I have taken all three parts of my P90x Review and put them together in just one article. Hope this helps.

It is over. Or to be more honest, it is only just beginning. Today I started P90x again, but more on that later.

I know that some of you have been waiting for this article, so here it is. I will do my best here to try and be as honest and straightforward as I can with my experience and what has become a love for P90x.

I began this journey when I purchased the P90x program, my thoughts on this were “yeah this is probably like any other infomercial and it won’t work, or if it does, I will get results for a few days and that will be it”. But since they offered a 90 day money back guarantee, I figured, what the hell, I haven’t got anything to loose, so why not. When everything arrived, I looked it over and kind of liked what I saw. The quality of the videos and books were top rate. So to say the least, I was mildly impressed. As far as my equipment went. I had a dumbell set, but for a pullup bar, all I had was a total gym with a pull-up attachment. Not as good as the real thing, but it was a start.

I took the test, barely passed it, and prepared myself to do the program. My before picture was disgusting and I weighed in at a hefty 235. Now I am a cyclist and I couldn’t hardly believe that I had let myself go to that extent. I didn’t bother to take all the measurements, and I would regret that later, but I really had no intention of doing the entire program. I was still convinced it would not do as it promised. I even put the packing box aside so I could send it back when it failed me.

I had been running a general health and fitness blog for a while now, and I have always told people and I still believe this with a passion, that the health and medical fields, and this includes the fitness and nutrition fields are so full of crap and out and out lies, that I would report these lies as I found them and use what little influence I had to get the truth out there. So, why not report my finding on P90x to a waiting public, most of whom have seen infomercials or been ripped off when buying products from these infomercials, myself included. And being 52 years old, and in pretty good shape, or so I thought, I could tell these people what I thought and experienced with P90x.

So with only a small amount of enthusiasm I started the first workout. Well to my surprise, I liked Tony Horton. He was witty, and pleasant to listen to.  And as far as the routine, it was brutal. I only did about half of the first workout and I couldn’t do any more. So, I licked my wounds and figured that I liked the first routine. I mostly thought that maybe I was to old for this, but Tony kept harping to just do what you could. He kept chanting that mantra “Just push play”, so I did.

The second day, I was a bit sore in the morning, but not to bad. But, come the afternoon, I felt like I was going to die. I have never been sore sore in my life from working out. It was horrible. I thought if this doesn’t do something, then nothing will. Then I got home and put in disc 2. Plyometrics, the mother off all P90x routines. I am glad I hadn’t eaten for a couple of hours, or it might not have been very pretty. I got about 20 minutes into the routine and gave up. I had way exceeded my target heart rate, I was dizzy, light headed and I felt like everything I had eaten in the past week was trying to get out. This wasn’t a workout, it was pure torture. Was I out of my mind beating myself like this. But I set down, wrote up my short review and went to bed. I tossed and turned all night long. I ached from head to toe and it was getting worse. Then I made a comment on twitter and a very kind beachbody coach. I don’t even remember who gave me the advice to just stick with it to the rest day and things would get better. Well He was right. The one thing I really appreciated was the fact that the way the routines were ordered, no matter how bad I hurt, I could still do the workout at hand. By the time the rest day came around, I could hardly walk. I think I spent most of the rest day just lying around and napping. I was totally exhausted. But my thinking on this program was beginning to change. I thought that maybe I had finally found a program that would deliver what it promised. As far as the routines, I couldn’t finish any of them. I got about half way with most and about 1/3 of the way with the others. But I made it through the first week. I was so overjoyed that I had done it. But I dreaded doing the next week. I was determined though to stick to it for at least 2 or 3 weeks, to give it an honest appraisal. So I hung in there.

The first week of my program was brutal. I as have mentioned before, I have never hurt so much from an exercise program as I did with P90x. I couldn’t wait for the rest day to arrive. I have been working out, and going to the gym for a long time. These workouts, even though tiring had reached a point that they didn’t really give me any progress. So in discouragement I had begun looking for other programs to fill this need. That is part of what brought me to P90x, along with the fact that the infomercial was very compelling and as I mentioned before, the 90 day guarantee was a big motivator for me to try it out.

The first day of the second week, after taking the rest day off completely was really pretty good. I could see a little bit of progress in my routines and the soreness had begun to subside quite a bit. Don’t get me wrong, the exercises were still quite brutal and I still couldn’t complete them all the way through, but there was progress. At first my weight stayed pretty stable, it wasn’t until about the end of the third week that I began to drop the pounds. I contribute this to the fact that muscle weighs more then fat, so I was building muscle and burning fat at about the same weight ratio, but during the third week, my muscle mass began to take over and the fat began to burn off. It was also during the third week that I think I began to actually complete a couple of the workouts. Then came a kind of shock. The Rest Week.

The rest week really isn’t a week of rest at all, you still do all of the cardio routines, Plyometrics, Kenpo X, Yoga X, Core synergistics. you just don’t do any of the muscle building routines. This gives your body a chance to recuperate and repair it’s self while you are still burning calories. The shock part was that about half way through this week, I was really wanting to do those muscle building routines. My body was actually craving a good muscle workout. Then P90x hits you with another whammy.

Everything changed. You start Phase 2 and the routines are suddenly different. I had gotten used to a small amount of soreness after each routine by week 3, but I never expected the amount of soreness and pain that I would experience after each routine during the first week of phase 2. Granted it was never as bad as that first week, thank God, but I felt like I used to whenever I would go for long periods of time without working out and I would start again. The big difference was that this pain was welcome. I knew that by doing the muscle confusion system that Tony Horton was using, I had kicked my body into another improvement stage. With basically the same thing happening when I jumped into stage 3.

I think it was about the end of stage 2 when I could finally do all of the routines all the way through. I was elated every time I did one all the way through. Considering 15 to 20 minutes was a max during the first couple of weeks. The other big change here was the acquiring of an Iron Gym Deluxe. I suddenly found that the pullups I was doing with my total gym were suddenly dropped to almost nothing. I found that I was no longer able to do pullups. Thank goodness for the chair version. It was a life saver for me. I very quickly began to see the pullups improve and to see my results also improve.

The other main change close to the end of Phase 2 was the respect and appreciation for the P90x program and for Team Beachbody in general. The more I researched, talked to others online, and checked out their other products, the more I became impressed that I had found a company that did what they said. So, I became a Team Beachbody Coach. I had been looking for a small business to do on the side that I could supplement my income with and if nothing else, I could help others to get fit and healthy. If I do nothing more then to help one person live a long, healthy and fruitful life, in all aspects, spiritual, physical and even financial, then I feel that I have accomplished an awesome thing. If I can help more then even better. That is one of the reasons I started doing a health and fitness blog, to help others, and Team Beachbody gave me another route to help also.

Phase 3 as I have said began like one and two with major soreness, but I had begun to love it. I would get off work and come home craving the muscle building parts of the program. I was addicted. This program was awesome, my weight was coming off and I actually looked forward to doing the routines. Then something else I didn’t expect began to happen. I was approaching the end of the program and I was actually finding myself saddened that it was almost over. I stuck with it to the end, and I began to watch some other coaches who were now beginning to do a second round of P90x and the spark was lit. I was going to do it again. The difference being that this time I would do it right. I would keep track of my diet and actually write down my results as I should. I planned on taking about a week off and then jump right back in. Well, that didn’t happen. I waited one day and jumped right back in. I couldn’t wait. Do I like pain? No! Do I like the results I am seeing and feeling? You bet I do!

So, as you can tell, I have become quite infatuated with P90x and Team Beachbody. I have just begun doing a second round and I am keeping track of my progress better this time.

One thing I didn’t touch on much was the diet. I am a nutritionist (not professionally, but for myself, family and friends), so working out how and what to eat I did on my own. Most of the diet consisted if a higher Protein intake and a lower carb/fat intake. I am also an advocate of eating 5 times a day, with three main meals and a couple of snacks in between. The key here is portion sizes. I try to balance about 1800 – 2000 calories between these meals. But that isn’t what we are here for now. Back to P90x. I examined the diet and it is very well done. So if an individual doesn’t know how or want to design their own, the P90x diet is pretty simple to follow.

P90x is in 3 phases utilizing the muscle confusion principles and it works fantastic. The routines are balanced to support each other and their is lots of room in the program to modify in order to fit your own physical limitation. An example of this is that I have a herniated disk in my neck, so some of the Kenpo/Yoga/ab ripper routines put undo strain on this injury, but I had no problem in working around these injuries and not making them worse or aggravating them.

Is P90x for everyone? No. But if a person has a bit of fitness under their belt and wants to get in the best shape of their life, then go for it. Remember that I started it thinking it would fail, but I was blown away with how it really worked. If P90x is to much for you right now, then try P90. It is the original program from Beachbody and it eliminates the extreme aspect. Get started with P90 and then graduate to P90x.

Now for the pitch, so hear me out.

I became so satisfied with the program, the company and the nutrition and fitness products that I went ahead and became a Beachbody Coach. Partially because as a coach, I get 24% off on any of their products, have access to info and a great support system. Another benefit is that by sharing your progress and love for the Programs and Company you can make a pretty decent living also. The financial incentive in the current economic situation is enough in itself to make one want to join in. But I think the biggest thing for me is that I can help others who are out of shape and who’s physical health is beginning to suffer from years of lack of exercise and good diet. Just being able to help someone turn their physical, spiritual and possibly financial health around is an awesome thing. And as a Beachbody coach, I have the opportunity to do that.

Other advantages to Beachbody is the line of products that are available. Hip Hop abs, Chalean Extreme, Turbo Jam, just to name a few. A complete line of outstanding Nutritional products and workout supplies, not to mention the newest and hottest, Shakeology. Do I sound enthusiastic, I am. I have studied and examined a lot of companies out there and most either make a lot of claims without any backing or research, or they out and out lie about the results. Beachbody is so confident in their products that they give you a complete money back guarantee on all of them. Not just a couple of weeks to try it out, but as in P90x, which is a 90 day routine, 90 days to return it if not satisfied. That alone gives you time to do the entire program, and if it doesn’t work, you can return it.

Enough marketing and sales pitch stuff. Like I said, I want to keep this unbiased. I know as a Beachbody coach, that sounds wrong, but I want to be totally honest here. Would I recommend P90x to others? You bet I would. And I have. Would I recommend the business end of Team Beachbody to others? I would do that too. I as of this time, I would recommend Team Beachbody and everything they have to offer to anyone wanting to either get into shape, build a home based business, or just wanting to help others lead a better life in general.

I hope that by following my journey through P90x that I have been able to make your journey easier or answer any questions about P90x you may have. It has been an awesome trip and I personally look forward to continuing on this journey. I still have some weight to loose and I still need to get into better shape, but I am well on my way. My journey is only begun and I am excited about continuing on.

Basically if this 52, almost 53 year old man can get in the best shape of his life through P90x and Team Beachbody, so can you. I will continue to Blog my journey on a weekly basis and I will do my best to talk as many as I can into taking charge of their health and joining me in making this world a better place, even if it is one un-healthy, un-happy person at a time.

So, Join me by either getting a Beachbody product and taking charge of your health, Becoming a Coach on my Team or joining WOWY and working out with others. But do something to change your life for the better. Help reverse this obesity epidemic and bring some sanity back into this small world. And I thank you for letting me into your lives, even if in only a small way.

God Bless all of you. To your Health

Jim

OK. here we are with the before and after Photo’s. Went from a 235lb fat man to 205lb pretty good shape man. Just wait until I post the pictures from round 2..