Definitely don't want to lose weight but rather lean up a bit more and gain mass. Since you mentioned this, would it be a good idea to use both? Insanity to get my body fat very low and then P90X to gain muscle? Also, if I can stick it out through one, I'm sure I can do the other.
P90x is a 6 day a week program and each workout is about an hour i believe. I'm not sure of the specifics of insanity, but imagine it's around 4 times a week and probably 30 mins at least. Im not sure its a good idea to do them on the same day if you're just starting out. Doing them on different days may screw up the p90x schedule and it's effectiveness. I think i need to clarify that "leaning up" is losing weight. Once trainers started saying things like "toning up" it made people believe toning up and losing weight were different things, but they're not. When you lose fat your skin tightens up, like a rubber band that was previously stretched...so you have to lose weight to lean up. I'd recommend going with p90x since it has more variety and resistance training. Large muscles eat up more calories, so that can help you lose weigh too despite not having as much aerobics like Insanity. If you want to do insanity on "light" p90x days or once or twice a week, then that may be helpful.
I've been through P90X twice (on my third time right now) and Insanity once. Both are 6 days a week programs. As mentioned before P90X is absolutely awesome in building muscle and toning up. It will definitely help you get your body fat low as well. Insanity on the other hand helps with your endurance and definitely gets your body fat down even quicker. I personally felt that I ended up losing too much weight with Insanity, while P90X can be used to lose or gain weight (depending on your diet). It would be damn hard to gain or even maintain weight with Insanity considering the 2nd month of exercises burn off around a 1000 calories per session! It is absolutely insane (no pun intended)! I'd suggest to just stick to P90X. You will build muscle and lose body fat (you have two cardio workouts a week with P90X) a little slower, but the overall outcome won't be that you are just skinny, but you will have definition as well. As for people worried about results. You will see them if you stick to it. I went from 185 and 22% fat to 145 and 8.6% fat after two times through P90X and once through Insanity. Most of the results were just from going through P90X once and then working out for maintenance instead of more gains. Now I'm trying to do P90X to slowly gain weight back while keeping my body fat the same. The program works.
Thanks for the input guys. Did not mean to say both at same time. What I meant to say was to go through the entire Insanity program first (60 days worth?). After finishing that, I would start the P90x. The reasoning behind this is that I get rid of fat through the Insanity program. Once I'm at the fat level I want and endurance, I'd start the P90X. The other factor is that if I can handle Insanity (in terms of commitment), then I can do both (with Insanity costing me nothing as I'd borrow the DVDs from a friend). What do yall think?
I have completed, both P90X (3 times) and Insanity (once), keep in mind, they are two VERY different workouts, P90X has options as most of you should know, and it helps you be very well rounded, Insanity is all cardio going 110% every workout basically getting very slim and cut (doesn't mean you can't gain weight from it either cause it helps you also build lean muscles) and Insanity isn't for the weak heart. In the end it's all about commitment into doing it everyday. Since having the experience to do both I just started to mix in my workouts with P90X and Insanity to get the maximum workout I can get and be very well rounded, My routine for the first 3 weeks Week 1-3: M: P90X Back and Chest, P90X Abs T90X Ploymetrics (Just to warm up and get ready for Insanity) Second and third Tuesdays are going to be Insanity Plyo W:Shoulders and Arms, P90x Abs T90X Yoga F: P90X Legs and Back S: Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance Or Insanity pure Cardio S: P90X Rest or Stretch And i'll update my other weeks later, as of right now, I am about to do P90X yoga
The thing with that is, unless you're in really good cardio shape, I wouldn't recommend Insanity first. It will literally kick your ass if your cardio is weak. With P90X, you can go more at your own pace and you will lose a lot of body fat with that as well. You should be fine with either program, but just wanted to say that you may end up feeling like quitting if you go into Insanity without having pretty good cardio conditioning.
I want to point out that there are 3 levels to the p90x program. A lot of the people in this thread have mentioned that the first two days killed them. That's because they were doing the "classic" version and ran into the "mother of all p90x" called Plyometrics(Jump Training). There is a lean version to the program and it will help you get into shape. So you don't have to jump into the hard stuff at first. The first 90 days you can do the lean version and then if you feel healthy enough you can move up to the classic version.
For you guys who is having trouble with the Yoga DVD, I would suggest to get Tony's Fountain of Youth Yoga 1-on-1 DVD. Half the time and still kicks your ass.
How are you feeling today? I'm going to repeat week 1 starting today because I was unusually super busy and missed kenpo and legs and back.
Ok so I said I was going to start this a while back and never did. My question is what if you're weak and can't do pull-ups? Is it better to start off with an excercise band? If so, which one? Please note I haven't watched the videos at all yet, so if this is explained there I apologize.
You would have to try the bands to see which one is challenging for you. Also, in the videos they demonstrate doing the pull-ups with a chair to help out, so that is also an option.
The bands are totally doable (I'd try the strongest strength you have), but I would use chair assist method instead to get a fuller workout. There's a bigger difference in feeling the results and you can adjust the intensity based on the amount of help your legs are putting in. Work in targets so that you'll steadily improve your way into one unassisted pullup.
when you say "use the bands" are you refering to using the bands as a lat pull, like this: I'm asking because you can also use bands to do a pull up, like this: Just step on the inside of the loop with both feet and it'll help hold up some of your weight. Google "assisted pull up" for examples, but you would need the thicker bands for this and they are usually only found online. If you have a pull up bar for a door fram that can be lowered, you can also do this variation:
I can only do 2-3 regular pull ups per set on the best of days, but with the "chair assist" method I can regularly do 8-12 reps per set and get an excellent work out. Just did Kenpo-X today... it's a whole lot of fun. By far my favorite workout yet! Tomorrow is X-Stretch.
