Many of you have heard of world renowned trainer Tony Horton’s P90X workout program from BeachBody.com ever since it’s gone viral in training and fitness circles. Dubbed by BeachBody as the “Most Extreme Home Fitness Training System Ever,” the P90X exercise system has helped thousands of recreational weekend warriors and those new to exercise gain muscle mass, lose fat, gain strength and overall whip themselves into shape ever since its release in 2004.
The program comes complete with a 13-DVD set along with a 3-phase nutrition plan and a comprehensive fitness manual all for under $200 with a satisfaction money-back guarantee to help anyone wanting to gain muscle and lose fat. On the top of your head you’re likely wondering… does P90x work like it says it does? Would it help me gain muscle, lose fat, and get fit? Does P90x work? What results can you expect with the P 90x exercise system?
Quoted from the beachbody.com site,
“P90X is a revolutionary system of 12 sweat-inducing, muscle-pumping workouts, designed to transform your body from regular to ripped in just 90 days. You’ll also receive a comprehensive 3-phase nutrition plan, specially designed supplement options, a detailed fitness guide, a calendar to track your progress, online peer support, and much more. Your personal trainer, Tony Horton, will keep you engaged every step of the way, and you won’t believe your results!”
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Now as soon as you see a hard selling ad promotion, you’re probably wondering what the actual value of a certain product or service is. It’s human nature to be skeptical of big claims because we don’t like to be sold despite constantly searching for the “secret”….searching for something newer, bigger, and more perfect.
Look at the sales page, read what the program entails, the testimonials on BeachBody and the reviews on Amazon.com. Many have raved about the program and stressed their P90X results. Everything sounds good but you don’t really know the value of a program if you haven’t tried it. The program isn’t cheap so you’ll want to investigate the exercise program further to see if it’s worth your time.
My answer to the question, does P90X work as it states for improved fitness, conditioning, and fat loss? It’s a resounding YES. Let me explain.
Effective training programs contain the basic principles of training.
These principles are really so basic and even obvious that even seasoned gym addicts and athletes often lose sight of what makes a good workout routine. Methods are numerous but principles are tried, true, and universal. Regardless of the system or name of a routine, all training programs are effective if they contain the basic fundamentals of exercise. These principles build upon one another to gain muscle and lose fat. It’s as simple as that.
There are 5 basic principles:
1. Specificity: Train for your goals. The exercise program must be specific to your needs and goals. Running 6 miles every day isn’t such a good idea if the goal is to build or gain muscle. And you wouldn’t be playing soccer 3 hours a day if you’re trying to improve your jump shots to make the varsity basketball team at school. Cardiovascular activity would, however, helps with fat loss. To gain muscle mass, you need to lift weights. Big compound exercise lifting movements like squats, deadlifts, and bench press would undoubtedly be more effective for building strength than less involved isolation exercises. Running is more effective for losing weight than slow walking. In other words, your physical fitness results is dependent on exercise activity and program execution. Do what’s necessary to see results. Once you know your goals, it’s just a matter of duplicating a sound exercise program that will meet your needs. P 90X is one of those few fat loss conditioning strength programs that does just that. The P90X exercise system provides a comprehensive P90X workout approach to gain muscle, strength, and lose fat.
2. Exercise Selection: Pick proper exercises that are specific to your goals. For example, the barbell back squat is a better exercise for building absolute strength, power, and muscle than machine leg presses. If you’re building speed and explosive strength, you’ll have to pick exercises geared towards improving speed and explosive strength, i.e clean and press, squat thrusts, hill sprints. For fat loss, a combination of cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting movements are optimal.
3. Progression: You must apply ever-increasing stress to your body over the course of a short and long term training cycle or period, especially if you’re after fat loss or to gain muscle mass. If you’re sticking to the same weights doing the same exercises for weeks on end, your body will have no reason to further adapt and improve. You need a system of progression, either increasing the amount of weight used, frequency, total volume, or decreasing resting periods in between sets per workout. Progression is vital to accomplishing your goals.
4. Variety: The body stagnates and plateaus after a certain period on the same workout program. That’s why it needs variety. The body needs constant changing stresses over a long term training cycle to “battle” homeostasis. Homeostasis is the body’s ability to resist change. Incorporating variety into your workouts over time will ensure you progress and reach your goals.
5. Proper Program Creation: This principle is a result of carrying out the above four principles. It dials in the right amount of sets, repetitions, total volume, and frequency using the best exercises given your goals( gain muscle, fat loss, improving speed, endurance, or conditioning). Constant exercise leads to instinctive training. You’ll know what you works and what doesn’t. However, no program is perfect. There’s no such thing as a perfect system.
So with all this said, I still have to explain what all this have to do with the P90X exercise system. Does P90x work or not?
The P90x workout system incorporates all 5 principles into a jam packed galloping training experience designed to condition your body for fat loss, strength gains, muscle gains, and improved fitness. The P90x system offers enough variety to prevent your body from long term stagnation and plateauing through the technique of “muscle confusion.” The variety also prevents boredom. Boredom often kills motivation.
You’ll be using a variety of exercises targeting basic strength, strength endurance, speed strength, explosive strength, and cardiovascular fitness. Both compound and isolation exercises with body weight as resistance and free weights will be used to ensure you get a desired training fat to burn more fat and gain muscle. The exercises used also have a system of progression to make sure you improve on each exercise on a weekly basis. For example, you can go from doing 5 pullups to over 20 pullups by the end of the 90 day program. It’s a total body approach to training.
The program is also designed to transform your body by shedding fat, pumping and priming your muscles for increased muscularity. It’s a body recomposition system to make you look good naked, given you follow the 3-phase nutrition system.
For the first few weeks, you’ll work on developing a base strength foundation. You’ll get stronger with basic body weight compound resistance exercises using push/pull and hip/quad dominant exercises in an alternating fashion. You’ll then move onto some fun but intense cardio and stretching workouts with Kenpo X intervals and then rotate back to absolute strength and strength endurance. Top it all off with the six-pack abs ripper workout. This type of rotation is a great example of excellent exercise programming. It is a multi-dimensional workout system that uses many exercise modalities to keep you on track for progress and maximum P90X results.
The result is improved coordination, flexibility, strength, and ultimately fat loss with a total body transformation.
The P90X exercise system is designed as a whole to work with accordance to the 5 basic exercise principles.
Now it’s always fun to watch some video testimonials apart from reading the 95 different Amazon reviews.
Search on Youtube for the numerous testimonials of those who were able to lose fat and gain muscle with the P90X exercise system with P90x results. I did a quick browse and was quite impressed with Dennis Hardy’s 6-pack transformation in 6 months following P90X. He definitely shedded large amounts of fat weight along with noticeable muscle gain. Check him out at Dennishardy.com
In my opinion, the P90X exercise system is really a comprehensive step-by-step educational experience to all aspects of fitness; strength training, gaining muscle, conditioning, and fat loss. You’ll be getting a clear and direct, no-nonsense education to enjoyable workouts for long term fat loss, muscle gain, and fitness. Tony Horton demonstrates all of the exercises and routine protocols in perfect form with detailed walkthroughs. He actually does the workouts in real time with you as you watch. You’ll see him breathing hard while instructing you. He practices what he preaches. At 50 years old, in tremendous shape this guy is one of the best.
I’m going going to have to say that P90X is nothing “new” in the sense that new exercises or techniques are invented. Instead the system uncovers the best and often forgotten practices of good training and combines it into an easy-to-follow system that’s highly effective and result-producing for everyone. This is a training program that anyone can do well on and reap the benefits. In other words, Tony Horton and his team of researchers, coaches, and exercise specialists consolidates the best training info into a practicable exercise system.
I wish I “invented” P90X exercise system because then I’d be the one making millions. Haha…The guys at Beachbody are definitely running a million plus dollar business.
So does P90X work? Again, the answer is YES. The program is on the expensive side (3 monthly payments of $39.95 plus $19.95 shipping) in my opinion. Though many who’ve tried the program and have experienced good to satisfactory results will concur it’s all a matter of perceived value. If you think the price is worth the future results after doing the program, then go for it. There’s also a 90-day money back guarantee so it’s risk-free, minus the trouble of sending the program back if you go for a refund.
An important note to you though. If you’re going to buy this program, take every effort and dedication to TAKE ACTION and GET TO WORK. Watch the DVDs once , take notes, and then DO THE WORKOUTS! Don’t delay or procrastinate. Don’t be lazy. Get your money’s worth. Commit to working out. Make fitness a habit and lifestyle. If you’re not willing to do the work and train, save yourself the money and don’t buy P90X. Everything worthwhile starts with ACTION.
You can get the P90X system at the BeachBody.com site or a new and/or used copy for a much lower price on Amazon here.
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