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The P90X Workout Schedule broken down and explained

admin — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:05:50 +0000

The P90X Workout Schedule is comprised of three separate routines. You choose where you want to start based on your physical conditioning and then just push play. The three options are broken down into Classic, Lean, and Doubles. I will give you a breakdown of each P90X Workout Schedule for those that don’t understand.

P90X Workout Schedule Options:

“Classic”

This is where most people seem to start, including myself – The Classic Workout Schedule is straight forward and offers the best combination or those ready to build muscle and burn fat as they go.

The classic workout schedule requires no more than 1 hour and a half in any one day – The longest workout of the entire schedule is Yoga X.

I chose to do classic in my first round of P90X and seemed to get very good results by sticking almost 100% to the workouts. My diet was nothing organized and didn’t follow the P90X Meal Plan. However, I did eat healthy and clean, i.e. no soda, candy, ice cream, red meats, sugars, etc. I still consume sugar but on a highly reduced level, pretty much only in my coffee – that is my one diet evil.

The Classic P90X Workout Schedule will work you out 6 days a week just as Lean and Doubles will do except you tend to focus on a mix of Cardio and Resistance training, nearly 50 / 50. It looks something like this:

Monday: Resistance + Abs Tuesday: Cardio Wednesday: Resistance + Abs Thursday: Stretch / Balance (Yoga) Friday: Resistance + Abs Saturday: Cardio Sunday: Off

The Classic p90x Workout Schedule is ideal for those ready to get started from ground 0 and not looking to lose a ton of fat up front before building muscle. The above example stays true through each phase with a few resistance videos switching up to add Muscle Confusion. Let’s look at Lean now.

“Lean”

The Lean Workout Schedule will have you focusing on Cardio a lot more than resistance. This is a great place to start for those that want to focus on weight loss first and then maybe work into muscle building later on. With Lean you will be doing a lot more cardio options which in turn will burn more calories and help you drop fat faster.

I have not tried the lean P90X Workout Schedule option myself but I think it would be ideal if you wanted to condition and didn’t think you were quite ready to jump into Classic. You will need to set aside up to 1 hour and 30 minutes for your Lean Workout Schedule; the longest workout is Yoga X.

A Lean P90X Workout Schedule would look something like this:

Monday: Core / Cardio Tuesday: Cardio Wednesday: Resistance + Abs Thursday: Stretch / Balance (Yoga) Friday: Resistance + Abs Saturday: Cardio Sunday: Off

Notice how Monday differs from the Classic P90X Workout Schedule – You add an additional cardio / core exercise to maximize fat burning and core strengthening.

Now what’s interesting is at phase 3 of the Lean workout schedule you actually do workouts similar to Phase 1 of the Classic workout schedule. With that said you can see how Lean is designed as a lead up into Classic and then Classic builds into what we will look at next.

“Doubles”

Alright, this is the ultimate P90X Workout Schedule and for those already in shape or already doing Classic but ready for more. You will see why in a moment. Now with Doubles you will need a lot more dedication and time, you will need to set aside up to 2 hours and 20 minutes on some days. In most cases you will wake up and do cardio, then a couple hours later or in the evening you will do resistance + Abs.

Let’s take a look at what the Doubles P90X Workout Schedule looks like. ( Now keep in mind in Phase 1 Doubles appear to be the exact same as Classic – In phase 2 this changes by adding 3 cardio workouts each week and in phase 3 there is a significant change by adding 4 cardio workouts)

The following example is based off the Doubles P90X Workout Schedule – Phase 3. I want you to see how serious this really gets!

Monday: AM – Cardio / PM – Resistance + Abs Tuesday: AM – Cardio / PM – Cardio Wednesday: Resistance + Abs Thursday: AM – Cardio / PM – Stretch and Balance (Yoga) Friday: AM – Cardio / PM – Resistance + Abs Saturday: Cardio Sunday: Off

Notice how extreme is gets? The biggest difference between Classic and Doubles is the addition of all the Cardio. The best way to compare is this – In Doubles phase 3 you’re basically doing Classic with 4 additional Cardio workouts a week. Pretty intense eh – Believe me, it is!

Well that was a quick look at the p90x workout Schedule and the variations that occur. This is a generalized overview but was hopefully informative. Keep in mind that with P90X and Muscle Confusion your resistance days will switch up to continuously bring intensity and challenge so you never fully adapt. This is the power of the P90X Workout Schedule – Choose Yours.

If your new and want to lose weight fast – Do Lean. If you’re seasoned and want a challenge plus muscle gain – Do Classic If you’re a pro and classic is not a challenge, get extreme – Do Doubles

The choose is yours and the P90X Workout Schedule allows so many variations there is no reason why you should not be pushing play today – Take responsibility for yourself and your health, take action today!

How You Can Lose Weight and Get a Better Shape in 2011

admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:04:34 +0000

New Year Weight Loss Workout

You may be someone that wants to lose weight in the New Year. Good for you. One problem though is that most people are clueless as to the best way to workout. Most do what seems like the easiest and get on a treadmill and jog for awhile.

While it may be a good start, you need to challenge your muscles a bit. Here is a fast workout you can do anywhere, no gym required. This workout is fast and does not require you to have any equipment. It is a body weight routine that you can do in less than 30 minutes. The best part about it that by doing it in a circuit; you get not only a weight workout but a cardio workout too. That’s efficient!

Do a quick warm up, a brisk walk or jog in place. Then do the following exercises in a circuit fashion. That means do each exercise for the number of reps shown, then go right to the next exercise. Rest as little as possible between the exercises with the goal being to have no rest. After you are done each circuit, rest a minute and then do two more circuits for three total circuits.

Jumping Jacks 20

Squats 20

Push ups or kneeling pushups 10

Hip raise 15

Lunge 10 each leg

Plank 30 seconds

Talk about a fast but challenging workout. Combine this with a good solid nutrition plan and you will start to see the weight drop pretty quickly. A diet nutritionist provides you a great diet plan to work out with.

Green Outdoor Fitness Training Ideas

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:21:26 +0000

If you are thinking about doing some fitness training but don’t want to waste money and space in your home with big equipment purchases, you can look for ways to exercise around your home and outside. By finding items that you already own or by using the great outdoors, you can be more “green” when you’re exercising too.

Any personal trainer will tell you that you don’t need a bunch of fancy equipment in order to do some fitness training and get in shape. First of all, take a look around your house – you can use canned food as weights, towels as exercise mats, a stack of books as a stair, some spare rope as a jumping rope and even a chair can help you exercise at home.

Why not take your items outside? It’s much easier to jump rope (an excellent cardio workout) when you have lots of space. For any of your fitness training, being outside is better and will make you feel better – fresh air and plenty of it will increase the workout you’re getting.

When you’re outside, you can take your fitness training to a whole new level. Go for a brisk walk (or even a slow one) or a run and increase your workout all the more. Even if running isn’t your thing, you can still walk or hike around your local area on trails or just the side walk. Take your bike to work instead of your car or just head out on a leisurely bike ride.

It’s always best to team up with someone, even a personal trainer, to stick with your fitness training plan. It helps keep you accountable for your goals and your daily routines. Another green and great idea for your fitness training is to join a team for your favorite sport, such as volley ball, tennis, soccer, basket ball or any sport that you enjoy doing.

If you really want to get serious with your fitness training plan, you might eventually need some equipment. However, that doesn’t mean that you need to break the bank and buy all new equipment. Check out the Internet for used equipment or local sporting goods stores for second hand goods – many cities and towns have a “bargain finder” newspaper or portion of the daily newspaper where people can sell or give away items. However, you can make do with water jugs, a chair and a stepping stool. Your fitness plan doesn’t have to include a bunch of expensive equipment.

Aerobic Exercise for Kids

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:10:55 +0000

How much aerobic exercise does your child get on a weekly basis? Well it could be a lot more than you think. Children have fun with aerobic exercise on a daily basis while in the playground at meal and break times. However this should not be your child’s only source of physical activity, as they need regular exercise to keep them healthy.

Research and numerous studies have put the amount of time needed for exercise at between 40 and 90 minutes daily. Most have settled on an average of 60 minutes as the recommended guideline amount for daily physical exercise. It is also shown that children who actively participate in physical exercise at a younger age tend to carry this through to adulthood.

Making exercise fun is a great way of encouraging your children to get active. Aim to be a positive role model by involving the whole family in activities that you can all enjoy together. Aerobic exercise is perfect for adults as well as children, as it gives the body a great cardio workout. Keeping your child’s body healthy will also help to keep their minds focused and upbeat.

Walking is a great way to begin your new exercise regime. Whether you just change your routine and walk to and from school or get geared up at the weekends for long hikes on the hills. Up the tempo when you walk by brisk walking or jogging, maybe a bit of running if you feel up to it! Play games with your children by shouting “First one to the big tree at the end” and sprinting off into the distance. When you look behind you, they will be chasing you with a big smile on their faces.
Cycling is a low impact exercise that is fine for children of any age, as it supports the body leading to good posture. As well as being an aerobic exercise, cycling is also a great strength builder. Vary the school run by cycling instead of walking, this will help to break the monotony of the same daily routine. When cycling always remember that you and your family should wear well fitting cycle helmets for your own safety.

Swimming is a great all rounder that the whole family can enjoy. You can make “proper swimming” more fun by challenging your children to races to see who can do the fastest lengths. Playing games is much more tiring in the pool and is a great way to boost your child’s fitness. Regular games such as water polo are great fun but have you ever tried playing tag in a swimming pool?
Just playing games in the park or back garden is great fun and just as healthy. Kicking a football around or playing bat and ball is great aerobic activity. Involving the whole family or your child’s friends will make exercise a fun experience. This feeling of happiness and togetherness will help to boost your child’s interest in aerobic exercise.

Fitness Gyms For The Home

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:02:18 +0000

If you’ve decided this is the year to get serious about your fitness congratulations are in order. Just making the decision is a great start. But between family, work, and other pressing engagements in an all too busy day when the heck will you ever get to the gym? Have you considered investing in one of the many fitness gyms for the home?

It’s really the answer. With just a little help from us we’ll show you how to find the perfect fitness equipment for your home. With so many fitness gyms on the market it can be a bit overwhelming trying to figure out which gym is the right one for you. Heck if you do it right you will choose equipment that your entire family could use. Of course if you have a medical condition always check with your doctor first before undergoing a new fitness program.

Just like different commercial fitness gyms have different equipment to offer their members different home gyms also have different equipment to offer. It’s a lot easier to stay on track with your fitness program if you know what it is you want out of your work out. You should also figure out what your current fitness level is.

You have treadmills, rowing machines, stationary bikes, cross country ski machines, free weights, and even multi machines to choose from. Home fitness gyms can be as simple or as complex as you want. The only other thing limiting you is your budget.

There’s nothing cheap about home fitness gyms. At least not the quality ones and you should never compromise poor quality for a cheap price. A treadmill is always a great buy if you have the room. You can vary your workout, increase the intensity, burn calories and get your cardio workout. Choose a belt driven model that has a safety shut off and that the treadmill itself is wide enough. Make sure you also know what the warranty is.

Home fitness gyms also do well with rowing machines and they offer an all over work out that has minimal impact on joints. Once you get the hang of the rowing machine it is an excellent piece of fitness equipment to have in your repertoire. Stationary bikes have been on the market for ages. The newer ones have a few more bells and whistles but at the end of the day they still do the same basic thing they did back then. Stationary bikes are a great start if you have had a sedentary lifestyle.

Home fitness gyms should always include a set of free weights. They are perfect for sculpting the body. They are affordable, easy to store, and a must for anyone that’s serious about their fitness program. You don’t burn a lot of calories with free rates but you do get some very nice definition by combining the two types of fitness training.

Knowing what it is you want makes it much easier to look at all the home fitness gyms on the market and then choose what’s best for you. You’re going to look great!

P90X vs Insanity 60 day workout, which one is better?

admin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:00:33 +0000

Many people have been asking me which is better P90X or Insanity. Since I have completed both of them individually and a P90X / Insanity hybrid workout I decided to spend a couple minutes to give as best of a evaluation of both that I could.

Build Muscle – P90X -You are using weights in 5 of the workouts including the pull up bar. There are no weights used with Insanity at all besides your body weight.

Intense Cardio – Insanity- Hands down winner here. All of the Insanity workouts involve cardio training while just half of the P90X workouts do.

Strength Training – P90X- This was a close one but I chose P90X because of the weight training along with the cardio. Workouts like P90X Legs & Back, P90X Chest & Back are similar to some of the Insanity workouts but the addition of weights help build more strength.

Flexibility – P90X – Yoga X, X Stretch, and the almost 10 minutes of stretching for each workout top the basic stretching with Insanity.

Abs – Insanity- It seems like almost 80% of each movement is geared toward the core area in the normal workouts not including the Cardio Ab workout. P90X has the killer Ab Ripper X workout but Insanity has more plank work and ab focused moves.

Weight Loss – Push – Both P90X and Insanity will help you lose weight if you really get at it.

Toning – Insanity – Very close here again as both workouts will tone you up but using your body weight for resistance will tone up any bulk that you have.

Time – Insanity – Most of the workouts with Insanity are under 50 minutes long while P90X is about an hour plus Ab Ripper X three times a week. If time is an issue then go with insanity.

Beginner – P90X – Tony Horton has three people in the background showing you how to modify each move from a beginner to advanced. The goal is to build up your strength to keep up with the person doing the advanced move.

Advanced – Insanity – Don’t start Insanity unless you are already in some kind of shape. I think of Insanity as two a day football practices wrapped up into 45 minutes. You’re basically trying to keep up with Shaun T, who is a college track star, doing power jumps, squats, and push ups at a ridiculous pace.

Variety – P90X- Yoga, Kenpo, and using a pull up bar are things not done in Insanity.

Instructor:

p90x :Tony Horton Insaity 60 day workout: Shaun T

Slogan :

P90X: “Do your best and forget the rest!”

Insanity 60 day workout : “DIG DEEPER!”

Program Length :

P90X: 90 days, Insanity 60 day workout : 60 days

Average Workout Duration:

P90X: 75 minutes

Insaity 60 day workout : 45 minutes

Style :

P90X: Intense Muscle Confusion

insanity 60 day workout: Max Interval Training

Accessories

If you like to use fitness equipment to keep your interest level up, P90X might be the workout program for you. You’ll need a chin up bar, a chair, a set of dumbbells and/or bands and good exercise shoes. With the Insanity workout you’ll only need a really good pair of cross-trainers and a workout mat.

Intensity

Since Shaun T’s Insanity workout program relies on maximum effort interval cardio, you’ll need to move fast and be prepared to sweat, A LOT! The Insanity program is designed to keep your body in a constant state of calorie-burning. And don’t think you’ll just be doing jumping jacks for 30 minutes, the Insanity program is going to constant challenge you to jump up, squat down, push up, jump high, until you can’t do it anymore. P90X on the other hand uses a slower pace (that’s still pretty intense) but focuses more on weight training and muscle development than just calorie burning.

Overall – P90X – The strength training, variety, and ability for people of any fitness level to be able to jump in and get great results over a 90 day period put it just a tad farther than Insanity.

Price:

P90X: Official price: $119.85 Hotdvdshop.com price: $58.07

Insanity 60 day: Official price: $119.85 Hotdvdshop.com price: $58.07 with big discount

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I’ve tried many home workout DVDs in the past and none of them worked nearly as well as P90X and Insanity. Either of these programs will give you great results. Deciding which one is right for you is easy. You have to decide what you want to work on and what your level of commitment is. If you want to build muscles, have a lot of time to dedicate to it, and are not planning on going anywhere for an extended period of time (for the next 90 days) then you should try P90X. If you are a road warrior or travel bug, or you don’t have enough time in your day, then you should try Insanity instead.

Fitness Tips During Pregnancy

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:35:32 +0000

It is so easy during pregnancy to eat what we want, and as we get bigger our energy is slowly zapped by our growing baby, so it is no wonder that many of us look at our bodies after the baby comes and wonder “what happened?” If you want to avoid this during your pregnancy then you will need to stay active. Consider the following tips for pregnancy fitness, and try to keep them in mind as your belly grows bigger.

Stick with what you know, if you were a runner before you became pregnant, then with your doctor’s approval you can continue. You may have to reduce the intensity and distance of your runs, but you can keep going as long as you feel comfortable and your pregnancy is progressing normally.

Start slowly, for those who did not exercise regularly before, easing into an exercise routine is one of the most important pregnancy fitness tips to prevent muscle strain. Start with a 5-10 minute workout and then gradually increase the length of workouts by 5 minutes until you get up to 30 minutes.

Stay safe, avoid activities where you could fall, as it is easy to do as your joints loosen and your center of gravity changes. This means no skiing, bike riding (unless stationary) or even step aerobics. Ensure that you are not overexerting yourself, you should be able to carry on a normal conversation, if not you are working yourself too hard.

Hit the pool – one of the best pregnancy fitness exercises is to get wet with an aqua-aerobic program or just swimming some laps. While you may not like picturing yourself with a huge belly in a bathing suit, if you want to stay fit you may just have to grin and bear it. Swimming is easy on the pregnant body as you are more weightless in the water. Not only is it a great cardio workout but swimming also targets all the major muscle groups so you get an all over workout.

7 Cardio Kickboxing Tips for Safety and Efficacy

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:13:40 +0000

Because it involves punches and kicks, cardio kickboxing can be totally intense. Many can vouch to severe sweating and burning sensation even after five minutes of kickboxing. This just proves that this form of exercise is a great fat-burning cardio program. You don’t actually need to be clad in boxing shorts and gloves to make legit to join the clique of kickboxing enthusiasts.

It’s always good to play secured at all times, much more with doing an intense fat-burning cardio routine such as kickboxing. These 7 cardio kickboxing tips for safety and efficacy impart to you what to do for your benefit:

1.Take it easy when you kick and punch. Don’t go overboard when you can’t exert energy that’s beyond your capacity. You don’t have to strike full kicks and firm punches in your first few sessions. Get yourself used with positioning, different stances and assertion levels first before you exert your best effort.

2.Don’t do kickboxing consecutively. If you want to linger for years in the fitness and sports arena, you must only concentrate on one cardio workout per week. It’s not good either to be doing kickboxing twice in day as it may strain your joints, tendons and muscles.

3.Find yourself a kickboxing instructor that promotes results-oriented training. Fitness instructors who are acknowledged experts in their field are believable and more capable of training you. They have the best ideas and effective routines to share to you so that you can be at your best shape. Kickboxing has specific routines that may only be taught effectively by a trained kickboxing guru.

4.Humble down and be a starter. You can settle for a kickboxing program that doesn’t involve very intense movements. Faster beat can be too intense for you to follow, so it’s better that you choose the mediocre speed but still give you the same results.

5.It’s not good to disregard your feet. For you to be able to endure the intense kicks and foot stances involved in cardio kickboxing, you must do specific feet and leg resistance training to increase your agility and endurance in striking full-length kicks.

6.Don’t overlook warming up. Before a session in kickboxing, you have to do five to ten minutes of war-up by extending and stretching some of your body parts. This allows you to awaken the triceps, biceps, buttocks, abs muscles, pectoral muscles and the rest of the lower body muscle groups that are used in kickboxing.

7.You can probably give yourself a shot at enrolling in martial arts. Since kickboxing is an integration of martial arts and boxing, you can start engaging in martial arts first so that you can be more interested in executing the routines.

Kickboxing is an intense cardio routine that entails alertness, energized and synchronized movements, and endurance. So, it’s best to go after your safety as you undertake the program.