Review P90X: Yoga X

I love yoga. I am studying for my yoga certification and hope to be done in May. That being said, there are a lot of yoga DVD's that I really DON'T enjoy. This is not one of them. I LOVE this yoga workout. It clocks in at ninety minutes. Yes, you read that correctly, ninety minutes. You could potentially break it down into two 45 minute workouts if you needed to. It isn't set up that way and I reccomend following it as the way that it is but I know that not everyone has time to plop down ninety minutes to do yoga.

Tony Horton is strong and when you think of him, you think "pull-ups". Those seem to be his favorite. However, I feel he is very talented in leading yoga. How many times have you done a yoga DVD, only to be in downward-facing dog or another upside down pose and you have no idea what the instructor is trying to instruct you to do? So, you have to stand up to see what in the world they are doing on the video. I never had that one time during this workout. Tony gives very clear and detailed descriptions of what you should be doing and when; how it should feel; modifications if you just aren't ready for that pose yet.

I love the flow of the first 45 minutes. I love that there are flowing asanas that feel natural and aren't so fast that the inexperienced has to stand back and say "wait, what?" Then, the next 45 minutes are balance poses. Sometimes it is challenging to hold a pose for the allotted time period. Then at the end, when you think that you don't have any more to give....there are yoga poses to work your core.

I walked away from that workout feeling like I worked hard. Yet, feeling relaxed. Almost like a wet noodle. I am already looking forward to next Thursdays Yoga X class. Bring it, Tony!

P90X Review: Shoulders and Arms

Ok, so this one marks another strength training workout. I have to admit I have been missing Sagi this week. I have been thinking that I might not be getting as good of a workout for weights as I had been with Body Beast. That program actually un-did (is that a word?) some workout damage I had done to myself with constant long term overtraining. However, that is fodder for another post. All of that to say, that after every P90X workout this week, I have been SORE. In a good way. In the way that you know you are rocking your workouts and on your way to awesome.

So, on to shoulders and arms. This workout starts off with a warm up and stretching. That is one thing that I like about Tony Horton’s workouts. I know that I am getting a sufficient warm up to prepare me for the workout and to prevent injury. Some workouts are a little lacking in that department, in my opinion.

Then we move on to our sets. There are two rounds of every set, with three excercises in each set. One for shoulders, one for biceps, and one for triceps. I like that I feel like I have plenty of time for each exercise. Sometimes with Body Beast, I have to pause because they get set up faster than I do or I have to go slower in order to have good form.

By the end of this workout, I felt completely worked out. The rest of the day my muscles were reminding me that they had worked super hard this morning. I know with this program so far, I am feeling work in muscles that I didn’t “work” per se, but they are secondary muscles getting a workout. Kind of a bonus workout, or free gift with purchase.

P90X review: Plyometrics

P90X review: Plyometrics

I have to be honest, I really didn’t feel like working out today, but that is another post. Today was plyometrics. I am used to Turbofire and Insanity. When I started off, I thought “ this is easy. Great workout for a day that I don’t feel like working out.” Famous last words.

Starts off in usual warm-up, followed by stretching. Then, there are variations of lunges, squats and yep. You guessed it, jumping. There is always a modifier though if that is necessary or wanted by you. By 20 minutes in, I was dripping with sweat and wondering why I thought this was going to be easy. There are 30-second water breaks after every round, which of course could be lengthened by pausing if necessary. And who could forget Tony’s jokes?

 All in all, it was a great workout. I could feel it in my legs when I was done. Now? Hours later? I can feel it in my butt, which I know will be talking to me tomorrow. Must be all those jump squats and frog jumps. At least I have seven days before doing it again. I’m sure by then I will forget how hard it was and think, “this is easy.” Again.

Review of P90X: Workout 1 Chest/Back

I have decided to give P90X a go again. It has been quite some time since I did that program. I always get excited about my next new program, and the old ones get pushed to the back of the shelf. It’s sad, because they are still fabulous programs and they don’t get the attention they deserve. So, Tony and I shall get to know each other again. I will miss Sagi the Beast as I love him (don’t worry- my husband knows, it’s ok) but he and I will see each other again in a few months.

So, workout of the day today was Chest/Back. I am used to using a lot of weights. I forgot how many different variations of pushups Tony was able to come up with. Holy chest muscles, batman! I want to say that my pull up bar hasn’t seen this much action in a while, but that would be a lie. I did pull-ups with the Beast as well. However, Tony came up with quite a few variations on the classic.

I did have to use my pushup stands, as my wrists tend to give me issues when I do too much on them. Sometimes I think the pushup stands make a workout harder than it otherwise would have been. So, this workout is mostly pushups and pull-ups with all sorts of variations on the theme. There are a couple of weighted excercises, but it felt weird not using more weights. I had become accustomed to using them much more. I was very proud of myself on the divebomber pushups. I was able to complete them with really good form. Score for me.

Tomorrow, I will meet Tony again for cardio plyometrics. I am so used to Insanity, Turbofire, and Combat- so I am looking forward to finding out what I think about this workout.