So, some Saturday morning I flip on the discovery channel only to find regular programming hasn’t started. Instead there’s an infomercial for something called P90x. I had not been this intrigued by an infomercial since The George Foreman Grill.
P90x stands for “Power 90 eXtreme” and is a 90 day super fitness regimen based on the muscle confusion concept, designed and hosted by Tony Horton. So, if you google it, you can see all about it.
I don’t want to be an infomercial here, but I’m a fitness freak, I run ultramarathons, lift weights big time.
I ordered p90x and today was day 1, which is chest arms and back and “ab ripper X”
I was pretty much crying because not only could I not keep up with the girl, I couldn’t even keep up with the wimpy guy who was using bands.
Well Count Ruben, it felt like I was attached to the machine and a year of life was sucked away. I had the normal muscular pain that I’m used to, but what Horton seems to be doing is attacking muscles multiple times from multiple angles and building up the fatigue to failure. You get that rubbery completely useless feeling like you can’t do anything. In normal weightlifting and even ultramarathoning I’ve never gotten a burn to the point of total failure.
I don’t see any problems. This is one of my concerns as well. It’s great for getting ripped, but if you look online at the before and afters you’ll see that there’s a net muscle gain.
Yesterday was chest and back. I thought I was pretty good. I could do 200 pushups, bench 285 and was at twenty reverse grip pullups. About halfway through the routine I had given up on keeping pace with the girl, and was just trying to do one or two each set. He mixes it up pretty good to keep you off balance and to keep the burn active.
Today was Pylometrics. I did better with this, ultramarathoning giving me pretty strong legs. It wasn’t total shame like yesterday. I still didn’t keep up with anybody on the DVD.
I’ve been thinking of giving this workout a go, so I searched for threads about it here, but this was the only one I found. Did you complete the program, Scylla?
Before we continue, you must answer these questions three:
Would this totally humiliate and possibly injure a beginner at weightlifting? Is it possible to do this combined with the routine I already do (running and shovelglove)? Can we see pictures?
This is worrying. I was thinking about trying it (you can get the DVD series at one of those “As Seen On TV” stores in the Upper Canada Mall), but it sounds like I am in MUCH worse shape than the OP.
I know this is an old thread, but wanted to relate this. My son and his wife are using this thing, along with the dietary instructions, and her transformation has been amazing. From walking blob to washboard abs and a hard body. She lost 38 pounds in the first three months. In fact, she just won $10,000 from the maker of the product, although I don’t know the particulars. I’m assuming it’s some sort of promotional contest for best results or something. So apparently this system actually works. The problem with it is that you can injure yourself, and both of them have done so.
