, do P90X. I saw a lot better results from that than I did going to the gym 2 hours a day for years.
  • ladybug1620
    ladybug1620 Posts: 1,136 Member
    P90X doesn't have a ton of cardio, so if your main focus is losing fat, I'd stay with the gym. OR...do P90X and add additional cardio (maybe run for 30 minutes a day also).
  • JaimeNay
    JaimeNay Posts: 80 Member
    P90X! Definetely works at building muscle if you follow the program, and burns fat. Good luck.
  • amycal
    amycal Posts: 646 Member
    I don't have P90X but I do have some other at-home workout stuff and I get a much more intense workout at the gym. There is something about being there versus my living room that is more conducive to pushing it. Plus looking at all the other fit people is motivating and looking at people heavier than me makes me think I don't have it so bad LOL!.

    Some guy posted yesterday about looking at the cuties and this will sound gay (and I'm not) but yesterday the woman teaching Body Step had such a nice body it really motivated me to work hard. I don't know that I will ever look as good as she does but it made me want to burn up my fat!

    Do you have to buy a lot of weights to do P90X? That is something to consider if you are comparing the costs. Also if you live where the weather is crappy and it is hard to run or bike outside, a gym gives you a safer option to do high intensity cardio.
  • pyro13g
    pyro13g Posts: 1,127 Member
    Stick with the gym if you plan to bulk up. Use P90X if you can't make it to the gym.
  • Pinkranger626
    Pinkranger626 Posts: 460 Member
    I've done both and I love both so it's hard to choose. What I found is if you have the P90X booklet you can go to the gym and do the workout using the gym equipment rather than buying all the weights for at home which can get expensive. If you're membership is decently priced and you're happy with it you could try it that way. I was doing ChaLean Extreme and found that the weights I had at home weren't heavy enough, i needed 20-50 lb weights to really get where I wanted to go and I found it cheaper to bring the book and do the workout at the gym with their weights. Also, P90X will help you build muscle, and if you want to burn fat and get lean you want more muscle anyway. Something that some people don't realize is that if you're cutting out weightlifting completely and relying solely on cardio you're losing muscle before you lose fat. So you may see the numbers go down on the scale but you may not have lost any fat in the process.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member

    My question for everyone is this: For the next 6 months I should really be in a fat loss mode and not worry about building a lot of muscle mass so should I save my money and just do P90X at home? (I have the program already but have not started it) or should I keep on doing what I have been which is working but maybe not as fast as P90X would?

    I'm not sure I understand your post. The only difference between a solid bulk and a hardcore cut is calorie balance. Whether you are bulking or cutting you continue to lift heavy, keep your muscles progressively overloaded etc. With a cut you ensure a calorie deficit though good diet alone or preferably good diet plus moderate cardio if you can commit to working out 5-6 days a week in contrast with a calorie surplus for bulking.

    I don't know the details of P90X but if you have a reasonable amount of pre existing muscle mass then look at the exercises it includes carefully to ensure you will retain as much of it as possible whilst leaning out. If you adopt the gym approach to cut you will probably lose some mass unless you have everything in place perfectly. However, without knowing how the P90X programme is structured I can't really tell you if you will lose more or less muscle mass at the same time as fat using this approach. I suspect more unless it includes some kind of heavy resistance work using dumbbells etc.
  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
    Do you have weights at home?

    I would keep the gym membership and do both. You should work in a calorie deficit and do more cardio. The cardio machines at the gym will allow you to get in more cardio. I am currently doing P90X, Insanity, and jogging at the gym. I love P90X, but I still enjoy going to the gym. Within the first phase of P90X I think you should really get yourself acclimated to the program and see if you want to do double workouts with cardio. You can definitely cut up and lose fat weight while on P90X, but it takes some finesse.

    Um, you guys do understand that P90X Classic IS a home weight lifting program right?
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