So I'm done with the power 90 challenge. It definitely gave me the results I was looking for. I'm in the best shave I've ever been in. The major critique I would have about P90 is the diet plan. The program is designed for weight loss while maintaining fitness and providing definition. The diet held me back in terms of my fitness goals. In the end I was doubling every meal (portion wise to maintain a decent caloric intake). 2X cereal/2x Lunch Sandwich/2x dinner to give me about 2500 calories. The plan stresses a calorie deficit but the default calorie deficit is way too extreme for most people 1300 – 1500 calories is a crash diet. Granted I'm pretty active in addition to the exercise I'm getting as part of this plan. Still if you're an adult and weight over 140 lbs 1500 calories is not enough. Because if all the adjusting I had to do for the diet it made it very hard to stick to it. I fell off the wagon a couple of times, especially near the end.
Here are my final measurements:
- Body Fat: 14.5%
- Weight: 149.8 pounds
- Chest: 38 1/2"
- Waist: 30 3/4"
- Hips: 32 1/2"
- Right Mid-Thigh: 20 1/2"
- Left Mid-Thigh: 20 1/2"
- Right Upper Arm: 12 3/4"
- Left Upper Arm: 12 3/4"
- Blood Pressure: 124/60
- Resting Heart Rate: 64 beats per minute.
The best part of the P90 is of course the workouts. If you stick with it and eat a balanced diet you will get in shape. Now again here is a difference I noticed when looking at the P90x workouts and charts. I notice they stress that you record the weights and reps. Tony stresses that you should set goals and push your self. You see in the P90x routines where his companions are setting goals and pusing them selves with real weights. In contrast all the exercises in P90 are demonstrated with almost no weight. The girls are just using the 5lbs bars them selves. Now once I had mastered the Level 3/4 of P90 I stated to push my self by keeping track of weights and increasing them for the various exercises. Here is where you run into a major annoyance. Since they are demoing the exercises and not changing weights you have about 5 seconds inbetween exercises. Heck 5 seconds was barely enought time to stop the exercise and hit the pause button. Let alone figure out your weight, set the adjustable dumb bells and get ready. I was constantly pausing and rewinding.
Now if I had it to do over again would I go straing to P90x? The answer is no. P90 served the exact purpose I intended it to. It slowly brought me to a level where I can now transition to P90x. In P90x the workouts are 1hr or more. That really intensive if you've been a couch potato for a couple of years. So my advice would be to start with P90 but to keep my critiques in mind. Definitely do some research and be prepared to modify the diet.
Stay tuned for P90x which I will be starting in a couple of weeks.
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4 comments:
Congratulations!! You look great! I'm impressed with your results.
I agree that doing P90 first for people who are starting from scratch or who have a lot of weight to lose is a good idea. I also had issues with the calorie deficit and started adding calories about halfway through P90. You will definitely have plenty to eat on P90X. In fact, sometimes it's hard to get all the calories needed for the workouts.
Enjoy your break, you're going to need it. =] P90X is a whole different beast. Your day 90 photos from P90X are going to make your P90 day 90 photos look like your P90 day 1 photos. And it goes by SOOOO fast! Before you know it, you will be browsing the P90X+ and the One on One with Tony dvds to supplement your P90X round two workouts!
Get ready to rock and roll!
Well done! I've got a month to go on my own P90, and I'm looking for something to do next January. P90X does look pretty extreme. Have you seen P90 master? I thought it was for seniors, but apparently it's made as a "Master's" degree for P90 grads. A filler between P90 and P90X. I had a look, and it is way different to P90, but not as frightening as X. Lots of jumping and moving. I'd be interested in your opinion.
Don't be afraid of P90X. If you really bring a super intensity to it, it will kick your butt. But you can also just show up and do the moves more moderately and still get a phenomenal workout. Any of these workout plans really are only as good as the user anyway.
Anonymous, expect some great things to happen in this last month! You will even see little changes in your very last week. It's crazy, but so cool. If I were you, I would make up your mind about what you want to do when you get a little closer to the end. You will be stronger and leaner then and you might decide that P90X is just what the doctor ordered.
Congrats on 60. That last month of P90 was where I really started to feel the results. Definitely felt stronger and the stomach was getting pretty flat.
Yeah, I looked at the P90 Masters as well. I think of P90 Masters as the P90x of it's day. The workouts are slightly longer than P90 3/4 and slightly shorter than P90x. I decided that I'd save the money and go right for the P90x myself.
It also seems to be the path that most people take P90/P90x. I think that P90x essentially replaced it (It's hidden pretty deep on their website). Also from comparing P90 to P90x they made a lot of improvements. I figure that P90 Masters would only have some of the improvement that made it into P90x.
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