P90X and building more strength.

I have been using P90X with with my own weight lifting for the past month now and I am seeing some nice strength gains. I am doing the things with heavier weight that P90X does not do such as bench pressing with heavier weight and lower reps or squats the same way. I have been mixing in yoga x, core synergistics, legs and back and I also have some one on one with Tony Horton dvd's that I have been mixing in as well. It's fun to mix it up. We have been tossing around the idea of doing Insanity with Shaun T or Rev Abs with Brett Hoebel but were still on the fence with which one to tackle next. The main thing is that P90X put us on a schedule. We probably still work out 5-6 times a week with a rest on Sunday which is pretty much what we did during our initial 90 days with P90X.

Keep pushing play and keep "Bringing It"

P90X Mix and match.

That's Taylor and I in the picture getting ready to head out for her soccer game. She "Brings It" sometimes doing Plyometrics and Yoga. I am sure it will help her to bend it like Beckham. Sometimes we make it a P90X family affair.

So far after my first 90 days of P90X that is what I have been doing. Mixing and matching. I have been working my upper body on Monday-Wednesday-Friday and then on Tuesday-Thursday and sometimes Saturday I will do so leg exercises and usually P90X plyometrics or Core Synergistics. I also have some One on One with Tony Horton workout that I throw into the mix as well. So far this has been working out pretty well. I have been hitting the bench press once again and building my strength back up. I seemed to lose some in my chest during P90X but gained endurance. I have also been going a little heavier on the curls and extensions and such.

I have also been sticking to the nutrition plan. I think it is pretty much embedded in my brain now. Of course I am not perfect and I have to have some brews now and again or maybe some cheese cake but for the most part I am still eating pretty clean at least 90% of the time.

"X" The Insanity diet Part 2

This is part 2 from Steve Edwards on how to "X" the Insanity diet.

Last month, we talked about the INSANITY diet and how anyone who has already completed P90X® should amend it. This time, we'll talk about the exercise component—specifically, how to alter INSANITY if you've just finished a round of P90X. The most common question we get is how INSANITY will affect the muscle mass gained during X. The answer is that if done right, it can improve it. This is based on understanding some basic physiology, primarily the periodization principle. Once you grasp this, you should be able to answer most of your customers' questions about INSANITY.

Let's begin with recovery. The time between actually doing a workout program becomes very important as your fitness improves. We always recommend a break after our workout programs, but P90X, and especially INSANITY, require more calculation. These programs are designed to break you down, let you recover, then increase the breakdown and finish with a bang. The goal is to put your body into a growth (sometimes referred to as mastery) phase over the final few weeks of the program. During this phase, results come rapidly, but stay on it too long and you overtrain—forcing your body into a plateau, or worse, a decline. This is why we recommend that your final P90X fit test be done after a week of recovery.

When transitioning from P90X to INSANITY, it's important to consider that you're moving from a mastery phase of one program into an entry phase of another. Sure, INSANITY's entry phase is very hard, but over the course of P90X, your workload capacity improves. Because INSANITY doesn't have a true resistance component, its first week can function similarly to the transition/recovery weeks of P90X. Post-X, your body's ability to adapt to hard exercise is greatly increased. This means that you can start INSANITY on the heels of P90X, and its first week will function as your recovery week. Even though it will also break you down in some new areas, your fitter body will adapt quickly to the change.

Conversely, post-INSANITY you'll want a longer recovery period. This is because you've essentially extended the adaptive and growth phases of P90X for an extra six-to-eight weeks. No matter how fit you are, your body will always need a break after such a pounding. One-to-three weeks of easy-to-moderate exercise should have you recovered and ready to move into your next round of training.

Speaking of adaptive and growth phases, we should also address how you might want to shorten the first block (or month) of INSANITY. Similar to the diet phases of P90X, you'll only want to continue in the first block of INSANITY as long as your body is adapting to it. Once it feels "easy," it's time to move into the second block. You'll still want to take the designed INSANITY recovery week, because you want to be rested for your next block of training. This will accelerate your time in the adaptive phase of the training block and help you maximize the growth phase.

Finally, we need to discuss how this can improve your muscle mass. The six-to-eight weeks of INSANITY will have improved various energy systems of the body, increasing its potential for hard training. INSANITY will improve your aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Your VO2 max and anaerobic threshold will both improve, as will your body's glycolytic efficiency, which is your ability to recharge your anaerobic system during intense bouts of exercise. The result is that in your next round of P90X (or any muscle-building program) you'll have more energy to burn at the end of each set. This will result in increased reps per set, or more weight per set, both of which lead to increased hypertrophy (muscle growth), if that is your target.

These are the basic principles you should understand about P90X and INSANITY. If you understand the above, you'll be better prepared to coach your customers. There are plenty more variables that can be discussed. Since these are more personal in nature, they should be addressed on the Message Boards, where we can take them on a case-by-case basis.

Click here for part 1 of "X" the Insanity diet.

"X" the Insanity diet.

So you are done with P90X and you want to give Shaun T's Insanity a try. Be sure to read this article by Steve Edwards so you know what to do with your diet.

How to 'X' the INSANITY™ Diet
By Steve Edwards, Director of Results

As a Coach, there's information you should know about our new INSANITY program that you won't find in the guidebook. The guidebook is written as though it's for first-time Beachbody® customers. For someone who has already completed one or more of our programs, especially P90X®, you're going to want to take a different approach, especially where the diet is concerned.

All of our entry-level programs' diets are written assuming weight loss is a primary concern. The P90X diet is not. Instead, its focus is on athletic performance, because the key to getting results with P90X is to improve your physical fitness as much as possible over the course of the program. While INSANITY is definitely a graduate program—meaning you need a fitness base prior to beginning—it is not structured periodizationally the way P90X is. It's shorter and more straightforward. Its results are based more on progressive overload than Muscle Confusion™. Similarly, the diet is based simply on eating clean and then ramping up the calories along with your workouts. Those coming off of the X will want to amend the INSANITY diet guidelines or ignore them totally.

The INSANITY diet is very restrictive calorically. It was designed for weight loss, since that's what most of our customers are primarily interested in. Anyone coming off of P90X or something similar should alter the diet to suit their needs because their body composition will be far more athletic at the beginning. We've left the "additional food" section of the INSANITY diet open-ended for just this reason. However, once someone has gone through rounds of X or an equivalent, they are generally at a point where they should do their own dietary calculations. As a Coach, this is what you should recommend.

When you look at the X diet, you see a plan that's designed to teach you how to eat for athletics. It varies over time, attempting to follow the changes in your body composition. Once you graduate the X, there should not be much need for outside diet plans, except for variety. You could use the INSANITY diet for this, but you'll want to alter your calories towards your own goals and using what you've already learned. It's almost a certainty that a post-X body will have a composition that requires more calories than what the INSANITY diet recommends.

Keep in mind that no matter what diet you choose, at the highest levels of performance you always have to do your own trial and error. There is no one diet right for everyone. Nowhere is this as apparent as during athletic endeavors. By making tweaks to our diet, we will always find individual differences in the ways certain foods affect us. No two athletes eat the same way, exactly. There are some large-scale brush strokes that are nutritionally similar, after which it becomes individual to what works best.

That's Part One of this topic. Next month we'll talk about how to cycle INSANITY into your Beachbody library. It's a two-month program that should not be repeated over and over without substantial breaks in between. So next time we'll talk about how to use INSANITY, along with P90X, so that they build on the fitness gains you make in each one symbiotically.

Click here for part 2 of "X" The Insanity Diet

Shaun T Insanity- Dig Deeper!

Looking for something new and fresh to do after P90X? Try Shaun T Insanity™ a super intense workout.



I have heard of some people out there making a hybrid workout mix with Shaun T's Insanity™ and P90X. Mixing and matching workouts. I am thinking about trying something similar. You could burn up to 1000 calories during an Insanity workout.
Insanity is the most intense workout ever put on DVD. There are 10 workout DVD's in the Insanity package.
1. Dig Deeper/Fit Test

2. Plyometric Cardio Circuit

3. Cardio Power & Resistance

4. Cardio Recovery/Max Recovery

5. Pure Cardio/Cardio Abs

6. Cardio Abs

7. Core Cardio & Balance

8. Max Interval Circuit

9. Max Interval Plyo

10. Max Cardio Conditioning/Cardio Abs

You will also get an Insanity fitness manual, nutrition guide and a wall calendar.

Which is better? P90X or Insanity?

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More Life After P90X

Well after 90 days of P90X I find myself still doing the exercises and popping in the videos. Last week I did upper body weight lifting on Mon, Wed and Fri. On Tues I did P90X Legs and Back minus the pull ups since I did upper body the previous day. Thurs I did P90X Plyometrics and some more leg exercises like squats and leg extensions. I really don't have a routine down yet but I am looking to put together some sort of hybrid work out that incorporates P90X. I lost a few pounds during my 90 days with P90X so I am looking to put in back on but not in my waste. I am pretty much still following phase 3 of the nutrition plan but I do cheat every now and then. If I want something I eat it. I do not feel deprived at all nor do I have any cravings. I have to work the P90X Yoga X in somewhere. I haven't done it since my last week of P90X. I'm thinking I might try and do it on Saturday.

90 Days of P90X are done. Now What do I do?

Well now that my first 90 days of P90X workouts are complete I need to figure out what I want to do now. I have read where one guy did one week of P90X and one week of weight lifting and then alternated like that every week. So far for the past 8 days I have done a lot of weight lifting, chest, shoulders and tri's, core synergistics, back and biceps, plyometrics and the ab ripper. I need to gain back the weight I lost but in a place other than my belly. I thought about getting the P90X Plus work outs or One on One with Tony Horton but I am still not sure yet.


P90X is a great work out program and it is a great head start on fitness for the rest of your life. We will probably always follow the nutrition plan at least 90%. It is a great plan. I was never hungry or felt deprived in any way. Also being part of the Beachbody community is a great thing. It is a place you can go to find work out buddies and lots of fitness-minded individuals just as yourself. You can also get personalized meal plans, trainer tips, chat room,recipes, nutrition tips, slim kitchen videos and so much more.