P90x3 Block One: My Arms Hurt
Despite the fact that Josh has been a Tony Horton fan since we started Beachbody programs, I had never done one of his programs to completion. Josh thinks Tony is HILARIOUS. I have to admit his little jabs are better than some other instructors commentary, but the cheesy music that goes along with his jokes? I could probably do without.
Anyway, we are doing the Classic program, which is seven days of workouts, the Dynamix day (Sunday) is an optional rest day. There are three blocks and each block is 4 weeks long (except the last block which is 5 weeks). The first three weeks are heavily focused on muscle building and cardio, with two stretch days (yoga & dynamix). The fourth week is really a stretch and recovery week.
Despite some significant jumping and squatting, it is my upper body that is sore. There are just so many push-ups and pull-ups in these workouts it isn't that surprising.
Day 1: Total Synergistics -- "a full-body resistance workout featuring compound movements." There are a lot of yoga-style moves, coupled with your standard body weight moves and then a few moves with weights. The first time I did this workout I could not do the "crawly plyo push-ups" but the third week I was actually getting air! The other move that was a challenge and continued to be was the "pull knee pull" where you are essentially doing a pull-up and then pulling your knees up.
Day 2: Agility X -- This is a super cardio workout. It's basically your worst nightmare if you are not coordinated. It brought me back to my track & field days that long jump though! I didn't use the tape lines and just eyeballed the majority of the moves.
Day 3: Yoga -- So I knew enough about Tony to know that I wouldn't like his yoga. I did this once and it confirmed that my little yoga body needed a different kind of flow. It isn't a bad flow by any means, I just like longer holds, more stretching and more challenging poses. I replaced this with a class at a local studio.
Day 4: The Challenge -- Holy arms & shoulders batman! If you've ever wanted to know how many push-ups and pull-ups you can do in 30 minutes in varying styles this workout has answered your call. I did the resistance bands variation once, and I absolutely think this workout needs the pull-up bar, at least for me it was more challenging.
Day 5: CVX -- This is my least favorite workout of the bunch. Can't really explain it, but it's a cardio plus weights workout so you would THINK I would love it. Instead I find myself dreading it every Friday and wanting to do any other workout.
Your old school standing crunch move for CVX
Day 6: The Warrior -- Another great body weight cardio workout. I wish he would just call the sprawls what they are....calling them sprawls doesn't make them NOT burpees. There's a lot of jumping in this workout and a little taste of kickboxing. I'd say modifying this workout is a little tricky.
Day 7: Dynamix -- Sundays are made for good stretches and that that is what this is.
The transition week or recovery week is a nice break before you dive into another block. It's mostly focused on stretching and low impact cardio. Except you have to do CVX. I really hate that workout.
