Posted on 04/25/2011 5:36:18 PM PDT by Immerito
Tony Horton used to be a stand-up comedian. Now he's the front man for P90X and a millionaire exercise guru. So is he an infomercial salesman? Or a fitness savior?
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Beyond the compelling marketing, there are two reasons why P90X is so popular. First, Horton is the perfect front man. At 5´10* and 180 pounds with 9 percent body fat, he is genuinely ripped. He says he can consecutively do 110 pushups, 80 dips, 35 pullups, and eight 260-pound lat pulls. Plus, he can hold a handstand for a minute and even do a backflip off a wall. To prove it, he often drops to the floor and pumps out a few reps of whatever exercise he's talking about. His motto, which he wears on the back of his shirt, is "Bring It!" Along with the brawn, he has a full head of hair and—even under the harsh QVC makeup lights—no telltale signs of any nips or tucks. And, to the delight of the housedress set, he's not married.
But second, and most important, P90X—unlike the garbage heap of other "miracle" infomercial products—can deliver results. That's because it's built on such proven fitness principles as consistency, intensity, and variety, and you don't need special gadgets—just a pullup bar and dumbbells (or resistance bands). Simply pop a disc into your DVD player, move the couch out of the way, and follow along with Tony and his gang.
(Excerpt) Read more at menshealth.com ...
HIT simply means High Intensity Training.
That can come in any form of exercise. As long as you’re pushing yourself hard, to the point of puking, you’re doing HIT.
Imdeed.
I almost didn’t say that, because the term HIT has been co-opted over time. Currently, HIT generally means (IIRC) low frequency, high intensity training, characterized by generally slow tempo movements (4 second negatives) in the 8-12 range. Some variants include things like rest-pause, like in “DogCrapp” training, but the basic idea is the same.
You are right, HIT should mean something more general, but these days it is usually used to describe something quite specific, and something that doesn’t sound like P90X.
Glad to hear, because I really didn’t like slow-tempo HIT much at all (and rest-pause is really an advanced technique).
I had it for almost a year before I finally got started. Did it for about 6 months and never felt better. Then life got in the way. I gotta pick it back up again. That, and get back on my road bike.
Men’s Health - I dropped that magazine when they featured Obambi on the cover during the campaign for the 2008 election. I cancelled my subscription, citing their featuring of a communist as my reason. I got my refund, and I bet I wasn’t the only one.
I think that either you are getting numbers mixed up, or a smith machine is much different than actual squats. I've only competed in the 148 pound class a few times and I took 1st place for sqauting, IIRC, 225. Greater than 400 @140 sounds invalid unless you compete nationally. The world record for 148 is 556.
I tend towards having a high amount of muscular endurance and not strength.
If you can squat over 400 lbs @ 140, you should be competing in national powerlifting competitions.
I could push my maximums several times and not just once.
Your maximum is the same as your one-rep max. You can calculated it here
P90X is not for building up, but it can be used for that. That's one of the great things about it ... you can adapt it for what you want out of it. Want size? Use heavier weights w/fewer reps. Want toning? Lower the weights and increase the reps. But overall, the main goal of the program is just to get in better health.
Speaking of HIIT, I used the Tabata method for a while (using thrusters). Wow, is all I can say. Einstein was right — time is not a constant. There is no way that those 20 second “on”s are only twice as long as the 10 second “off”s.
I have become a big believer in “muscle confusion”. The irony is that while it is often looked down on by power lifters, it was actually the norm in power lifting prior to the 60s.
If you’re doing the same thing day in and day out, that’s where P90X provides a difference. Tony Horton calls it “muscle confusion.” Just when your body is getting used to a routine and begins to plateau, the routine changes. So if you feel like you aren’t making any further progress, maybe you oughta give it a try.
However you do it, the point of high intensity is to momentarily deplete your muscle cells of the ability to contract, for most people that means a loss of about 20 percent of your energy potential.
In weight training, if you move fast, you might be able to do more reps or push more weight, but that is because you’re making use of momentum and gravity. You’re not necessarily making the most use of your muscles in an exercise.
I think confusion is a great concept and it certainly has its place in your training toolkit, because it’s not as though our ancestors had the luxury of taking down a mastadon using the exact same movements.
A receptionist was telling me today she does P90X. I thought she was saying P-Nutty X. I thought it must be the name of some rapper that did a fitness video.
It was on a machine I did it but don’t know how that would have translated freeweight.
When I say that I could do my one rep several times, I meant that I could do my maximum and rest a couple of minutes and do it again and rest a couple of minutes and do it again. I could do that for about twenty minutes before the amount I could bench would start to drop.
Thanks for the info. I was trained to be a powerlifter from the get-go so I never used a smith machine.
Congrats on the 225.
Thanks. It was during a raw meet. I always prefer raw meets over traditional meets where a powerlifting suit is used. Getting into and out of those powerlifting suits is a workout in and of itself.
“I think confusion is a great concept and it certainly has its place in your training toolkit, because it’s not as though our ancestors had the luxury of taking down a mastadon using the exact same movements.”
Yeah, and I doubt they had the luxury of primarily training their strongest muscles, as some do today.
The biological reason for high intensity is interesting. Glucose is used as energy by the muscles. High intesity training causes the anaerobic break down of glucose from the muscles’ glycogen reserves. This incomplete breakdown creates lactate. Lactate travels to the liver where it is converted into glucose. When lactate exceeds the liver’s ability to clear it (like during high intesity training), it builds up and slightly lowers blood pH. This causes the body to release testosterone and growth hormones which causes faster muscle growth. It’s an elaborate feedback system the body uses to adapt to its environment.
If you do pick it up again (and if you don’t mind), would you mind discussing your results?
It would be interesting to see whether you will see the same results you did the first time, or exceed them.
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