by Will
Fitness Update #7: P90X Phase 1 Thoughts and Results
1:30 am in New Year's Resolutions, P90X, goal setting by Will
So it’s been a little over a month and now I’m on my recovery week after finishing Phase 1 of the P90X program. If I were to sum up my past month in one sentence, it would be “You get what you put in”.
A common misconception is that “anyone” can do this program (especially with their slick infomercial) and come out with stellar results and a six-pack abs.
For those who are thinking of following through with their fitness goals and whipping themselves into shape without any prior physical activity or some sort of training the task might be more daunting than originally envisioned. It took me about 4 times before I built enough momentum after training for my half marathons – it really is mind over matter with this program.
Don’t get me wrong, P90X is a fantastic workout program, but only for those who are already in “okay” in shape where you can run 5 kilometres without passing out and doing at least 1 assisted pull-up, possess a “killer” never-give-up psychology, and backed enough with compelling reasons of why you want to follow through on this 90 day commitment to your fitness and health.
In order of importance here were the things that were the most important in the P90X program.
Nutrition: depending on your point of view – this would be the easiest or the hardest of the P90X program.
I realize when it comes to nutrition, you’re fully in control of what you eat and what you don’t eat. In my case, I cut out 98% of my junk food intake, with the hardest obstacle being my craving for potato chips, which I eventually got under control after kicking that habit after training for my half marathons.
The P90X program suggests that break down the times you eat to 5 times a day – Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and then dinner, with the point being to keep your blood sugar levels at a consistent level so you’re not as tired and better manage your energy ups and downs throughout the day.
With respect to hydration, 90% of the time I drank filtered tap water, along with soy milk and the occasional glass of wine or beer with a meal.
As for the Recovery drink, I was a bit sketchy about these at first, but I eventually caved and bought a recovery drink myself through a recommendation of a close friend of mine. I ended up picking up a tub of MuscleTech “NitroTech” product in vanilla flavour from my local GNC, which is actually pretty tasty.
I’ve noticed a small amount of definition, even after using it for only two and a half weeks.
I can admit that I’m a bit neurotic when it comes to the food that I eat, but this is for the purposes of fulfilling this 90 day goal – I’ll reflect on whether or not I want to continue my obsessive vigilance of sticking to a healthy meal plan to the point I won’t even look at a donut… which is tough up here with Tim Hortons’s on every bloody corner of the city. Lol.
The Equipment: the most important things you should get are free weights and a pull-up bar. Luckily the facilities at the condo I live in has free weights in its gym so I didn’t have to spend any money, which leaves the pull up bar. I picked up a DoorGym pullup bar made by Forza Equipment from Fitness Source here in Toronto, which set me back about $50.
It’s a great piece of equipment that requires minimal assembly and hooks to your door very easily and in under 3 seconds.
The Workout Schedule: you’re hitting the gym 6 times a week with the last day being a rest day or for their “StretchX” program. The first week is always the toughest, and generally where most people give up. Like I said before, this is my forth try in trying out this program, so don’t beat yourself up if you’re thoroughly worn out after doing any one of his P90X routines. I reminded myself that it was okay, and I could always give it another try.
How I fit this program into my schedule was immediately after work I’d hit the gym with my pull-up bar in hand. I made it one of the priorities in terms of areas of my life and pen it into my trusty PocketMod.
Final Thoughts:
While it was definitely challenging and uphill climb at first, after you push past that first week, the second week a little bit easier, and the third being even easier and so and so forth. Like I said, you get what you put in.
Like Tony Horton says in his videos (which can be a little annoying but hits the nail on the head),“You’ve got to BRING IT” to get the most out of the program and keep on pushing even further than you did before to get the maximum results.
So far I’m happy with the results, but I’m not complacent. Onto Phase 2! 
For those of you who are curious, here’s a photostream of my progress on Flickr
Nice writeup.
Nutrition was/is my hardest with the program. It’s so cheap and easy to eat crappy, but try and eat healthy and it can cost a small fortune. I also found it is much easier to keep motivated if you have a partner to workout with. It was much too easy for my mind to switch to something else.. and once that happened, my body quickly followed.
I have halfass worked through the program once on my own. I /did/ lose a good bit of weight, but definitely did not get all I could from the program.
I finished it a second time this past october. We did our workouts first thing each morning at 6:30. It was rough and sometimes the mind was more willing than the body, but we muddled through it. I figured a half-enthusiastic workout is better than no workout at all. We also killed yoga, and by killed, I mean we swapped it out. We attempted it a couple times, but OMG.. 45 minutes of salutations… too much for us.
We had good results and just started P90X+ a few weeks ago, but we are in the process of switching back to regular P90X, as the + is more cardio stuff… so we will be integrating that into our regular routine..
anyway…
Keep up the good work.. and congratulations on your success thus far!
Glad to see your progress is underway. If it was easy everyone would be doing it. Keep that in mind! Talk to you soon and I’ll be following your progress.
You’re working out as I type this. I’m so proud of you! Keep up the tremendous work
Hey thanks for the comments guys!
Critter: Nutrition wasn’t that bad as I built up a lot of momentum after training for my half marathons, so the transition wasn’t that bad for me, but I can understand where you’re coming from… my craving was chips.. but I’ve largely booted out any junk food in my diet save for an occasional burrito or beer and wings
With respect to working out alone, yeah, I was that way when I didn’t have any sort of guidance and wanted to get and give that extra push to a training partner.. once again.. training and running alone helped with that aspect. It’s the opposite situation where I’d probably feel weird working out with someone… I’m a bit of a lone wolf when it comes to training.
P90X+ eh? I’ll have to look into that and re-evaluate my results before I invest in another program. heh
I checked out your blog. Phoenix is adorable.
I’ll be following your progress closely for P90X+ and perhaps get some insight from your blogging.
Matt: Thanks for the comment dude. How goes it man? Yeah, I agree… are you doing the program? How’s your training coming along?
Loretta: Thanks bumblez
Dude, I had no idea you were doing P90X. I'm in the second last week now (Week 12). I took one week off because of a flu, but otherwise, I stuck with it (with the occasional day off because I was traveling or something).
I've VERY happy with the results. In fact, it blew away my expectations, and I am absolutely LOVING it. I'm planning to do a combination of Insanity and P90X+ once I'm done P90X.
I'd say that over 65% of the results are due to diet, especially two factors: 1) Increased protein intake (at least 150 grams a day for me) and 2) Decreased carbs, sugars, fats, and the other bad stuff. I'm taking about 100 grams of the daily protein through shakes and bars, and it's made a huge difference
Let's talk more about this!
Haha, hey David!
I've taken some time off from the gym (bad idea because I broke an otherwise awesome habit) to focus on writing.. after that I got sick for like 3 weeks with a damned persistent cough – which spelled the doom of my abs. lol.
Anyway, I've been working on a new business model for my website.
Let me know when you're back in Toronto and we'll catch up!