Posted on 12/31/2011 7:26:54 PM PST by Altariel
To give you a sense of what you’re up against if you attempt to make it through P90X2, the sequel to the phenomenally popular P90X fitness program, here’s a sample exercise: the four medicine ball push-up. Yes, that means having a ball under each hand and foot. “It’s like doing push-ups during an earthquake,” says Tony Horton, the 53-year-old former stand-up comedian who created the original program eight years ago.
That 90-day, 12-DVD regimen has sold 3.5 million copies, spawned an astounding number of before and after photos, persuaded politicians from both sides of the aisle to sweat it out together at the House gym and become shorthand for “really hard workout.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I used P90x in addition to a quick morning jog and it will destroy you unless you destroy it.
Even the yoga section is hell after 30 minutes.
I was doing Insanity for about 5 to six weeks and...hit the wall...stop...I’m 54...stop...have a low testosterone level according to my doctor...stop...I really need to get back on the Insanity workout or something to drop about 15 pounds...stop...need help...before I...stop...
I understand the theory, but I dont know a single person that has lost a significant amount of weight without vigorous exercise. Wish I could convince my wife. She needs to lose about 50 pounds and eats almost nothing... but I cant get her to so much as walk the dog around the block.
I was doing Insanity for about 5 to six weeks and...hit the wall...stop...I’m 54...stop...have a low testosterone level according to my doctor...stop...I really need to get back on the Insanity workout or something to drop about 15 pounds...stop...need help...before I...stop...
I was doing Insanity for about 5 to six weeks and...hit the wall...stop...I’m 54...stop...have a low testosterone level according to my doctor...stop...I really need to get back on the Insanity workout or something to drop about 15 pounds...stop...need help...before I...stop...
Muscle mass.
If a person doesn’t have a lot of muscle mass in relation to their weight, they don’t necessarily have to eat a lot and gain weight. Fat self-maintains. You don’t need necessarily a lot of calories to maintain a heavy weight, if you’re not exercising.
“If the host can do 90 pushups in a minute..”
If the host is doing 90 in 60 secs, he aint doin em right!
Gotcha... I dont mean to come across as a cheuvanistic ahole, frankly I dont care that she is overweight (not obese by any means), just tired of spending hundreds on drugs and docs and hearing the complaints all day that it isnt coming off when the solution is so simple.
It’s good to keep a training diary. If you’re not keeping track of what you’re doing, it can be discouraging if you think you might be wasting your time.
But with a training diary, when you see how much more capable you’ve become over 6 months, it becomes self-reinforcing to want to continue.
I was just making the point to not worry about the level of workout you see on the tv screen, but just keep track of what you’re doing.
Even a couple of months into the program, a person will see considerable improvement.
The entire yoga workout is hell. I'd never done it until P90X, and I'm pretty sure only genetic freaks can do that entire workout. The 90-minute length wasn't helping matters either. Thankfully, P90X2 has reorganized things to get yoga down to 60 minutes. I'm sure it'll still be brutal, though...
As far as P90X I can tell you that I definitely got stronger and more toned, but I didn’t lose a pound. That, combined with the LOOOONG yoga workouts every week (and every couple of days during the “recovery” week), combined with my stupid lack of writing things down, led to me not doing a second iteration.
Now, I’m going to write things down to track progress, go from P90X2 back to P90X (substituting the new 60-min yoga for the old 90-min yoga), and add running at night. I think that’ll help considerably.
You should probably make the point to her that exercise will increase her ability to be independent and will delay the time when she gets sent to a nursing home.
It also allows her to be more steady on her feet and reduces the risk of falls, which is the biggest reason why old people end up in nursing homes.
That might work, except for the fact she just turnrd 30 yesterday!
Well then, she should know that good exercise will give her ass back. :)
Don’t tell her I said that.
Are you trying to be healthy and toned or are you trying to be an athlete? There is a world of difference.
You don’t need to abuse your joints to be healthy, have real endurance and look toned.
Go get on one of those elliptical running machines. Now, set the machine to show you calories burned based on your weight and age. Start at 200 calories, i don’t care how long it takes you to do it each workout as long as you do it 3 times a week with at least one day between workouts NEVER back to back days. No more no less. You need time to heal and form muscle.
Work your way up over several months (we are trying to build a lifestyle here, no need to rush things) to where you are doing 500 calories each workout, then once that is getting easy begin to work on how long it takes you to do it. Push this as far as you are willing to go, but there is no “final” destination. You just don’t want to burn out and quit. The goal is to keep doing those 500 calorie workouts 3 times a week. Over time you will find where your plateaus in fitness are. It’s up to you to set your goals and how fast you want to complete the 500 calorie workout. But you will be fit and have dramatically more endurance no matter how hard you push the time.
This way you are getting an output based workout. I don’t believe in the calorie totals as they relate to food nor do I watch what I eat. The calorie output total simply provides a more useful frame of reference for the total work done during the workout rather than only time and distance. In this way, you don’t feel like you failed because you couldn’t do x in y time. The primary concern is COMPLETING the 500 calorie workout first, and how fast you did it second. Some days you just won’t have the energy, that’s fine, but you will suddenly wake up one day and realize that you just completed that 500 calorie workout twice as fast as you did the 200 calorie version when you started.
Combine this with a little bit of gentle varied upper body workout after each session and you’ll be both losing weight and gaining lean endurance muscle.
Mix weight training, running (or elliptical or biking or walking), and diet and you get the same results. More than anything it’s our habits that shape our bodies and our souls.
For 90 percent of the people, that’s where you start. If you’ve cut your calorie intake by a sufficient amount and are exercising reasonably and not making progress, then you gotta look at what works for you.
But the cutting of calories is the starting point.
Great post. I think I will try that, as it sounds “easy” (yes I know it isn’t, but it doesn’t sound intimidating at first) but has a nice build to something better.
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