Saturday, July 26, 2008

Real World P90X


This morning I did my 10-Minute Trainer. Not sure why . . . I was just about to head outside to help my husband gather and stack our firewood. Boy was I thinking about Tony all morning. I kept reflecting back to the P90X Cardio video where you pretend you are picking something up in your garage and putting it on the shelf. Do you see that stack of wood above? Every two of those pieces of wood represent one squat. Squat down to pick them up and throw them into the trailer. Then bring the trailer to the shed, reach over, grab two pieces, pick them up and twist to hand them to my huband who stacked them, for hours. Each piece of wood averaged between 5 - 10 pounds (some more). Now THAT beats the pants off of any P90X session I ever did. But let me tell you how happy I am that my legs and back have been conditioned by P90X. Otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to move right now – forget about getting out of bed tomorrow.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

More 10 Minute Trainer Reviews

I'm in love! Tony Horton's 10 Minute Trainer videos are brilliant. So far I've done 4 of them and loved every one. As you may have already read, the Cardio one was incredible and left me sore for at least 3 days. I'm still in shock over that.

Since then I've tried the Total Body, Abs and Yoga. I'm not a big fan of the rubber bands, but if you have a good set of dumbells the Total Body is superb. I used by 10 and 15 pounders and got my heart pumping. My husband used his 20 lb weights and he also thought it was excellent. It definitely helps if you are familiar with some of Tony's moves, but if not you catch on very quickly after watching the video only once.

After conquering Ab Ribber X I thought the 10 Minute Abs workout was going to be child's play. I was wrong! I was actually hoping for the same moves, but they were completely different and tough. Part of my problem was the fact that I was barefoot and kept slipping. I would definitely recommend wearing sneakers for this work-out.

This morning was Yoga and there's no doubt this was a million times easier than the P90X version, but still a great addition to the total routine. Yoga is ESSENTIAL to any well rounded workout. I was happy that given the fact that I've been slacking with my yoga I still managed to stay somewhat flexible. Now that I've joined the "40 Club" I can't slack with the flexibility workouts.

All the videos waste no time and jump immediately from one move to the next. If you have to stop and watch the first couple of moves, you've missed half the workout, but don't despair. . . it only takes one viewing to be ready for some serious action the second time around. Part of our biggest complaint with P90X was the amount of wasted time as Tony explained things or we waited for the duration of any given exercise when we were ready to move on to the next. Well, that problem is completely solved here. It's very fast moving and before you know it, you're done. LOVE THESE THINGS!!!!

Monday, July 07, 2008

10 Minute Trainer Revew 1

I can't believe that I'm about to share this information . . . I'm embarrassed to say that as a P90X grad the Cardio 10 Minute Trainer kicked my butt. How sad is that? Either I am pathetic or that video was awesome.

Here's the deal, I woke up on my 40th birthday and decided to give a video a try. I was still in my pj's and since it was my first viewing I didn't even give it my all. I was more curious to check out the video than to really work out. I did all the exercises with no bands and they really got my heart pumping! It was great. The 10 minutes flew by and when I went to walk downstairs after the mini workout I could feel the pump in my legs - as if I just biked. How could this be? Is there really a switch that gets flipped the minute you turn 40 that makes you feel old? I was disgusted with myself.

And to make matters even worse, when I got up the next morning I could not believe how sore my butt was! I know exactly what moves got me too. It was those skaters. i did them nice and deep and let me just tell you - they work! I've been sore for 3 days . . . from a 10 minute workout, in my jammies.

I am thrilled with the Cardio video and can't wait to try the rest. I hope the workouts are really great and it's not just me being old! Stay tuned for more.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

A P90X Dream Come True

So I've been planning to try to maintain my new found P90X-induced strength and endurance. I had all kinds of good intentions of continuing to do at least one video per week, or at the very least Ab Ripper during one of my lunch breaks. Sadly, I've done nothing in the past month even remotely P90X related.

But recently I talked to my friends over at Ultimate Fitness Gear. They informed me about a brand new Tony Horton video series called "10 Minute Trainer." This sounds WAY too good to be true. I was enticed and ordered up not only the 10 Minute workouts, but also the P90X Plus videos. A girl can dream, right? I'm not quite as excited to give those a try, but I'm filing them away for some indoor winter torture.

I am, however, planning to test drive these new 10 minute work-outs starting next week. Granted, I'm not a good test case for losing weight. All I'm interested in doing is maintaining my strength and cardio without the huge time commitment that P90X involved. So stay tuned to see how it goes.