First Ever P90Xpert Contest

"Tony cracks me up - like the part where he caws and acts like a Pterodactyl..."

"Man, that Eric is something else. Every time I want to whine, I think of him..."

"Joe. Chair Dips. BAStard!"

Are you so tight with P90X that you know what those comments mean, and what workouts they refer to? Do you sometimes think you should get a prize for the moment-to-moment knowledge of P90X you have earned?

Funny, so do we.

Announcing the First Tiny in 90 P90Xpert Contest, produced in happy conjunction with our friends at Extreme Body Workout. We thought it would be fun to test your knowledge, develop our passion for Tony Moments and to help you expand your understanding of the right tools for the job.

The prize this time is a fantabulous Men's or Women's three resistance band set.

Without further ado, here are your P90Xpert Contest Questions
(entry instructions below):

1. What "soup" does Phil stir that makes Tony jealous of his line?

2. What does Sophia do in the Step Back Lunges to add more intensity?

3. Fill in the blank - Tony: "When you're a P90X grad,
it's _______!"

Your Contest Official-ness:

• To enter this contest, please answer all three questions accurately in the comments of this post. (Sorry everyone, this time the contest is US or Canada only!)


• Please, only one comment per person per giveaway post.


• Anonymous comments will not qualify (how will we know who you are?!)


• We will randomly draw the winner from the correct answers in 3 days time - Friday Jan. 18th at 5pm and announce the winner the following day-ish.


• Since we can't notify the winner, please keep an eye out for our announcement, and email us your info if you do win. This is made easier for you if you subscribe to this blog so you don't have to keep checking back, although it's always great to have you pop-in for a read!!


• A Sweepstakes winner's failure to respond to the prize notification within three business days - Wednesday, January 23 at 5p.m. - will be considered such Sweepstakes winner's forfeiture of the prize and an alternate winner will be selected from the pool of eligible entries.

Bring it! See you soon...

I hate it, but I... still hate it.

We have several Tony-isms that we love to repeat but one of our favourites is from the intro to Ab Ripper X, when Tony says: "I hate it, but I love it" as he looks knowingly (evilly?) into the camera.

Well, lately, I've just been hating it. Normally, if I'm not feeling psyched about my workout, I just start it and some time into the thing, my adrenaline kicks in and I start feeling great: pumped, psyched, motivated... Lately, I've noticed that I've just been grumpy all the way through the workout. Even in Kenpo X! Shocking, I know.

This doesn't mean that I haven't been bringing it though. I've just been really pissy while doing so. I still show up. I still press play. Hell, I've even started adding jumps at the end of my Dreya roll (14 of them today!) Who knows what's driving me through these workouts at this point. I'm like a robot: Show up, Press play... Show up, Press play... repeats itself like a mantra in my brain. I think it's Tamsen's voice saying it.

Part of me wonders if I'm not just a bit worn out, overtired, since I have been ramping up my running distance lately (I did a 12-miler after Kenpo X on Sunday). But another part of me just doesn't care. We're reaching the end of our P90X Lean - next week is a recovery week anyway. And then we'll take the following week off from Tony completely. Who knows, maybe I'll even give Maya a visit?! She might be shocked to see how well I'm doing, and it'll definitely be an easier workout.

Pay no attention to me, I'm just grumpy. If you're looking for tasty healthful breakfast suggestions, check out my latest article for Fitfare. And if you like free stuff, don't forget to tune in next week for our cool free Extreme Beach Body giveaway!

The Rightness of the Right Tools

I'm with the bands. Resistance bands, that is. I used to have a full set of weights, but I also have a small apartment. At some point, when trying to find some dark corner to stash 100lbs worth of weights so my mom didn't trip on them and do a header into the computer table, it dawned on me that my small home was not (just) a gym. So I sold them and got bands.

But I only bought four of them, thinking that I'd gotten the general equivalent of my weights. I had to fake my way through several segments, where I either had too much weight and had to do some goofy compensation or accept the fact that I was never going to realize the full effect of the segment (pull-ups were a joke with the band I was using). Then Extreme Body Workout woke my ass up. They sent me a full set of bands, with such a range of weight resistance that my workouts shifted into high gear immediately.

Yeah, I did feel like someone had just pointed out that I had a nose, thanks for snarking that up for me.

So very much like the fact that going a half-inch deeper into a move, straightening your legs a little more or kicking with a little more precision, using the proper equipment will increase the quality of your P90X experience. Oh, and the sexy curve of your bicep. But you probably already know that...look, it has nostrils, too!

Free Stuff for Youuuuu!

Great news! The lovely folks at Extreme Body Workout have offered to sponsor some tasty giveaways for us. What this means is that we connive to come up with tricky tests of your P90X knowledge and you can win cool free stuff like gear and whatnot!

Check back on January 15th for our first quiz. We'll pool the correct responses and draw a winner at random. So in the meantime, be sure to study up on your P90X workouts (in other words, just show up and press play).

New Year's Ponderings

Happy new year everyone! Hope you're looking forward to the new year as much as I am...

Well, the holidays and holiday traveling wreaked havoc on our little P90X workout schedule. We started out doing pretty well... We decided to postpone our Yoga X before our flight on Friday till our rest day, but then we did our Core Synergistics the next day, at Big E's parents house and Kenpo X the next day. Then it began to fall apart a bit. On Christmas eve, we did the Yoga X as planned but dropped out the corpse and oms. Then came Christmas and between hustling back and forth between both families, we decided to skip the Chest Shoulder & Triceps.

The next day should have had us right back on track with Cardio X, but somehow we were so wiped out from all the hustling about and merry-making, we mutually agreed to skip it. By the 27th, we decided this week was a bust and skipped the Back & Biceps. Given that we've never missed more than one workout this entire time, that week was unprecedented. The next day we were traveling back, and next thing you know, the week is over. Oh well. At least I managed to get in a 10 miler in on Sunday and Big E played beach ulti on Saturday, so we didn't completely end the year as lazy lumps.

Yesterday was the rest day and in theory, today we start up again, as strong as ever to make up for our failings last week. Today's workout is Chest & Back and Ab Ripper and we're off!

We've been discussing the P90X lean and the P90x schedule, as I've begun setting up our calendar for the next cycle, when we move up to the standard P90x plan, and we've come to the conclusion that the beachbody concept isn't exactly what either of us is going for. The focus on upper body, while useful in many ways, isn't our main interest. We don't so much want to look good as want to be strong and supported in our chosen sports (and it wouldn't hurt to look good while doing it). For example, we'd be more interested in more Legs & Back workouts, but not quite as many Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps, etc. variations. We also feel that we could use more Core Synergistics than are offered in the standard P90X plan, where they only show up in the rest week.

So I've decided I'm going to revisit the plan before we begin it on January 22nd, and cater it a bit more to our shared interests. Along those same lines, I've spoken to many friends who are interested in checking out the P90X workouts but don't necessarily have the 6 days a week to give to it. While I'd agree that in order to maximize your benefits from the plan, it's best to try to adhere to its guidelines as closely as possible, I think it's also important to also be realistic. Doing Ab Ripper 5 days a week isn't going to to much for you, but doing 3-4 workouts a week can still give very good results, especially if the workouts are carefully selected to be complimentary and balanced. So over the next few weeks, I plan to put together some alternative schedules that will offer a variety of timing options as well as slightly different focus depending on what the end goal might be.

Tamsen and I also have some exciting news coming up for you guys, our lovely readers, so tune in soon for our upcoming announcement!

My New Favourite Pre-workout Snack

It's actually a bit more of a mid-afternoon snack, so about an hour or so before we generally workout, but I've found that I definitely need a bit of a boost before the daily workout, or I just can't quite Bring It.

My current favourite snack has been plain Greek nonfat yogurt (apparently, Greek yogurt is much higher in protein than normal, and happens to taste totally creamy and delicious, even when it's nonfat!) mixed with a small handful of walnuts, a drizzle of agave nectar and a small amount of chopped fruit (most recently a deliciously ripe persimmon).

So delicious, so quick, and completely healthful! Yum.

P90X Lean - Halfway Point

Well, we've made it half way through the program. Phase II is not really all that different from Phase I, the only difference is the Shoulders & Arms workout got replaced by Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. This workout is quite a bit harder for me, because I am not so great with the pushups, but it's good to see that one of the people does them on her knees, so I don't feel so guilty about doing that as well.

The rest of the week is the same: Monday is our day off - and I love it! Tuesday is Core Synergistics, which I am still very fond of: it's challenging enough but satisfying at the same time. Wednesday is Cardio X, which is a bit too easy to me, but I've started supplementing it with a good hard short run beforehand and that really makes a difference.

Thursday and Saturday are the strength workouts, upper body and then Legs and Back, respectively. Friday is Yoga X, which is always daunting with its 40 minutes of Vinyasa in the beginning but ends quite nicely. I usually supplement Fridays with another short run, unless I manage to sneak one in on another day. And then Sunday, which has become Monster Sunday, with my long run or crazy sprint repeats followed by the beloved Kenpo X.

So here we are, halfway through the program, and I have to say, E and I both love it! E's arms and back are looking fantastic and we both feel great!! The nutrition plan has completely gone by the wayside now, and we've just been doing our best to eat a balanced diet, with enough protein, much less saturated fat and a decent amount of carbs.

Yay P90X! Can't wait to see the results photos...