P90X newbie question

I'm not sure I understand exactly. Are you going to stop going to the gym? What's your goal with P90x? Are you on a calorie deficit?

I think if you are switching from the gym to P90x you will see a decrease in strength and probably in bulk as well. The only thing you can really do is try to lift as heavy and intensly as possible while doing the routine. Can I ask why you would switch to P90x? It isn't really a great program for strength building or bulking, much more about athletic/functional fitness.

A guy I worked with stopped doing it because he lost a lot of strength. He was fit to begin with and his exact quote was, "I was in the best cardio shape of my life, but I lost all my strength."

Well you are sort of entering tricky territory where bodybuilders nit pick like crazy. It's very hard to maintain muscle mass while on a caloric deficit - eventually you will be eating into muscle and lose bulk. This is why bodybuilders do a builk and then a VERY careful cut, often acompanied by quasi legal supplements. So basically you need to decide on a route and take it. If you are going to 'cut' you need to accept that you will likely lose some muscle mass. I would say doing P90x is a good way to maintain your physique but there is no reason not to keep going to the gym. If you want to cut it comes down to diet, diet, diet. The exercise you do will be largely irrelevant. You can burn 500 calories lifting weights or 500 calories doing P90x - it doesn't matter. And the strength you maintain will come down to how careful you with your diet.

I would just recommend googling "maintain muscle during cut", "diet while cutting" etc... and read up and come up with a plan of attack.

Hmm, my overall strength and endurance improved .

That is the thing, I am not new at training or lifting weights.

I know that I lost inches in certain areas. My strength in my overall body improved and my endurance improved. I am a firm believer in altering your routines as your body adjusts to your routines. I did p90x and went back to weight lifting, it took me two weeks to get back to the weights I was at and then had some personal bests in bench, squats, and shoulder presses. My overall fitness and flexibility also improved.

Give it a go, what have you got to lose. 90 days of intense training.

I think when people do p90x, they look awesome! I dont know your overall body type, but I do know that p90x has three different difficulty levels. I am doing the p90x Lean..for losing weight and toning. There is a p90x Classic and a version that people do when they have been in it a while. Those are the ones that are more bulky. If I were you, if you are skeptical, and dont want to waste your money is looking them up on beachbody.com to see what the workouts are called...then on Youtube.com...there are ppl on youtube that will show the entire workouts. Maybe try them out for a few weeks so you dont have to buy it.

It's very hard to maintain muscle mass while on a caloric deficit - eventually you will be eating into muscle and lose bulk.

So basically you need to decide on a route and take it. If you are going to 'cut' you need to accept that you will likely lose some muscle mass. I would say doing P90x is a good way to maintain your physique but there is no reason not to keep going to the gym. If you want to cut it comes down to diet, diet, diet. The exercise you do will be largely irrelevant. You can burn 500 calories lifting weights or 500 calories doing P90x - it doesn't matter.

I agree with this, but I would like to point out that I don't think its feasible to do P90X AND the gym, unless you are just doing the cardio parts of P90X (plyo, yoga, etc.) and your own weight lifting... otherwise you wouldn't be giving your muscles much rest. I personally really enjoyed P90X: it made me feel more "cut" and when I went back into the gym, it took a couple of weeks but I was able to do more reps AND higher weight

I'm about to turn 48 and have been doing P90X for almost two years. I was a big body builder in college so I've seen both sides of the fence. I think if you did P90X for one or two cycles or even did it for one cycle, went back to your lifting routine for 30 days and then hit it again for another cycle, you'd maintain your original mass and strength for the most part. Part of what P90X does is ramp up your metabolism by about week 6 to where you really start shedding the excess fat....so much so that if you're maintaining your caloric intake you almost can't not lose the fat.

For someone with good muscle mass and excess fat, you're going to have a trade off of loosing a little bulk but a lot of fat. For someone who's got too much fat and no muscle , it takes care of both. I really think if you did the P90X and set MFP at a reasonable weight loss goal, you'd be pleased with the results. One of the big benefits of P90X is that it also helps your cardio and flexibility...something middle agers need to focus on.

Hope this helps.

Your friend did it wrong then.

Exactly, if your friend lost all his strength doing p90x he was doing something horribly wrong. Because if you notice... there are several weight lifting sections in which Tony Horton will tell you time and time again to do the weight you need to do in order to acheive the results you want to acheive.

In other words: if you want to get bigger and/or keep muscle you already have: Lift heavier weight with fewer reps.
If you want to maintain and tone: Lift a good amount of weight that allows you to do around 10-12 reps.

The last three reps should always be difficult for you, if not, you need to go up in weight.

p90x is an amazing program and it caters to whatever you have in mind. Tony mixes up the DVDs depending on whether you're doing the Lean Routine, Mass Routine, etc...

My dad and I went through all 13 weeks together (although he had been doing it for years as his regular workout) and I lost 6% body fat and he lost 12% and we weren't even doing the meal plan. That's BODY FAT NOT Lean Muscle Mass.

Do the program just like Tony tells you to and you'll get GREAT results!