One on One: Cardio Intervals
I’m really hooked on Tony Horton and the P90X Extreme Training System. After going through this grueling 90 day program, I decided to take a break from building muscle and focus on losing a little weight. To accomplish this task, I turned to Debbie Siebers and her Slim in 6 workouts to burn fat.
I still have the P90X bug though, so when Beachbody offered the July DVD of Tony Horton’s One on One: Cardio Intervals for one penny, I had to get it! I figured that it was a cardio program so it would support my current fitness goal of dropping 15 pounds. I knew it would be good because it was Tony’s workout.
This is how the One on One program works. Each month a new workout is automatically sent to you. Previous programs have names such as Diamond Delts and Core Ball Sandwhich. The workouts are between 20 and 40 minutes in lenth. If you’ve ever worked out with a P90X video, you know that this is a short workout for Tony. The P90X workouts are about an hour long with the exception of Yoga X which is a heart-pounding 92 minutes. (Yes, you do sweat doing yoga with P90X.)
Anyway, I got the program and just stared at it with a grin. Welcome back Tony! Bring it! I put on my workout clothes, got out the mat and prepared myself for a 40 minute workout. The One on One workouts are also different from P90x because Tony Horton is the only one in the gym, so it’s like you getting a personal workout with Tony. Mason, the camera guy is quite entertaining as well.
So how is the One on One workout like P90X besides having one of the greatest trainers of all time? In almost all of Tony’s P90X workouts he reminds you that “you can do anything for 30 seconds”. He used interval training to keep you moving and motivated. Some of his P90X routines used a series of exercises that were repeated once you made it through the first round.
In Cardio Intervals, Tony uses a set of 20 exercises. Each exercise is 30 seconds in length. He actually holds a stop watch to keep us on pace. After the first round of 20 exercises is completed, the set is repeated for round two. The rest periods between exercises is really short, so you might have to hit pause or take quick small drinks to keep up with him. I sure got my heart rate up doing this routine.
The other thing you’ll notice is that many of the exercises are variations of P90X exercises…but with a twist or a jump or something else that makes it unique to Cardio Intervals. You’ll also find a lot of new moves to keep it interesting. Here’s a list of the exercises that Tony does in this One on One:
Plyo Lunge Punches
Press Lunge Moon
Hop Twists
Leap Kicks
Lateral Leap Twists
Whacky Tires
Heisman Hold
Plyo Lunge Twists
Swing Kicks
Lateral Squat Kicks
Super Twister
Traveling Speed Tires
Jumping Side Kicks
Block Punch Twist
Hook Uppercut Side Kicks
Pivot Punches
Brigg’s Ram
High Low Twist Pivot
Big Pivot Twists
As you can see, this workout builds on exercises from several P90X workout routines. If you’re a P90X graduate, you’ll recognize a combination of Core Synergistics, Plyometrics, Kenpo X, Cardio X moves. It’s a great way to wrap up your P90X program, revisit P90X or supplement your current fitness program.
By the way, my 1 cent July special also included a free DVD wallet that can hold twelve months of DVDs. I’m looking forward to shaking up one routine each month. Whether it’s focusing hard on my back, legs, shoulders or another muscle group, I plan on using One on One to supplement my fitness routines.
If you’re curious about the One on One program, now’s the time to try it. If you order it during the month of July, you’ll get the 1 cent deal, too. There’s a 30 day money back guarantee, so if you don’t like it just cancel your subscription. Otherwise, you’ll get a fresh Tony Horton routine every 30 days.
When Desire Becomes Commitment
Beachbody says it in three words. Decide. Commit. Succeed. I often substitute the word decide with the word desire. I think this is because I’ve decided many things in my life, but I haven’t followed through. I think about how desire turns to commitment and ultimately success.
I’ve been thinking about different events in my life this week and what happened when desire turned into commitment. Like many 18 year olds leaving home for college, I felt stranded without the family car that had taken me through my high school days. I decided that I would get my own car. Not a big deal, right?
I was working three part-time jobs and getting the hang of my full-time “job” as a freshman. My aunt had a Datson 210B that she wanted to sell for $2500. Perfect! What a steal! Without much research beyond my emotion, I applied for a used car loan and bought the car. Yippeee! (By the way, when would I have time to drive a car?)
The car stayed parked on the street for a few months after I bought it. I continued to make my car and insurance payments, but I didn’t drive the car. There was nothing wrong with the car mechanically. I could’ve found time in my schedule if I really wanted to drive it, but there it was…parked.
Why wasn’t I driving my new slightly used car? Well, it was a stick shift! I had no idea how to drive it and neither did any of my 18 year old friends! I had the desire for a car because I wanted to drive it, but I didn’t have enough desire initially for it to turn into commitment to learn how to drive it.
Then came the magical day when the sun was shining on a beautiful weekend. I was stranded in my college town and wanted to visit my boyfriend who lived an hour away. I looked at that car. I got over my fear of shifting and got behind the wheel. I learned how to drive a manual transmission that day because my desire was strong enought to turn into a commitment that flourished into success.
My workout programs weren’t much different. I’d have the desire to be healthy and fit. I’d want to have muscle definition and maintain a healthy body weight. I’d sign up for gym memberships, buy all sorts of home gym equipment, and even try to get out an walk on the local trails. I just couldn’t seem to stay consistent with anything that I tried.
I was flipping through the channels one night and saw what I thought was an amazing, challenging workout program. It was the Beachbody superstar, Tony Horton, working out with something called P90X. I thought about this program for a couple of weeks and watched the infomercials every time I saw them in the t.v. guide. I did some research on the computer. I didn’t know if I’d be wasting my money on something else. Afterall, that brand new ellipitical still smelled like the packing materials it came in.
I decided to order the program with the understanding that it had a money back guarantee. What I found was something that finally helped me push from desire to commitment. Tony Horton challenged me to new levels. I had a 90 day program. I had a trainer who would tell me to do my best and forget the rest. He would tell me to push hard and that I could do anything for 30 seconds.
I finished the P90X extreme training system with a much smaller waist and stronger muscles. I felt more fit than ever and set new fitness goals. I wanted to drop another 15 pounds, so I could see the muscle I worked so hard for in my P90X workouts. I had a new desire. I turned to Debbie Siebers.
I’ve been doing the Debbie Siebers Slim in 6 workout program for a week now. I’ve made it through the first two phases (Start It Up and Ramp It Up) and am now pushing myself in phase three, Burn It Up. Everytime I want to quit, my desire turns to commitment. I try to do one more rep. I rest for a moment and jump back in. You see, for desire to turn to commitment, you’ve got to take action. Otherwise, your car will just stay parked on the street while you pay the price of inactivity.
Beachbody workouts keep me motivated. As my fitness goals changed from building muscle to burning fat, I moved to another program. I look forward to tracking my progress and chatting with other club members about their progress. I’m a new me. I’m commited and getting results!
Ramping It Up: Slim in 6 vs. P90X
I attacked Debbie Siebers Slim in 6 Ramp It Up workout yesterday for the first time. It was longer than the first workout, Start It Up and built upon the basic moves demonstrated in the first workout. 
I was amazed at the muscle soreness I was feeling during the workout in my triceps, glutes, and abs. These are three areas most women want to tone up, myself included. Debbie Siebers does a good job going right to the trouble areas, but she hits all the muscle groups systematically with the goal of getting slim in 6 weeks.
Hitting all the muscle groups everyday is a major change for me. Tony Horton’s P90X Extreme Training System is based on classic weight training principles…lift the maximum amount of weight that you can for 8-10 reps to gain muscle size or a weight you can lift for 10-12 reps if you’re wanting to tone without increased muscle size. Whether you choose to work in the shorter or longer rep range, you’re trying to use a heavy enough weight to challenge you during the last couple of reps. P90X works through two to three muscle groups during a typical workout and allows for rest days before working that muscle group again…read more
My Weight Loss Turning Point
I’m not an expert on the science of losing weight. Like most Americans, my experience with weight loss is up and down with my most successful weight loss episodes coming during hard times when I found myself depressed and just didn’t eat. I tried the South Beach Diet, the Peanut Butter Diet, Bill Phillip’s “Fit for Life,” and every new thing published by popular magazines like Prevention and Woman’s Day.
I was envious of the metabolism and muscle building capability of the male anatomy. It seemed like women had to work twice as hard and eat half as much to strengthen, tone, and lose weight. Like many women, I struggled with weight gain in my hips, thighs, and waist.
In my first post, I talked about how the P90X Extreme Training System helped me find what was missing in my fitness routine, namely consistency. As my 90 day program comes to an end, I find I’ve learned something else through this program. Weight loss is about consistency in both exercise and diet.
Maintaining a healthy weight and living a fit lifestyle requires desire and commitment. If you’re experiencing problems with weight, chances are your relationship with food may be part of the problem. I love the commercial that shows the happy Leave It to Beaver type family sitting down to dinner. Mom brings out a baked potato for Dad that has a whole stick of butter sticking straight up out of it. Of course I cringe every time I see that commercial, but that’s only because of what I know about nutrition now.
When I was growing up, everyone ate butter on all their vegetables. We ate a lot of carbohydrates (once called starches), flavored things with lard, and loved red meat. Our idea of having a bowl of ice-cream was to scoop out about a fourth of a half gallon container, add chocolate, whip cream, and nuts! Mmmm.
We’ve learned so much about nutrition as a nation over the last twenty-five years and yet, our nation is plagued with obesity and weight related disease. Here’s what I want to share about nutrition:
1. You can change your eating habits one small change at a time.
2. You must actively seek out information on nutrition – become a student of nutrition. Think of food as
fuel for your body.
3. No matter what you eat, you must know and only eat a nutritionally acceptable portion size.
Ok. So if nutrition is so important, why don’t diets work? The other half of the equation is moving your body. Yes, you’ve got to get some type of exercise to burn off the calories you’re taking in. Even if you ate the perfect amount of calories to sustain your current weight, exercise is a necessary component of a healthy and fit lifestyle. Did you know that if you took in just an extra 90 calories per day (the amount in one cup of skim milk) that you will gain over nine pounds in a year?
You’ve probably heard that muscle burns fat and that muscle weighs more than fat and thus takes up less space. Your metabolism goes up when your muscle mass goes up. This means you will burn more calories during the course of a day doing nothing other than your normal body functions. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you’ve got to replace fat with muscle.
Our caloric intake and expenditure requires a delicate balance. During the first 60 days of P90X, I was losing inches and building muscle. I was eating about 600 calories a day more than was required for my basic metabolic processes. I learned that it was critical for me to workout when I was taking in these extra 600 calories or I could actually gain weight.
After feeling better about the intense workouts I was doing, I wanted to lose a few pounds. What could I do? I really couldn’t increase the frequency or intensity of my exercise routine. After all, Tony Horton was already kicking my butt!
I went to the Beachbody Club website to learn what I could about weight loss. I found a cool calculator that takes into consideration three things: gender, current weight, and my activity level. I entered my gender and weight. Then, I selected the P90X program. I learned that I needed to trim my eating plan by 800 calories per day to start seeing weight loss. I did that and the pounds started to melt away.
Girls, not all charts are made the same. The gender variance made a big difference for me. I’m so glad that I found this tool. It’s one of the weight loss tools available to you as a club member. It was a turning point for me. I was so excited about it that I wanted to share this turning point with my readers…another little nugget from Just Get Me Fit.
P90X Yoga X – Storm & Calm
What is it that keeps me coming back to Yoga X, a grueling 92 minutes of P90X extreme training? Is it the sweat that pours from my forehead and drips from my chin? Is it the challenge of completing a push up before going into each downward facing dog? Maybe it’s the thrill of making it through the first 45 minutes of the routine which seems more like cardio than any yoga I’ve ever done.
Yoga X is based on hatha yoga. If you think yoga is easy, you better be prepared to sweat! The first time I did this routine, I was wiped out after about the first 20 minutes. I followed the mantra of trainer Tony Horton who reminds us in each session of P90X to do our best and forget the rest.
This is one of the love/hate routines of P90X. As you focus on each breath and try to work through the discomfort of the pose, you’re secretly trying to watch the timer to see how much time is left in the strenuous pose. When you’ve completed the full routine, however, your whole body is transformed into a relaxed, fully stretched and peaceful state. Oh, it feels so good.
I look forward to Yoga X the day after I do a weight lifting routine because I know I’ll get a good stretch on the muscle tears I formed doing strength training exercised. It’s better than a hot tub for relieving back aches or a massage chair for relaxing the body.
I still struggle with pull ups, and I still struggle with a couple of the poses in Yoga X. That’s ok – I do my best, forget the rest. Over time, I get stronger, more flexible and better able to hold difficult yoga poses.
As with all the P90X workouts, the basic form is demonstrated and then, variations of the exercise are introduced so you can modify to better fit your fitness level. I like the fact that I can always relate to someone in the video. It’s nice to see a super athletic fitness professional float through the moves like there’s no struggle at all, but I relate more to the guy in the gray shorts who shakes in almost every move. He’s my hero. If he can do, I can keep on trying.
So what yoga moves are difficult for me? I’d have to say that the hardest two moves for me are the half moon and crane. I keep trying the half moon sequence. I can feel the stretch in my hamstrings, back, and glutes. I stumble. I fall. I try again. As for the crane, I’m not ashamed to say I do child’s pose in place of crane. I take a mini break rather than fighting against gravity to hold my body up on my elbows.
My favorite part of this Beachbody workout is the “Yoga Belly Seven”. It comes at the end of the routine right before the cool down series. Maybe knowing that the end is near is what keeps me looking forward to reaching this point? It’s not because it feels exhilarating while you’re doing these seven yoga exercises for the abs. My abs burn more during and after doing yoga abs exercises than working them at the gym on abdominal machines, using an ab roller, ab rocker, medicine ball or just doing crunches.
Like most people, I’ve tried a lot of ab exercise machines. I’d take Yoga Belly Seven over those machines any day. And if you really want to work your abs, try the P90X Ab Ripper X. It takes your abs to a new level. Of course you wouldn’t want to do Ab Ripper on the same day you’re doing Yoga X. Once you do P90X Yoga X, I don’t think you’ll want to try Ab Ripper in the same day anyway.
You’ll want to sit back and enjoy the accomplishment of making it through this challenge extreme training routine. You’ll be doing a cardiovascular, strength training, muscle toning, lean gaining, flexibility, core and ab burning, calming exercise routine. You’ll come to love those 92 minutes even if you don’t make it through the workout the first time you push play. Yoga X is definitely one of those routines you’ll want to rant and rave about on the community message boards.
Oh by the way, you can join our Beachbody community and use the message forums for free. It’s a great way to meet people who are doing the same routines as you. We encourage each other and listen to each other as we’re having a hard time. The message boards help you have accountability to stick with your program even when “life” tries to get in the way.
I found a forum that was starting for P90X at about the same time I was starting. This was set up for women in particular. I personally enjoy the understanding and support that comes from other women. We sure talked about Yoga X. We complained about the length of the routine and that it was too hard. Slowly, we worked through our rants and started posting raves…made it through Yoga X, it’s getting better. I truly believe that the message boards set Beachbody workouts apart from any other program available.
If you’re ready to start the P90X Extreme Training System and challenge yourself with Yoga X, I’m ready to help you define and meet your fitness goals as your personal coach. You can get your 13 DVD set here, but if you want to save 10% on your purchase, join the club. And, if you have an interest in helping other achieve their fitness goals, you might be interested in becoming a Beachbody coach yourself and saving 25% on all Beachbody products. Namaste.
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