P90X - How It's Done

Is it really that bad? No, not really.


When hearing of P90X, it's usually about just how tough it is. Impossible. Many people start, No one finishes. Really, though, it's just a workout. But it can be tough. It certainly can be impossible, if you approach it at face value and don't listen to the instructions or yourself. I've personally experienced how boneheaded people can be with this workout. They didn't listen to the instructions. They didn't listen to me. And they didn't listen to their body. They finished the routine. It was only a 15 minute ab [ripper] workout. But they killed themselves, have yet to return (over a month back), and I'd bet they aren't working out anywhere else.


So I thought I'd share some "tips" for tackling P90X. Advice that should transform this mythical monster into something a bit more...manageable.


Do every routine, even the ones you hate. For me, the worst workouts are the ones I've never done before. I don't know what's coming. I'm willing to jump over the obstacles, but I need to know what they are. There's nothing harder than not knowing what's up next or when it'll end. So you take the "new" away from the workout. Do each one as it turns up in the rotation. Make each one old hat. "Yeah, it sucks, but I've done it like 8 times already. So what's another one." I hate plyo. Well, just dislike, really. But I do it. I get it over with. And then I see that fucker again next week.


Do what you can. I can't do every exercise in P90X. I can't do as many reps as they do in P90X. I do what I can. If the people on the tape are doing 30 reps of something (and they do) and you can only do 4, 8, or 10 or whatever. It's ok. They are pushing themselves. You're pushing yourself. It doesn't matter the number as long as that number is bringing you to the limit [for that set].


Be a 60 minute man. Most routines are an hour long. Tailor yourself to last the entire workout. You may can do 30 push ups. Once. Maybe even twice. But you've still got arms, back, legs, whatever. Dominating the first 10 minutes of a workout doesn't mean squat if you can't bring it the following 50 minutes. These are one hour workouts. You finish the hour workout. If that only means 4 reps here. 10 reps there. Doesn't matter. In the end, you'll have done more reps than the guy who goes balls to the wall and burns out after 10 minutes. Pace yourself. Probably the most important piece of advice and the biggest error most people make.


Food. Water is important during the workout. I take in water after every 6 exercises, when given a water break, and/or when needed. You're sweating. Losing water. Replace it. Usually you'll hear to take small sips. Not to gulp. If that works for you, fine. Me, personally, I gulp that noise down. 3 or 4 gulps even. I don't get sick and puke so I'm not worried about taking in too much water at once. Afterwards, eat something. Anything. Usually being away from home, I'll having some type of bar with me. Likely a Fiber One knock off. Your body is looking for energy after a hard workout. Give it some.


Simple to do at home. Equipment is minimal. A chair. A pull up bar that you stick in a doorway. Some hand weights. I have 30 & 25 lb dumbbells, 20 lb kettlebells, and 8 & 6 lb handled medicine balls. Can I lift more than then the heaviest weight I've got? Yeah. But these do more than the trick when you've got a lot of reps to get through.


Shit, I had more. But I seem to have forgotten.


P90X isn't impossible. I wouldn't even call it "hard". You can get through it. Take each exercise one at a time. Do the reps. Take a breath. Move on to the next. It's tough, but manageable.

RE: Running

To improve running, I'd focus on the legs (obviously) and core.

For legs,

1. Calf strength is very important and the primary force propelling you forward when running. Calf raises are the go-to exercise. You can do them simply on the floor or from the edge of an elevated platform (like stairs) for added range of motion. Hold weight for increased difficulty. Note: I would not recommend holding weights while doing calf raises off the edge of something.




2. Tip toe exercises are another good way to focus on the calves. Tip toe/Sneaky lunges are great. You stand on your toes and deep lunge forward (back leg straight, front leg's knee over the ankle, & try to step forward as far as you can). Hold the tip toe lunge for a few seconds. Then bring your back leg forward back to starting position and repeat. Find yourself a fairly large area to do this. I workout in a large room and lunge from once side to the other. Ideally, you could do this on your walking path. Just set a distance for yourself. Doing the lunges while remaining on your toes the entire time may be hard at first, depending on your balance and leg strength, but gets easier with practise as most things tend to do. Another good one is Gap Jump or Monster Truck Tires. Just pretend there's large tires on the ground and you're jumping from and landing on your toes from the center of each imaginary tire.
   




3. Squats are good. Aside from the normal ones, there's Goblet Squats where you hold a weight in your hand while squatting. Deep/Floor Touch Squats (no vid?!) where the feet are pointed slightly outward and you squat down as low as you can and/or touch the floor with hands then squat back up. Two one-legged squat variations with [Super] Skater Squats and Dead lift Squat. Oh and then there's the Wall Squat. If you're feeling froggy, there's One Leg Wall Squat.
   




4. Lunges can be done with body weight or added weights. Besides tip toe, there's three way lunges.

Core, I would suggest Wide leg Situps (you can cross legs indian style to make harder) & Pulse Ups (don't rock the legs back and forth as much as the guy in the vid does, should mostly be an up&down movement).

I recommend watching these videos and grabbing various exercises from it. Ab Ripper X Part 1 and Part 2. Legs and Back. Plyometrics (sorry, this is the best vid I could find of it).

I'll post about P90X sometime this weekend.

Running

Stirling,

I'm glad you brought up health. That's actually a pretty fortuitous topic for me right now, because I've just started a new workout regimen this past month. And actually, I've been wanting to write about it, but always had something else I'd rather focus on. Your question brings my workout to the front of my writing queue.

My weight was around 170, which could potentially be a pretty healthy weight for me if it was lean mass, but mostly it wasn't. So in mid-June I took up walking, with a view to intersperse some running as my heart, lungs, and legs got stronger. There's a five-mile bike/running path that runs from a park just across the highway in front of my apartment, along the river, all the way to downtown. I started out just walking the two miles north, and turning around and walking the two miles back, which takes me about an hour. It's about 100 degrees out there, and humid, so it isn't exactly a picnic. I've added a little more running over the ensuing weeks. Now I walk the first two miles, turn around and walk back a mile, then run three-quarters of a mile, and walk the last quarter-mile back as a cool-down. I do this every weekday, weather-permitting, but I've only been out one time this week; the skies have been threatening rain, though they haven't delivered.

I've dropped five pounds, which is nice. I find that I have to drink a lot more water during the days. But I also find that I'm less hungry after a long cardio workout than I was before.

A few observations about my workouts:

1. I never would have guessed just how much of an effect the sun and wind would have on my body while working out. My first two miles are northward—generally into the sun and with my back to the wind. When I was first starting out, I would be completely beat at the end of the first two miles (I've gotten better since then). But within a few minutes of turning around so that I face away from the sun and into the wind, I feel better in almost every way. My muscles loosen up. I sweat less. Before I added any running to my workout, I typically felt more exhausted at the end of two miles than I did at the end of four!
2. The psychological impact that running is having on my life is at least as important to me as the physical. I hadn't really expected that. But I find that being alone in the sweltering, unfriendly elements for an hour, getting sweaty, not talking to anybody, not thinking about much of anything, doing something for myself—something that matters, really, not at all to anyone else in the world but me—is hugely liberating. And at the end, when I've run the distance I told myself I would, there's not only the sense of accomplishment, which can be pretty easily described, but there's also the endorphine high, which feels good, but not in any way that I could put into words. It's become something I look forward to when I'm at work, specifically as a way to disconnect from work.
3. So far, running doesn't seem to have made my legs any stronger. This came as a surprise to me, though probably not to you, given your background, Stirling. In the beginning, I had some muscle aches in my calves, but those have gone away pretty much entirely. Since then, any discomfort has been knee- or ankle-related, in which case I take it easy for a few days and start back up when they feel solid again. But since my calves and thighs weren't aching, I figured they must be stronger than they used to be. So a few nights ago, when the weather was being uncooperative, I decided to test this out by doing some squats. And the squats were just as difficult as they've always been! Furthermore, in the morning, my thighs ached like a motherfucker! The remedy for this, of course, at least short-term, was more running, which loosened up those muscles again. My heart and lungs are almost certainly as strong and healthy as they've been in years, but it's clear that if I'm going to strengthen my legs, I'm going to have to focus on resistance training as well.

I'm certain that you could have told me all of this and more if I'd just seen fit to ask you. Anything else I ought to think about for the kinds of workout I'm engaging in?

I'm interested to hear about p90x, which is something I keep hearing about, but about which I know literally nothing. Looking forward to getting an explanation.

Welcome Back! How's Your Health?

Risen from the dead like a zombie that creeps Dennis Hopper the fuck out! And we'll start things real easy-like with a simple question, How's your health? What are you doing? What do you feel you should be doing? Goals? Wants? Whatev!

Me, I've spent the last two years going up and down the weight scale. 2009/Tampa saw me drop to 180 lbs thanks to wrestling in a hot warehouse. Post-Tampa, I gained weight up to 215 lbs. That was a mixture of weight-lifting and eating whatever the hell I wanted. September 2010, I then transitioned to a mostly yoga regimen which saw me drop from 215 back down to 180. I think maybe I was eating a little better (not that I ever really ate "bad"). So hey! Yoga does work. The biggest benefit from yoga has been flexibility getting into the poses and strength in holding them. I can bend forward, keep straight legs, and palm the floor. Being a guy, pretty damn impressive. Feels really great. I can move around and quickly switch between positions with ease. I use to hate stretching, but I have come to terms with it. Even enjoy it a little bit now that I can see the results.

This is what I love about having a job that deals with exercise. The thought of working out 3 or 4 hours a day is much easier and manageable when it's your job and you get paid to do it. I lead them through a workout but it's mine as well. I am my best student.

Currently, I do find myself working out 4 hours on any given day as I've thrown P90X routines into my schedule. On afternoons, I have an hour gap between my two classes. Usually, I devoted that time to power naps on a really crappy-looking yet oh-so-comfortable sofa in a room across the hall. Thanks to events with Kyndal, I found myself needing to do something. To keep my mind busy. What happened was sad and I was tired of feeling sad about it. Tired of thinking about it. So I "obtained" P90X dvds and did them between classes. I usually have a guy (50's, great shape, weight lifter, ex-HS wrestler/football player, ex-cop now engineer) from my later class join me as well.

Each routine is an hour or less. Includes warm up, main exercises, and cool down. Workouts include Chest & Back, Shoulder & Arms, Legs & Back, Kenpo (punck, kick, HA!), Plyo (jumping), Yoga, Cardio, Stretch, Chest-Shoulders-Triceps, and Back & Biceps.

I'll try to save my thoughts on P90X for another post, but, honestly, it's not that bad. If you keep certain rules in mind and use your head while working through them. And it does work. There are results. Not the extreme 3 month results that advertisements would suggest. Though I'm not sticking to the P90X nutrition plan, but following my own rules. Proper portion sizes. Lean meats (turkey, grilled chicken). Try to avoid beef and fried crap. Increase protein intake.

With the P90X & yoga mix, I'm stronger. Leaner. Up to 190 lbs. More flexible. Doing more push ups, pull ups, curls, presses, lunges, etc. So what are you guys doing? Give me the details. Tell me how it's going. How you feel. Goals.