P90X Week 1 – Continued | Diet and Exercise | Real Life Fitness | PhitZone

Another awesome update on my review of P90X.

P90X week in review

A quick update

In the last post I broke down the fitness test. Apparently there was one more element to the test that I didn’t see. it was on another page. It involved doing jumping jacks for two minutes. If you’re going to do this, make sure you get all of the pieces in.

Thoughts on the week

Week one is wrapping up. First, I’m sore. It’s a good pain though. The workouts are very doable, but depend on you to push yourself.

Time flies by quickly, even on the three days that include an hour long workout AND an ab workout.

The word of the week (and I’m sure for the remainder of the program) is “sweat”. I’m doing plenty of it. Especially in the Plyometric workout.

So far I’m very pleased.

As I write this, it’s Thursday evening. Today was Yoga. I’ll cover this DVD later on, but let me just say that 90 minutes of yoga with very sore legs was a daunting task. This is especially true since I’m not the most flexible person. I made it 30 minutes in, and just couldn’t go on. I don’t like that I didn’t finish the workout. Next time, I will finish.

Chest & Back

In this section I will discuss one of the workout videos. We’ll start with the chest & back, and ab workout. This is the first one that you’ll do.

In typical fashion you’re run though a few minutes of warm-up and light stretching. I had a slight sweat going.

Then it’s right into the workout. Push-ups and pull-ups of all kinds. I liked how they showed different options for varying degrees of difficulties.

Take the pull-ups as an example. There is the option of grunting them out unassisted, or you can add in the use of a chair to help you complete your set. The chair is super helpful when your exhausted as well. The third option included using resistance bands to build those muscles. This is ideal for anybody that is not quite ready to do pull-ups, or if you don’t have a bar.

Push-ups, and lots of ‘em. You can try to keep up with the group, but even they tell you that they’ve been at this a while, and that you need to pace yourself. Know your limits. There are about five different varieties used in this workout.

There’s also a few sets involving dumbbells. Bands work well too. I just love dumbbells. Choose your weight wisely. You want enough weight to do the job, but not so heavy that you hurt yourself. This is very important, especially at the end.

Ab Ripper X

After punishing your chest and back (your arms take a beating too), it’s time for some ab work. I’ll just come right out and say it-this is friggin’ nuts! 340 reps of various abdominal exercises. Watch the pace, and rest as you need to. This one kills.