P90X Plus Review
As anyone who has used P90X for the full plan… and then some, you know that after a while you are just bored with exercise again. You probably thought that wasn’t likely to happen when you first started P90X, but suddenly there you were. I was there.

There are just so many times you can watch the same thing over and over. I had even gone to just popping in my iPod, and going through it that way for more entertainment, even after months and months break from the program (and on to custom ones designed for myself.) It’s not that I am being down on the original P90X, I’m not. I just get bored after a while. I will say that P90X took me longer than other programs to get bored with, so it’s still ahead of other DVDs in my opinion.

I was able to go through the P90X Plus routines, much like I did with the original P90X. So, I’m reviewing it. Many have asked me about it, from my earlier review of P90X (and no, I still haven’t done Power 90, aka P90. I’ve had three people ask me this week alone about the regular Power 90. I don’t have it yet, and I’m buried under life right now. When I do get it, I’ll review it as well.)

One important point to make to everyone: you must have the original P90X to put this P90X Plus program together. It’s set up to basically be additional DVDs to go with the P90X original set. You still incorporate lots of the original workouts with the new ones. You also need to have completed P90X. The reason for this is that the workouts are generally shorter, rely on you having already pretty much mastered a few things with resulting mechanical ability… and to be blunt, I felt like they were sort of a maintenance routine more than a “change everything!” kind of set up. But then, it would be if you had gone through the whole P90X program once… or twice… or six times. It’s not a program for newbies, even more so than the original program for that reason. As a newbie, you wouldn’t be able to do some of the more advanced moves and simply miss out, and thus get little benefit out of the new routines.

There is a saying “it’s harder to maintain than to change.” I used to apply that as “it’s harder to maintain than to be actively losing weight.” This is 100% true. I remember doubting this rather strongly, thinking I’d just like the opportunity to maintain. When you are 70 lbs from where you are suppose to be, and you just want to slap those “it’s haaaard to maintain” people upside the head. You would just be so grateful to be strong and healthy and look it, that it would NOT be hard to maintain. Those people just didn’t understand.

It turns out that those people are right. It is incredibly hard to maintain after you make dramatic changes. You work hard, you see these new results developing, and it’s easy and exciting to keep going. But once you are fit and healthy the changes are very small and you realize that you still have to keep working out hard. That’s where most people fall off the side of the mountain and lose a lot of their results along with their motivation.

So, what do you do? The answer is that you have to keep the actual activity interesting, and you have to find a way to use your newly fit body that isn’t about creating changes. That really is the key. Find exercise that you think is fun (or at least fairly tolerable on a permanent level) and find activities that you can use the strong body for that make it all worth it (take up rock climbing, join a soccer league, start running races, take up kayaking or rowing, whatever.) P90X Plus is not the rock-climbing-activity type purpose you are looking for. But it could be the “tolerable exercise” routine that you need after you have your results from the original program and are sort of hitting a wall, as long as you really love P90X.

P90X Plus consists of four new routines (interval, total body, kenpo, upper body), and just to torture everyone there is a new extra ab routine too. Because the first one wasn’t bad enough to have to do three times a week. *ahem* Alright, I know. I just loath doing abs. Not because I have some sort of belief that you shouldn’t… just because I don’t like doing them. (Hey, I’m human. I don’t like going to the dentist either, but I do that too.)

I call P90X Plus more of a maintenance routine because it has a shorter, more cardio kind of feel to it. It just seems… well, “lighter” for lack of a better word. Many of the moves incorporated are more advanced, but they’re fast, and you run through them quickly. Even the production is different, with a brighter feel. I have to be completely honest here, I was rather underwhelmed with it. I didn’t have that “wow, they did a really great job with this whole set” as I did with the original program. In their defense, this isn’t a whole program. It’s just a supplement to the other one.

What I did like was the intervals being incorporated. I’m a big harper on the intervals. I believe in them. I have personally seen what they can do for my physical results and abilities, as well as for clients I train. Interval training is generally hard, and people whine about it, but seriously you are hard pressed to get a bigger bang for your buck (invested time.) The intervals in P90X Plus are not as intense as I am used to working out when I do them, but the workout lasts a little longer than my normal interval training does, too.

My favorite of the original P90X workouts has always been the Kenpo, and P90X Plus has a new one. This felt more like an aerobics/kick boxing/peppy-class than the feel of the Kenpo from the first one. Not entirely… but the impression was there. Still, I did enjoy it. There are moves in the other workouts that I completely get a kick out of too.

In particular there is a move called the Gladiator. Now, maybe everyone has done this before in other classes or workouts, or maybe you were just seriously obsessed with the Russell Crow movie and were pretending you were fighting gilded warriors in your back yard. But, I am not someone who has done this before. If you don’t know me, let me say this: coordination with all four limbs at once is not my strong suit. I’m the woman who would take out the entire back section of a dance line or aerobics class tripping over my own feet. I sooth my ego by rationalizing that as an artist I am exceptionally right hand dominate, and all my coordination has gone there (don’t burst my delusional bubble, it works for me.)

Still, I was determined to do this Gladiator move. It just looks like fun, and well… I admit it just looks cool. Alright, when they do it, it looks cool. I am highly embarrassed to admit that the first time I tried it, in mid-air, my son came around the door with a “mommy?” and time seemed to slow. It was like something out of a spoof of the Matrix. I contorted, my head turning in his direction, my body clearly going another, and somehow I had gotten good air on my leap too… right into the toy box. Well, one foot anyway.

“Mommy, whatcha doing? Were you trying to jump into the toy box? Can I do that too? Oh please??!?!”

It occurs to me that while I will have many a story to embarrass my son with when he starts dating, that the moment he realizes he has just as many about me and thus fantastic blackmail material, I am in serious trouble.

Oh, another thing about the toy boxes (the only place for me to workout with DVDs is my basement living/toy room area) - they worked great for another of my favorite moves. In one of the workouts you need two chairs. You have to do a slanted push-up between them, then swing your legs through and into a dip, then back again. I love this move, but I don’t have two normal sized chairs. What I did have was two Fischer Price toy boxes, one blue and one pink. I have to tell you, those worked out perfectly for the move… even if I probably did look a little (a lot) silly swinging like George of the Jungle between them.

I may be uncoordinated, but I’m resourceful!

I found it interesting that the DVDs prominently featured Bow-Flex interchangeable dumbbells in the routines. As I had said in my original review of P90X, the timing was difficult with my standard plates (it’s even worse with P90X Plus now that they’ve caught on to swift-changing weights.) I recommended a set called Power Blocks (which I still don’t own, because I cannot afford them, but I have used them in a gym and love them), and it seems that the group over at P90X has teamed up with Bow-Flex. As a matter of fact, the ads for Bow-Flex on the new DVDs (including during workout pitching of them) were rather annoying. But in the end, this is a business for them and they’re partners with Bow-Flex for the quick change dumbbells. The only thing I have to say about that is that hopefully Bow-Flex has improved their design.

You see, I would love to have a set of dumbbells that I could quickly shift through the various weights with. I have spent years with my set of plates with a screw on lock at each end. I have sliced open my foot with that lock at least four times (sharp edges, heavy lock, dropped it.) I have dropped plates countless times on my feet (luckily not my head.) I just have your standard kind of set, with lots of different sized plates that can be rather big and bulky. Basically, I have the caveman equipment, but I just don’t have a lot of money to invest in these gadgets even though I may want to.

I was able to check out Power Blocks and the Bow-Flex version a long while back in a store. The Bow-Flex dumbbells were fine, and then suddenly it just released one of the plates, out of nowhere - Right onto my FOOT! One of the problems I was looking to avoid in the first place! I looked closer to see if it was operator error (very high probably with me involved.) I got the store involved in it, and Mr. Savy. Unfortunately, the only thing we discovered was that we were able to make the error happen repeatedly, and that it wasn’t me. So, I steered clear of them.

I don’t know if Bow-Flex has updated them or not. I sincerely hope so, but due to my experience with them I cannot recommend them. I need to know when I hold a weight over my head that it isn’t suddenly going to decide to drop a 20 lbs segment, because that is just the sort of thing that would happen to me. I’m superior at injuring myself all on my own, I don’t need any help in that department.

I’m sure people are going to come out of the woodwork to yell at me how much they disagree with something in this review. That they love Bow-Flex, or something else. That’s fine, because here is the thing: I don’t work for Beachbody, I don’t work for Power Blocks, and I have had no contact with Bow-Flex as a company at all. So, this is simply my opinion. I link to an online store which sells the P90X programs because they offered a savings to those looking for one, and were nice to me when Beachbody (a representative that emailed me and identified themselves as such, I believe the person was just an operator that took orders) took the time to be incredibly rude. And that is something else to consider: I am not particularly impressed with the Beachbody company as a whole. So, if I like one of the routines, it’s because I genuinely like it and would recommend it - even though I was treated as I was (and believe me, I tend to stew and hold grudges. It would be a lot easier if the products were just worthless, because then I wouldn’t have to temper my irritation with them while trying to give an honest review.)

So, bottom line: did I like P90X Plus? Once I adjusted my mental mind-set to categorizing it as “additions” and more of a “maintenance” kind of set-up, I think it’s good for that purpose IF you really like P90X. If you are looking for the “wow” of a whole new program, this just isn’t it. But then, it’s not advertised as that anyway. I’m not sure where my brain was with my expectations, or why - but once I adjusted, it makes sense. So, I’m not raving about it, but it’s not bad either. I think it’s a good option for those fit people who want to stick with P90X style workouts but are simply bogged down with the amount of time that goes into it (these routines are shorter, averaging around 40 minutes,) and just need something to liven up the monotony without shifting gears entirely.

Is it going to solve the long term dedication problem? No, because you need to find an active pursuit that you enjoy that puts that strong body of yours to use. Being healthy is about living your life healthy. You are not a hamster on a wheel, so don’t expect yourself to be thrilled with just DVDs for the rest of your life. Get out there! Go ride a bike! Go for a hike! Surf! Swim! Whatever!!! But go DO IT! Be that person who is envied by your friends because you are showing off your pictures from the weekend where you suddenly decided to climb to the top of a mountain just because.

You’ll never look back once you put all the pieces into place, and then you’ll finally be wondering why anyone thinks that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is hard. It isn’t, you simply have to learn to live first.

Posted by SavyArt

Tags: Ahead, Bored, Dvds, Exercise, Important Point, Ipod, Maintenance Routine, Mechanical Ability, Newbie, P90x, Power 90, Reason, Six Times, Workouts