P90 and P90x

Doing P90 right now, and when I'm done will be doing P90x as well. No matter how much work you do on a treadmill or elliptical or even running, P90 works different muscles. I can do over an hour on moderate intensity on an elliptical machine at the gym and could bench press about 100lbs to begin with, and the first week of P90 kicked my butt! I've lost about 7lbs in 2 weeks doing the workouts, and I've gotten definition in my calves and my biceps are returning to their pre-weight gain state as well. I try pretty hard to not say that any workout is what everyone needs since there's some stuff that some people just can't do, but this one seems to be as close to something universal as you can get. If you can't do something, do as many as you can and keep going. If you need to stop, it even tells you that if you're exhausted to take a break when you're just starting. Hope it helps.

FYI P90x is EVIL. One of my friends has been doing it and it's killer, but he's gone from flabby to pretty ripped in 2 months.

Honestly, You're the same size I was when I started and Power 90 was a beating. P90x gives you more variety, but there was no way I was going to be able to get thru the workout. If you're looking to get the most longterm bang for your buck and can deal with some pain, get the P90x, but if you want to start off with something that you will be able to do more of and get yourself going, Power 90 is the way to go. I picked Power 90 because there was no way I could do pullups and massive amounts of pushups yet, and those are a big part of the upper body workout on P90x. If you want a play by play review of Power 90, message me and I'll walk you through the basics of the routine and you can see if it's the right place to start.

No worries. I've got an essay to knock out and a couple homework assignments to clear out by tonight too.

P90X is a pretty intense program so much so that there's a Fit Test they have available at beachbody.com. I planned to get P90X several months back but did the Fit Test and failed miserably (I actually just read it and said "I can't do that, that or that.") So I got P90 to start with and it's a very difficult program that is a great starting point in my opinion. It's challenging and just when you think you can get through Phase 1 & 2 you jump to Phase 3 & 4 which adds another entire interval to what you were doing in Phase 1 & 2. One word of the advice...follow their nutrition guide as closely as possible as that's more than 1/2 the battle. Same with P90X (and it can be expensive for a student).

All told, I did P90 twice in 6 months and lost 40 lbs. Tried the P90X Fit test for real and passed with flying colors. I'm now into week 5 of P90X and making more progress. One thing to note is that P90X wasn't designed as a weight loss program but that is one of the side effects as you're eating and burning a ton of calories but it can be a bit frustrating at times since most people measure progress with a scale. That fact is you burn a ton of fat but add a ton of lean muscle and they tend to cancel themselves out a bit at the start. Over time the lbs will melt away but if you have clear weigh loss goals and milestones that you'd like to hit P90X can throw a wrench into those plans. Manage your expectations accordingly.

Either way, they're both great programs. P90X has much more variety and is quite a bit more intense but likely provides you a longer run rate as you can repeat the cycle over and over and over (you'd get bored with P90). There's a Lean, Classic and Doubles program of P90X and my plan is to do Lean, then Classic, then Doubles. I know I would've been looking for something else to do after finishing the 2nd round of P90 so P90X will likely have a longer shelf life for most people.

If you go the P90X route I just want you to be prepared as it is very difficult if you don't have a good baseline fitness to build from. That said, just do your best and you will make progress as it's impossible not to.

P90X got me ripped, go for it. I''ve seen all kinds of people (fat - skinny) end up looking like Spartans on that program.
Try finding a BB coach for a discount (there's probably someone you know....) or hit craigslist.
It's cheap for the money and gets results all the time.
If you go to my profile you can see my before after pics. I gained lean muscle on it