Getting a Better Kenpo X Workout

Why I Am Really Writing This?

In all of the other P90X videos, the cast members practice perfect form within reason. You don’t see people doing “fugly” pull-ups, poor push-ups, or bad yoga poses. Why should the equivalent be acceptable in Kenpo X? Besides of just being wrong, the fact is that bad form hurts the quality and benefits of the workout, as well as just giving people poor self-defense guidance. So, I thought I would write up this post for anyone who wants to get the most out of the Kenpo X workout.

I have to admit that I was shocked when I read in P90X related forums that people tried to copy Tony Lattimore’s form in Kenpo X. While he looks good, his form is generally horrible and definitely not to be used as an example. People claim that Wesley Idol looks lazy. I am not going to argue with that, but I might add some context later. As background, one of the major reasons that I purchased P90X is the fact that it included a Kenpo workout. I have a black belt in American Kenpo Karate, which is the specific martial arts form practiced in the video. Personally, I would love people to love the workout and share the art, but as I said, the form allowed among cast members and the lack of instruction significantly impacts the workout.

It Is Not The Cast Members Fault

I do not fault Tony Lattimore or Vanessa for the poor form they exhibit. They should have had better instruction, especially given Wesley Idol, a 5^thdegree black belt, is standing behind them. Tony Horton even highlights and compliments the poor form displayed. There should have been some preparation before recording the workout.

That being said, Wesley does exhibit the right form, albeit without apparent energy. More at the end, if you get that far. I will recommend that you look at Wesley’s form and mirror him with more energy. 

Kenpo X 101: Footwork

The first thing to get right is footwork. There is a saying that punches come from the legs. I previously wrote this article about proper Kenpo footwork. A good portion of Lattimore’s poor form results from not moving his back foot when throwing punches throughout the workout. Luckily, Wesley is wearing white shoes, so you can watch him to see how he moves his feet.

Vanessa generally has good footwork throughout the workout, except during the High-Low punches and Upper Block-Punch sequences. During those sequences, she brings her feet together as she goes back and forth, and brings her hands to the side as she goes back. When you bring your feet together during those moves, you lose all power and technically the way Vanessa holds her hands to the side, she leaves her face exposed to a punch. Unfortunately at some point, Tony Horton even compliments her for how she moves her feet, instead of correcting her. 

The Specifics

When we get to the kicks, if you want to improve your balance, again watch Wesley. He keeps his hands up. Tony Lattimore definitely tries to kick hard, but he puts his hands down, during sidekicks at least. Besides of weakening your balance, it leaves the face open in case the opponent counters with a kick or punch. 

In the Horse Stances, Tony Lattimore doesn’t keep his hands on his waist, but almost in his armpits. Also, he frequently has his hands facing inward, as opposed to facing upwards like everyone else. Again, this reduces the power of his movements, and generally slows them down. 

Claw Hammer is actually interesting from a Kenpo perspective and the fine point that Wesley displays is that the punch is coming straight in, with the back foot facing forward, as the claw is circling down. This gives extra power. From a Kenpo perspective, whether you rake the eyes or not is irrelevant, as the claw 1) swipes protecting hands away, while 2) obscuring the vision of the person who you are hitting that the fist is coming right in behind the claw. Try it. When you get it right, it is self defense magic.

Regarding the blocks, I am not going to deny that Lattimore looks pretty, but his blocks are slow, ineffective, and won’t get you sweating. Again, Wesley’s form is prefect, but looks lazy. Upward blocks should have the fist of the blocking hand track up the center of the body, on the outside of the arm coming down. Then as the fist passes your face, your forearm turns outward, with your body slightly torqueing as your other hand returns to the side of the waist. You do not just swing your arm up.

For inward blocks, Lattimore brings his fist up, and then swings his forearm across his body. It looks great, but he would be hit every time. Tony Horton describes the motion as stabbing towards the outside. Your fist should go straight from your waist to the opposite corner. If the block was real, your fist should essentially be punching the attacker’s forearm. 

Regarding downward blocks, Lattimore and Vanessa have an arcing motion that starts high, while Wesley does it correctly, crossing the blocking arm from waist level swiping straight downward.

One of my biggest peeves in the workout is when Tony Horton compliments Tony Lattimore doing the 3-direction kicks. Lattimore is balancing on one leg, and Horton says, "This is advanced!" While it did take some balance, the reality is that Lattimore was generally off balance, and if he did actually kick something, he would have fell over. It would have been better, from both a self-defense and exercise perspective, to put the other foot down to get a strong base, and then kick with power.

Is Wesley Idol Really Lazy?

So why does Wesley look lazy? Possibly, he was. Possibly Wesley moved slow so that you could see his form. Kenpo is known for “fast hands” and a good practitioner can potentially get in 4 strikes a second. There are also a couple of issues specifically regarding Kenpo that could contribute. First with kicks, in Kenpo Karate, you do not train to normally kick above the groin. Kenpo is a style where you train to stay close to your attacker, so you really don't have room to kick higher. It is also not realistic for self-defense to train to kick your attacker in the face. Another thing that makes Wesley look lazy is that in some positions his hands and arms look loose. An advanced Kenpo practitioner trains to not tense up until the moment of impact of a strike. This allows your limbs to move faster, creating more powerful punches, elbows, blocks, etc. Here is a video segment of a really good Kenpo practitioner, and when you consider the points I just made, it might make sense. (It might look flashy and sped up, but that's really how fast you can move with proper form, leg work, etc, and the only thing fake is that the attackers would not be on their feet after the first 2-3 hits).

Making Kenpo X More Effective

Again, I am really not here to criticize anyone individually, except unfortunately for Tony Horton and Beachbody. It was really on Tony Horton and possibly Wesley Idol to ensure that Tony Lattimore and Vanessa used correct form, just like Tony ensured in every other workout. You really can get a lot more out of Kenpo X with proper form. If you don't feel like you are getting a good workout, with proper form, you can always kick higher, punch with more power, etc.

Ultimate Reset Video Description

While the claims in the video seem a little over the top, losing 30 lbs in 21 days is very possible if you get the toxins out of your system. I did a cleanse and permanently lost 12 lbs in 5 days. The Ultimate Reset has you eating 1500 calories a day, so it is more sustainable, and $1000s less.

Not only did my weight go down, my health exploded. My pull up count went from 8 to 20, and I did no exercise during the cleanse. This is why I am a huge fan of a scientifically designed cleanse. Information on the Ultimate Reset can be found by clicking this sentence.
However, if you are interested, please contact me so I can talk to you about the expectations of the program in detail. E-mail me at ira@irawinkler.com.

Tips for Starting P90X

P90X is significantly more than just a workout, and people realize that. For that reason, it is natural to want to know how to prepare for the program. I do have to admit that if you want to be successful with the program, which for many people means losing weight and getting ripped, you do have to prepare to a certain extent. For example, if you start off without equipment, you cannot do the workouts well. If your refrigerator is filled with junk food, there’s a good chance that you will eat poorly. Either situation will sabotage your success.

As the old saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

So if you want to plan for success, there are three categories of tips you should consider; Support, Equipment, and Nutrition. If you get nothing else out of this article, I want to be very clear that of all of the categories, if you want to lose weight, Nutrition is the most important.

Setting Yourself Up For Success

Perhaps the best thing you can do to enable success is to get an account on teambeachbody.com. The reason is that it provides some incredibly valuable resources. It allows you to record your measurements. There is a Body Fat Calculator and a Caloric Needs Calculator under Eat Smart > Nutrition Tools. The Body Fat Calculator will be invaluable to you as you should gain muscle and lose fat as you do P90X, so the scale will only tell you part of the story. Again, you want to do this before you start P90X.

Additionally, you want to take and upload your pictures. While I realize that some people will hate their “Before” pictures, you will find that it will be a source of pride later on.

As important, you can use the pictures to enter the Beachbody Challenge, which will get you a free t-shirt when you complete P90X. You can find info on the Beachbody Challenge through this link.

Also to keep you moving, teambeachbody.com will schedule and track the entire P90X 90 days for you. That feature is found under Get Fit > SuperGym and then you “Add a new auto-schedule”. As an added bonus Beachbody gives away $500 per day to a random person using that function.

While you can always contact me with any questions, teambeachbody message boards can also provide some answers as well, although the accuracy of an answer may vary.

Choosing and Scheduling a P90X Version

Before you start P90X, you have to figure out which version of P90X you want to choose whether you want to do Classic, Lean or Doubles. I can go into details, but the most important issue for people to know is that P90X Lean will not get you leaner. While the book, which was written about 6 years ago, does say it is intended to help you get leaner, the P90X Certificaion training I underwent stated specifically that Lean is for people who are not yet ready to try the full program. In short, think of it as P90X Lean = P90X Lite.

Click on this sentence to read my full article on which version to choose.

Then as mentioned above, you can let teambeachbody.com schedule and track your workouts for you.

Equipment

To get the best results from P90X, you do need the right equipment. While having access to a full range of equipment would be best, you can get by with a minimal set of equipment as long as it is the right equipment.

Click this sentence for my article about what equipment you need for P90X.

Proper Nutrition

As I said/implied before, if your goal is to lose weight, and especially get ripped, that requires proper nutrition. The workouts will get you fitter, but to lose weight, you have to eat the right amount of calories. Too much and you gain weight. Too little and your body will think you are starving, and it will try to save itself by burning muscle. The ideal calorie range for losing weight is approximately 750-1000 calories below your Maintenance Level. You can get the calorie range you need from the Caloric Needs Calculator on teambeachbody.com.

The one statement you need to remember clearly is:

Abs are made in the kitchen.

No matter how hard you workout, you need to eat properly to lose weight. Properly means healthy foods with the right number of calories.

Just “eating clean” will not do it. Again, you need to eat the right number of calories…not too much or too little. So clean out your kitchen and plan your menu.

You do not have to follow the P90X Nutrition Guide, but you do have to follow some healthy nutrition plan at the right calorie level. It can be a vegan plan, Body for Life’s nutrition plan, Weight Watchers, etc, but again it should be something that you follow and plan in advance.

Whichever plan you follow, you should by the food in advance, so that you have the raw materials for meals ready to cook, and more important, you have healthy snacks available. It is the snacking that usually kills your diet.

Supplements

A lot of people want to add supplements to their diet. The assumption is that supplements will help you get better results. If you eat well, you don’t need supplements. That being said, if you are not eating perfectly, there are some supplements that can help.

If you think you need energy before your workouts, a pre-workout drink would help. The common one is Jack3d, but it contains creatine and DMAA. Creatine is not ideal for women, and DMAA has been linked to some deaths for people with blood pressure problems. Beachbody has it’s own pre-workout drink that doesn’t have those ingredients, but does taste reasonably good and gives you an energy boost. Click here to learn more about that.

Recovery drinks are also part of the P90X Nutrition Plan and are especially good after a hard workout. Click here for my article on recovery drinks and the purpose they serve.

Many people also look to protein bars and meal replacement drinks for when they are short of time. As far as protein bars go, there are a wide variety of options. Frankly, they are generally candy bars with protein and a multivitamin mixed in. The P90X Nutrition Bars were recently redesigned to be somewhat healthier than the average bar. You however can do your own price/taste comparisons.

As far as meal replacement drinks go, most of them tend to be chocolate milk with a multivitamin. Shakeology is significantly different as it contains as much protein as many protein drinks, digestive enzymes, probiotics, phytonutrients, and a wide variety of other components that promotes overall digestive health. Most important from my perspective is that it is intended to be used as a base, so you can mix it with a wide variety of different ingredients to create a myriad of different flavors. I can go on, but the video below better describes the product. Also while I know that Shakeology seems expensive compared to most of the meal replacement drinks available, that is not the case and the article you get by clicking here explains why.



There are other supplements that some people want to consider like Omega-3 fats, creatine, protein powder, vitamins, etc. Those are individual concerns, so please feel free to contact me directly with questions by e-mailing me at ira@irawinkler.com.

Support

While everyone goes into P90X with grand thoughts, there will be ups and downs. There will be days when you are surprised by the scale, in both good and bad ways. You will also have questions about the workouts and the nutrition plans. For that reason, please consider having me assigned as your Beachbody Coach. Besides of having completed P90X, P90X+, P90X2, and other Beachbody programs countless times, I am a P90X Certified trainer, and can either answer your questions, or find you the answers.

If you want me as your coach, you can click here to set up a free account. If you already have an account, please feel free to e-mail me at ira@irawinkler.com.

Conclusion

P90X is an outstanding program that will work, as long as you work. While pressing play daily is critical, so is basic preparation. That preparation especially includes proper nutrition. Most important, remember that even if you started out wrong, you can change at any time and increase your results. P90X really means that you are adapting to a lifestyle of eating right and exercising on a regular basis.

The Reason for Shakeology

This video discusses the need for Shakeology, what makes it unique, and information about the latest flavor, which is also vegan.

Announcements From The Beachbody Coach Leadership Conference

There were a large number of announcements from last week’s Leadership Conference, with a couple of them long awaited by P90X and Shakeology fans. The major announcements are as follows:

• P90X Certification and gym classes
  
• Tropical Shakeology will be vegan
  
• Les Mills BodyPUMP available on DVD
  
• Tai Chi DVD program
  
• Four by Four program from Brett Hoebel
  
• 21 Day Cleanse available soon
  

P90X Certification

People will soon be able to receive a P90X teaching certification. Specifically, they will take both an online and a 2 day in person course and then be able to hold P90X licensed classes. The implication is that trainers will be able to teach such courses at gyms. The initial certification courses will be limited to Beachbody Coaches, so any personal trainers or gym owners who want to offer P90X courses can contact me to learn how they can get in on the courses by clicking here.

Tropical Shakeology will be vegan

Tropical Shakeology was announced last June and was undergoing shelf life testing. Beachbody was also working to create a vegan flavor. Beachbody was then able to combine both issues and reformulated the Tropical flavor to be vegan, which essentially means that they replaced the whey protein. It should be available early in 2012.

Les Mills BodyPUMP available on DVD

Many people know of Les Mills BodyPUMP program, which is taught in health clubs around the world. It is a high energy class that works the full body. It uses light barbells so you do lots of reps throughout the workout. It is a great alternative to people looking for variety from P90X. The Beachbody program will include a nutrition program, which the standard BodyPUMP class doesn’t typically include. It will tentatively be available in December. Also, if you are a BodyPUMP instructor and want to make extra income while helping your students more, please contact me and I will help set you up to sell the DVD program.

Pending Tai Chi program

While many people are not familiar with Tai Chi, for those who are, they will be very happy to know that Beachbody will soon be releasing a Tai Chi program. It will be available early 2012.

New Brett Hoebel programs

Brett Hoebel, the RevAbs and Biggest Loser trainer, will be creating two new programs. The first is Four by Four, which is a series of 16 minute workouts. He will also be creating an advanced RevAbs program. If you want to stay up to date on these and other programs, please register for a free account by clicking here.

I’m Here to Help

As you can see, Beachbody is constantly taking the fitness and nutrition industry to the next level. They are not resting on their laurels and continue to develop new programs. Please feel free to contact me at any time by e-mailing ira@xcompanionguide.com and/or register for a free account to have me assigned as your coach by clicking here.

P90X Short: No Time For P90X or to Maintain

While P90X is a great program, the major drawback for most people is the time required for the program. On top of the short preparation time, you have to allocate 60-90 minutes 6 days a week. Yes, you are worth the time, and it more than pays back in the gains in fitness that you will make, but even many driven people will have problems finding the time with their busy life. For that reason, I created a modified version of P90X that should be able to be much more suited to anybody’s schedule.


Before I go on, I want to be very clear that P90X Short, as I call it, should not be your first choice of a schedule. It is an alternative to not doing P90X at all. Additionally, you can follow the recommendations for one day at a time, when you won’t have time to do a full P90X workout.

The Schedule is the Same

Even when you are doing P90X Short, you follow the schedule as defined. The only difference is the length of the workout. Specifically, you cut out about half of the workout.

First, make sure that you always do the warm up and the stretch. Also, you should do Ab Ripper X 3 times a week. While you should do it on the days that it is defined, you can do it on any 3 days as long as it is not on consecutive days, and preferably not on Yoga day.

How to Cut the Workouts in Half

Some workouts repeat the same sequence twice. Other workouts do not. So the obvious way to cut Chest & Back and Shoulders & Arms in half is to just not do the non-repetitive portions of the workouts. In Chest & Back, just stop halfway through, and fast forward to the cool down. In Shoulders & Arms, the workout does sections of 3 different exercises and then repeats the section. Just fast forward past the repetitive exercises.

The other workouts, with the exception of Yoga X, can just be divided in half. Even though the exercises are different in the halves, they tend to cycle through the same muscle groups, so you will get the required coverage. As far as which halves you should do, that is generally up to you. I find the second halves tend to have more challenging exercises, so you might want to start there. The exception seems to be Legs & Back, where the first half of the workout works the larger muscles of the legs better than the second half. The back work in Legs & Back repeats, so it doesn’t matter.

Yoga X clearly is a completely unique workout throughout. The real work is in the first 45 minutes of the workout. However, you want to also try to work in Yoga Belly 7. A preferred alternative is to get the Fountain of Youth DVD from the P90X One on One series. Tony describes it as a 45 minute version of Yoga X. It gets to most of the critical aspects of Yoga X, including stretching and ab work, but is again half the time. If you need to order Fountain of Youth, you can click here, and the Fountain of Youth workout is the 6th one down on the pull down menu.

Modifying Your Diet

If you are doing P90X Short, you generally want to cut a fairly significant amount of calories from your diet. The amount of calories to be cut depend on your caloric needs. For that reason, you should go to the Caloric Needs Calculator on teambeachbody.com and calculate your calorie needs for P90X. Then go back and calculate your calorie needs for doing no exercise. Then average it out the two numbers. If you need an account on teambeachbody.com, click here for a free account.

How Does P90X Short Affect Your Results?

If you eat properly, you should generally have the same amount of weight loss that you would have doing P90X Classic. Muscle growth and strength should still increase, although probably not as much as with P90X Classic. Muscle improvement comes by creating microtears in the muscles, and generally you will get about 80% of such tearing doing half the workout. The second half of P90X workouts provides mostly extra calorie burning, and as long as you hit all of the muscles in the part of the workout that you actually do, you should get most of the expected P90X muscle benefits. Again, I peg it at about 80%, but admittedly that is at best a knowledgeable guess.

Conclusion

P90X Short is also a potentially great maintenance routine, as it provides benefits without having to do the full workout in a tolerable amount of time. Also as I said in the beginning, this is solely an alternative for people who could not otherwise do P90X. It is not intended to be a fully functional replacement of the P90X schedule. Additionally, if you are short on time, and have already completed P90X, you might want to try P90X+, which is a great workout, but is more of a muscle endurance and toning workout, rather than a strength and size workout. The biggest benefit of P90X+ is that the main workouts are usually about 40-45 minutes a day.

Should I Do P90X Classic, Lean or Doubles?

The name, P90X Lean, makes people clearly assume that if they want to get leaner using P90X, they should do the Lean version. I actually had the same assumption when I decided to do P90X+Lean version. I soon learned I was wrong, and that P90X Lean was actually better named P90X Lite.


I believe that people think there is a much bigger difference between the programs than people think there are. The reality is that there are only a few differences between Lean, Classic and Doubles. However, there is a mystique surrounding the programs.

Before I go on, I want to clearly say that P90X Lean is not easy. It is just easier than P90X Classic version. You can definitely achieve awesome results with P90X Lean. All things being equal though, it is not as intense as P90X Classic.

What is P90X Classic?

P90X Classic is the base program. It is P90X as it was designed. At a very high level, you alternate days of strength and cardio work. I can go on, but really I recommend that you should start with Classic, unless the next paragraph applies to you. Even if you intend to do Doubles, Doubles actually starts with a month of Classic, so it is essentially the same early on.

Why Use Lean?

P90X Lean is a great program for people who are uncomfortable starting with the full version of P90X. Also, it does take less time over the week to complete P90X Lean than P90X Classic. The workouts you do are shorter 2 times per week. That is a big benefit for many people.

The Differences Between Classic and Lean

The major difference between P90X Lean and P90X Classic is that 1) you replace the Plyo X workout with Cardio X and 2) you replace one (1) strength and one ab workout a week with Core Synergistics.

Plyo X is a 58 minute workout that is rather intense. Cardio X is a 45 minute workout that actually starts out pretty slow. Depending on your weight, it is very possible that you can burn an extra 300+ calories with Plyo X than with Cardio X. Also your legs are more likely to develop better muscles with Plyo X, so you burn more calories throughout the day because of the extra recovery you need.

Core Synergistics is definitely an awesome workout and gets you sweating, but it is still not a strength workout. You will not get the extra burn that you get for recovery throughout the day. Additionally, since you are also leaving out Ab Ripper X that day, you miss an extra 16 minutes of a very intense stomach workout, so again you burn less calories.

So you clearly burn more calories, and therefore more fat, with P90X Classic.

That does however leave the question of people, primarily women, who want lean, not bulky, muscle. The first thing to consider is that a woman’s hormones will prevent her from getting bulky muscles in general. There are some women who are predisposed to larger muscles, but they still won’t grow huge muscles. More importantly though, as long as you do 12-15 reps, you will develop toned muscles over large muscles. Tony repeats this again and again throughout the program, and it doesn’t change anything by doing one more or less strength workout.

What is P90X Doubles?

There is actually much less to P90X Doubles that people think. In short, Doubles is just adding Cardio X 3 times a week in Month 2 of P90X Classic and 5 times a week in Month 3 of a round of P90X. That is it.

Specifically you do P90X Classic in Month 1, and then on strength days (Days 1, 3 and 5) of Month 2, you do Cardio X in the mornings and the strength workouts in the evenings. In Month 3, you add Cardio X on days 1-5.

As I already implied, Cardio X is actually a relatively light workout. On average, you would be lucky to burn 1/3 of a pound extra per week in Month 2, and ½ a pound extra per week in Month 3 following the P90X Doubles schedule.

It is a good way to lose a little extra weight. However, I recommend that if you are inclined to do extra cardio, you can do that whenever you want, even in Month 1. Also I recommend that you do any cardio that you want to do. Get outside. Ride a bike. Go running. Walk your dog. Various studies show that working out outside actually burns more calories anyway. When I do P90X, I find that I end up staying inside more than I otherwise would.

What if I Want to Switch Programs?

In short, just start the new program whenever you want. If you are on Day 14 of P90X Lean and want to switch to P90X Classic, just pick it up at Day 14. As stated, the differences are really subtle. Same thing if you want to go from Classic to Lean. If you want to do Doubles, all you have to do is start doing Cardio X. It really is that simple. As you will see in all of my blogs, you don’t have to start over. You achieve fitness through your lifestyle, not following a 90 day program.

What Program Should You Choose?

Again, I am in no way implying that there is anything wrong with doing P90X Lean. It is an extremely challenging program, and anyone can choose to do it for any reason. However, do not choose it because you are under the mistaken belief that it will make you any leaner than P90X Classic would.

However, if P90X Lean fits your goals in the ways I defined earlier, just do that. P90X Doubles is again just adding extra cardio, which is always a great idea. But in summary, I generally recommend you start with P90X Classic and then decide if you want to change to Lean or Doubles.

If you have questions about what is right for you, or how to adjust your schedule to your needs, please feel free to mailto:ira@irawinkler.com. I am happy to help.

What's the Difference Between P90X2 Sets

As is hard to miss, the long awaited P90X2 is now available. While it is very welcome, there are 6 (actually 12) different ways to order it, with prices ranging from $119-359, it is hard for a person to tell what they really need, let alone want. So hopefully, this article will make sense of all of it.

First, I should summarize the equipment that you need, as the options really depend on different levels of equipment that you receive. While the base equipment needs will be dumbbells and a pull up bar, you will be able to get away with just bands, as you can with the standard P90X. Again, here is an article for P90X equipment.

During the most recent webinar, Tony listed the following equipment needs for P90X2, and implies there was an order to them:

1. Resistance Bands
2. Chin up bar
3. Dumbbells
4. Balance or Stability Ball
5. Foam Roller
6. Chin Up Bar Supporter (elastic bands to use for assisting pullups)
7. Medicine Balls (ideally 4 medicine balls)
8. Power Stands

Another piece of equipment that wasn’t mentioned during the webinar, but was mentioned during the Coach Summit and shown in the sample videos, is a weighted bar. While it wasn’t listed, it seems like it will really help with the core and shoulder work.

Ordering Through a Coach Has It’s Benefits

The first decision point you have to make, that doesn’t cost you anything is whether or not to order through a coach, in other words ordering through teambeachbody.com instead of other venues. I am clearly biased in that, but Beachbody makes it an obvious decision. If you order through a coach, you get two bonus workouts that you don’t otherwise get: P90X One on One: 4 Legs and P90X One on One: Upper Body Balance. These workouts were specifically chosen as they enhance the goals and benefits of the P90X2 program. Likewise, they are a time saver when you might only have 30 minutes for the workouts they can replace. This is a $40 savings alone, so order through me or another coach at this link.

Blu-Ray or DVD

From a cost perspective, Blu-Ray is more expensive. For the Basic set, Blu-Ray is $149 vs $119 for standard DVD. When you get to the Deluxe and Ultimate sets, it is $60 more expensive for Blu-Ray. Clearly, this is an individual preference.

Three Sets to Choose From

As mentioned, you have there are three different sets to buy, that each have a different level of equipment. As will be mentioned more, the Basic set does not include the V-Sculpt and X2 Chest, Shoulders, and Tris workout. You will have to buy the Deluxe or Ultimate sets. While I assume that you will only need those workouts for one month of the 90 Day program, imagine P90X where you don’t have Back & Biceps and Chest, Shoulders & Tris. So you want to make note of that.

The Basic Set

The Basic set costs $119 for DVD or $149 for Blu-Ray and includes:

1. 12 P90X2 workout DVDs
2. How To DVD
3. Nutrition Guide
4. Fitness Guide
5. 90 Day Calendar

To order the P90X2 Basic set, click here.

The Deluxe Set

The Deluxe set costs $239 for DVD or $299 for Blu-Ray and includes:

1. Everything in the Basic set
2. The V-Sculpt and X2 Chest, Shoulders & Tris DVDs
3. Stability (aka Balance) Ball
4. 2 – 8 lb medicine balls
5. Foam Roller

To order the P90X2 Deluxe set, click here.

The Ultimate Set

The Ultimate set costs $299 for DVD or $359 for Blu-Ray and includes:

1. Everything in the Basic and Deluxe sets
2. The Foam Roller is a Premium Grade Roller
3. 2 Tony Horton Power Stands

To order the P90X2 Ultimate set, click here.

Will I Be Able to Buy Just the 2 Extra DVDs in the Future?

The short answer is yes. They will sell the extra DVDs for about $60, which is half the cost of the actual set, so they are pretty expensive. Another option is that you can get the P90X One on One DVDs of the V-Sculpt and Upper Body X workouts, which are the “test kitchen” versions of the X2 workouts. That would be about $40. However, they are rough and vary somewhat in quality. Given the cost though, if you need any equipment, it is probably cheaper to just get the Deluxe set.

So Which is Best For You?

Clearly if you want all of the DVDs, you should get at least the Deluxe set. You will need the equipment and actually a little more. As mentioned, you will need up to 4 medicine balls, so getting 2 good ones is not a bad idea. When Beachbody does sell equipment, it is always of great quality at a reasonable price. Clearly P90X2 will be great with or without those 2 DVDs, but I assume that most people will want the full workouts, and need the equipment anyone, so it is your call. Concerning the Ultimate Set, you have to likewise determine whether or not you want the power stands and the upgraded roller. The upgraded roller appears to be significantly better, but you should also want to buy the power stands, if you want to consider upgrading from the Deluxe to the Ultimate set. Whichever set you choose, P90X2 will take you to a new level of fitness and athletic performance. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an e-mail at ira@xcompanionguide.com.

Beachbody Coaching is Not a Pyramid Scheme

A lot of people are interested in becoming a Beachbody Coach, but are concerned about the possibility that it is a pyramid scheme. People should be concerned about a business that they are thinking of getting into, and as this question comes up frequently, they have a right to get an honest, detailed, and knowledgeable answer before making a decision that can affect their lives.

What is a Pyramid Scheme?

A pyramid scheme, sometimes referred to as a Ponzi Scheme, is a situation where people give a lot of money to buy into a supposed business opportunity, in the hope that when other people buy into it, you get money from them. Supposedly, you recruit 2 people, who each recruit 2 others, and then they each recruit 2 people, and the money is fed into the initial person who recruited them. Once the person on top gets their money back and the profits, the people below them can then get their money back.

Essentially, a high investment is paid directly to some person above them. That is the essence of a pyramid scheme.

How Beachbody Works

Let me make it clear that Beachbody Coaching is a relationship marketing business. Relationship marketing is frequently referred to as direct marketing, network marketing, and multi-level marketing. Unless you are a member of the military or a non-profit organization, you do have to pay a $39 sign up fee, which includes a $14 monthly fee and a $25 fee for your starter kit. Consider this your franchise fee. You are essentially buying a business franchise that you can do with what you want. For your fees, you get 4 websites as well as customer service, product fulfillment, etc.

Nobody makes a profit from the fees paid. Even Beachbody might not break even from those fees given the cost of customer service, website maintenance, etc.

There are no product purchases required. However I want to be clear that if you do want to be successful in the Beachbody business, you probably want to invest in making sure that you own a do a product as well as buy and use Shakeology and have some to give away as samples. This can cost about $200, but is again optional. You should also understand that by becoming a Beachbody Coach, you are essentially a small business owner, and even $200 is a minimal investment to start any business. Again though, you can just start by paying your $39 fee (or $0 if you are a military family or non-profit organization) and leave it at that.

Nobody Makes Money Unless You Make Money

Unlike a pyramid scheme, the only way a Beachbody Coach who sponsors you can make money from you is for you to make money. Without going into full details on the compensation plan, your recruiting coaches only make money when you are successful. This is the opposite of a pyramid scheme.

Frankly, when a coach is not successful in the business, it costs me as the person who recruited them. I am willing to invest hundreds of hours of my time in a coach to help get them started and continue their success. If they don’t make money, not only do I not make any money from them, I lose what I consider my most valuable resource: My time. I am happy to invest my time with someone who is willing to work, as it is a cost of doing business. However nobody should think that once a person becomes a coach, a lot of other people get rich from them. Again, nobody gets rich from another person in a legitimate relationship marketing business, unless that person makes money themselves.

Is it Too Late to Be Successful?

While it is true that the earlier you get in, the more money you have the potential to make at a given point in time, with Beachbody it is still very early in the business lifecycle. As of this writing, Beachbody has 65,000 coaches and is only in the United States. Based on my own experience, I personally estimate that at least 30,000 of those coaches are coaches only for the discounts on Shakeology, and are not actively pursuing the business.

However, even if you assume that all 65,000 coaches are in active in the business, that is tiny compared to similar companies. For example, Amway had approximately 3,000,000 distributors in 2008. Herbalife had 1,900,000 distributors at that time. Beachbody has had a relationship marketing program in place for 4 years, while Amway and Herbalife have been in business for more than 50 and 30 years respectively. The people who became involved in either of those programs within even the first 10 years, and remain active, are extremely happy people.

Your Job Makes You a Living. Part Time Makes You a Fortune

The above quote is from business guru, Jim Rohn. He is a big believer in relationship marketing. The quote comes from his belief that if you don’t do pursue a part time business, you are doomed to continue your same standard of living. Pursuing a part time business, like a relationship marketing business, provides for potential exponential growth in income.

I want to be very clear that there is no guarantee that you will be successful with Beachbody Coaching. Frankly, I have been very surprised when I saw people, who I was positive would be successful, turn out not to be successful, and people I was sure would fade away turn out to be very successful. As long as people are willing to work, work consistently, and don’t have grossly unrealistic expectations, they have the ability to succeed. Beachbody is not a “get rich quick” business, but a get rich steady business. How fast is determined by the individual. Beachbody Coaching is however very inexpensive to start.

Even if you spend $200 to get started, that is small compared to buying a business franchise, which costs tens of thousands of dollars. Beachbody allows you to start increasing your income, without having to quit your current job and risk everything.

If another Beachbody Coach sent you to this page, please contact them. Otherwise, please feel free to contact me by clicking here.

My P90X/Asylum Hybrid

For my current exercise routine, I decided that I needed a program that was as effective in all aspects of physical condition as possible. In my opinion, you are never going to get a more comprehensive program than P90X. P90X’s downside is that it is relatively weak on leg work. For that reason, I wanted to combine it with Asylum, which possibly has the most effective leg work and endurance training that you can find.

The Asylum workouts also have the advantage that they are significantly shorter than P90X workouts, while definitely being more effective. For example, Plyo X is about 58 minutes, while Vertical Plyo is only 38 minutes and few people would argue that Vertical Plyo is significantly better than Plyo X.

So I was asked to share my program, which I believe is not only more effective, but frequently has shorter workouts. I also include some P90X One on Ones, which adds some variety and is also potentially shorter and more effective.

My Schedule

Weeks 1-3, 9 and 11

Day 1 – P90X Chest & Back and Ab Ripper X
Day 2 – Asylum Vertical Plyo
Day 3 – P90X One on One Shoulders & Arms 2 and Ab Ripper X
Day 4 – P90X One on One Fountain of Youth
Day 5 – P90X One on One Back & Base and Ab Ripper X
Day 6 – Asylum Speed & Agility
Day 7 – P90X X Stretch

Week 4, 8 and 13

Day 1 – P90X One on One Fountain of Youth
Day 2 – P90X+ Total Body +
Day 3 – P90X+ Kenpo/Cardio +
Day 4 – P90X X Stretch
Day 5 – P90X+ Total Body +
Day 6 – P90X One on One Fountain of Youth
Day 7 – Rest

Weeks 5-7, 10 and 12

Day 1 – P90X Back & Biceps and Ab Ripper X
Day 2 – Asylum Vertical Plyo
Day 3 – P90X Chest, Shoulders and Tris and Ab Ripper X
Day 4 – P90X One on One Fountain of Youth
Day 5 – P90X One on One Back & Base and Ab Ripper X
Day 6 – Asylum Speed & Agility
Day 7 – P90X X Stretch

Alternative Workouts

As you can see, I make use of various One on Ones as well as P90X+ workouts. If you don’t have Fountain of Youth, you can use Yoga X or the One on One Yoga:MC2. If you don’t have Base & Back, use Legs & Back. If you don’t have Shoulders & Arms 2, use Shoulders & Arms. If you don’t have Total Body +, you can use Asylum Strength or continue to use Core Synergistics. If you want to add more One on Ones, you can V-Sculpt is a replacement for Back & Biceps and Upper Body X is a replacement for Chest, Shoulders & Tris.

Getting the Most Out of Your Workouts

So this is the hybrid I currently settled into so that I get the most out of what I consider the best Beachbody programs to get extreme results, while saving some time as well, specifically P90X and Asylum. Adding variety to your workouts is also important. It can get tiring to do the same routine for years, no matter how much you love it. You can potentially integrate in other programs, but if you want something that you can do for long periods of time, I would recommend that you generally follow the P90X schedule.