Has anyone tried this program before? I see infomercials for it all the time.

P90x Website

P90x Schedule (pdf)

What the program is: 12 weeks of pretty intense workouts, alternating between strength training and cardio for 6 days, and then 1 day of rest a week. 4th week and 8th week are light weeks, and then you go hardcore the last 4 weeks.

An example week:
Monday - Chest and Back video; Abs video
Tuesday - Plyometrics video (lots of jumping exercises)
Wednesday - Shoulders and Arms video; Abs video
Thursday - Yoga video (may swap this for another plyo or kenpo)
Friday - Legs and Back video; Abs video
Saturday - Kenpo video
Sunday - Rest or Stretching video

I've basically come to realize that I will never make it to the gym; something about the atmosphere or something, I just hate going. I want to start working out at home, but I suck at setting a schedule for myself and stuff. My friend offered to let me borrow it because he got it as a christmas present and says he'll never use it.

Some info about me: I do NOT want to get buff, just want to be in good shape and gain some muscle while doing it. I have a set of 3 resistance bands that I'll be using instead of weights. They have a fitness test that you can take to see if your fit to do the program, and I passed it but not by much.

I was wondering if anyone has any opinions, thoughts, etc on this product and whether it will be a beneficial 3 months or a waste. I've heard the first 3 weeks are brutal, and its hard to stick with, but you'll get results if you do.

I know some physical therapists who swore by this program, but I have no personal experience with it.

P90x also includes a meal program, right? Does it look appetizing?

They offer different options for every meal, and have sample meal plans that you can use. It's pretty much just eating the right amounts of healthy food at the right times.

Unfortunately I never tried the program, but a close friend of mine did and liked it very much. He was gonna make me a copy but never did. He wasn't in terrible shape when he did it though, fwiw.

Example meal? I mean are you going to eat Brussels sprouts and rice cakes, or is there actual, delicious food?

Sorry, I can't give an example meal plan, I left the nutrition booklet at home with my friend and now I'm back at school. I can't find it online anywhere either.

I've been doing this for a month now and have been pretty impressed. Like everybody else I was in good/great shape until I graduated college and have been smoking and drinking way too much the past few years with the majority of my fitness program consisting of walking from bar to bar and the occasional flag football game, pickup basketball game or walking 9 holes of golf. When I first started I was not able to follow every movement to the t and used the pause button liberally, but now I can follow with no problem. So I wouldn't worry much about the fitness test and just take breaks when you need to.

The strength training videos are very fast paced and are much closer to what I would call circuit training than your basic 3 sets of 10 reps type workouts I've done in the past. The plyometric workout is great cardio and includes a lot of lunge-based movements. I was probably impressed the most by the yoga workout. After sitting in an office chair for the past few years and losing a ton of flexibility my doctor told me I needed to do yoga and of course I ignored him. That being said, the yoga video makes me sweat more than any of the other workouts and I actually look forward to doing it every week. It has increased my flexibility a ton. Stretching for 10 minutes before a workout and doing 90 minutes of yoga are not even comparable. I did the Kenpo workout exactly one time and then substituted an extra day of plyo or regular cardio instead. It is basically Tae Bo and I already feel stupid enough jumping through invisible tires during the plyo. The ~18 minute 'Ab Ripper' workout is great and you don't even do a single standard crunch.

I decided for me it wasn't practical to follow the diet portion and that just focusing on eating better was be a big enough first step. I'm like you in regards to not liking the gym (waste of money imo) and for me I'm less likely to go if I have to drive somewhere instead of going to my room. You will need access to some basic equipment though. You need a pullup bar and I got one for ~$35 on Amazon. The leg workout I can do in my apartment with a couple of different dumbbells. The arm and shoulders part I go down to the gym in my complex to use the bench. The biggest problem I have with P90x is that it takes a minimum of 60 minutes and often closer to 90 which is asking a lot if you're working 10+ hours a day. But if you dedicate yourself and really stick it out through the first few weeks I think you'll be pleased. And don't worry, after a few weeks you'll be able to mute the TV and not listen to the douchebag who runs the workouts. Most rewarding part for me.

Ya. the Plyo workout is brutally good, just did it tonight!

Meal plan IIRC is 1st month low carb high protein medium fat
2nd month a bit more carb less protein
3rd month even more carb less protein

about 2000-2500 calories for normal male, which spread over 6-8 meals means small, snack-like portions most of the time.

Hey, thanks for the response! That's really interesting about the yoga workout, I figured I would hate it lol. Also, the fact that it is 90 minutes instead of 60 is annoying. But I'll definitely give it a try now that you say how great it is. I'm starting the workout tomorrow, but I tried the Ab Ripper on Wednesday, and my abs are finally not sore.

Do you think its possible to do the whole program with resistance bands? I know they say its possible, but it seems like some of the motions will be impossible with bands. The place I'm living at now doesn't allow me to drill stuff into the wall, so my pull up bar won't be going up I think. I have an overhead fan though that will probably support the resistance bands well enough, I figured I would simulate pull ups this way.

My brother has a pull-up bar that just squeezes into a door frame. Works great.

A couple of things I wonder about with this program.

I understand it's geared around 90 days specifically, with workouts every day or virtually every day. So is it still effective if one skips days, and perhaps works out 3 days a week?

Also, what happens after 90 days? Is guidance offered about what to do afterwards?

yea, IIRC guide has something called "life after P90x"

If you just want to build muscle you can skip the cardio workouts, and vice versa. That would come out to 3 days/week and I think it would still be effective.

there are much better splits for solely building muscle.

P90X is a FITNESS program, not a "get big" program. It's designed to get people into shape. The weight routines and meal plans are built for slimming down and retaining muscle.

I am doing this program at the moment ahah, as lame as it may sound, it is fun, and it is working. Im in my 4th week, and can most definatley notice a change already. I was not out of shape to begin with, im 5-10 175lbs, athletic build (slowly getting pudge though and i dont like it). Generally play basketball twice a week and indoor soccer 1 hour 1 night a week on a open field indoor environment. 4 Weeks in and im 168 with a def change in muscle mass, loss of "pudge", and muscle gain. Its a pretty quick program, like 1 hour a day, plus 15 min for ab program. Consist of plyo, kenpo, cardio, chest back, arms back, shoulders and arms, for my first 4 weeks. Then it switches, to core synergenetics, chest, arms, plyo cardio, ab ripper etc, in the coming weeks. Def a fun program

OP, if you do a quick search for p90x in this forum you will get lots of opinion.

consensus is:
- better than nothing, you will get results
- very low levels of compliance. almost everyone gives up before 90 days
- suboptimal for absolutely any fitness related goal. would get better results doing starting strength as described in FAQ combined with good diet.
- program really sucks for developing your lower body

anyway, gl with whatever you end up doing.

sick bump. i kinda wanna try this just out of pure curiosity but i doubt i will because i love power lifting and i got a 1 year gym membership and dont wanna put it to waste since i would need to watch videos and i probably already got the equiptment i need at home.

2 year old bumpskis

damn it i hate it when threads get bumped and i dont realise.

The genius of this program is how profoundly confused your muscles become when they don't know what's coming next. Just make sure you stay one step ahead of your muscles b/c once they figure out what you're doing you might as well not even be working out. In fact I think it's quite likely that your muscles suck information out of your brain via the CNS, so try to get through the workouts while engaging your CNS as little as possible lest all of your knowledge of the sequence of workouts be obtained by your muscles. Once they can plan ahead for what's coming they'll never get ripped. This is especially true for the abs since, like lions, they work together as a pack to figure out how to prevent becoming ripped. When a lioness hunts alone her hunt is successful 20% of the time, but when 3 or more lionesses work together the success rate goes up to 70%+. I don't even want to think about the statistics for a pack of 6+ as in the case for your abs. Basically it is b/c of this principle that abs are so resistant to becoming ripped. But p90x compensates for this with the ab ripper X workout which iso-blasts the abs at low resistance until they're heated to the point that their muscle memory is erased.

All in all a good program. I do recommend.

Im starting week 8 on Monday - Ive seen some good results - nothing groundbreaking - I had a decent amount of muscle mass previously but would go to the gym and do a weak workout....since starting this ive lost some fat and gained more muscle mass....ive followed the diet so so but never weighed myself so no exact #s......one thing to make sure is def get the pull up bar - i recently got it and the bands are nowhere near as hard as pullups imo....looking forward to the final 30 days

And you probably already had strong legs from soccer/track/basketball.