Insanity and P90X Workouts

Some people (like me) just plain like working out. In the long run, it makes you feel refreshed, wholesome, keeps you more vibrant in daylight hours. There's a lot more to working out than opportunity to show off your abs, jacked calves and badass tribal tats. I've been with the same woman for nine years, I'm not trying to impress anybody. I also don't like having a build like Will Farrell, so I work out every day. When I first started doing it, I dreaded it because it seemed like a work chore that caused pain and almost sapped my strength to get drunk six nights a week, but after you sink into it a little it (at least to me) becomes a fun challenge.

Unless, of course, you're a meathead. Fuck them, and fuck you if you are. There's a difference between being in good shape and looking like a shiney fire hydrant in Zubas. I'm only sayin' is all.

 

Maybe it's cause I'm 22, but I've actually found that I have much more energy to drink when I lift than whenever I take a day off. This is also probably part of the reason why I lift 5-6 days a week. Second semester senior year is great.

I also used to run 4-5 days a week last spring but unfortunately, during high school sports, I sprained my ankles a combined total of 12 times, injured both knees, and essentially ruined one of my hip flexors, so my lower body just couldn't keep up with that much running. I lessened the amount I was running, then managed to stress fracture my ankle last semester playing intramural flag football of all fucking things and I've only been running once a week since then and playing random pick-up basketball games. When it's nicer out, me and a lot of friends normally play football a couple times a week, too. And no, it's not nice out in fucking Wisconsin right now- it snowed last week.

Related to that, I have a lot of friends who swear by P90X. After taking so long off from doing cardio, my "beach body" ain't what it was a year ago, although I'm certainly not fat by any means. I feel like I need to shred some fat again and I've been considering trying P90X this summer. However, my hip flexor really is pretty much wrecked. It severely limits to ab work and leg lifts I can do. For those of you that have done it, does P90X involve a lot of exercises that involve hip flexors? Or are there some that do but you can supplement with something else?

 

I loathe running and 10 years of smoking has ruined my endurance, both aerobic and my muscle endurance. Thus I'm attracted to heavier lifting for limited reps (< 10 per set). Depending on what I'm looking to do body composition-wise, I'll do superset/circuit workouts or a program with longer rest between sets more designed to build strength/size. If I'm not doing some kind of circuit workout, I add sprints, jumprope or kettlebell swing intervals. I'm not really looking for functional strength, but I do enjoy progressing in the major lifts like squats and deads.

Diet is going to be WAY more important for beginners when it comes to wanting to lose weight and look better. All the processed crap, sugars & HFCS people eat is killing them a lot moreso than being sedentary. I'd even wager that the nutrition facet of these P90X or Insanity programs (I assume there is one) play a bigger role than 90 minutes/day of killing yourself in front of the TV. You simply cannot out-exercise a shitty diet in the long run.

I'm far from an expert but I do enjoy reading about nutrition and strength training in my free time. Completely eliminating gluten, dairy and processed foods is more than a tad ridiculous, but if you experiment and find you get good results and feel better by cutting back on certain things, it's certainly worth it to actually take control of what you put in your body rather than just admit defeat ("I can't cut out any bread", "I love cheese too much") like a total pussy.

 

FOCUS: is anyone else doing the Insanity or P90X workouts (published by BeachBody)? What are your results? Any tips to share regarding the workouts, nutrition, follow-up after the program is done? Any criticisms or areas the program(s) could improve? If there's a better regimen, what is it?

I just started Insanity, and I love it. Like others have said, I would probably never SOLELY do it as my workout, but it's a great supplement/complements my other activities. I'm excited to see what it feels like after a few more weeks.

 

When I was training for a marathon, I occassionally felt like I had less gains for things like 20 rep maxes, but that was probably due more to a slight caloric deficit than anything else. If you eat right, you may not have problems doing either, especially given where most people are starting from strengthwise. Noobie gains are a real phenomenon. Most people don't need to worry so much about specializing, and just change things up as necessary.

<a class="postlink" href="http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=50739" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=50739</a>
For those of you without access to a gym; I typically don't care for many of crossfit's workout or mindset in general, but some of the bodyweight workouts on this guide can be nice once in a while, especially when traveling. Its on page one, at the bottom of the first post.

 

It never really occurred to me when I was younger that the shit I was eating and the habits I was developing were going to shape the way I ate for the rest of my life. I think a lot of people don't eat properly, chalk it up to being young and able to get away with it, and just assume that they'll fix it when they're a little older, or when they have kids, etc. Doesn't work that way.

I'm sure there's more than just a couple fat people lurking in this thread, maybe mulling over getting P90X, telling themselves that this time THEY ARE SERIOUS and tomorrow is the start of the rest of their lives. That might work for a few people who try, but the overwhelming majority will fail and go back to living a sedentary lifestyle filled with fast food and seatbelt extenders. I'm just a moron with an internet connection, so if anyone takes any of the following seriously it's not my fault. With that warning out the way, here are a couple of things that may or may not help you lose weight:

If you want to lose weight, you're going to have to be strict with what you're putting into your body. That doesn't mean you can't have certain things, you just need to know their nutritional merit and how much of them you can have. It sounds lame, but until you get into a routine and know what you're doing, creating an account at any of the nutrition/exercise tracking sites (Livestrong, DailyBurn, FitDay, etc) is a great idea. Make it your homepage, that way you're forced to see it every day. Be diligent with it.

The biggest thing I can stress is portion control. Most people have no idea what an actual serving of something is. Pay attention to how much of something you're eating. I'd suggest getting a cheap digital food scale if you really want to keep yourself honest. A tablespoon of mayo is a tablespoon of mayo. An ounce of cheese is an ounce cheese. If you're not sure, measure it. Read the labels. Put EVERYTHING in your food log. Calories add up quicker than you think.

Doing this is a lot easier if you stop eating out at much as you can, at least for awhile. Cooking at home allows you to control what you put in your body, you can cater it to your personal tastes, you control portion size, etc. If you don't know how to cook, look at it as an opportunity to learn.

When you put caloric restrictions on yourself, you're going to want to eat things that will you keep you full for longer, or you start eating things you had previously disregarded or overlooked because now there's some sort of merit to them (I eat tons and tons and tons of steamed broccoli now because it's filling and it's low calorie, which means I get to eat bigger portions of shit like ribeyes or blackened chicken). If you want a Wendy's Baconator, go get one. Just know that you're going to have to eat a salad for dinner and that means going to bed hungry. Quit drinking your calories, if you can. Diet sodas, water, etc are awesome. Water water water water water. Drink as much as you can. I chug a bottle before I even open the fridge in the morning.

Take a walk. Seriously. 4-5 times a week, if not everyday, go walk for a couple miles. If you have a smart phone, download any of the apps that track your distance/calories (Endomondo is pretty decent), put in some headphones, and take a fucking walk. Besides the obvious benefit of burning calories, you'll start to view food in a different way. 800 calories over your daily limit (a steak burrito from Chipotle while stoned, or a spontaneous trip to the bar with friends, etc) is now viewed as six miles of walking. A pint of Ben and Jerry's is now two shitty episodes of Everybody Hates Chris while busting your ass on the stationary bike. You start making decisions that are good for you, if only because you're still a lazy piece of shit. But that's okay because...

Eventually you start dropping some weight. It gets addicting. You start making better decisions. You start looking forward to your daily walk, which turns into a run, which you sometimes do after a heavy lifting session, etc. That might be a bit ambitious, but you get the point. It all has to start somewhere, and the more solid of a base you have the better the odds of you sticking with it. The goal is for everything you're doing/eating to not be viewed as a means to an end, but simply the way you live your life now. You don't have to be gung ho with it, you can still get piss drunk with friends and eat shitty food if you want, but you start to do it less often, or at the very least correct it with longer workouts/healthier meals.

It's a lot easier than it sounds if you have self discipline and give two shit about what you look like/how you feel. That's enough attention given to fat people, so changing subjects...

Has anyone here tried a minimalist running shoe besides Vibrams? I'm all for the idea, but god damn those things are goofy.

 

Not to detract from the rest of your post (which was great, by the way), but if their appearance is the primary thing holding you back, that's just plain silly. I agree that they look ridiculous, but so do headbands. With that being said...

While I don't own a pair (yet), I spent last summer back home doing my workouts in the gym located on base. There were many Marines who'd do their workouts while wearing them, and I'd always stop to ask them what their thoughts were, and how using them has affected their workout performances, gathering as many opinions as I could to alleviate my skepticism of these $80 pairs of toe socks. All of the Marines I spoke with over the summer (about 2 dozen) not only liked them, but couldn't say enough good things about them. Every single one of them. They all reported being much more comfortable doing squats and deads in them vs. running shoes, and a few of them even went as far to say that they no longer use any other footwear for their daily 3-mile runs.

Just some food for thought.

 

On the topic of portion control, this may sound stupid, but eat on smaller plates. If you have a 12" dinner plate, mentally you are going to want to fill it. The same size portion that looks sparse on one of those would look indulgent on an 8" plate. This is huge for people mentally for not overeating, especially those that were brought up with the "clean plate club" mentality.

I haven't tried any of the others, but the general consensus is that none of them cut the mustard in emulating barefoot running like the VFF's. Yes they are stupid looking, but I wear them around town during the day and they only time people notice them are when I'm at the gym or somewhere like work, where I'm there all day. I have the all black ones for reference.

They really aren't any more goofy than these fuckers if you get right down to it.

 

This was me last summer at the culmination of 3 cycles of P90X.

Spoiler

Note: the before photo was taken under fluorescent lights, the after under incandescent. (Let's not focus on the mainscaping. That topic is for another thread).

I skipped the plyo and yoga days (workouts 2, 4 and 6) and in their place ran two times a week up to 10 km, played soccer and played hockey on a weekly basis. Then I got lazy and my body reverted back to it's 'before' form.

In hindsight, my failure came about because once I achieved getting my body to where I wanted it to be, I didn't evolve my workout to keep it. If you're currently doing the P90X program, if you're about halfway through, or have completed several cycles, are looking good and getting bored with the program, finish your current cycle. But start looking ahead and researching new workouts to challenge your new body so that you can keep it and enjoy it.

 

I wear my Vibrams for lifting and any gym workout where I'm not doing a lot of jumping or sprinting, as my feet haven't adapted to the impact yet. Aside from that, I love them because 1) They don't take up much space in the bag I use to carry everything to work for the day, and 2) They provide an awesome feel/grip for heavy lifts like deadlifts & squats (though I'm told squat shoes are even better for the latter).
If you can't lift in socks/barefoot at your gym, I'd recommend them, but try them on in person before purchasing.

 

Spoiler

Well, those pics are pretty convincing.....so what are Snooki and JWoww like in real life??

 

Looks like I'm up shit creek in a screen bottomed boat as far as any sort of minimalist running shoe goes. Can't find a single manufacturer that makes them in a size 16.

 

Then use the original minimalist shoe you were born with. Just run barefoot.

If you find any type of football, soccer, baseball field, etc, you can be fairly confident that there's nothing sharp there. I run barefoot sprints all the time in the summer. I don't know if I actually am faster when I run barefoot, but I certainly feel faster.

 

I really want to try P90X, I have a friend who is currently doing it and she's lost a ton of weight. I just need to fit it in my schedule. I want to do it the mornings I don't go to the gym (at 5 am) - but just haven't downloaded it yet. Currently I do some weight training and run. In the last 2 months I have amped up my running a lot - I only started running a year ago and in the last two months I went from running 3 or 4 miles to running 9 miles this past Sunday and am running the Broad St. Run (10 miles) this Sunday. I am even planning on signing up for a half marathon this September.

I am doing this partially to lose some weight/tone up but mainly to keep up my energy levels high and keep up with my 2 boys (1 & 3). There is nothing worse than being an old, tired, overweight mom. Well, maybe an old tired, overweight gay mom. I've done unofficial studies, when you add gay to the mix all old, tired, overweight moms end up with knee or hip problems, it's weird. Oh, and they all have cell phones attached to their waistbands. It's a strange phenomena & I will not go down that path!

 

Give the Inov-8 a look. I like them a lot. They're very lightweight, it's basically a rubber sole and a lot of mesh. They're great if you're looking for sometime like a Vibram that doesn't look ridiculous.

I'd recommend the F-lite 195 or the F-lite 230.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.inov-8.com/Products-Detail.asp?PG=PG1&L=27&P=5050973023" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.inov-8.com/Products-Detail.a ... 5050973023</a>

 

Inov-8 or there's a style of Puma that's very similar to the Inov-8. Somewhat cheaper too.

 

I find this only works if I work out hard enough to be in pain. Not like injured myself pain, but the good sort of workout pain. Viewing things in terms of light exercise, like walking, doesn't have the psychological effect for me. But, if I have a really hard workout, when I look at a bag of chips my brain instantly starts shouting "oh fuck no, we are not going through that again for a little fucking bag of chips!"