Sunday, January 20, 2013

P90X At The Gym - Can You Make It Work?

P90X is designed as a home fitness program but, what if you'd rather go to the gym? You can take at least some of your P90X programs with you to the gym and get the same great results you would at home. It just takes a little planning. There are a few things that you should keep in mind in order to make it work.

First of all, you'll need the log sheets so you'll know all the exercises for the workouts. You also need them to record what you do just like you would at home. Then you need to know the order that they do the exercises. For example, in Chest and Back they cycle through all the exercises once. Then, they cycle through them all again switching odd numbered ones with evens. In the Arms and Shoulders workout they do two sets of each exercise cycling through in groups of three. It's not the end of the world if you don't do them in the exact same order but, it keeps the workouts true to the way they were designed. You can also get the list of exercises from the Fitness Guide. This you will have to do for Core Synergistics, Legs and Back and Ab Ripper X.

It is very important that you are competent at performing the strength training exercises with good form. The nice thing about the gym is that they usually have mirrors all over the place so you can check your form. This is actually one advantage the gym has over most people's home workout spaces. Try to find a time at the gym when it's not too busy so that you can get to the pieces of equipment you need when the workout calls for them. You will also need to make sure that your gym has sufficient open floor space and mats available, especially for Ab Ripper X and Core Synergystics.

The next question is whether you will want to attempt the Yoga and cardio workouts at the gym. For a number of reasons I think this would be tough to do. My suggestion would be to find substitutes. A spin class could be a great alternative to Plyometrics. Spinning is an intense cardio workout that involves interval training but, you take out the high impact. A reasonable stand in for Kenpo might be something like a step class. It's not exactly the same. You won't throw punches or kicks but you'll get your heart rate up and step class will certainly challenge your coordination the way Kenpo does. You can replace Yoga X with a Yoga class. Just make sure the Yoga class is focused on building strength and balance like Yoga X and not an hour long savasana.

The X Stretch workout can pretty easily be done at the gym. Have a list of the stretches with you. You can improvise on some of them as long as you're stretching the intended muscles. At the gym there are lots of ways you can use the equipment to help you get a better stretch. If your gym has one of those stretch cages then you can really do a lot of the workout there.

Last but not least you may be concerned that doing P90X at the gym is sort of like spending money twice for the same thing. Not at all. P90X is only about $130. When you bring those workouts with you to the gym it's like bringing along your own personal trainer. You would pay at least $30 a session for a trainer and usually way more. By the fifth session your cost with a trainer would exceed the cost of P90X. This means that P90X pays for itself in less than a week.

P90X is designed for working out at home but, don't let that stop you from taking it to the gym. With a few modifications you can make it work.








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