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In a recent Get Fit Guy Podcast titled How to Get More Flexible (transcript available on the page), host Ben Greenfield discusses the pros and cons of stretching, overstretching, and inflexibility. There are good reasons to use static stretches and dynamic stretches. For example, it’s a good idea to increase range of motion in the joints required for a particular sport. It is not necessary, and might even be harmful, to develop hypermobility in those joints. More is not necessarily better.
The podcast also indicates there is a lot of evidence that stretching does not prevent injury. (This report reviews five studies, and the podcast mentions a review of 360 additional studies.) This is contrary to what Tony Horton stated in P90X, circa 2003. In P90X2, produced in 2011, Tony doesn’t exactly admit that times have changed, but he does “introduce” the same sort of alternatives you can read about in the Get Fit Guy podcast transcript: Limited stretching, the use of myofascial release (Tony says “Rumble Roller” a lot), and related techniques.
So, what’s a P90X fan to do? Do we abandon those 10 minute warm up and stretch sessions? Well, in an earlier related podcast titled What is the Best Way to Warm Up? Ben Greenfield suggests many of the activities we see in P90X2:
- Leg Swings
- Frankenstein Walk (similar to what we see in P.A.P. Upper and P.A.P. Lower)
- Bent Torso Twists
- Deep Body Weight Squats
So, here’s my take away from all this:
- When doing P90X round (insert number here), I will ignore Tony’s warnings about preventing injury by stretching. Warming up is still recommended and beneficial, though.
- It is only necessary to stretch as much as you will need to perform a particular activity. For example, don’t try to wrap your arm around the front of your head during a shoulder-triceps stretch. Well, you get the idea.
- Ben Greenfield uses a 10-minute (or less) stretching routine every day to maintain his general flexibility, with the added benefits of focus and meditation. For P90X fans, a yoga session, X Stretch, or the new and, um, additional Recovery and Mobility will do the same trick. Just don’t overdo it! Even back in 2003, Tony reminded us, “It’s not a competition!”
Oh, and what about neuro-integrated stretching? Well, I haven’t found much on the Internet so far except for P90X2-related descriptions and comments, so no outside references by that name. I will keep looking for more information and update this entry when I can.
What do you think? How can we modify, improve upon, or maybe even eliminate some parts of P90X as our understanding of health and fitness changes over time?
Related Posts
X Stretch
Foam Roller
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| Push Up Side Arm Balance on Med Balls. Nice socks! |
Name: Sean Callahan
P90X2 Introduction: Sean is featured in two of the P90X2 workouts: Chest + Back + Balance, and V Sculpt. He is a Beachbody coach, and has become one of Tony Horton’s “Sunday workout buddies.” (December 2013 update: Sean is back for P90X3!)
Current: The About Me page on his website describes his progression from college graduate trying to get in shape, achieving limited success at the gym, and then he kept hearing about this thing called P90X… He was inspired by Tony Horton and the program, eventually becoming a personal friend of Tony. Pretty cool.
My Comments:
His website is called Get Ripped At Home (GR@H), a theme I can certainly appreciate, since I have achieved all my fitness goals at home. It’s great to see that Sean’s website provides a lot of information, inspiring before and after shots of Beachbody team members, and updates about P90X2 before and after it was released, from an insider’s point of view.
Personal/Official Websites
Get Ripped At Home
The site features Sean’s fitness journey, fitness tips, and information about Beachbody products and coaching. He also offers an e-book called Chest 2.0, a customized exercise routine Sean created “to build a stronger, more defined upper body.”
(Update June 9 2012: Sean is featured in a Meet the Cast of P90X2 video!)
Facebook
Twitter @getrippedathome
Other Sites Featuring Sean
There are a couple of places you can see videos featuring Sean: The P90X2 promos on YouTube (another page on Sean’s website), and Sean’s own YouTube channel.
P90X2 Meet the Cast: Sean C.
Related Posts:
P90X2 Cast Profile: Kelly
All Cast Profiles
My Chest + Back + Balance Workouts
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I started the week with an injured foot, so I knew this would be an “opportunity” to modify exercises and learn to cope with the situation. I’ve heard athletes talk about weeks and months of recovery from much more serious injuries. My rule of thumb was to exercise as much as possible, without aggravating my condition. After all, I can’t float around or hop on one foot for the rest of the day, so I have to take it easy.
My workouts this week:
Monday: What kind of cardio can I do with a bad foot? Not Plyometrics, that’s for sure. I did the Warrior Phase 1 Cardio, and modified moves such as Deep Lateral Leaps (no leaping, just side-stepping) and the Fast Feet Football Drill (replaced by P90X Steam Engines, which are not the same, but I wasn’t jumping).
Tuesday: Resistance. Hmm, what was that I read about no weight-bearing exercises? I was feeling a little better, and I hope I didn’t overdo it. I was encouraged that it was a better workout than Saturday, but I’d better take it easy tomorrow. I can work my abs and stay off my feet, right?
Wednesday: I thought about doing 30 Day Shred again, because I got up late, but then I thought maybe I could do Warrior Phase 1 Cardio and just do as much as I could, as fast as I could, in the time I had. After 35 minutes, which included a longer warm up than Shred does, I had not reached the same calorie burn, but close I guess. I think 30 Day Shred is still a great “bang for the buck” in terms of workout time, cost of the DVD, and full-body exercise. Maybe next week?
Thursday: Resistance, shortened because I was running late, but I did more than I was expecting in that amount of time. My foot didn’t hurt as much afterwards as it did last week.
Friday: No yoga in the morning, but for a good reason, honest! Sometimes my family needs me to do something during my exercise time, and I can’t just tell them to take it up with Tony, right? So in the evening, after a larger-than-usual dinner (oops!) I decided I might want to fit in a workout. 30 Day Shred to the rescue again! I got all hot and sweaty, with a good calorie burn, in 30 minutes flat. Of course, then it was time for an evening shower, too.
Saturday: Resistance. I did it! I finished the entire Warrior Phase 1 workout! If you include the P90X2-style warm up and cool down, plus a little time to straighten up, the whole thing took 95 minutes (an hour and a half). Not 55 minutes, Tony! The exercises alone took me 65 minutes. I guess if I was even more of a “warrior,” I could get that part done in 55 minutes, but warm up and cool down take 5-10 minutes each… Anyway, back to the point: I did the whole thing! OK, enough patting myself on the back, for now.
Sunday: Happy Mother’s Day! No workout today, as usual for me, and as a bonus, we had a family day at the movies (The Avengers!). A little popcorn and soda (shared), some ice cream after dinner… To her credit, my wife requested homemade tuna steaks, baked potatoes, and asparagus, which was very reasonable calorie-wise, to balance out some of the other stuff.
Bring It! Tip of the Week: When you are injured, DON’T do activities that will aggravate the symptoms or prolong recovery time. DO find alternatives that will challenge you and keep you motivated. Even complete rest from strenuous physical activity can be an opportunity to pursue other interests, like reading, light yoga, etc.
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| DVD 3-pack (Amazon) |
If you’ve read the tag line of my blog, you know that Tony Horton and Jillian Michaels are two big fitness icons in my life. I started with Jillian’s DVDs after clocking a lot of hours on the treadmill, and she taught me there was more to workouts than cardio. After months of 30 Day Shred and No More Trouble Zones , when I discovered the P90X infomercial, I knew that I was ready for Tony’s mix of strength training, cardio, and yoga. I haven’t taken the time yet to compare Jillian’s approach and Tony’s in a blog post, but for me they have both been helpful.
On the 4/28/12 episode of The Jillian Michaels Show podcast titled “Fat Fighting Foods,” Jillian answers a caller’s question about using a variety of at-home fitness DVDs, rather than repeating the same workout several weeks in a row, or following an exercise program for more than a couple of weeks. Here is an audio clip (MP3) of the conversation from beginning to end.
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| P90X (Amazon) |
To summarize the conversation, the female caller was “curious about how often you can change up your workouts.” She owns a lot of home fitness DVDs, both standalone and longer programs, including P90X. I like her already! Anyway, she wanted to know if it was OK to pick and choose from her various DVDs as she got tired of doing a particular one after a couple of days, or maybe a couple of weeks in the case of P90X.
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| Ripped in 30 (Amazon) |
Jillian’s responded that she doesn’t like it if you do the same thing for more than two weeks. For example, her Ripped in 30 contains four workouts, and each one progresses to the next after a certain number of days. Her recently released Body Revolution (a 90 day program, by the way) changes the workouts every two weeks. When it comes to a longer program like Body Revolution, though, she would prefer if the person sticks to the program for the intended results.
Jillian’s concern with a “scattershot” approach is that body parts should be allowed to recover from one workout (for about two days) before that muscle group is worked again. Jillian loves that the caller is working out. Variety is great too. She doesn’t want her to be working out the same muscle group two days in a row.
Now we come to the interesting part, for those of us who have worked out with both Jillian and Tony. Jillian says “One of [her] issues with P90X” is that “One day, you’re doing heavy biceps, and the next day, you’re doing pull ups.” In another part of the conversation, she describes yoga (not specific to P90X) as being tough on the shoulders.
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| 30 Day Shred (Amazon) |
Jillian is entitled to her opinion, of course, as a certified trainer with her own well-researched approach to fitness. As I said, I have used her videos, including 30 Day Shred, which I revisited just a few days ago when I needed a quick but comprehensive workout. I am willing to consider her comment regarding P90X and “heavy biceps followed by pull ups” as an offhand remark, because of course any day involving biceps and/or pull ups is followed by a different type of workout… except in the case of Yoga X, where she might be making a better point. In the P90X schedule, aside from the recovery weeks, yoga does follow a shoulders and biceps day, so technically that’s two days in a row that might be tough on the shoulders.
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| Rip:60 (Amazon) |
I would love to see a list of the issues Jillian has found in her examination of P90X. Personally, I was interested in what seemed to be a very similar program endorsed by Jillian, called Rip:60. Unfortunately, I think this is more of an endorsement deal, because Jillian is not the trainer in these videos, so it’s not a direct comparison. Of course, it’s in her best interest to point out what she sees as flaws in a bestselling home workout program (now almost 10 years old, and updated a little in the subsequent DVD releases P90X Plus and P90X One on One with Tony Horton). To say that P90X does not provide adequate recovery time is inaccurate, when in fact P90X is based on “muscle confusion” and recovery DVDs like X Stretch, and even the stretching section of Yoga X. Going back to the caller’s question, if you follow the P90X schedule, or at least take care to choose your workouts with recovery in mind, then it’s possible to get a lot of variety and still achieve your fitness goals safely.
Featured Products (Amazon affiliate links, which support the blog at no additional cost!)
30 Day Shred
Jillian Michaels DVD 3-Pack
Rip:60
Ripped in 30
P90X
Note: Looking for more info about Collette? I created a new cast profile page: CLICK HERE
Lots of people are searching my blog for information about Collette from P90X2, the former Olympic-style weightlifter and current Beachbody employee, as featured in X2 Ab Ripper and X2 P.A.P. Lower. “Lots of people” relatively speaking, of course, given the small number of daily visits to my blog so far.
I have collected some scattered info about “Collette, the French Italian,” but the trouble is, it’s not the same as an official website or even a reference to her work in P90X2. It’s more like the kind of thing you’d find if you were Googling someone before going on a date (uh, no thanks) or a job interview (not hoping for that either). I’m not publishing anything until I find a more fan-friendly site, which Collette seems to need as she becomes a workout DVD celebrity.
If you are Collette, know Collette personally, or professionally, please pass the message along. I would be glad to update my blog with the appropriate information.
Related Posts
All Cast Profiles
P90X2 Day 6: Total Body and X2 Ab Ripper
P90X2 Day 64: P.A.P. Lower and Phase 3 Begins
All P.A.P. Lower Days
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