I travel just about every week for business and had a hard time coming up with a workout program that I could do on the road and at home and you can't count on a hotel gym to have what you need. I hate checking in luggage, but hate my butt making my trousers look small even more. If you wanted, you could probably do this workout on the road and still pack just carry on, but I've started packing a small bag so that I can bring everything I want. I figure that if I'm working this hard 6 days a week, an extra 20 minutes to get my gym bag at baggage claim is no big deal.
To take my P90X workout on the road, here's what I pack.
- The workout DVDs - I've actually got mine on my laptop and on my iPod by using Handbrake to copy the discs I bought through Beachbody. This is a quality product, so buy it rather than being a pirating weasel. Plus, if you invest your money, you'll feel more motivated to finish which is the important part. They'll refund your money if you don't like the program anyway so there is no risk.
- Gym shoes and socks - you don't need heavy duty shoes if you follow Tony's advice of being light on your feet. I pack a light weight pair of Merrill hiking shoes.
- Nylon gym shorts - with a supportive liner (for guys) since you'll be doing jumping jacks and other jumping in most every workout.
- A tee shirt for every day - since I'm soaked with sweat after every workout.
- Resistance bands - the BeachBody bands are cool since you can move the handles between the different bands making them easier to pack. I take three and bought a door clip so that I can do pull down exercises in my hotel room (it's a nylon band with a loop on one end and a sewn in block on the other).
- P90X Recovery Drink in the single serving packets - Again, as hard as I'm working at this, $45/month is not too much to spend. It tastes like a creamcycle. If you don't carry a water bottle, buy Aquafina with the big mouth top so it's easier to pour your recovery drink into it.
Optional stuff to pack
- Yoga mat - since I do these workouts in my hotel room I want something between me and the floor weather it's yoga day or not. If you don't want to pack it, extra towels from the hotel will do the job.
- Yoga block - if yoga is on my schedule during travel.
I haven't bought a heart-rate monitor since I don't need one to tell me I'm hitting it as hard as I can. Also, for all of the back workouts, it just so happens that I have been at home. I bought a pull up bar for my basement and have had that at my disposal each time. I have a heavy weight, black band for travel when the back workouts happen on the road.
I'm at the end of week 5 of P90X, so the hardest part is behind me, (i.e., the first week of muscle soreness and working the routine into my schedule). I haven't missed a workout, even when on the road. One day, I had an early flight and didn't get a chance to workout until 10:30pm. The only challenge here is the Plyometrics and Kenpo workouts have a lot of jumping and may not be appreciated by occupants of nearby hotel rooms. Plan accordingly. I've got the workouts on my iPod so I can go to the hotel gym for those workouts if I want. After 5 weeks P90X, I'm in better shape than most anyone in there so I don't care if I look a bit unconventional to the people watching the Today show while they walk on the treadmill.
Before this program I would workout when I was at home and was motivated to squeeze it in. I would run for a couple of miles and do 40 minutes of weights. However, I was lucky to get 3 days in per week and I was eating whatever was around with no real portion control. During the first week of P90X, I was so sore that a couple of days after the shoulders / biceps / triceps workout I could barely touch my face because my triceps were so tight and sore. In subsequent weeks, however, that passed.
With 5 weeks behind me, I've gone from 198lbs (I'm 5'11" and really do have big bones, esp. femurs and pelvis) to 187lbs. I haven't remeasured my body fat, but I'm sure I've traded some fat weight for muscle mass so my 11lb net loss is probably more like 15lbs+ of fat loss. I started with a 38" waist and my 35" pants are fitting me loosely now. During my fit test, I could do 4 pull ups. Now I can do 11 during my first set and a total of 70 during the back and legs work out. I can just about keep up during all of the workouts, which is no small deal.
The [...] people have put everything you need to manage your program into a very thorough spreadsheet (which you can download from their website). It tracks your weight loss progress, your body measurements, every set in every weight workout and your daily nutrition. Again, this is great for me because there is no notebook to pack when I travel.
While challenging, the workouts are actually quite fun after the first week of pain and learning the routines. Tony is as engaging as he can be in a recorded program. I find myself laughing at his jokes, even though I've heard them all repeatedly. He's got himself and 3 others doing each workout so you can follow the person doing the workout in a way the most closely matches your ability and equipment at your disposal (e.g., dumbbells or bands). The workouts are about 60 minutes from warmup to cooldown, except yoga which is 90 minutes. The weight workout discs have a 15 minute bonus abb workout, which I haven't done yet.
In conclusion, if you are like me and will follow through on something once you've put your mind to it, you'll be very pleased with this workout. $130 bucks, plus the cost of the Recovery Drink and equipment is a bargain to improve your health and feel better about how you look. The heaviest dumbbell I have used so far has been 45lbs for the lawnmower exercise (basically a dumbbell row exercise). I'll probably go heavier, but my point is that you can buy the dial-a-weight dumbbells at Costco and have every weight you need for this workout.
I hope this review is useful for my fellow travelers who are "loose in the cage" and want to improve. I'll turn on the "e-mail me when someone comments on my review" option if anyone wants to ask me anything.
Now I'm off to do KenpoX.Get more detail about P90X Extreme Home Fitness Workout Program - 13 DVDs, Nutrition Guide, Exercise Planner.
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