This blog is devoted to answering the questions that people have with Beachbody programs, like P90X and Insanity, that go beyond what is in the program guides.
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.
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.
The Beachbody Coach Summit took place from June 17-19, 2011, and as expected there were A Lot of announcements to share with everyone. I normally mail updates to my customers, however a message with all the information would be overwhelming, so I thought I would send everyone a message referring them to this blog post if they want more info on the subjects. So, enjoy!
P90X2
P90X2 is supposed to be available for the 2011 Christmas/Holiday season. Preordering will hopefully become available in August, and you should take advantage of it, as Beachbody is trying to balance out the projected orders, and only does a limited run for new programs until they see the demand, so there is strong potential that it might go out of stock early.
As far as the program itself goes, P90X2 will be a 90 day program that you do 5 days a week. Yes I wrote 5 days a week. There will be 14 workouts that are part of the program, which will have 3 distinct phases; Learning, Strength and Performance, and it appears that you will do different workouts in the different phases.
Tony Horton and his advisors describe P90X2 as the most advanced program ever put on DVD. Note that they did not say the most intense. While it will not be as theoretically extreme or intense as Insanity or Asylum, the entire P90X2 program was scientifically designed to provide maximum gains in all areas of fitness.
P90X2 is not however a program for beginners. Doing pushups while your hands and feet are on balls requires very significant core strength for example. It is designed to improve all areas of athleticism, but needs a good base to build on.
The above also touched upon the need for some extra equipment. While there will be alternatives for people who don’t have the equipment, P90X2 will use medicine balls, stability balls, a weighted bar, and a foam roller.
One major change that you might or might not notice is that there will be no traditional cardio in P90X2. As all the work is essentially intervals, you are improving your cardio vascular fitness enough for functional health as Tony stresses. Tony and the people he works with believe that intervals provide more effective improvements, and you also don’t see a functional reason for the normal person to just keep their heart rate in an aerobic range for extended periods of time.
Just to answer another question you might have, yes there will still be yoga, but it will only be about 65 minutes long.
For those of you that care, it might be available in Blue Ray format.
There will be multiple nutrition plans available to accommodate the most common dietary styles, including vegetarians and vegans. Shakeology will also be integrated into the plans.
I will provide more info and videos later, but please let me know if you have specific questions on this.
P90X iPhone App
The long awaited P90X iPhone app should be available in August. This was the most secretive part of the whole summit, where they wanted all recording stopped. While it is still unclear as to what can tell you now, I will say that it has the workout tracking that you all wanted, and so much more. You will definitely be able to take P90X to the gym. From the little bit that we saw, I can tell you that the P90X app is AWESOME!
To answer other questions, you should be able to run the app on iPads, as well. There was however no information about Droid or other pending smart phone versions.
Active Duty Military Coach Fees Waived
As many of you know Beachbody actively supports the military and their families. To further that support, people who have an active duty military person in their family will be able to sign up to be a Beachbody Coach for free, which saves $39, and the later monthly fees ($15) will also be waived. This means it is essentially free for you to be a coach.
While this is clearly an outstanding opportunity for military families to create a second income with no money out of pocket, it is also a great way to get all Beachbody products at a wholesale cost. For example, Shakeology will be $90 per order for military families. You get all programs, including Insanity and TurboFire for the coach prices of $90, and it costs you nothing.
The new Shakeology flavor was formally debuted at the summit, and is named, Tropical. They describe it as based primarily on Banana, Pineapple, and Papaya, and was designed to be a light flavor that is there to enhance the flavors of what you add to it. It was designed to be versatile. For the summit, they were blending it with pineapple, strawberries, yogurt, and milk, and the closest thing I could describe it as was somewhat of a bubblegum flavor. I don’t however believe that that description does it justice.
Many coaches were mixing the Tropical with Chocolate flavors and loved the combination. Personally, I love chocolate, and prefer the chocolate, but I definitely liked Tropical more than Greenberry.
While it is pretty much ready to go, Beachbody is a major stickler for all around quality, especially with regard to Shakeology, and they are still making sure that the formula will have significant shelf life and will not be impacted by adverse shipping conditions. They intend for the flavor to be ready to ship by the end of the year.
Vegan Shakeology and Other Flavors
Very ironically, all of the people who designed Shakeology are vegans, and given that Shakeology uses whey protein, it is not technically a vegan product. They all drink it though. Given the market, they are continuing to work on Vegan Shakeology, and have the product ready during the first quarter of 2012. While I realize this is not the news you want to hear, I get enough questions about this, so I wanted to give you a status that Beachbody knows of your concerns, and is actively addressing them. Apparently the holdup is that they have had difficulties finding a formula that has a flavor and consistency that will meet all standards of quality, which includes taste and consistency.
While there was no detail about this subject, there is also at least one additional flavor in the works that they hope to also have ready in the first quarter of 2012. It will not however be Vanilla, as many people hope, as that flavor was nixed last year as it was being ready to be shipped. Again, they could not get enough quality vanilla that was not chemically treated to have a good flavor as a lead flavor. They will not compromise their core beliefs even when the demand for the product is huge.
New Tai Chi Program
The only new program announced, besides P90X2, is a Tai Chi based program. I will have more information on that later in the year. For those of you not familiar with Tai Chi, it is a martial art that is essentially a slow movement of Kung Fu sequences. The program is designed for people of all ages, but is probably going to be more popular with people who have flexibility issues, difficulty with the harder programs, or just want an easier program for a change that strives for mental clarity.
The New $100,000 Beachbody Challenge
Beachbody has completed renovated what was previously known as the Million Dollar Body Challenge, and renamed it simply, The Beachbody Challenge. Now you can win up to $100,000. Everyone who enters gets a T-shirt for just submitting their story. While a huge transformation is outstanding, for just signing up and submitting your Success Story, you will get a T-shirt. The only requirement is that you have an account on teambeachbody.com. If you are my customer, or have a coach, you already have an account. If you dont have an account yet, please click here for a free one. If you want more information, please e-mail me.
If you are interested in this in any way, please contact me so I can help you. My e-mail is ira@xcompanionguide.com. I have helped many people make it through their respective program, and have decades of experience in fitness and nutrition, and I am more than happy to help you find the right program for your needs, and make it through the program with the best possible results.
Beachbody Continues to Grow and Improve
As you can tell, Beachbody continues to grow and expand their product lines to better serve you. They also have a special concern to supporting members of the military and will continue to support them and their families however they can.
I have clearly thrown a lot out here, so please feel free to personally contact me if you want details on anything mentioned here, or anything else related to fitness, nutrition, or Beachbody in general. I can again be reached at ira@xcompanionguide.com.
For good reason, people do think that Shakeology is expensive. The fact is that you have to pay for a 30 day supply at one time, and I get that. However, when you break it down on a per meal basis, it is actually pretty cheap, and there are a variety of ways to get it that make the price as low as $3 per serving.
Why I Think Shakeology is Actually Cheap
When you do buy a one month supply at a time, I do understand that costs $89-$119. That is a given. However if you divide it into 30 separate meals, it works out to $3-$4 per serving. My Egg McMuffin with an iced mocha cost me $5+ the other day. Even making a reasonably healthy meal at home is going to cost more than $3 per serving.
I tend to eat out a lot and using Shakeology, instead of eating out and taking my family with me, has saved me hundreds of dollars a month. So, while I understand that laying out the money all at once seems expensive, to me it saves me a lot of money. Again though, stop and calculate what you personally spend on a healthy meal.
Spending As Little As Possible on Shakeology
Monthly Auto-Ship for Free Shipping
There are a couple of ways to save money with Shakeology. Fundamentally, you can start by ordering Shakeology with the Monthly Auto-Ship option, AKA Home Direct. If you use this option, you save the shipping fee, which is around $10 or more.
While the policy states that if you order with Home Direct, you have to order for at least two months, if you are not happy with the product, Beachbody will cancel your order at any time. You can also put your order on hold indefinitely. The risk most people are afraid of is that they will order with Home Direct and forget to cancel or hold the second order if they are not interested. There is however Beachbody’s 30 day unconditional money back guarantee, so at the worst case you are out the cost to return an empty bag of Shakeology.
The Preferred Customer Option
A Preferred Customer is the term that I use to describe a person who signs up to be a coach specifically for the discounts. Beachbody Coaches get just about everything Beachbody sells at 25% off, which means that you can buy Shakeology for $89. That is a $30 savings per order.
The fee to be a coach is $15 per month, so if you order nothing else, you have a net savings of $15 per month, or about $180 per year. This is in addition to saving $10 per order by ordering Home Direct. It must however be noted that there is an additional $24 fee when you sign up. For this reason, it is only worth becoming a coach if you intend to order Shakeology for more than one month.
Again, you also save 25% on just about all other products, including the upcoming P90X2 and any other product. Additionally, if any of your friends are impressed by your results and want to follow the same programs as you, they can purchase the products through you and you can earn a 25% commission.
Active Duty Military and Spouses Have NO Fees
Beachbody just started a program that waives coach fees for Active-Duty Military or their spouse. This way Shakeology can be a flat $89. Period. The sign up fee and monthly fee will be waived, so if you want just about any Beachbody product at 25% off, it pays to sign up to be a coach if you qualify. You need to fill out the right coach application to qualify for this. Please e-mail me at ira@xcompanionguide.comfor the forms.
No, You Don’t Have To Buy Anything
The one hesitation people have is that they are afraid they will be forced to buy products or make sales. To be very clear, the only requirement is the $14.95 monthly fee. Here is an excerpt from the Beachbody Coach FAQ.
Will I have to purchase products for resale?
Unlike marketing programs that require you to buy a lot of products in order to participate, the Coach Opportunity has no inventory requirements.
Just like all Beachbody products, coaching and Shakeology comes with a money back guarantee. You can cancel Shakeology at any time, and return any for a full refund (minus shipping). You can cancel coaching at any time.
What I Tell My Friends and Family
Even if you only intend to order once, I recommend ordering with Home Direct/Monthly Auto-Ship. Again, you can put future shipments on hold and send it back if you are not interested. If you think Shakeology is something that you want to use on an ongoing basis, in my opinion, it only makes sense to sign up to be a Preferred Customer. You are otherwise throwing away money.
If You Are Interested, Please Talk To Your Coach
If a coach sent you to this page, please go back to them for help in deciding the best way to order. If you don’t have a coach already, or prefer to talk to me, you can email me at ira@xcompanionguide.com. If you just want to order Shakeology via Home Direct, you can just click here.
As I received Asylum today, I just had to do something. You are supposed to do the Athletic Performance Assessment, also known is Insanity lingo as the Fit Test, before beginning Asylum. Unlike doing Insanity, there is no time to waste with a Fit Test within the 30 days. Frankly, I dont even think there are more than 2 Rest Days in the program. As I intend to go through all the DVDs as soon as possible, I thought I would throw this review up asap for everyone else so that they know what to expect. If you want to read my future reviews, please feel free to Like this page.
Surprisingly, the Asylum Fit Test was not as strenuous as the Insanity Fit Test. There is more focus on functional fitness, like agility, as opposed to just cranking out numbers like in Insanity. Don't get me wrong. It isn't easy by any means. Most of the exercises involve the agility ladder in one way or another. There are a few fast feet exercises, where you zig zag in and out of the ladder. There is the Bear Crawl, where you crawl back and forth on the floor over the ladder. There are X Jumps, similar to P90X X Jumps, but deeper. There is also a set of pull ups or push ups at your descretion.
Again though, I wont dread doing this Fit Test as much as I do the Insanity Fit Test. Maybe I am in better shape, but the tests didn't seem to wear me down. I was sweating. I was somewhat winded at times. But, I look at it as more of a sign as what is to come. There will be a big focus on quick feet. There will be a bigger focus on moving exercises...and there will be pull ups.
The Weight Watchers diet plan is really common, and many people who do P90X, Insanity, or the other Beachbody programs want to continue using the diet as they are already familiar with it. There is no reason that you can’t use the diet plan with these workouts. This information can be used for the Points Plus system.
The Problem With the Weight Watchers Diet
The problem with the Weight Watchers diet program is that the goal is to lose weight through a calorie restricted diet. It assigns people points to optimize fat loss, by taking people down to about 1,000 calories a day below their Maintenance Level. This gives people an average loss of 2 lbs of fat a week, which is the supposed maximum safe fat loss level. Any more than that and your body can go into starvation mode, where your body tries to save itself by hoarding fat and burning muscle. That is obviously bad.
However, when you add an extreme fitness program like Insanity or P90X, you increase your daily calorie burn dramatically. If you don’t add calories to your diet, you move from the safe fat loss level to starvation mode. While Weight Watchers assumes some light activity in their point calculation, they don’t anticipate P90X level activity. So if you are already on Weight Watchers, you have to add extra points/calories to your diet to maintain a safe level of weight loss.
What is a Point?
To write this column, I researched Weight Watchers’ patents to come up with an answer. A Point is essentially 50 calories. However not all calories are the same. For example, 50 calories of food high in fat is worth more points, while 50 calories of food high in fiber is less than a full point. So I can’t just tell people to figure out how many calories they burn and then add the appropriate number of calories. However you can roughly estimate that you should add 2 points for every 100 calories of exercise.
How To Calculate Extra Points To Add To Your Day
In reviewing the Weight Watchers patent, there is a formula for points to allocate to your exercise. Unfortunately, Weight Watchers even states that they underestimate the Points you might need, as they believe people overestimate their exertion. However, few people would describe Insanity, P90X or TurboFire as less than Intense. For that reason, I will modify the Weight Watchers’ formula to be in the middle.
.1783 x (your weight in pounds / 2.2) x minutes of your workout / 75
So, if I am doing P90X and I weigh 154 lbs, I generally estimate that P90X averages about 70 min a day (with ARX). That means that it is:
.1783 * (154/2.2) * 70 / 75 or 11.6 points.
I round that to 12 points to add per day on average.
Simplified Math for P90X and Insanity
If you are willing to trust me, here is the overly simplified math for estimates for Insanity and P90X:
For P90X: Multiply your weight in pounds by .07564
For Insanity Month 1 and Recovery Week: Multiply your weight by .04214
For Insanity Month 2: Multiply your weight by .05943
Less Intense Workouts
While I don’t intend to downplay the level of effort involved in Turbo Jam, Hip Hop Abs, Slim in 6 and other programs, they are not at the intensity level of P90X and Insanity. There is a slight modification to the formula for these programs as follows:
.0711 x (your weight in pounds / 2.2) x minutes of your workout / 75
The other programs vary to much in length of workouts to give a more simplified number. Again, you can average the length of the workouts, so that you are not using different points every day.
Let Me Know If You Are Stuck
I realize that this can seem complicated. If you get lost in the math, feel free to send me a message at ira@irawinkler.com.
These Are Estimates
As I said, these are estimates. You need to watch your results and modify as appropriate. Ironically, I will say that if you stop losing weight, I recommend that you add points. Again, on Weight Watchers, you are already bordering on starvation mode. If you stop getting results, you very possibly put yourself firmly into starvation mode, so you should probably add about an extra 1/3 of the points you added for exercise.
Weight Watchers is a very established nutrition plan, but again it does focus on calorie restriction. P90X and other Beachbody programs focus on a holistic combination of exercise and nutrition. It can however be safely modified for the Beachbody programs.
Since Beachbody offers a lot of great home fitness programs, I am frequently asked, “Which is the best program?” I don’t know why people are surprised when I answer, “There is no single best program.” The reason is that every program has its own unique benefits. Some people would prefer one trainer over another. Some people hate Tony Horton, while others love him. Some people want an extreme workout, like Insanity, while others haven’t worked out for a decade and need a program, like Project You: Type 2. Some people run frequently and want to improve their upper body. In short, the best program depends on you.
Factors to Consider
There are a variety of issues to consider when choosing a fitness program. These factors include the program goals, trainers, program focus, program philosophy, length of program, your current condition, among other factors. Too many people go for a program that is the most popular, or listen to success stories, and that is how they make their decisions. All too often, the person will give up on the program and just waste their money. So, stop listening to the infomercials and let’s take a logical look at what to consider.
Program Difficulty
P90X and Insanity are the most popular programs out there, specifically because they are extreme. The infomercials promise that they will push you to your limits, and people think the fat melts away. They want to make the radical change in life that these programs can deliver. If that works for you, that is great. However, I contend that if you are not in good condition to start, it is probably better to be able to do 80% of an easier program like Power 90, than 40% of a harder program like P90X.
Similarly, if you want a cardio based program, Insanity is the extreme program, but you might find it easier to get through a comparatively easier program like TurboFire. It is not just that you can physically get through more of the program, and therefore burn more calories, it is probably psychologically better as well. You are more likely to continue with a workout that doesn’t make you feel like a failure if you can’t do most of it.
So in short, yes, you can get through a harder workout, but getting the most out of the process is more important than stumbling through a harder program.
Trainers
The style of a trainer can make or break a program for most people. If the trainer annoys you, then you are much less likely to finish the program. Personally, Shaun T’s style in Hip Hop Abs was hard for me to take when I did that workout. However, he is awesome, to me, in Insanity. While most people love Tony Horton’s sense of humor, there are many who hate it. Chalene Johnson is definitely the iconic aerobics instructor with all of her energy and constant smile during the hardest workouts. Many women love that style, while some men despise it on principle. Look at the sample videos and see if you appreciate the trainer’s style.
While P90X is possibly the most effective program out there, it does take the largest time commitment. P90X takes an average of 75 minutes a day and runs from 60-90 minutes 6 days a week. Then you have the other extreme of 10 Minute Trainer. With workouts that are 10 minutes long, you really have no excuses not to workout. The other programs fit somewhere within that range. The best fitness program for you is clearly one that you have time to do. Just keep in mind that the longer the workout, the better your results will be.
Making Your Choice
You need to chose the program that is best for you. If you choose a program you don't stick with, I contend that it is the program's fault, and not your's. Take advantage of Beachbody's return policy, and exchange it for a program that better matches your needs.
I'm Here To Help
I realize that this can all be overwhelming. However if you want help making your decision, or to return a program and get another one, please feel free to send me a message. I have tried all of the popular programs, and can help you make a better decision. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me at ira@xcompanionguide.com.
As the Christmas shopping season picks up steam, I thought I would offer a few gift ideas for P90Xers and Insanity fanatics, and those who love them. Some of these gifts are obvious, while others might actually be more interesting as trivia than gifts. Either way, consider those who will appreciate them most.
First, you might want to review my post about what to do after P90X. It has several potential gift ideas already. However for less obvious ideas read on.
Bring It! is the long awaited book from Tony Horton, due out on December 21, and is a great present for any P90Xer. I can go on, but this is probably the best present for the Tony Horton fan in your life.
If you are a fan of Insanity or P90X, Fast and Furious is a great workout to add to your library. It is a quick plyo workout that is a great to use for P90X Doubles, or in case you miss one of the other cardio workouts. At only 23 minutes long, it still probably burns more calories than Cardio X, and is definitely a great option when you are short on time.
After you have done P90X, you can get tired of one or more workouts. The One on One workouts are P90X like workouts that you purchase individually and primarily used to add variety to a round of P90X. They can also be used to add upper body resistance training to Insanity. The Fountain of Youth is possibly the most popular workout in the series as it is a valid 45 minute version of Yoga X. The latest workouts are samples for the upcoming P90X:MC2 program, and can add both variety and increased intensity to the workouts they might replace. For Insanity owners, 30-15 is a great upper body workout.
While P90Xers probably have a pull up bar already, Insanity fans probably don’t and will definitely need one for Asylum. Asylum is the going to be the Insanity graduate program, but won’t be at least until late February. It is going to be a full body workout and include pull ups. So get your Insane relatives psyched for the new workout, and get them a pull up bar.
Dreya Weber naked. For many men, and some women, that is the only description necessary. While many people know that the “Gorgeous Dreya Weber” from Legs and Back, Core Synergistics, etc, and P90X cover model is an aerialist, who appeared in Pink’s Grammy performance, Michael Jackson: This Is It, and other venues, few people know that Dreya has starred in two award winning movies. The Gymnast was her first movie, where she stars as an aging gymnast, who realizes she is a lesbian. This is probably a topic of conversation itself, but her husband, Ned Farr, director of P90X, is also the director of the movie. It is definitely a unique gift for many P90Xers. A Marine Story is a similarly themed movie that you can preorder now.
Another P90X celebrity that few people know is Eric Stolhanske, the one legged guy from Plyo X, who is a member of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. Broken Lizard is behind several popular movies, at least with some groups of people, like Super Troopers and Beerfest. So, enjoy Eric at his non-plyo best.
If you really want to make the P90Xer, or for that matter the Insanity fanatic, in your life happy, nothing beats a single set of dumbbells. Bowflex SelectTech 552 Dumbbells are an adjustable set of dumbbells that meets the needs of just about any Beachbody need. Tony heavily endorses this product in P90X+.
The PowerBlock Dumbbells are similar to the Bowflex dumbbells, but has some advantages and disadvantages. There is more limited range of motion with the PowerBlocks, but they are more compact. It is a personal choice, so I list both.
The other adjustable weight sets might be overkill for women, but the PowerBlock SportBlock 24 Adjustable 3 to 24-Pounds per Dumbbell Set seems perfect. It accounts for the required weight range of about 95% of the women who do P90X, and is a lot easier to move around the house. These are also significantly less expensive than the larger sets of adjustable dumbbells, so they can also serve the needs of about 75% of men’s weight needs for P90X. You can supplement this with a good, strong band for exercises that would require more resistance.
While I realize that many people over pitch Shakeology and sell it like snake oil, I do not know a single person who uses it daily as a meal replacement and has not lost significantly weight within several weeks. It is a great way to jumpstart someone’s New Year’s resolutions in a very easy way that can save a lot of money when you consider the cost of the food it replaces. If you want to know how to get it for as low as $2.30 per serving feel free to send me a message here. I have used it for a long time. My family uses it. My kids ask for it, and I still have every single friend and business acquaintance I sold it to. I think that speaks for itself in this day and age. There is even a money back guarantee.
Insanity and P90X are not the right program for everyone, so if you have someone in your life who might appreciate a Christ-based fitness program, Body Gospel might be perfect for them. While still challenging, it is designed so that even people with more than 70 lbs to lose, will get a great workout.
Both Tony Horton and Shaun T recommend the use of heart rate monitors to insure you are in the right calorie burning zone. Also, many people want to know how many calories they burn in a workout. The Bowflex Strapless Heart Rate Monitor for Women is non-intrusive and great for women looking for this type of function.
While the functionality is basically the same, the Bowflex Heart Rate Monitor with Strap model has a chest strap that is used to measure the heart rate, vice the watch component. Besides of being less expensive, many people find straps to be more accurate than their non-strap competition. Some people find it annoying, but many people say they get used to it, and like that it is more accurate. All models are presented for your convenience.
Fitness is a Great Gift Year Round
While this list was made for the Christmas season, the fact is that fitness is a great gift to get for anyone, for any reason. Don't wait for New Year's to start a new fitness program. Beachbody's programs are available to you, whenever you need them.
The textbook answer to what is P90X is that it is a DVD based home fitness program featuring Tony Horton. That is like describing Michael Jordan simply as a basketball player. P90X is actually the most popular home fitness program every put together, with well more than 1,000,000 copies sold.
P90X is produced and distributed by Beachbody, which is the leading producer and distributor of home fitness programs, as well as nutritional supplements. As with all Beachbody programs, P90X has both fitness and nutritional components. While most people know P90X for the 12 DVDs that come with the program, a significant portion of the results come from eating properly.
For a detailed description of the different exercise DVDs, you can follow this link. Fundamentally though, there are 5 strength workouts, 3 aerobic workouts, 2 core workouts and a yoga and a stretch workout. The P90X schedule uses the Muscle Confusion philosophy, which essentially implies that the workouts do not repeat on a frequent basis, so your muscles do not get used to the workouts. The schedule has you do strength workouts every other day, three days a week. There is then yoga and 2 cardio workouts on the alternate days. There is also on optional stretching workout for your rest day.
The workout schedule is divided into three different phases of 4 or 5 weeks each.
One thing that is important to note is that P90X derives it’s name from Power 90 Extreme. Power 90 is an extremely popular program from Tony Horton, and a follow up program was a natural. Extreme means that P90X workouts can be extremely tough, and the workouts generally range from about an hour to an hour and a half a day. If you can take the commitment, it will provide results.
The nutritional program is also divided into three phases. The program starts out with a low fat/low carb approach and increases carbs and decreases protein in the subsequent phases. While more details will be covered in later entries, the surprising part of the nutrition plan is that it actually has people eat many more calories than they think they need. The high protein means that there is a lot of bulk to the food. Also, given that you are doing hard workouts for more than an hour a day, you are potentially burning an extra 1,000 calories a day.
In the end, what really makes P90X is Tony Horton. If you don’t like Tony, you won’t like P90X. If you like his corny jokes and overall energy, you will stick with P90X. There are plenty of workouts out there, but what made P90X so popular are the results of hundreds of thousands of people who spread the word. The reason they had the results is that they stuck with the program, and the only reason they stick with this program, above all others, is Tony Horton.
I started this blog, because I noticed that 99% of the questions to the P90X Facebook Groups and Pages have all been asked before. P90X has been out for about 5-6 years now, and there are few if any questions that have not been asked about the program by multiple people. Frankly, most of the questions have been asked hundreds of thousands of times. That being said, what has not changed is the formal guidance from Beachbody, which produces and distributes P90X.
For that reason, I thought it would be helpful to write a book that supplements what Beachbody formally distributes. I contacted Beachbody, which while enthusiastic about the project, doesn't currently have the time to support it. There are also issues that we need to address as to how to fairly treat me as the author, while I am also an Independent Beachbody Coach.
In the mean time, I created an outline for the book, and I thought I would start to write the book anyway and post it as a blog. This way I can make the information available to the people, and frankly it demonstrates my ability as a Beachbody Coach to others. While being a Beachbody Coach implies that you are a sales affiliate, and doesn't necessarily imply additional competence in fitness or the programs, I pride myself on my fitness and nutritional knowledge and background, as well as my familiarity with the programs. Besides of P90X, I have completed Insanity, P90X+,Turbo Jam, 10 Minute Trainer, and tried a few other Beachbody programs. I also have a black belt in American Kenpo Karate (the style that Kenpo X is based on) and competed in martial arts tournaments around the world. Admittedly, this also helps me to establish credentials in this area.
If at anytime you have questions, please feel free to contact me for answers or to recommend it as another chapter in the book.
