Despite climbing all day yesterday, I decided it would be a great idea to do an hour of P90X in the gym.  Today (the next day) I am certainly sore as hell, but I do these workouts frequently so it wasn’t too much worse that normal.  Back in 2008 I did the full 90 days of P90X and I followed it pretty strictly.  I did it mostly because I had seen so many of the infomercials on late night television.  It wasn’t marketed as an everyman’s workout, they said it wouldn’t take Joe-Shmo off the couch and make him shredded, they advertised it was taking someone who’s in great shape, and putting them in unbelievable shape.  I thought to myself, “I’m in pretty good shape and yes I’d love to be in ridiculous shape, count me in.”  I bought into it despite the corny-ness and hype associated with workout DVDs and it worked out great for me and I was sore every day for 90 days, #win.

After doing P90X and P90X+, I still mix the workouts into my weekly routine.  I’ll do one or two of my favorite workouts each week on top of running, hiking, climbing and my other outdoor activities.  Today I did a workout called Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps which has 24 different exercises that rotated between chest, shoulders, triceps for eight sets.

Workout sheet for Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps

After watching the videos a few dozen times and inadvertently memorizing every phrase that comes out of Tony Horton’s mouth, I now go straight off the workout sheets.  There are a few exercises that I don’t like so I replace with ones that I find to be better for me.  For example, who knows why they decided to put a set of one-armed pushups near the end of a 24 exercise Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps program, NFW, not going to happen Horton. So I substitute the one arm pushup for a staggered arm pushup where the hands are offset, one in front of the other but still a shoulder’s width apart.

All in all it was a great workout.  My heart rate didn’t get too high but I was certainly pumped and my arms were totally useless by the end of it which I see as a general success of this workout.  My min/max/average heart rates for this workout were 95/156/131 respectively.  I highly recommend giving P90X a try, the structure helps keep you on track with your fitness goals and it’ll certainly challenge you every day.