Does P90X really work?

See for yourself!

Okay, that might be a little misleading...

WARNING: This post is a very long review of the P90X workout program. Feel free to skip it if you have no interest :) I really just want to see if the hits on my blog go up after using the title that I did...

As many of you know Jacob and I just finished (as of Sunday night) one full round of P90X, which is an infomercial exercise program that promises to get you totally ripped and in the best shape of your life in 90 days. Basically it tells you what to eat, what to do for exercise each day and completely takes over your life for 3 months. But does it work? In a word, YES. Caveats? YES. Here are just a few things to remember if you are interested in P90X:

1. Unless you start the program in relatively good shape and close to your goal weight, you are going to have to do more than one round of the program to get the results you see on TV. But, if you totally commit and do a few rounds, then yes, you can look like those people. It does work!

2. The diet is the KEY to the entire program. You have to eat high protein, low carb, low sugar food. (That is the general gist in a nutshell, the book spells out exactly how to do it.) If you still eat crap it won't work like you think. Plus it is much harder to get through the workouts if you don't have good fuel in the tank. Whey protein powder supplement is a must. You need a good recovery drink after each workout too. Of course the P90X company wants to sell you their super snazzy P90X version, but we just drank a smoothie made with protein whey powder mixed with one Emergen-C vitamin packet after every workout. Awesome results! Plus it has 1,000% of your Vitamin C for the day so you don't get sick! Seriously, I felt fantastic every day for three months.

3. Getting the totally ripped abs that everyone obsesses over is about having very low body fat, not having incredibly large ab muscles or strength. If you want your washboard 6-pack abs to show up, you have to have a LOW body fat. For men it is about 10% or below for women it is about 14% or below. Once I learned those numbers I realized exactly what it would take for me to look like the picture in the book. Which leads me to....

4. Decide what is most important for you. Do you want arms that are guns? Do you want the six pack abs? Do you want skinny thighs? Do you just want energy to run around without getting winded? You have to focus on what you want. There are 13 different workout routines that each focus on different parts of your body, so the program is a little overwhelming at first. It is SO easy to feel guilty and inadequate when you can't do even half of what some of the workouts are. But you just have to stick with it and put the most energy into what is most important to you. To this day I still can't do hardly any regular man push-ups. But guess what? I don't really care! I can only do about 3 pull-ups. Still don't really care! And seeing as how I am never in public in a bikini or clothes that expose my midriff, having super defined abs is not really worth it to me. Sure, I could kill myself to lower my body fat to get them, but frankly my dear, I don't care that much. And I love chocolate. But I do want good, toned arms so making sure I worked super hard in the arm workouts was much more of a priority for me. Don't get me wrong, you still need to complete all the workouts, but just don't stress over the certain moves or routines that don't really inspire you :)

5. The simplest exercises are still what works. This program is a heck of a lot of push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, jumping jacks, squats (oh, the squats!) and work with free weights. Nothing really earth shattering. The cardio routines do have a lot of high impact in them, which you can take out if you modify the moves. It is kinda crazy to think that just the old fashioned stuff still gets it done.

6. We never did the Yoga. You are supposed to do Yoga one day a week. Apparently it is one of the hardest routines you do! But Jacob and I have no patience for it. Sorry. We just couldn't commit to that one. We are impressed with those that do, though. We used that day to run and do an extra cardio workout.

7. Don't buy this program new or pay full price. Craiglist or eBay. I would not spend more than around $65.

8. You will love Tony :) He is the star of the videos and we found him to be very entertaining. Which is a good thing when you spend an hour a day with someone for 3 months...

So overall I feel my results were great for what I wanted. I am all about the arms. I feel much stronger in my arms, and for the first time ever in my life I even have some arm definition going on! My thighs are much thinner and I am thrilled that I can make it through the Plyometrics workout and still be alive at the end. I lost a pound or two, some body fat and gained muscle- but the big thing is just feeling more toned. I have been back in my bathing suit for the past 3 weeks with the kids and after doing the P90X I can tell I am much leaner than I used to be. A very good feeling :)

Jacob's results are extremely impressive. WOW. While I would say I followed the program to about 70% accuracy, he is more in the 90% range. He is a machine when it comes to deciding and committing to something. He cannot be budged! I kept waiting for him to fall off the wagon, but alas, he was snug inside it with no intention of even getting near the edge. He has been very disciplined on the diet (he still had b-day cake with his kids on their birthdays, though...) but he really stuck to it with great precision.

So here is Jacob's official P90X transformation video! YouTube is has TONS of these things. It is basically a P90X rite of passage to make one when you finish your 90 days. Which also accomplishes Jacob's lifelong dream of being in a video montage with music from the movie The Karate Kid. I think he decided to do P90X just for that chance...

****Disclaimer: I realize this is kind of an awkward situation. I mean, you all know my husband but this might be more of him than you wanted to see. We made this video mostly to submit to the P90X website. So watch if you want. This isn't meant as a brag-fest either, it truly is meant to inspire anybody who might want to take on this program and to show what's possible. It's so cheesy and so trite to say, but if we can do it, anyone can :)



(I do have to add to this that I get to take a lot of responsibility for Jacob's transformation. I cooked probably 98% of the food he at for 3 months- breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. I got up when he did, I read the instruction book, the recipes, I counted the carbs, read labels, made a TON of homemade soups, tuna salads, chicken salads, grilled salmon, Eggs! EGGS! Oh, the humanity of EGGS!!!!)

Looking back I seriously can't believe we made it through doing that for 90 days! We never missed a workout in 3 months. (Except for Sundays, of course). I plan to do another round of a more lenient P90X until school gets out and focus on my arms a little more. Jacob will probably do another round with more forgiveness in the diet. After that, who knows? The White House? The Olympics? The World Cup? 100% Home and Visiting Teaching?!!! Well, let's not get crazy...

As for a real picture of me? I will give you one: