P90X2 Review

I finished P90X2 a couple of weeks ago now. I first started P90X way back 6 months ago then had a week of rest and got stuck into P90X2. I tried to clean my diet up for this session and was somewhat successful. As always, I start out strong in the diet area. Eating carefully and lowering carbs but towards the end I did not eat well at all so much so that I did not really change in terms of body fat and lean muscle. One thing that has stuck with me however, is preparing a lot of chicken breast fillets on the weekend and eating them for lunch throughout the week. I always looked forward and enjoyed eating my chicken lunches and continue to do this today. In the last 5 weeks of the workout I also pulled my groin and hurt my transversus abdominus muscles so had to modify some exercises. I probably got this injury from jiu-jitsu but the ridiculous balance ball/dumbell combinations in Total Body sure didn't help.

The Good

• You learn the importance of foam rolling.
• Yoga is better thought out than the P90X version and shorter at around an hour.
• Your balance will improve by using the medicine ball and balance ball and some of the moves supplement BJJ in my opinion
• There is no AbRipperX every other day except during the second phase
• Each phase is different so going another round of P90X2 straight after finishing will not get old
• This workout will improve your joint stability and strengthen the deeper layer of muscles
• There are 2 rest days in the week if you need them or foam rolling to recover
• Warm up is much better and fun

The Bad

• Some of the moves feel a little dangerous such as using dumbells and the balance ball together
• This program has much fewer pull ups and push ups than its predecessor. So much so that I never felt as pumped doing X2 as I did with the original X.
• Plyocide was hard, fast and painful just as Plyometrics was in the original. I guess this should be in the good list.
• The length of the Phases was not set and is left up for you to decide. I did 3 weeks of each with 1 rest week. It's hard to say if this was enough. I would have preferred it set in stone how many you need to do but I guess that is just personal choice.
• Doing PAP lower and PAP upper 4 times a week during the final phase was very boring.
• Workouts are still an hour long. Some are over the 60 minutes mark.

Hardest workout: Base and Back OR Plyocide
Easiest workout:X2 Core
Most dangerous workout: Total body


Final conclusion
 P90X2 didn't really impress me that much and I didn't really improve physically while doing it. The workouts didn't seem too hard either compared to P90X but seemed more focused on balance and working the inner muscles rather than the showy muscles like the chest, back and legs. I was left with the feeling that P90X2 seemed to be lacking a certain something. At the end of it I felt that a lot of the strength and muscle I gained during P90X had deflated by doing this workout. After completing P90X I was tempted to skip to P90X3 and wish I had have done so now. I think P90X2 is very good for building balance and core stability while also introducing you to how great foam rolling is for your body but in terms of building powerful muscles and strength it falls short. Do yourself a favor and either do P90X again or go do P90X3 which I plan to do next.