Archives for October 2008

A Great Tip On How To Do Pull Ups Better

October 30, 2008 - Updated February 26, 2018

Pull ups and chin ups are the meat and potatoes of P90X. You do them in almost all of the P90X DVDs. For some people it is really hard to do pull ups. Actually, its pretty hard for everybody if you never did them in the past or you do not have enough body strength. heck, my brother struggled with doing them for 3 months before he could finally do 5 pull ups.

I always believe that the hardest thing about doing pull ups is getting it through your head that you can do them. A lot of the process of doing chin ups is mental. Yes, you do need to have muscle but once you tell yourself you can do them you have already done one.

Let’s say you are frustrated because every time you do a P90X workout you just are not seeing any gains in your numbers or in your body. You dread waiting for the next time you do P90X because the chin up bar is laughing at you.

I learned this great tip from my girlfriends roommate. This is going to sound funny but it makes sense. We were at their place and her roommate was talking about a guy she used to date who moved from Michigan to New York City. He is into acting and dancing. The kind of acting and dancing where you strip for money. Yup, he’s a male stripper. She kept talking about how hot he was and of course needed to show me a photo of him with his shirt off. The guy was in shape. I won’t knock that.

Then she started talking about when she went to visit him in his apartment a year ago. She asked him why he had all of these “bars” between the door frames going from room to room. It was a typical 1 bedroom New York City apartment. His reply was that every time he walked to a new room he would do 5 chin ups. She could not believe he would do such a thing. It made sense to me. He’s a stripper and needs to stay in shape. It also got me thinking that this was a genius of an idea. Think about how many times a day you walk between rooms and how many times you would have to do a chin up.

I tried this on myself yesterday. What I did was every time I went from the upper to the lower floor in my house I would do 5 chin ups. My pull up bar is hanging from the door frame of a spare bedroom next to mine. I ended up doing 40 chin ups yesterday and I didn’t even workout. It only took 7 seconds to do the chin ups so it wasn’t a great deal of time. You can check out my P90X results to see how much more defined my back muscles are from doing all of those chin ups and pull ups to see why its so important to do them.

What I like about this is it creates a habit but also gets you into the mindset of doing pull ups. Imagine if you struggle to do pull ups right now and you followed this technique. Every time you walked into one room in your house where you kept the chin up bar and had to do just 1 pull up. You might end up doing 10 pull ups that day alone. The next time you actually workout you would be ready to crank out some pull ups and chin ups. Hopefully you can use this tip to help you get over your fear of doing pull ups.

P90X Back And Biceps

October 29, 2008 - Updated December 3, 2018

The P90X Back and Biceps workout is a world class workout. There is no way that you are not going to build up some strength and muscle when doing Back and Biceps. When you break this workout down it really is a simple old school workout.

Back and Biceps used to be a workout I hated to do when I first started P90X but it really helped me in all levels of my fitness.

The P90X Back and Biceps workout has 24 different exercises. I hope you like using your P90X Pull Up Bar and the Bowflex Selecttech Dumbbells because you are going to use them.

“Welcome To The Gun Show” is what Tony Horton should say in this workout. But he does not. Which is too bad.

Pull ups and good old fashion bicep curls make up most of this hour long workout. And just when you think you’re done doing pull ups you’re only two moves away from doing them again.

Once you get a hang of doing pull ups and chin ups is when this workout becomes fun. That’s right, fun. There is something about lifting weights and challenging your fitness on the pull up bar.

Even after the many rounds of P90X I’ve done over the years I always look forward to doing Back and Biceps. Its also a great workout to when you’re looking to make a hybrid.

P90X Cardio X

October 23, 2008 - Updated December 3, 2018

P90X Cardio X is a workout you will only do a couple times during the 90 days of P90X. The first time you see the Cardio X workout is after the first 3 weeks. Tony Horton gives you one week off to do more of a cardio week. No weights, just a lot of stretching and high intensity cardio workouts. Cardio X is a quick little workout which will get the blood going. It is a great workout to do in the morning or if you just do not feel like going outside or lifting any weights.

Tony Horton will push you in the workout. It is very similar to the Plyometrics workout but you are not jumping around as much. You will be doing a lot of lateral moves and push ups. Some of the exercises are kind of goofy looking but are very beneficial to your health. I like to think of the P90X Cardio X workout as a tune up for Plyometrics.

If you cannot do Plyometrics then you need to build up your endurance and strength by doing the P90X Cardio X DVD. This is another great workout to do with friends or a workout partner. If I know that I will be having a sporting event later on that day I will do the P90X Cardio X workout just to get loose and be warmed up before my game later that night.

You will not do the Cardio X workout that much during the 90 days you do P90X but you will gain a lot by doing it. You may not get the wash board abs like Tony Horton but you will see big gains in your cardio performance.

P90X Kenpo X

October 23, 2008 - Updated December 3, 2018

P90X Kenpo X is one of my favorite P90X workouts. I remember when I first started doing P90X and when it was time for the Kenpo X workout. It ranks up there with workouts that I never would of ever thought of doing. Kind of like the P90X yoga x workout. I was always a go to the gym do some curls and bench presses kind of guy with some occasional running in between.

What Is P90X Kenpo X All About?

The P90X Kenpo X workout is more of a high intensity workout focusing on a lot of balancing. It is a complete body workout. For the better part of an hour you are throwing punches and doing kicks. It really is a fun workout because Tony Horton gets you throwing “Upper Cuts,” “Jabs”, and “Hooks” as if you were fighting somebody. My favorite moves are where you are doing punches and throwing an occasional kick in there. Speed is one thing that you will gain from doing P90X Kenpo X.

I have noticed better balance and an overall awareness of what my body can and cannot do. What I mean by this is by doing a martial art type of workout I have started testing out my reflexes, speed, and strength all at the same time. This is not some normal workout where you are working the same muscle. Here you are using all of them and working on getting faster with your kicks and punches. The P90X Kenpo X workout always seems to fly by so fast.

You will enjoy the P90X results you get when doing Kenpo X. I highly suggest doing P90X Kenpo X with a friend if you can. Its kind of a funny workout with Tony Horton running the show. This way you can have a few laughs with a workout partner while kicking some butt.

How Can You Make P90X Kenpo X More Intense?

After you have done P90X Kenpo X a couple times you might not feel like you are getting that much out of it. While it is a great workout, P90X Kenpo X is designed to be a cardio / recovery workout. More or less something to keep the body moving and having fun but it comes at the end of the week after doing lots of hard resistance workouts. To make it more intense try doing it with weighted gloves, a weighted vest, or both. I have done it using just gloves, the vest, and both. My back is always sore from throwing punches with the gloves on. Add the vest into it and the legs get worked out a little more.

All in all, P90X Kenpo X is a fun workout. You will work on your balance, cardio strength, and even a couple karate moves. This does not mean you’ll be able to defend yourself in a fight so don’t go trying it. Have fun burning calories with P90X Kenpo X.

P90X X Stretch

October 23, 2008 - Updated December 3, 2018

I will admit to not doing P90X X Stretch as much as the other ones. You will notice that the “P90X X Stretch” workout does not even come into play until the first recovery week of P90X. During that week it is apart of the program were Tony Horton has you doing more cardio workouts.

If you already do P90X Yoga X then you are going to notice a lot of similarities. For the most part they are one in the same. The only difference between the two is the X- Stretch workout does not include all of the “Warrior Poses” which are in P90X Yoga X.

X Stretch is about 30 minutes shorter than Yoga X. Sometimes when I really do not feel like spending a hour and half doing Yoga X I will throw in P90X X Stretch. All that I am really giving up is the warrior poses. I do not get as good of a stretch but it does the job.

There are other times where I will throw the X Stretch in on a day when I have a softball game or if I am going golfing later on. I usually spend 20 minutes warming up before the game so I figured I might as well do the stretching earlier so when I get to the game I can do some wind sprints to warm up and I am already loose.

X Stretch is a nice workout for people that maybe do not have the strength yet to do Yoga. I have done Yoga with my parents to help them with their flexibility and they really struggled. I gave them the X Stretch DVD to help get them loosened out and build up the “Yoga Strength.” It has helped them a lot and now are able to do yoga.

P90X Supplements Review

October 23, 2008 - Updated December 8, 2018

I get asked by a lot of people if the P90X Supplements will make a big difference with their results. I’m not a nutritionist so I can’t explain the breakdown of what each of the ingredients do to your body. I can only write about what I have tried and how they affected me when doing P90X.

**The P90X Recovery Drink, P90X Protein Bars, P90X Pre-Workout Drink (AKA – Energy & Endurance), P90X Peak Health Formula, and quite frankly the entire P90X Nutrition line has been discontinued and replaced with the Beachbody Performance Supplements and BEACHBARS.**

What Are The P90X Supplements?

P90X Recovery Drink
P90X Protein Bars
P90X Pre-Workout Drink (AKA – Energy & Endurance (E&E))
P90X Peak Health Formula (Vitamins)
P90X Performance Pack (Even More Vitamins) – I never bought these.

Before starting P90X I occasionally used Whey Protein I would buy from GNC. Its all I knew about supplementation. And its all I used during my first round of P90X.

It wasn’t until round two that I decided to buy the P90X Recovery Drink. And I feel it made a big difference during that round and after every time I used it. Soreness dropped dramatically and it seemed I would be able to push harder through workouts.

I bought the P90X Recovery Drink until it was replaced. Stuff tasted pretty good too.

Energy & Endurance seemed to work too. I didn’t use it before every workout because sometimes the effects wouldn’t wear off until later and it would keep me up.

I would buy the P90X Peak Health Formula Vitamins occasionally and man were these things potent. It was suggested to take an entire pack of six capsules and you’d definitely feel it kick in. What worked best for me was to take one and add until I felt good. When Shakeology came around I stopped buying them because I was getting enough vitamins in it.

But it was the P90X Protein Bars that I liked the most. I would eat nearly one a day for the better part of two years. And I would always bring some on golf and ski trips. They were quite good.

P90X Recovery Drink

Refuel, re-energize, and reduce muscle soreness with this after-workout shake. Four parts carbs to one part protein ensures speedy muscle repair after intense workouts. Popular For All Workouts. $43.95.

P90X Recovery Drink Packets

P90X Peak Health Formula

Get ripped with our most complete, high-end, high-potency multivitamin.
Boosts Strength and Energy. $42.95.

P90X Performance Pack

These core nutrients help you adapt to a higher fitness level. Maximize your post exercise recovery.
$62.85.

P90X Chocolate Protein Bars

Chocolate Peanut Butter bar packed with a whopping 20 grams of protein to maximize your workout. Get the protein you need without the fat. $23.95.

P90X Mocha Protein Bar

To maximize your performance, try these delicious bars with 18 grams of protein! Get the protein without the fat.
$23.95.

P90X Wild Berry Protein Bar

Try the wild berry protein bar with 18 grams of protein.
Get the protein without the fat.
$23.95.

P90X Pre-Workout Drink

Energy & Endurance (E&E)

30 Servings For $29.95

Summary

Its my feeling that the P90X supplements helped just enough through my many rounds of P90X. Soreness dropped after each workout and most importantly it seemed like they did what they were supposed to do.

You don’t have to buy supplements for P90X but if I was to recommend buying any of them I would go with Shakeology and then the P90X Recovery Drink. I don’t see a need for the P90X Multi-Vitamins because the ingredients are in Shakeology. The P90X Recovery Drink ingredients are also in Shakeology but the reason you still want the recovery drink is because it has a lot of the ingredients you just burned from your system doing P90X.

If you stick with these two supplements then you should get results faster and feel the benefits of using it. I use both of these products even when I’m not doing P90X. Shakeology in the morning and the P90X Recovery Drink after any workout (swimming, biking, snowboarding, etc.).

Besides that it was just a healthy diet and working out on a normal schedule. If you have any questions about the P90X supplements then leave a question below for me.