It’s been an awesome 3 months trying out the most popular home fitness program on the market.  P90X is a great solution for anybody who wants to get healthier and attain a better level of overall fitness.  I was skeptical about trying something I had never heard of before and that you do all of your workouts at home.  Before I showcase my final results, I’ll provide my personal account with how I got into P90X ( otherwise you can just skip this part if you’re not too interested in reading my kinda long story 😛 ) and the various aspects that go along with it.

For a while, I had been a gym rat but I stopped going because of school and just feeling plain lazy.  On top of that, when you get lazy you tend to opt for convenience.  Convenience being fast food, junk food, and lots of other bad stuff.  It’s easy to fall into a rut and forget about trying to maintain good health.  For me it was getting bad to the point where I just stopped caring.  I ate whenever I felt down, slept way too much, and didn’t exercise one bit for awhile.  As time went by, my jeans were getting tighter and was getting out of breath from climbing stairs.  I kept telling myself I needed to do something about it but I just kept procrastinating as a lot of us do.  “Oh, I think I’ll start next week” and then next week comes around but you never get to it.  Then the cycle repeats itself.

I found out about P90X through a Navy buddy of mine through Facebook.  He posted a link to his BeachBody coaching website and I was able to see his results from using the program.  I had never heard of the program but if he was able to successfully change himself then I’m pretty sure I could do the same as well. Of course I did my research and found that the vast majority of people had great success with P90X.

I started the program about a month after ordering it from him.  For those who haven’t ordered the program, you will have to invest in at the minimum a pull-up bar and dumbbells.  Though you could also get resistance bands to use in place of those two but I think those items are much more effective.  Anyway, I had to take some time to look around for my equipment since I didn’t have any to begin with.  I bought an adjustable dumbbell set off Amazon for $40.00, an Extreme Pull-up bar for $25.00, and a mat for $20.00.  As far as a recovery drink went, I always used whey protein in the past and didn’t feel like spending any more money since I still had a full 5lb jar of it from awhile ago that thankfully hadn’t expired.  Changing up your nutrition habits was probably the biggest challenge for me in this program.  I wanted to take full advantage of the included nutrition guide,  so I decided to go with the Portion approach because I was too lazy to follow and cook in accordance with the provided meal plans 😛 The portion approach was great because it lists the number of servings you need for various categories like carbs, fats, and protein sources.  So what I did was make a list of all the stuff I liked on the provided list and bought all the ingredients that I knew I could make simple meals out of.  Once I had everything together, I was ready to “bring it”.

I started out Phase 1 of P90X strangely enough on a Friday.  Most people start off on a Monday and have their designated rest day on Sunday.  My school schedule during the summer had Friday as an off day so I went ahead and started on the beginning of a weekend.  That first week was extremely unpleasant…especially if you hadn’t done any kind of resistance exercise routine in awhile or for some haven’t done any at all!  I’ve done weight training before but to do all of the workouts back-to-back over a span of six consecutive days during the initial start is painful.  Now thankfully they threw in Yoga X and Kenpo X to give you a breather from the resistance routines but still even the yoga workout was painful since you’re still recovering from Chest & Shoulders, Plyometrics, and Shoulders & Arms!  After going through that initial week, I knew right away this program was gonna rock!  Not only that, I had dropped close to 5lbs alone and an inch off my waist!  Of course some of that was water weight but still…those were some fast results!

Each phase of P90X consists of doing a designated routine for 3 weeks and then is followed by a recovery week ( with the only exception of Phase 3 which has 4 weeks instead of three )  Every phase is also different.  So for example in Phase 2 you switch up Chest & Back workout with Chest, Shoulders, & Arms.  In the last phase you pretty much do an alternating routine of Phase 1 and 2.  The reason for this switch-up is to keep the muscles guessing so that you don’t reach a plateau.  Your body adapts very easily to any kind of workout routine.  So if you keep doing the same thing over and over, at one point your progress stops and you reach a plateau.  I’ve known about this principle of “muscle confusion” ( as P90X calls it ) for awhile and have made my previous weight lifting routines incorporate this idea.  When I started off Phase 2 coming off of the first recovery week, I felt some of the greatest “pumps” that you get when doing resistance routines.  Doing the new workout routines Chest, Shoulders, & Arms and the Back & Biceps was extremely invigorating!  I’d have to say out of the entire program C,S,&A is my absolute favorite resistance routine.

By the end of Phase 2 which is 57 days into the program, I was looking and feeling great.  A lot of my friends and family noticed how much I’d changed and I was motivated to finish strong.  Around Day 73 or so I had to go on a hiatus from the program and enjoyed some R&R in Dallas to visit my family.  That week, I threw just about everything away in terms of eating healthy.  I did quite a bit of binge eating and loved every bit about it 🙂  Unfortunately my plans for trying to do the “X” on the road didn’t quite pan out.  I only worked out twice while away which consisted of boring routines like shadow boxing and running on the treadmill 😦  When I got back, I made sure to punish myself and doubled up on everything that I missed ( some days I even tripled since I was doing P90X Doubles!!! ).  It didn’t make any sense to keep the P90X day counter running so I ended up redoing that week.

Day 90 came around finally last week and I was very excited to finish my first round.  I was excited enough to create this video of my transformation that goes into a little background into why and how I got into program.  Of course it also contains my final results but it also gives a glimpse into some of the exercises you do throughout the program.  It’s one of the best videos, I’ve created in a loooooooooong time.  Not only that, it was also one of the longest to make!  ( probably a good 15-20 hours to create including video editing, shooting, and thinking of ideas ).  I hope this gives some inspiration and motivation for others to do succeed just as well as I have.

The above pic is the result of doing a lot of hard work, dedication, and having the right mindset to follow a rigorous program such as P90X.  ( the traditional shots can be found at my P90X Progress Photos page or on the video ) I made a great investment into the program and it really has paid off.  I’m happy with the results I’ve gotten from P90X and looking forward to improving myself more.  My next challenge which will start soon is Beachbody’s other program called INSANITY.  I can’t wait!

Here are my final stats ( click on the pic to view a larger version of the spreadsheet )

Please feel free to comment or ask questions if you any!  Thank you for taking the time to read my blog!  Keep Bringing It 🙂