Hi all - For those of you that faithfully completed insanity, p90x or a program like that can you please give your opinions of both the good and the not so good. What did you like most and what did you like least? Is it going to challenge someone who has been doing daily cross fit for a while ?

One thing I do not want is to spend more than 90 minutes a day working out. 45 minutes would be ideal. And I cannot spend a ton of money, but can invest in something that costs as much as p90x if it is truly going to help me achieve my fitness goals.

I have also been looking closely at this MMA fighter inspired program:

http://www.amazon.com/Rushfit-Georges-St-Pierre-Ultimate-Training/dp/B005OL8NHW/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1393285226&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=Crossfit+dvd

Looks pretty decent and costs much less than insanity or p90x. Who knows, maybe I will enjoy mma type exercises and mma will be my new passion.

I am looking into a structured program that will push and challenge me to achieve even greater fitness in terms of cardio and strength, but not cripple me. That is important and must hold true when working out 6 days a week. Cross fit kept crippling me when doing it 6 days in a row for months, but got me in absolutely fantastic fitness shape. Sort of a love hate relationship with it so I decided I need to break up with it for awhile. And it was super expensive not only in terms of monthly dues, but also in terms of equipment, clothing, etc.

The last structured DVD set I did before cross fit was called "you are you own gym" and I enjoyed doing that. It was pure body weight exercises, but done in a Tabata manner. This last week, I have been doing bob harpers "inside out " method (pure burn, super strength, and bobs workout) and it has been great. I get an excellent strength based conditioning program of 60 m and feel alive afterwards. Really alive. And i did it every day with nothing but strength gains and an excellent fat burn. No soreness. No aches. No pains. The problem is that it is the same DVD every day. No sense of progression except if I increase the weights which I can not do often enough.

I want to try something new that I can do out of my home with limited strength equipment. I have a few dumbbells (up to 55#) and a few kettle bells (20, 30 and 45#), but that is about it. It looks like most of these programs can be done with that. I could make up my own program of cross fit type conditioning and isolation lifts (have the knowledge), but I would rather leverage structure from a DVD program that is known to be effective. I would hope the DVD program takes no more than 12 weeks.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

This question might be really premature, but that is me (the ultimate planner): what is a good progression to work through the beach body programs, considering the current available programs? I have read online from certain individuals that graduate from px90 before doing insanity before doing insanity asylum. So it makes sense for me to do this also. Sure beach body will come up with better programs over time, but what about this progression: 1. P90x 2. Insanity 3. Hybrid pdx90 and insanity 4. P90x2 5. Insanity asylum 6. Px903 7. T25 Forget that I will probably be over 40 by the time I get this far (almost 38 ). I am having a hard time deciphering from online research how to work through these in terms of working towards better and better fitness. Steps 1-3 are pretty clear for me. Even step 4 and 5 make sense to follow. However, does one gain anything by doing step 6 or 7? I am pretty fit now, but do want to start at the beginning (p90x) before getting into the really hard stuff (step 5). I do not feel the need to take any short cuts. Humor me by working through this exercise of planning, even if you think it is overkill.

You are gonna end up being an Insanity or p90x lover....since you are already fit, you don't necessarily have to start with p90x. That is gonna be your call. If you do insanity, I would make the next step definitely the Asylum....because you are going to be there cardio-wise and agility wise. If you stuck p90x in between those two, you wouldn't be helping yourself because p90x is so different with its approach.

T25 and P90x3 were designed as a compact shorter program of x1 and x2...T25 is ShaunT's latest, which also gears towards the shorter workout, which actually on day 5 they recommend a double video that day.

Insanity's month 2 like we said are hour workouts and p90x can be 90 mins a lot of days the entire time.

I really think you should look into body beast by Beachbody.

And the reason I say that is it sounds like to me you are wanting to build up your muscles....and that you are already trim.

Yes, I am fairly lean with an athletic build. Good muscular definition like you would expect on a cross fitter. Toned, but not really that buff. I am very fit athletically. My athleticism is up there thanks to so much cross fit training. I want to build up the muscles more and will adhere to the nutritional timing points we discussed above.

P90x just came in the mail today, so will be starting on Monday. Really excited about it. Besides, I feel like it is a good idea to advance through the programs and not take short cuts in order to build solid fitness and strength foundations. Just an opinion. Are there any online resources that you guys advise in order to maximize the program for myself.

Tried the R&R drink today after doing a really intense circuit strength workout (1 hour). Taste is a bit like Tang and not really creamsicle like many reviews claim. Needs some more vanilla so I think I will add some extract tomorrow and see if the taste ramps up. Looking forward to seeing increased muscle growth with the 4:1 carb to Protein ratios. Up until now I have not been eating carbs after a workout, only before. I think the lack of post workout carbs has hampered my prior attempts to buff up. It is all going to change now.

Carb loading only helps with energy, nothing to do with muscle size.

Carb loading only helps with energy, nothing to do with muscle size.

Are you sure? Every article I read indicates carbs are necessary to inject the protein into the muscles for better / faster repair, which result in bigger muscles. Without the carbs, protein synthesis is not as effective after consuming protein / bcaa post workout. Just got "Nutrient Timing" today so will read it and get to the bottom of this point over the weekend.

Let me know what it reads like. I know it is very well timed, ratio and type of carb for what you are talking about. Anything above and beyond would be a weight gainer.

I started the p90x today with back and chest using 25# dumbbells. This felt too easy and I was doing high reps (20+) without too much trouble so think I will try 35 or 40# next time. For those that have gone through the program, what weight did you start out with or end up using after a couple weeks? My select techs only go up to 52.5# so think I might have to invest in the 90# set. I say invest because those are really expensive. I enjoyed doing all the pushup and pull up variations.

I made it to day 49 of Insanity, and finally got bored. No, not because the exercise gotten easier, on the contrary it was challenging as heck, but i got so bored of shaun T and his monotonous music and huffings and puffings. I'm more motivated doing workouts with energetic music and not so repetitive motions. I have yet to try P90X so its on my list. As far as MMA goes, i been trying Les Mills Combat recently and loved it! and i also tried T25 recently, it's challenging for something so short.

I've been having fun with p90x so far 6 days a week starting march 1st.

My favorite workouts are "chest and back" and "plyo metrics". My least favorite is "kenpo", well, because it is boring (for me). One question I have is how to make plyo harder. It is a good workout, but it is no way as hard as a good 15 minute cross fit AMRAP. I wear a heart monitor on my wrist an averaged 135 for most of the workout when the guys in the video were getting 150-160. And I am bringing it, not dogging it. I pay attention to keep my movements clean. Should I wear some arm and leg weights to make it harder, jump even higher (hit the ceiling, lol)? The kenpo was worse. Hardly got a workout at all. I may switch out the kenpo for more cardiox or plyo action in order to get in a decent cardio on that day. Love all the push-ups and pull-ups on chest and back day. The ab ripper is hard! And it burns!! Thank goodness it is only 15 min after a long workout.

I've got nutrition dialed in at 1800 calories a day at 50, 30 and 20 macro ratios for Protein, carb and fat. MFP is really helping me be exact about it. I never used it before now, but think MFP is indeed of fun to use every day. My eating habits were actually not that far off from what p90x requires, just a small tweak to increase carbs a few percentile.

I've been having fun with p90x so far 6 days a week starting march 1st.

My favorite workouts are "chest and back" and "plyo metrics". My least favorite is "kenpo", well, because it is boring (for me). One question I have is how to make plyo harder. It is a good workout, but it is no way as hard as a good 15 minute cross fit AMRAP. I wear a heart monitor on my wrist an averaged 135 for most of the workout when the guys in the video were getting 150-160. And I am bringing it, not dogging it. I pay attention to keep my movements clean. Should I wear some arm and leg weights to make it harder, jump even higher (hit the ceiling, lol)? The kenpo was worse. Hardly got a workout at all. I may switch out the kenpo for more cardiox or plyo action in order to get in a decent cardio on that day. Love all the push-ups and pull-ups on chest and back day. The ab ripper is hard! And it burns!! Thank goodness it is only 15 min after a long workout.

I've got nutrition dialed in at 1800 calories a day at 50, 30 and 20 macro ratios for Protein, carb and fat. MFP is really helping me be exact about it. I never used it before now, but think MFP is indeed of fun to use every day. My eating habits were actually not that far off from what p90x requires, just a small tweak to increase carbs a few percentile.

First, I would definitely say "no" to the weights on arms and legs. I feel it may cause injury.

When I wasn't conditioned, plyo and kenpo seemed difficult. Now that my fitness level has improved, it doesn't seem as challenging. If it's not challenging and that is what you are wanting, then yes, substitute it. BUT remember, all of the workouts are designed to go to together, for a specific end result including (not limited to): sports performance. I would say to continue to give all of them a chance, to see if you like the end result. I did get a quicker time for running.

On the last round of p90x, I would go cycling outdoors or go for a run to get my burn on and get my heart rate up on cardio days. But that is definitely part of my conditioning and my specific needs.

MFP is what I have used from day 1 because I am detail oriented and need to see that. I have also had to increase my carbs recently to account for all of this exercise. I am currently doing 2-a-days and if I didn't have those carbs, I'd probably not be able to go to work. Lol

Keep the pace!

Edited March 12, 201412 yr by abetterme4.2