OT: P90X/Health and Fitness Thread

[MickeyDavis]

P90X will definitely help you build muscle but done as is won't bulk you up as much as other weight training will. But Steve Edwards from Beachbody wrote an article on customizing P90X for mass:

Guys have a thing for mass. It's hard to explain, really, but boys seem to grow up wanting nothing more than to be big. Guys want speedboats and trucks, and they want to look like The Hulk, regardless of what their wives may think of green skin. If this sounds like you, here's the article you've been looking for: customizing P90X for mass.

Even if mass is your only goal, make sure to read the subsequent articles in the series on customizing the X. The principles discussed in subsequent articles will be put to use here. To look like The Hulk, you don't need to have a mad scientist father, but you do need to consider science as we know it. The articles that have appeared in our last few issues all led up to the question: what is mass?

What is mass?
Because many of our Success Stories, not to mention Tony, aren't exactly skinny, we must begin by defining mass—most of you are looking for more. Mass simply means size. As part of the word massive, we assume it means above average in size. It doesn't, but that's beside the point. A program targeting mass is concerned with one thing: muscle growth (from here on in referred to as hypertrophy), and a lot of it.

In a training cycle for mass, we should target hypertrophy even at the expense of other fitness goals. P90X is not a system designed for mass. It's designed for overall fitness, which means that ultimate gains in targeted areas, like speed, strength, flexibility, and muscle growth, are compromised to provide a program that improves all of your body's physical energy systems during one 90-day effort. We feel as though this is the preferred training system because it addresses the big picture. But if your picture is quite literally being bigger, then you'll need to read on.

Foundation
You've read about the capacity for improvement throughout this series, so here's where I tell you to do a round of P90X as it's designed before embarking on a mass-specific program. It's healthier, sure, but it's more than that. Training all of your body's energy systems until they're running efficiently increases your body's ability to do, well, anything. Part of anything includes looking like Lou Ferrigno. Once you've done a round of the X and aced your fit test, the foundation has been laid. You're ready to start gettin' big.

Resistance
Tony loves the word specificity. He often uses it when referring to exercise movements, but we're going to use it to refer to the equipment you'll need. With mass as your goal, you'd better acquire specific resistance equipment. The simplest form is weights; however, mass can also be created by using other forms of tension, like resistance bands. The bottom line is that if mass is your goal, you'll need to have more weight available than you've been using. Body weight and plyometric movements can be used effectively for strength training, but strength and hypertrophy are not synonymous (read "Sore, Hungry, and Slow: 3 Signs That Show Your Program Is Working" in the Related Articles section below). To make hypertrophic gains, you're going to need to find ways to make your body fail at a given number of repetitions. You'll want an array of weights and bands, and some extra devices like ankle and wrist weights, or a weight vest, to add resistance to all the movements you're doing.

The difference between size and strength
As we touched on last time, hypertrophy training simply increases the size of the muscle. Strength training increases the efficiency of the muscle. Large muscles have a greater capacity for strength. Absolute strength is the ability of the muscle to use all of its muscle cells for movement. People in sports dependent on strength-to-weight ratios target high muscular efficiency in their training, whereas those in sheer size-dependent sports will focus more on hypertrophy. Most sports are somewhat dependent on both size and strength, which are ideally improved during different cycles of training.

Periodization
The periodizational concepts that have been discussed in prior issues need to be explained here before a mass schedule is created. Remember that a standard schedule would look similar to this:

Foundation phase (Power 90® or what you did pre-X) + block 1 + transition/recovery + block 2 + transition/recovery + block 3 + recovery = peak (final fit test)
The difference here is that we're going to structure an entire training cycle based only on hypertrophy. This means we won't be setting up a peak phase. Over a long period of time, you would want to teach your muscles how to function more efficiently. We'll get to this at the end.

For now, we'll just say that there is still a periodizational approach to consider. You will still adapt, gain, and plateau over time, so we'll need a structure to keep this happening. But the structure will be dependent simply on rep schemes (the number of repetitions that you target to bring you to failure) and progressive overload. The blocks of our 90-day schedule will each target a different number of repetitions, which you'll want to aim for to induce failure. But because we're not changing the schedule much, and thus creating less Muscle Confusion™, we won't need such frequent recovery phases.

Progressive overload
Hypertrophy is all about creating progressive overload. To create muscle growth, you must keep stimulating the muscles during each workout. This requires that you add weight as necessary to create failure at the desired number of reps.

Recovery
The more we can focus on hypertrophy, the more muscle we'll gain. Since we only have so much energy to expend, this means we should spend less time working on other areas. This is where you'll see the biggest differences from the traditional P90X schedules. When you're not training for hypertrophy, your entire focus should be on preparing your body to create more hypertrophy. Therefore, the P90X mass schedule will have a lot of active recovery and flexibility work and very little intense cardio. This means we'll spend more time recovering during each training block and taking fewer periods focused solely on recovery.

Putting it all together
Before we get to the schedule, here are some general things to consider. The first is pacing. Instead of following the kids in the videos, target your rep scheme (and push pause when necessary). Do each set to failure (if you can add enough resistance; if not, get as close as you can), and don't exceed your targeted number of reps. Do not, however, use the pause button simply to increase the time between exercises.

A good way to choose the resistance for each movement is to use enough so that you can only do the lower number of your targeted rep scheme. Once you can do the higher number, it's time to increase the resistance.

Do your repetitions slowly and with control. Speed is for power, not size. Focus on perfect form and only add weight when you can do each rep with great form.

When you're done, you're done. You don't need to finish an entire workout if you're struggling. Once you lose the ability to move the weight or do the move in strict form, stop the workout. Any further training would only create more breakdown than you could recover from and increase your risk of injury.

Your diet
You won't be burning as many calories as you would during the classic schedule of the X. If you eat the same amount, you may gain more mass, but you'll also gain more body fat. This might or might not be acceptable, so pay attention and adjust your diet as necessary. If you want mass, then you need to eat enough for your body to put on weight. I will write more about this diet scenario in the future.

Block 1, phase 1
Weeks 1 through 3
Day 1: Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps
Day 2: Cardio X, Ab Ripper X
Day 3: Legs & Back
Day 4: X Stretch; Ab Ripper X or Abs/Core Plus (from P90X Plus)
Day 5: Back & Biceps
Day 6: Yoga X
Day 7: Off
Targeted number of reps: 8 to 12 (focus on 10 to 12)

Block 1, phase 2
Weeks 4 through 6
Day 1: Chest & Back
Day 2: Cardio X, Ab Ripper X
Day 3: Shoulders & Arms
Day 4: X Stretch; Ab Ripper X or Abs/Core Plus
Day 5: Legs & Back
Day 6: Yoga X
Day 7: Off
Targeted number of reps: 8 to 12 (focus on 8 to 10)

Recovery Block
Week 7
Day 1: X Stretch
Day 2: Yoga X
Day 3: Core Synergistics
Day 4: Kenpo X
Day 5: Yoga X
Day 6: X Stretch
Day 7: Off

Block 2, phase 1
Weeks 8 and 9
Day 1: Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps
Day 2: Cardio X, Ab Ripper X
Day 3: Legs & Back
Day 4: X Stretch; Ab Ripper X or Abs/Core Plus
Day 5: Back & Biceps
Day 6: Yoga X
Day 7: Off
Day 8: Chest & Back
Day 9: Cardio X, Ab Riper X
Day 10: Shoulders & Arms
Day 11: X Stretch; Ab Ripper X or Abs/Core Plus
Day 12: Legs & Back
Day 13: Yoga X
Day 14: Off
Targeted number of reps: 6 to 10

Block 2, phase 2
Weeks 10 and 11
Same schedule as weeks 8 and 9
Targeted number of reps: 4 to 8

Block 2, phase 3
Week 12
Same schedule as weeks 8 and 9
Targeted number of reps: 4 to 6

Final note: This is an entire cycle of training based only on hypertrophy. To have an athletically efficient physique, you should do other training cycles that target different goals. Even if your only goal is hypertrophy, training these other systems properly will improve your body's physical systems and increase your capacity for muscle growth, as well as the speed at which you can add or shed muscle and fat. So while you can tweak and reuse this basic structure over and over, it will also benefit you to get back to basics and do P90X classic from time to time.

[EastSideBucksFan]

I'm following this plan

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1leLgTr9ytw[/youtube]

This is a great movie and great scene

Nice post

[MajorDad]

My wife is on the nutrisystem diet. She's lost over 90 pounds in the past 10 months. She says the key to losing weight is losing 3 pounds per week. As part of the diet plan, she goes to restarants , but looks at their menus on their web sites before going so she knows what the calories are before ordering. Also as part of the nutrisystem diet, she can eat as big of a salad as she wants. she also uses the WII fitness videos for about an hour and exercises on a treadmill and elypitcial for about an hour a day. She drinks a lot more water than in the past. the key to her losing weight is eating smaller portions, and choosing what she eats before she eats.

I topped out at 251 two years ago. My doctor diagnosed me with type 2 diabetes last month, and gave me 3 months to change my lifestyle or start taking medication/shots etc. he said anybody can lose weight in one week, but it's more important to see what a person can do over a 3 month period. if a person can keep losing weight over a longer period, then that person has truly changed their lifestyle and eating habits. I'm scheduled to see a dietician this month.

So far in the past month, just by switching to diet drinks, and eating fewer snacks/potatoe chips, etc, I've lost 20 pounds. I exercise only about 1/2 hour 3 times a week. I know by increasing my exercising to every day and going on a real diet, i could lose even more weight. however, i' m not 25 years old, and haven't been on an exercise program ever. it's one thing for a former athlete to get back into an exercise routine, but for geeks like me who were never athletic, or ever desired to be, incorporating an exercise program into my lifestyle and commiting to it is a lot harder than some of you here may realize. for former athletes, you know what you body can take and what exercises to start with and the type of program to engage in and you also like to exercise and keep fit. but for guys like me, I don't have any real knowledge or experience in exercising. I can't just go out and buy exercise equipment or join a gym or start playing in pick-up basketball games. i fear at my age and my weight, if i started playing a pick-up game, I'd have a heart attack. So i'm kind of new to this being healthy lifestyle, and i' m not that enthusiastic about it either. but i know if i want to live another 30 years and not be like Ron Santo and lose my legs, and take the required insilin shots, I have to change and also make a commitment.

As part of my dieting and dieting research, I've found McDonald's french fries and all french fries are bad. trying to reduce my sugar content because of diabetes, chocolates are bad. I've found diet sodas aren't too bad. Diet Mt dew at least tastes ok. Diet root beers taste good. Barqs is the only major brand of rootbeer that contains caffiene. I haven't made up my mind on diet coke verses diet pepsie or coke zero yet.

the main point my doctor tried to stress was to exercise more and eat smaller portions.

[crkone]

My wife is on the nutrisystem diet. She's lost over 90 pounds in the past 10 months. She says the key to losing weight is losing 3 pounds per week. As part of the diet plan, she goes to restarants , but looks at their menus on their web sites before going so she knows what the calories are before ordering. Also as part of the nutrisystem diet, she can eat as big of a salad as she wants. she also uses the WII fitness videos for about an hour and exercises on a treadmill and elypitcial for about an hour a day. She drinks a lot more water than in the past. the key to her losing weight is eating smaller portions, and choosing what she eats before she eats.

I topped out at 251 two years ago. My doctor diagnosed me with type 2 diabetes last month, and gave me 3 months to change my lifestyle or start taking medication/shots etc. he said anybody can lose weight in one week, but it's more important to see what a person can do over a 3 month period. if a person can keep losing weight over a longer period, then that person has truly changed their lifestyle and eating habits. I'm scheduled to see a dietician this month.

So far in the past month, just by switching to diet drinks, and eating fewer snacks/potatoe chips, etc, I've lost 20 pounds. I exercise only about 1/2 hour 3 times a week. I know by increasing my exercising to every day and going on a real diet, i could lose even more weight. however, i' m not 25 years old, and haven't been on an exercise program ever. it's one thing for a former athlete to get back into an exercise routine, but for geeks like me who were never athletic, or ever desired to be, incorporating an exercise program into my lifestyle and commiting to it is a lot harder than some of you here may realize. for former athletes, you know what you body can take and what exercises to start with and the type of program to engage in and you also like to exercise and keep fit. but for guys like me, I don't have any real knowledge or experience in exercising. I can't just go out and buy exercise equipment or join a gym or start playing in pick-up basketball games. i fear at my age and my weight, if i started playing a pick-up game, I'd have a heart attack. So i'm kind of new to this being healthy lifestyle, and i' m not that enthusiastic about it either. but i know if i want to live another 30 years and not be like Ron Santo and lose my legs, and take the required insilin shots, I have to change and also make a commitment.

As part of my dieting and dieting research, I've found McDonald's french fries and all french fries are bad. trying to reduce my sugar content because of diabetes, chocolates are bad. I've found diet sodas aren't too bad. Diet Mt dew at least tastes ok. Diet root beers taste good. Barqs is the only major brand of rootbeer that contains caffiene. I haven't made up my mind on diet coke verses diet pepsie or coke zero yet.

the main point my doctor tried to stress was to exercise more and eat smaller portions.

You should try any variety of diet Dr. Pepper too. They taste good if you like regular Dr. Pepper.

[crkone]

Anyone who lives near a Pick N Save can pick up their diet sodas that contain splenda instead of the more (for some people) worrisome Aspartame.

[jerrod]

i love pepsi one

[d_bokk]

d_bokk, you might have already tried this, but Iron Man had a pamphlet called the Size Surge based on the Colorado Experiment where a former weightlifter named Casey Viator gained something like 70 lbs of muscle in 8-10 weeks. I can't remember the exact figures, but it's close to that.

At any rate, it's mainly based around the kind of complex lifts you're talking about. High weight, low sets and reps. I did the first phase of the pamphlet (8 weeks) when I was in college, and I gained over 20 lbs of muscle in that time (about 10% of my starting body mass) as well as doubling my squat. I could dunk beforehand; I could do a 360 after (and a 180 from a standing start).

Found the pamphlet online, I'll check it out, thanks. I'm looking to dunk eventually, not too far off as is.

For the underrepresented skinny minority...

After 2 years of weight-lifting and only see my overall strength increase but the mass stay the same, I did a little research on how body-builders put on pounds. What I learned was that eating large meals doesn't help because the body can only absorb so much nutrients at any given time and eating 5-8 meals a day (one of them being a normal dinner) is more effective.

Not true man...read up on intermittent fasting or the warrior diet. Fast for 20 hours and eat all of your food within a 4 hour period. It sounds crazy to most people but it's actually pretty damn convenient. Don't have to worry about forgetting to bring a lunch to work or rushing to make breakfast. You can "fast" all day and feast at night. It also makes it much easier to lose weight(in my opinion) because you can still eat fun stuff and get in around 2000 calories in that 4 hour period and still feel like you're eating, instead of nibble on 300 calories here and there during the day and never feeling satisfied. And believe it or not, the fasting part is not that hard, your stomach will grumble for the first week tops, but that's not true hunger, that's your body being used to being fed at that time and trust me it goes away within a few days.

I'm not looking to lose weight and I have been basically doing that kind of eating my entire life up until now... didn't work at all. I eat much more than 2000 calories a day and eat whenever I feel even slightly hungry.

[JoeyMorgan619]

I used to drink a lot of soda as a kid, but now I could never imagine drinking soda regularly. I have maybe drank a total of ten cans of sodas combined over the past two or three years. All I ever drink is bottled water and occasionally 2% milk when I eat my Kashi cereal. It is just nasty to me thinking about what you're putting into your body. Anytime I drink Coke, I can just feel the syrup in it. Very nasty to me...

[NeedsMoreCheese]

I kind of want to lose like 20 lbs, but I'm far too unmotivated to do so.
(As a side note, I lost 125 lbs once, though that was mainly from stopping a stupid ass medication I didn't need.)
FWIW, i'm 6'6 212 right now. I was down to 174 a couple years ago.

[jimmybones]

I run about 3 mi a day and do sit ups and pushups so im pretty toned.

You're trying to gain mass and you're running 3 miles A DAY? I don't do that much cardio in a week and I'm plenty lean. Unless you're training for a sport or just really love running, I'd cut that way back. If you must run then you need to add that many more calories in your diet that you are burning off while running. Another thing is that cardio destroys muscle, you're burning muscle, not just fat when you run at that distance. Either way, if you want to gain and aren't, eat more.

Anyone who lives near a Pick N Save can pick up their diet sodas that contain splenda instead of the more (for some people) worrisome Aspartame.

You'd need to drink a ridiculous amount of diet soda over years for the Aspartame to ever negatively effect you, like a really ridiculous amount. Not worth worrying about in my opinion.

I'm not looking to lose weight and I have been basically doing that kind of eating my entire life up until now... didn't work at all. I eat much more than 2000 calories a day and eat whenever I feel even slightly hungry.

I'd be willing to bet money you aren't eating bodyweight x 20 in calories everyday. Track your calories for one day and be honest, are you eating that many calories in a day? If not, start. After a few weeks if you're gaining more than a pound a week then lower to 18 X bodyweight.

[BDUB_30]

I was similiar to Rilaman. I was taller and not as skinny but i tried for most of my teens and some of my early 20's to gain weight and it wasnt happening. Metabolism + basketball = lanky dude.


For me it was all about the weights. Hitting failure at around 8 reps. Doing 4-5 sets per muscle groups. I did this for years and had consitent gains. Then i learned about a technique called stripping, and this is basically when you hit your failure point, to drop 10-15 lbs off the bar QUICKLY (need a partner if youre not using a pully/pin system ) and do 2-3 more reps. Drop 15-20- 2-3 reps... Using this technique + around 80 grams of protein a day ( some say more, but u need to watch to much protein ) and you will beast up in no time... Im 6'8 290-300...



Couple other random tips. Downtime is important, this is when you build muscle, go easy the following day on any excersize that targets the muscle group you worked the prior day, learn to use other muscles... No hot showers, hot water does something to your blood flow that limits muscle growth. Water is very underated, drink lots of it..Treat your pecs like seperate muscle groups, lower, upper, outer...I went 9 months thinking i could get away with just benches and butterflys for my pecs and was left with an underdevloped outer pec, decline presses fixed this.

[Thunder Muscle]

I'm 5'10 and was nearing 190 - not horrible - but have been going the wrong way the past few years after giving up most sports and what not. I'm kind of ready to start shedding some lbs and for starters this is what I've been doing...

I created a spreadsheet and am tracking everything. My goals are...

Over 7,000 steps in 6 of 7 days
2100 Calories or less in 5 of the 7 days
15 minutes outside walk everyday
Minimum walking stairs at work (5 floors) twice a day/every work week
Treadmill minimum 20 minutes at 3.5 mph (min) 3 of 7 days

I've dropped about 5-6 lbs in the last week and a half. So far, so good.

My biggest thing is I love food, and especially fast food. The above doesn't eliminate it, but have to be disciplined. Beer is a killer, I use my non 2100 calorie day(s) if I know I will be getting hammered.

Its not an intense plan, but so far its been working. If I stall, I'll have to make changes.

[rilamann]

I was similiar to Rilaman. I was taller and not as skinny but i tried for most of my teens and some of my early 20's to gain weight and it wasnt happening. Metabolism + basketball = lanky dude.


For me it was all about the weights. Hitting failure at around 8 reps. Doing 4-5 sets per muscle groups. I did this for years and had consitent gains. Then i learned about a technique called stripping, and this is basically when you hit your failure point, to drop 10-15 lbs off the bar QUICKLY (need a partner if youre not using a pully/pin system ) and do 2-3 more reps. Drop 15-20- 2-3 reps... Using this technique + around 80 grams of protein a day ( some say more, but u need to watch to much protein ) and you will beast up in no time... Im 6'8 290-300...



Couple other random tips. Downtime is important, this is when you build muscle, go easy the following day on any excersize that targets the muscle group you worked the prior day, learn to use other muscles... No hot showers, hot water does something to your blood flow that limits muscle growth. Water is very underated, drink lots of it..Treat your pecs like seperate muscle groups, lower, upper, outer...I went 9 months thinking i could get away with just benches and butterflys for my pecs and was left with an underdevloped outer pec, decline presses fixed this.

I think the heavy weights low reps is deff the way you wanna go if you're tall and skinny.

Me personally I don't necessarily do a certain number reps on each set,I try to get anywhere from 35-50 reps total depending how hard I wanna go on that particular day.So if I'm benching and wanna do 40 reps I might get up 8 reps on one set then 4 reps on the next,however many sets it takes me to get 40 reps in.

I've tried taking weights off with that stripping technique but I can't do it,once I start taking weight off it feels weird to me,it's like scratching on a chalk board.I've heard that's a good technique though.


A lot people and magazines and things like that always seem to make it seem like adding muscle is really complicated and hard to do but it's really not.

You just gotta stay consistent with it,Lift a few times a week with high intensity,eat your protein and make sure you get enough calories and you'll start getting results.

Intensity and consistency are the two big words,it's pretty simple.

[blkout]

Question re: P90X.. how vital is the chin-up part of it? I ask because all of the doors in my house either don't exist (like we have arches instead of actual doors) or are sliding glass doors and would break if I attached the chin-up thing to it. The program sounds pretty effective but there's no way I'd be able to make that aspect of it work without buying an actual apparatus to do pull-ups on.

[BigSmooth_31]

Question re: P90X.. how vital is the chin-up part of it? I ask because all of the doors in my house either don't exist (like we have arches instead of actual doors) or are sliding glass doors and would break if I attached the chin-up thing to it. The program sounds pretty effective but there's no way I'd be able to make that aspect of it work without buying an actual apparatus to do pull-ups on.

I just put a heavy-duty screw hook into my ceiling in the basement. It is in there pretty tight and it works great. I was worried it might come out while doing that stuff, which would hurt like crazy cause it would be like a bullet. But I hung from it after so i think it should be fine.

[MickeyDavis]

You can use bands instead of a chin bar. You don't get the same workout with the bands but it's not bad. That's what I initially used until I put up a bar. Go with the heavier bands (blue or black) if you get them from Beachbody. But you can get bands from a lot of different places.

[BigSmooth_31]

I use the bands thats why i only put up a hook instead of a bar... I think the bands are great I got the LifeLine brand ones from Sports Authority and I love these things

http://www.sportsauthority.com/family/i ... FELINE+USA

[blkout]

Thanks guys I think bands might be the way to go. I've got some dumbbells but they only go upto 25lbs each, might need to invest in some new ones.

[WRau1]

So you can just use bands in place of the dumbbells and chin bar?

[MickeyDavis]

Yes you can but I recommend dumbbells. Blkout- yes you will need more than 25 at least eventually for some of the routines. Some as light as 10 for some of the shoulder stuff.