I've obviously been laxing on the P90X recently - ever since getting the trainer and having that option available, having 3x per week to dedicate an hour and a half to strength training has been a tad too much. I had considered just sticking witht he Legs & Back routine, due to the benefits of the leg workout, but I didn't want to completely abandon the upper body. So that was why I recently tried out the Spartacus workout - which has some aspects I liked, and some I did not.
What I ended up deciding to try was to compile a list of all the P90X exercises, sorted by what section it works, and come up with my own circuit type workout (mimicking the Spartacus workout in that respect). I liked the fact that Spartacus did the routines three times around, but I also like how P90X varies things up a bit. So I combined the two concepts together, picking three exercises from each portion of the body worked by P90X, and creating a three set routine out of it. My thinking is that I can then do this one workout, once per week, and that'd be my primary strength training.
I ended up with the following:
Set 1
- Wide front pull ups, max reps
- Balance lunges, 1 minute each side
- Standard pushups, max reps
- One arm cross body curls, max reps
- Weighted circles (30 seconds each direction with 5 seconds of rest in between), max time
- Overhead tri extension, max reps
Set 2
- Reverse grip chin ups, max reps
- Dead lift squats, 1 minute each side
- Slow motion pushups (4 seconds down, 4 seconds up), to max
- Static arm curl, max reps
- Shoulder press, max reps
- Front to back tri extension, max reps
Set 3
- Close grip overhand pullups, max reps
- Single leg wall squat, 15 seconds each side alternating to 90 seconds total
- One arm balance pushups, max reps
- Curl up hammer down, max reps
- Pour fly's, max reps
- Lying tri extention, max reps
So in general, the muscle groups worked are in this order:
1) back
2) legs
3) chest/tri
4) biceps
5) shoulders
6) triceps
My goal was to obviously hit every major section once each set, but it's almost unavoidable to work the chest without also working the triceps - so I split them up as best I could to give the triceps a little bit of a break between station 3 and station 6. The other nice thing is that this is just an example - there are enough exercises in P90X that I could probably come up with 3-4 of these circuits, so I'm not doing all of the exact same exercises every week.
Overall, I found the workout to be a very good start, but I think there needs to be some minor modifications. First off, I feel like the legs should maybe see a little more attention - I may have underestimated their ability to perform with little rest in between what is otherwise exhausting sets. That said, in both the balance lunges and dead lift squats, I definitely felt the gluteus medius being worked on the last several reps - and that is one of the primary muscles I'd like to see targeted in a legs routine due to its roll in hip stability (according to PT). So we'll see over the next couple days whether the legs really do need more attention, or whether it is sufficient. Second, it does end up being a workout that focuses primarily on the upper body. Not the worst thing in the world, and if I decide to add more legs, that would obviously help balance things out. Third, there is no core stuff in here. I'm not sure exactly how to approach that, because not only would I like to work core more than once per week, but I also know I mentally tap out of a strength workout after about an hour. So I may have to end up doing a core/ab workout during the week - at the moment I'm thinking of just doing something like Ab Ripper-X - but we'll see.
Back to this workout, though, it is an exhausting routine, and it does take up the ideal amount of time for me - about 45 minutes, excluding warmup and stretching. Since each exercise is done to max reps, or trying to get as many reps in as possible during a specified time, it definitely elicits heavy breathing. In fact, halfway through the third set, after writing down what I had done, I collapsed on the floor for a minute to catch my breath. Unlike a normal P90X routine where you are exhausting a single section of the body, this was exhausting my entire body, leaving me with little to draw on to hold myself up. Also, I did find that the progression from one body part to another was real nice - after fatiguing myself at one station, I was looking forward to the next one and giving the just-worked muscles a much needed break.
You can find the results of todays workout in the 'P90X Progress - Winter 2011' section above, under 'Circuit 1'.
No comments:
Post a Comment