I did the Insanity workout informally for about 3 weeks, and now I'm in week 3 of the official program. In short, it's awesome. The workouts are extremely intense, and in a very short time I already notice physical differences, in addition to increased energy and stamina. FOCUS: is anyone else doing the Insanity or P90X workouts (published by BeachBody)? What are your results? Any tips to share regarding the workouts, nutrition, follow-up after the program is done? Any criticisms or areas the program(s) could improve? If there's a better regimen, what is it?
After the Avatar! thread I can see we have some major experts of physical fitness here on the board. I have heard so much conflicting advice on this subject it's terrifying. Let's hear some more.
I have buddies who have turned me on to Crossfit. It's basically high-intensity, eclectic workouts that combine body-weight exercises, olympic-style lifts, and you have the added benefit of working out with a group of people which makes it competitive between participants. I don't belong to the gym on account of funds but you can kind of modify the workouts so as to use whatever you have on site. I enjoy the workouts and have come to the conclusion that if you have the resources, time, and ambition you can get whatever results you want. I've been involved in athletics my whole life and have tried different things - diet, effort, and know-how (movements and form) are the key ingredients to staying in healthy shape. Adding weight and what not is a different story - that's never been a real goal of mine and I don't know much about supplements, power-lifting, etc.
I have done P90X 1.5 times now. I slacked ass and didn't do the diet section and with fake Chinese P90X bands I wasn't getting much of anything. I restarted it with doubles hoping the extra cardio would help but Ive also stepped up my drinking/eating in the face of leaving China in a few weeks (hopefully not for good). On top of that I hurt my achilles heels and trying to mend them at the moment. Suffice it to say I didn't take any results pictures. I want to do Insanity in the morning and P90X at night but we'll see if my will is up to it leaving so shortly. I think it was good for general fitness. Hell any program with moderate to semi-intense work outs 6 days a week+ a proper diet+ cardio= good results. If you went full bore on all fronts I think P90X would give most average people the results they want. The two things I still want to improve are diet and cardio. Two things that have been much harder to keep up with. The two P90X cardio days I did (Kempo and plyo) are much more fun than sitting on a bike for an hour or fucking wind sprints or HIIT. Ive only got my diet in line once for about 4-6 months and dropped from 178 to 148 and still could have dropped another 10-15 lbs. The thing that really helped me then was drinking pert near a gallon of water a day along with eating 4-5 small meals through out the day. I kept it regimented nicely and the water really curbed my appetite (the bad part having to take a piss every 45 minutes).
I've been doing this workout for about three months now and it's fucking intense. I do it every morning when I get up. It really gets my day off on the right foot, you know? Not to mention how fucking huge my thighs have gotten. My upper body is even better. Although, you have to learn to breathe right in order to maximize your calorie burning. I also like extending the leg exercises for about 5 minutes. I found that it really improved my endurance and performance during my runs across town. Highly recommend it.
I only recently started P90X, usually using is as an alternative to non-gym days. I like the tensor/restriction band better than using dumbells, but opinions vary. It's a decent workout, when it burns like that you KNOW its working. Just don't plan on gaining much physical (lifting) strength from it, though. In the end, your entire tolerance of the program can be laid squarely at the feet of the show's host/trainer Tony, a retro-workout douche with "motivation" lines and slogans so grating at times it can be as soothing to listen to as a uzi being fired at a gong.
My results from P90X were pretty good aesthetically. On the strength side though, not nearly as good as I hoped hence why I switched to barbell training and plain old running.
I did p90x for about half of the program 2 years ago. I lost about 20 pounds and started feeling a little too good about myself. As in, "Well, I lost all that weight, I can eat some crap today, I can skip a couple workouts." As any lazy person who has tried to work out knows, if you skip two days, it's probably over. I'm just starting to do these again, though, as I've gotten kinda out of control with the weight. As someone said, the main obstacle to doing this program is that Tony Horton is a supremely annoying douche who never shuts up. I find it helpful to focus on the attractiveness of the women, and how motivated I'd be to do the exercises if they were my trainer. It's stupid, but it helps me. That, and after you've gone through them a couple times, you can turn off Tony's prompts and listen to other stuff.
P90x and Cultfit are fine for the average couch potato looking to get off their ass and exercise. They DO NOT, however, create "elite athletes" or serve as the training program for special forces soldiers like they claim.
Haha, yeah. That's the one thing that's been missing from my training all these years. If only I had it when I was younger, I could have gone pro.
Not so much. While it may just be physical exercise, a lot of people have no idea how to exercise or how to structure an exercise program. P90x will do that for you. Cultfit, on the other hand, is a random collection of exercises thrown together for a random number of reps. They promote a heinous disregard for form, have you do exercises like olympic lifts that should NEVER be done in sets of more than 3 or 4 reps, they have no sense of accomplishment-based progression, and they have created a cult of brainwashed assfucks who run around claiming to be "elite" despite the fact that they created their own criteria for being "elite". God, I fucking hate cultfit.
P90x was alright. I'm not in athlete shape, but I'm no couch potato either. It was challenging, but mostly because it makes you work constantly for the segment, whereas if I go lift weights at the gym, I have small breaks in between sets, and that makes it a little easier. There are a decent variety of movements involved. Honestly, as far as weight loss is concerned, running works just about as well for me as p90x does. P90x is a good alternative if you want to work out at a strange time of day (or rather, night) as I sometimes do, or if the weather outside isn't conducive to going for a run. My sister, who has always been in fantastic shape, uses P90x to jumpstart her weight loss after having a baby (she just had baby 3 three weeks ago and the weight is almost gone. She knows what she's doing). She mixes the P90x program in with her own personalized workout regimen. I torrented mine, so I didn't have any kind of financial investment in this program.
Crossfit is something I would be more in to if I had ever taken weight training in high school or played enough sports to learn to olympic lift. Those types of lifts are not ones I want to fuck around with without proper training, and I don't really want to pay a trainer to get me in shape. I've done some of the workouts and they can be vomit-enducing, but they don't make you a super-athlete. Over the years I've gotten by perfectly fine by just lifting heavy on routines that don't involve a lot of isolation exercises and I rely on squats, deadlifts, bench, shoulder press, dips, pull-ups, and for my cardio I do sprints. I know these exercises can be dangerous but there's enough literature and videos available that they can be self-taught. P90X and Insanity have worked for a lot of people I know. Can't argue with the results, is the general consensus. But I think for any veteran lifter there's nothing that compares to lifting heavy weights. I would get bored on P90X quickly, but probably do it so as not to waste the two hundred bucks or whatever it costs.
I torrented P90X. I think it is fucking great when I stick to it. I've always been in generally good shape because hanging out with my friends sober consists of playing tag football, softball, or basketball. I cannot bother with half of the diet stuff. I started P90X for two reasons: 1. So I can continue to eat the way I do and not feel guilty. 2. So I can become more flexible and fit for sex. I just really want to be able to hold the girl up in the air without problems. Don't judge me, motivation is motivation. It's also the most convenient for me because I don't have a car, and I'm not showering in a foreign shower. I think if you're going to do P90X you need to do it for the first 3 months without changing anything, just do it. Then after those 3 months you can pick and chose what you want to do with the program and go from there. The hardest parts for me are the Yoga and the Ab Ripper X which is fucking insane. Every other workout is easy to get into, the Ab Ripper X starts off like a drill Sargent just saying "Fuck You" really loud in your ear and kicking you in the stomach My biggest complaints are that Kenpo X and Plyometics are really fucking long like around 90 minutes, they're just too long. When it comes with dealing with the host, I suggest listening to what he says one time. After that, mute the TV and put on music that gets you going. The host and the music on the DVDs are fucking irritating. I have a sweet set-up since I play the files through my PS3, I can split screen and watch any TV program I want. Now I just have a workout playlist I pump through my speakers and go. I haven't done 2 straight months though so I feel bad about it. Some shit has always come up to stop me. I started again last Sunday, then my wisdom teeth came out. So next Sunday, I'm starting and I'm not going to miss one day. When I've done it, the results were obvious and fast. Especially on my shoulders and arms.
If I knew exactly what the P90x exercises consisted of, I would do them. I refuse to pay an extra $130+ on top of a gym membership to become active in P90x. My co-worker does the P90x, I'm thinking of bugging him for a couple of exercises and just incorporate them to what I do at the gym anyway.
Or you can just download the fucking things like everyone else. Id suggest the weights over the bands, couldnt be much more than a few months gym membership(anyone have that bowflex adjustable dumbbell set? is it legit?). As for crossfit, Ive looked into it a little. Crossfit gyms were charging 150$ a fucking month at the time. Im prone to injuries and throwing around weights and fast movements like they do plus the outrageous fees kept me away. One thing Ive wondered about is kettle bells. I have one friend who is a kettle bell nut and does competitions. Dude had always lifted enough to stay in shape but now is an absolute beast. Another physical trainer friend of mine also recommended them when I first got into lifting but my school's gym didn't allow them due to liability issues. What are everyones thoughts on kettle bell routines and for general fitness?
They are a good tool to have at your disposal and can be a great addition to anyone's routine. They're not the be-all-end-all like the KB gurus claim, though.
I have both Insanity and P90X. Insanity is very intense cardio, and is very hard. But you get good results if you are looking to lose weight. I actually don't like the second month of the program because I think those workouts are too long for how intense they are. It is a very good program and I recommend it. Shaun T is not nearly as annoying as Tony Horton, and the chicks on Insanity are much better looking than those on P90X. I started P90X a few weeks ago but quit after a couple of weeks because I am lazy. After doing Insanity, I think the P90X cardio, kenpo, etc routines are too slow. They are also long, over an hour, and so I would do Insanity workouts those days instead of the P90X workouts. I need to get back on P90X, it really does work. I use bands on P90X but wish I had the adjustable dumbbells. i have friends that have the Gold's Gym adjustable dumbbells, and they work great. They are about $300, which seems high until you price out getting regular hex dumbbells sets since they are about $1 per pound.
I hate cultfitters too. But I love my CrossFit clients. We don't do the random stupid combination Olympic lifts high reps shitty form sacrifice everything for speed. Not every Affiliate is willing to let everything go for sake of making better crossfitters. My box is designed and my programming is designed to improve strength, speed, conditioning, etc. But I'm very upfront that we don't train specific skillsets (like baseball or basketball or whatever). Its not all crazy random stupid and not all of us drink the bullshit koolaid Glassman promotes. My Affiliate has a strength bias and I'm a huge fan of heavy squats, deadlifts, and shoulder work. My Guy and I are the trainers and we share a like mind when it comes to form and consistency of form.