Friday Smile: P90X

So what is the P90X you might ask?  Well, it's an insane (ok..they use extreme) workout that you can do from your home, no need for a gym membership.  It's a 90 day program.  You are supposed to get excellent results.  It's also an infomercial.  Yup..if you've heard of it, it's probably from an infomercial.    So why am I talking about it today?   Well, simple, I've done it.  Ok...I've completed 12 of the 13 weeks.  The last week is a recovery week, but I wanted to talk about it today and not next friday.

Here's a video to give you an idea.  It's not the best video, but I have to assume those people really did do the program and you see a glimpse of different workouts too.



I know what you are asking now, you want to see before and after videos.  Nope..not going to happen.  Why? Because my abs don't look like that. haha!

This workout also comes with a nutrition guide, and that's a big piece of it.  I read most of the guide. I didn't really follow it.  I did change my eating habits and I'm eating a heck of a lot better than I was, but I've also had several slips.  I'm also not eating as well as I can. I think part of that is that my husband isn't doing this,  and he's also the cook in the family.  So the dinners aren't as healthy as they could be.  However..don't think I'm complaining, I'm not.  I'm just making excuses as to why I don't have rock hard abs.

Here's another video where Tony Horton talks a bit about it.  I can't believe the guy is 51 years old.



Now, first, why in the world did I do this program?  It started out innocent enough, then I was dared to do it. I'm a runner, so I work out regularly.  It was all leg work though. Before starting the program I was doing 4-6 miles on average.  I thought that was pretty good.  I was fit, I was slowly making changes to my diet.  I was good.  Then my friend asked if I would want to borrow his p90x program.  I wasn't so sure, he said to ask my husband if he wanted to do it since he knows Husband works out.  So I asked Husband and he couldn't believe I was even thinking of doing the program.  He thought there was no way I could actually discipline myself to do it.  He didn't want to since he works out during his lunch break (his work has a gym on campus), but he thought I should try it.  So my friend gave me the introductory dvd.  Husband and I watched it.  We watched most of one of the work outs.  Husband laughed and said there was no way I could do it.  It turned into a dare.  How could I not do it?  So I told Husband that I would show him, I would do the workout.

After phase 1 I asked Husband if he thought I would make it that far.  He said no, he didn't expect me to make it past the first week.  HA! I showed him. I guess the  jokes on me though, because I really am in incredible shape now.

So the program is split into 3 phases.  Phase 1 and 2 are 3 weeks of extreme workouts (6 days per week) and 1 recovery week.  Phase 3 is 4 weeks of extreme workouts (6 days per week) and then a 5th week for recovery.  Tomorrow starts my week 13, which is the very last recovery week.

I can tell you that I had Husband take before measurements and then we re-took measurements after each phase. I also weighed myself each Friday.  (I started my weeks on Saturday, so Thursday was my 6th day of working out and Friday my off day).  I've lost 4lbs.  I know I know.  You are saying what?  This program sucks if you only lose 4 lbs. Trust me..I didn't expect to lose any weight.  I had some fat but I expected to gain a lot of arm muscle, so while I thought I might lose some fat I expected to gain weight over-all.    I wasn't over-weight to begin with. I didn't do this program to lose weight, I did it to get in shape..to be tone.   Sure, running meant I had leg muscles, but not arm muscles. I wasn't fit all around.  So, I did lose some weight which was a surprise.  More surprising is that I've lost an inch in my waist, each thigh, and my butt (per measurements at the end of phase 2..I haven't officially ended phase 3 yet). Lol! That was surprising and exciting!  My legs have never looked this tone.  They pretty much look like all muscle now.  It's awesome!  My arms, while there is definition and muscle, aren't huge.  Before they looked scrawny, now they are still small but they are tone and you can see the muscle.

I honestly hate and love this program.  I love the results, but some of the workouts are killers.  In fact, I hated the yoga workout so much I ended up not doing it the last several weeks, I substituted runs instead.  Speaking of running, have I noticed any changes?  It's hard to say at this point.  I tried to run a couple days as well as do the workout but it was too much.  So I went without running for several weeks.  Then I've only been running 1 day per week for the last 5 weeks or so.  My endurance has suffered because of that and I'm only doing 3 miles instead of 4-6miles.

So what's next?  If the program is only 90 days, what do you do when it's finished?  My guess is that most people start over and do it all over again.  Once you discipline yourself to doing the workouts every day, it's easy to continue with it.  I've been getting up at 5am and doing them before work in the morning.  Since I naturally wake up before 6am, it was easier for me to get up earlier and get it over with instead of trying to do them at night when I'm tired.      So my plan is to take a week off and then start the program over but instead of doing it every day, I'll do it every other day and run on the other days.  This way I get in 3 runs per week and 3 workouts.  Of course, I'll still skip the yoga dvd. haha!    Husband thinks I should do the program again in the winter, since I hate being outside in the cold.  At first I thought he was nuts, but I find I'm actually thinking about it.

Speaking of Husband.  He's actually been doing the workouts on Saturday and Sunday.   Since we only have one set of weights, and only 5lb - 20lb at that, it's hard for us to do any arms workouts together.  So instead I have been doing the Saturday workout when I get up and get around to it and he does it sometime after that.  Sunday workouts have been plyometrics.  Oh lord help me.  This workout is a killer. It's basically an hour of jumps, lunges, and squats.  Husband and I do this one together.  He yells at me when he finds me stepping into each lunge instead of jumping, I yell at him when I see his squats aren't very low.  Then we both yell at Tony when he keeps making us do lunges and squates and jumps when our legs are burning.

While I can't do all the sets of each exercise, I'm able to do most of them and I've increased some things a lot.  When I started I couldn't do any pull-ups without using a chair for help.  Last time I tried to do a pull-up without a chair, I could do one.  This was back in phase 2.  I usually use a chair to help with pull-ups and one wide pull-ups I started out doing 4, last time I did them I did 14.  That's a major improvement.  I'm excited to attempt pull-ups without the chair and see if I can do more than 1 now.

I hope this doesn't come off like I'm preaching to you and telling you how great this program is and how you need to do it etc.  That's not my intent.  I wanted to share with you what I've been doing the last 90 days..or almost 90 days.  I'm proud of myself for actually sticking with it, and I'm happy with the results.  I'm also tired. haha!  I used to read for awhile before falling asleep and now I read a couple of pages and that's it, I'm out.

So there you have it...now you all know I'm a bit crazy.  

In fact, I watched this video, for P90X+, and told my friend it was insane.  But secretly, I'm interested in trying it out.  You won't hear me tell my husband that though..he might dare me to actually do it and then I would have to.  For now, I'm going to be happy repeating my current program and work on being able to do the plyomtrics workouts completely without having to do the cheat versions. maybe. I like the cheat versions.