The Best Wedding Ever, slash How to Plan a Vegan Wedding in Less Than Two Months

      You may recall that a few weeks ago, during my first week of P90X3, I was pretty disappointed. The majority of the opening workouts are lackluster and, though certain moves are really hard, I felt that the workouts overall are not hard enough. My trusty PPKers told me that Beachbody considers X3 to be a precursor, and therefore easier, than P90X, which is in turn a precursor/easier than P90X2. If this is true, I’m quite peeved that this wasn’t made clear, because I would have been tempted to get X2. Does anyone have experience with it? 

      Nonetheless, I am determined to love X3, or at least parts of it, mostly because I missed the full return date while I was traveling. Fortunately, I am in really deep like with a few of them. For the past few weeks, to make up for the workouts that are less than thrilling, I decided to add a few Insanity workouts back in on days when I had extra time. There’s no better cardio in the world, and I think X3 is screaming for more cardio. Even if you add a bit of running or use the elliptical to loosen up first, that’s going to be beneficial. I was traveling for most of the past few weeks, and warming up with a few miles on hotel treadmills really made all the difference in my mind. So, I guess from now on I am doing kind of a hybrid. I am a bit reluctant to give up on pure X3, a decision which will definitely be clouding my results, but 90 days is too long to stop doing what I consider more well-rounded exercises that my body has gotten used to.       The following descriptions contain my favorite combinations and order of exercises for Phase 1. 

Day 1: Insanity Pure Cardio and X3 Total Synergistics
       Even just with less than 2 weeks away from it, my Insanity workout killed me! I was huffing and puffing like I haven’t since more than a year ago. Damn. I felt good after though, and Total Synergistics is slow enough and strength-focused enough to act as a good wrap-up to the cardio workout. It’s really just a few pull-up moves, a few push-up moves, a few ab moves, and a few balance moves. That’s about it. Now, I am finding the final move, Warrior Moon, even more challenging than the first time. It’s pretty amazing. I am excited to improve my balance and quad strength with this move. It’s so hard! You go from a one-legged squat to Half Moon Pose to Warrior 3, and repeat like 8 times. Really hard, really good. While TS is one of the workouts that left me really disappointed, I really enjoy it as an add-on, especially with this final fantastic move. 

Day 2: Insanity Cardio Circuit and Agility X

       Mmm…maybe not the best two workouts to combine when I think back on it! However, given enough time to spare, I really enjoyed these together. This was quite a difficult combo and made me appreciate Agility X more. I enjoyed the running parts as a way to loosen up my tired legs, much more than I did when they were my only leg workout. But I’m still a little confused about what they are actually doing. Is the grapevine any different from the face-front weaving? Seriously, I can’t tell! Some moves seemed duplicative. I definitely enjoyed it more this week. Those one-legged hops from X-to-X are HARD! How are others doing with the plyometric pushups? Oh I almost forgot: The best thing about doing Agility X after the first time is knowing when to mute Tony’s “regular gym guy” mimicry session.

 Day 3: Yoga X (P90X)

       Not even a question – if I have time to do Yoga X, I’m going to do it. It’s my favorite yoga video of all time (OF ALL TIME!), but at 93 minutes or so, I don’t get to do it as much as I’d like. After the Day 2 combo, I definitely feel this, and I had to come out of a few (like the extended right angle pose) just to get feeling back into my legs. It was fun to watch this one after learning that Shawna is now Tony’s girlfriend! Was she back in the original X days? So cute! No wonder he always said she was so gorgeous in P90X. (And focused on her flexibility way too much.)  Seriously, for people who don’t have the full P90X system, it’s worth buying this DVD as a single. 

Day 4: Insanity Cardio Power & The Challenge

        Now this combo I love! Cardio Power has arguably the most strength training of all the Insanity workouts – with tricep dips, tricep ball whatevers, shoulder dips, many rounds of pushups – and The Challenge is all upper-body strength. I really liked pairing these two. Soulmates. The Challenge is ridiculous. I’m pretty optimistic that I can’t come out of this program without being able to do an unassisted pull-up. Meanwhile, I’m using a stepstool. Do any of you still use assistance? How do you do it? And Cardio Power is my Insanity nemesis. I hate it – I hate how the warmup includes non-warm-uppy moves like power jacks and vertical jumps – but I love it – I love how perfectly belt kicks chill you out but still keep your heart up after power jumps, and that it builds up your ability to do mountain climbers in plank so well. This combo rocks. 

Day 5: CVX 

       I think CVX is my favorite X3 workout. The moves are very doable but they raise your heart rate more than you expect. Adding a weight or medicine ball makes this video what it is. I think the definition and strength I’ve noticed is due to holding a weight during this workout. I freaking love it. This one suffices on its own. This is the 30-minute workout X3 promised. I do think it needs maybe 3-5 minutes of running in place and jumping jacks as added warm-up and cool-down, but that’s easily added. 

Day 6: The Warrior

       Again, this is one that I love on its own. In fact, this was my favorite workout to do while I was traveling. The Warrior is perfect to do in small spaces no matter if you are outside on grass, at home on a hardwood floor, or in a corner of a carpeted hotel room. That’s what it was designed for, as Tony tells us he brought it to many military bases. I love the people in this video too. They remind me of Pam the Blam: no nonsense, just kicking ass. Elevator push-ups will continue to pose a challenge, as will those crazy super burpees. I don’t understand how that man in the back gets his legs so freaking high during them. What is happening there? I love it!

Day 7: Dynamix or X Stretch

     Dynamix, which I skipped the first week, is a pretty pleasant way to stretch your body out and get blood flowing to your tired muscles. I really dislike the moves (in this and in Cool Start) that have you kneeling on one knee. It doesn’t necessarily hurt my bottom knee, but it doesn’t feel good either, and I can’t help but worry about what that pressure must be doing to other, less healthy knees. Aside from this, Dynamix is nice. That’s seriously the best word for this cool-down style workout. Isn’t that odd? It’s like the exercise equivalent of picking flowers. When time permits, I love to swap X Stretch, from P90X, instead. I always feel wonderful after this hour-long stretch session.

       When traveling, I substituted the above Insanity workouts with a half-hour on hotel treadmills. Not the same in the least, but adequate. Actually, I think using the treadmill is mentally more difficult than Insanity workouts. So boring! Time moves so slowly on them. The next few review weeks will be late again, because of traveling and because I was sidelined for a while with the flu. Ugh. I am excited to see what the new videos bring. I hope I love them!