P90X: Lessons, Progress and The One Thing

Friday, May 25 was the end of our first 90-day trial for our two or three programs (Note: Sara's Self Magazine Challenge was less than challenging, so she added on Yourself! Fitness' kickass cyber-training with Maya, the virtual cutie pie of screaming musculature). I followed P90X with enthusiasm until around the sixth week. I got another four to five weeks in before my shoulders threatened to secede. We start our second 90 days tomorrow; I'm taking on P90X Doubles (the regular program but two workouts a day - I was almost doing that with my running + P90). I thought it would help to remind myself of what just went on...

Regardless of time missed, I did have progress:

- Definte improvement in upper body strength
- A greater overall fitness in just a few weeks
- An advancement in certain abilities (push-ups, flexibility, balance)
- A much better understanding of how to make the program work

On that last one, understanding how to make it work, I had to be taught a few lessons:

- Ignoring recovery weeks was a rookie mistake.

- Sometimes less is more: I really didn't need the heavier weights on some of those moves.

- The menu plans, while appearing to be an awful lot of food (Confession: I never fully subscribed to the EGGPOUNDER 4000 plan. Who the hell wants to eat 18 egg whites every week?) were on target for the most part. It requires a lot more cardio, at least for me, to justify those quantities. While I was running alongside the P90X plan, I was running long, slow miles, which doesn't really kick in the afterburners. In this next 90 days I'll know how to use those calories.

- Supplement, supplement, supplement. I didn't go for any of the Beachbody products because they inexcuseably leave ingredient lists to our imagination on their products page. (Do they really think we don't care? Mui stupido.) I used Clif Recovery and Electrolite powders, Clif protein bars and Hammer Nutrition's Perpetuem and yummy energy bars (I tried and rapidly discarded Hammer's recovery formula; the Xylitol sweetener, while natural and low-glycemic, is too cloying for me). But those balancing, endurance and recovery solutions made a huge difference.

And the one thing? Another re-learned lesson: it doesn't work if your head isn't in the game until way past overtime.

p.s. even after 90 days I still say "P90X" like the dude from Monster Jam