The people claiming how great it is. The people saying how easy it is. The people saying they're in the best shape of their lives.
I'm putting it to the test.
I'm talking about P90X.
From Wikipedia's P90X article:
"P90X, or Power 90 Extreme, is a home exercise system developed by Tony Horton in conjunction with Beachbody and director Mason Bendewald, which claims to improve physical fitness in 90 days through a rigorous periodized training program combined with a nutrition and dietary supplement plan."
In the infomercials, some of the people who use it claim you can't find any bad press about P90X. For the most part, that seems to be true. Some say it's the best thing out there to get fit, some say, "It's great, but not for everyone," and others (read: weight-lifters) say it's worthless. Granted, anyone who does a minimum of research into the product will realize it isn't for bulking up like endless weightlifting sets at your local gym. It's more of a general, overall fitness product. Yes, you (likely) will put on some muscle, but that's true of ANY workout regiment. ESPECIALLY if you come into it from a sedimentary lifestyle.
The program itself consists of a book about the program, a nutrition guide, a fitness guide, and calendar and log for tracking progress (as well as the DVDs). The first thing I did was RTFM. I didn't want to start this by just popping in the first disc and throwing my back out. Had that happened, you wouldn't be reading this. I also watched (read: skimmed) the DVDs to see what exercises were done in each to get a feel as to how intense (or eXtreme) the program is. (If anyone out there reading this is considering giving this a go, I very highly recommend you do this as well.) It seemed a bit daunting at first and, I'll admit, I wanted to pussy out. But I forged on and took that first step; the initial weigh-in.
*DUN DUN DUNNNN*
Let me give you a little background about myself. I'm 32, 5' 8"-ish, work behind a computer, enjoy playing games behind a computer and, generally speaking, hate to move. I know I'm overweight, but I've never in my life gone over 200lbs (I peaked at around 195).
Now, the prep section of the guide has spots for 'before' and 'after' figures. The idea being the 'after' should be better. These are my 'before' figures:
Body Fat %: ~25%
(We have a bathroom scale that, through the magic of electroconductivity, can calculate your body fat percentage. I don't know how accurate it really is, that's why I said ~.)
Weight: ~179lbs
(The same bathroom scale likes to give a different weight depending on what part of the floor it's sitting on. 179lbs came up most frequently in my moving it around, so that's the number I'm using as my starting weight.)
Chest: 41.5"
Waist: 40.25" (Yikes. I wear a 32" waist in jeans, for what it's worth.)
Hips: 37"
Thigh: 22"
Arm (at bicep in full flex): 13.75"
After that little bit of humiliation, they ask you to take a 'fit test'. Joy. They ask that you use a heart rate monitor, but we don't have one as yet, so the heart rates listed are approximate.
Resting: 80bpm
(Now, they wanted this from a first-thing-in-the-morning reading, but I cut a corner here and just sat on the couch until I felt relaxed and at ease.)
Pull-ups: Yeah... I haven't done a single pull-up since junior high.
Vertical leap: 15.5"
Push-ups: 15
Toe-touch: .75" shy of my toes
Wall squat: 48 seconds
Bicep curls: 10
(I didn't have a proper 20lb weight like the book calls for at the time, but I did have a shit-ton of 16.9oz bottles of water and a big grocery bag, so I kinda faked it.)
In & outs: 14
(I thought my abs were in better shape than that.)
Active heart rate: peak at 160 bpm, 104 bpm after four minutes
Now, each one of these exercises had a suggested minimum and, even though I failed on a few of them (Minimum of THREE pull-ups??), I decided to continue. Why? Because the target audience of this particular product isn't people who can do three pull-ups. If it were, they wouldn't show endless infomercials about it! You wouldn't see people on said infomercials who claim to have been depressed, out-of-shape lumps until Tony's miraculous program entered their lives. Despite the claims of the included guide, this program panders itself to the LCD who think they have the self-motivation to actually change their physical well-being.
Enter me. A self-proclaimed computer bum who probably spent a grand total of 24 hours in a gym in his life. Someone who sweats profusely on an evening walk with his wife.
My wife bought an ergometer a year or so ago and I used it religiously Monday through Friday. Sure, it was only for a half-hour a day, but that was a hella-lot more exercise than I was getting at the time. I actually lost a fair bit of weight. I don't remember when I stopped, but in retrospect, I feel bad about quitting. It was good exercise. Sitting on my ass isn't.
One of the buzz-words they throw around in the description of P90X is 'the plateau effect.' In a nutshell, it means if you do the same exercises over and over, your body eventually stops progressing. Whether this is true or not, I'll leave to the experts. I will admit, however, that while I was on the erg, I never really felt like I was progressing past the 30 minute mark. I didn't feel like my endurance was building or my weight was coming off the way I felt it should have.
I didn't get into it because of buzz-words, anyway. My initial interest came from one of the infomercials which included a Filipino-looking man who look kinda like me (in his 'before' photos). Then I started picturing myself with a flat stomach and no love handles. Then my wife says she wanted to see how I'd look with those cut lines that guys get when they're fit. (You know, the ones from the hips down to the... *ahem* You know what I'm talking about.) Well, those reasons and I got it for free (which was probably the most influencing factor).
Enough with the introduction. Let's get on with the blogging!
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