P90X: Tony Horton's 90-Day Extreme Home Fitness Workout DVD Program

In february 2010 I weighed 20 stone.

I decided enough was enough and ordered Insanity, a product from Beachbody a bit like p90x only more focused on cardio, bodyweight exercises and interval training. I found Insanity very challenging indeed. The workouts are deadly and it was 4 months before I could even attempt one of the Max Insanity workouts and 8 months before I could hit one of the routines with full intensity and survive. let me say again, insanity is hard as hell!

But I lost 3 and 1/2 stone and turned my fitness right around. I went from being a guy who used to eat all the crap of the day and who used to joke about going to the gym and was referred to as 'the athelete' in work in cruel jest to a guy who was accepted by the gym-goers as 'one of there own' even though I never set foot in the gym! People still, 10 months later, comment on how much weight I lost.

But this is a P90x review... 10 months ago I was seriously overweight and unfit. I could not have handled a P90x workout 10 months ago. P90x is the real deal as far as getting ripped and pumped is concerned. It has a much more muscular/ripping/bulking out aspect to it than insanity, (however you will NOT turn into a stumpy excessively chunked body builder on this). I was very close to buying a budget copy of P90x of any retailer who could give me it for less than the asking price of £106. However I took the hit and bought it off Amazon and got a genuine copy. I am very glad I did. When I bought insanity I got it for around £45 from some random retailer. The manuals were not complete and were full of typos, and most importantly all the bonus disks were faulty and would not play properly. The genuine copy you get from here is worth EVERY PENNY. it will work, it has all the content and if its faulty you can return it!! When you consider your grocery shop for a week could hit £100, and you put £70 of fuel in your car this week, it is not much to ask for £100 for P90x which (if you do as it says) will turn your life around! It includes all the workouts, online motivation and diet plans that you need to succeed.

Compared to insanity, the diet plan is better. it contains much more info and several options to suit you, including a 'portion plan option' for people like me who just wanna grab some food and go - a cup of veg, a half cup of chicken, couple ounces of cheese etc or a more complex 'meal plan' approach for folks who like to plan everything and eat exactly what the plan says.

The workouts are intense and challenging. P90x is designed around getting maximum results using supplements. you can do P90x without supplements, but you will suffer more and get slightly less results. I did not use the P90x supplements as you cant get them in the UK yet. I used Berocca for vitamin and S.I.S. REGO for post-workout recovery. I also used For Goodness Shakes for post-workout. These are not essential but do help to cut down on the pain and recovery time for your muscles. I didnt use pure protein supplements as I have a body type that gains muscle well naturally and I have never needed additional protein. You know your own body, go with what you know.

The amazing thing about P90x is IF YOU DO WHAT IS SAYS you will get absolutely amazing results. you will get ripped in 90 days. This will not happen for everybody. Mainly because many people will look at the advised diet and go, 'no, I know better'. Maybe you do... all I can say is if you stick to 90% of the advised meals, 90% of the time you will progress rapidly. P90x achieves half its results by bulking up your body, and half its results by ripping the fat off you. if you dont follow a good diet you will get fitter and stronger, but noone will know coz you'll still be fat!!

Finally I would say consider what your immediate goals are before choosing this over Insanity. Insanity will get you 'fitter' (cardiovascularly,endurance-wise and I think you will lose more weight on Insanity. P90x will turn you into a machine, giving you muscle growth and ripping you right down to the pure, sexy muscle. For a fat guy like me (20 stone) Insanity, then P90x was the way to go. Good luck and stick with it.

This a great product personally I enjoy the american showmanship and the hyper banter of Tony Horton. Its very easy to follow and with the pause button or stopping when you have hit the burn makes it a great product to get into. I have over 15 years of training experience but with the recession and doing my other outdoors sports I wanted to try something different to what I have always done.

You will need additional equipment I personally have dumbbells (up to 36kg in total), a band, a strong pilates band, an iron gym pull up bar, yoga mat and a chair. I am on my first week but others are already noticing results. This product did not come with the nutritional book or the fitness guide but that is stated prior to purchase. If you have a very good knowledge of what works for you food wise and know your suppliments than you should be okay but you may not got the full P90X experience. Due to me being an ex fitness instructor and having a sports scientist and thai boxing instructor as personal friends I have been able to add out years of experience and knowledge to add to the P90X to get better workout than I ever got in the gym.

So overall as long as you are motivated and are honest with allow for the 1 hour to 1:20 and put your all into that time you will get the results. What I found useful for myself is to know when I wake up what time I am going to train and do not let anything come between me and that time.

Good luck and make the purchase trust me you will notice results

I am only into my 3rd week - and have already started to notice results.
you need to motivate yourself to keep pressing play, and you feel totally buzzed after you are finished!
This assumes some small amount of fitness - not a lot, but if you are obese, or sweat while you eat - you may struggle with this.
If you are new to fitness - this will hurt. The 1st week was a total killer, and the workouts do exactly that, they WORK you! But Tony Horton advocates "modify if you need to!" - you do not have to keep up with these guys, just do the best you can - something is better than nothing.
I still struggle on the pull-ups and chin-ups to produce anything over 1 or 2.

This DVD does require you to get other equipment - nothing that will break the bank, but you will need them to work out -
Mainly a pull-up bar and dumb bell weights.
They use other things like resistance bands (which may be substituted for the pull up bar and some of the weights) yoga mats, yoga blocks, heart moniter, push up bar etc etc -

I only have the weights and bar, and it is so far seeing me fine.
The one other thing I would add - I think diet with this programme is a big thing, and would certainly recommend trying to make sure you eat healthy.

quite simply -
If you want results and change - and you can make yourself dedicate 1 hour a day - this will get you those results.