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.

On the Mat Day 511: Rehabilitating a groin injury

I've been trying everything I can to heal my left groin muscle. On Wednesday I went to see a physiotherapist who was recommended to me by a friend. He is very good and does a hands on approach with lots of deep tissue massage on a specific area. It felt like he was driving sharp needles into my groin muscle when he was working on it. He told me my muscles are extremely tight around my hips. I have noticed over the years that my hamstrings have become much tighter and am working on getting them more flexible or risk more injuries while doing BJJ.

I was very hesitant to go last night because of my injury but haven't sparred for a week so just had to go. I tried not to push hard but everyone seemed to be in the mood to go serious and use lots of power so it was hard to flow. Maybe it was because there were lots of guys there heavier than me. It's really hard for me to shrimp off my injured groin side right now. I just tried to slow things down and look for escapes last night and was quite successful but since my dominant leg is the injured one then its hard to spar efficiently.

About 15 minutes to the end of the class I had one more opponent I thought I could spar with (I like to spar at least once with everyone in the room) but instead I decided to throw in the towel and foam roll any kinks out of my muscles. I'm glad I did.

For an update on P90X2. I am still going strong. This is week 5 and I plan to do 2 more weeks of Strength before moving on. So far it is helping my jits a lot.

I wants it!

Day 2 P90X2: Plyocide

I woke up at 6 am to a dismal overcast morning. It was still dark and I had been having such a great dream involving some nameless girl who I thought was my soul mate that I really didn't want to get up and work out. She quickly dissolved and I groggily got out of bed, turned my alarm off and stifled my inner negative pretty fast and got changed.

What can I say about the workout? It was great. Packed with so many different exercises and using a medicine ball and balance ball, it was over in no time at all. In fact that is what was great about it. It started with roughly a 10 min warmup, 30 mins workout, followed by a cool down of under 15 minutes. Unfortunately, I could not do the cool down as I had to jump in the shower and break my fast ready for work, but I got the workout down and done.

The workout itself was not as devastatingly hard as I was dreading. Yes, I took breaks because my heart was pumping way too hard. Yes, I did not do all the reps and cursed but there were enough breaks and lots of variation. Another thing that I liked was the low impact exercises mixed with high impact. I think Tony H really has got it down to a science. He seems to know exactly when a person is gasping for air and turn it down but still keep them moving. I have to say that jumping with a medicine ball makes me tired fast. Oh, and if you do this workout, make sure you have a sturdy box to stand on. I didn't and wasted 5 minutes looking for one then finally gave up.

I look forward to the rest of the series and my BJJ class tonight.

Day 1 P90X2 - X2 Core

I've had a cold or perhaps it has been two of them back to back for a week. This prevented me from training BJJ and I hated it so much. Today I started P90X2 as scheduled. I'm about 80% fit right now but didn't want to leave starting P90X2 any longer. Since finishing Tapout XT I have not been eating very well. It felt really good to workout this morning with something new, something fresh and lively.

This workout was actually not very taxing, although it did make me sweat in the last 15 minutes. The weather is much colder right now than when I started Tapout so the sweat does not pour off me. X2 Core began with some unique warmups using a balance ball and a foam roller. I've always wanted to start a workout with a roller so really loved this great start to the day. Not only that, the warmup was about 15 minutes long with the meat of the workout lasting a little under 40 minutes. Exercises of note were push ups in a wide stance on top of a medicine ball which I was not very good at, single leg squatting and jumping and Dreya rolls with a medicine ball.

This workout is definately exciting. You get to use different apparatus and it did not feel long and boring at all. Top marks for this Tony H.

My plan is to do this workout for 3 weeks then 1 week in recovery, This will take me up to a competition I plan to enter on December 2nd in Handa.