P90X: Workout 6 - Kenpo X

I hesitate to even call this one a workout.

If Yoga X is one of my two least favorite of the P90X workouts, this is the other one.  I mean don’t even break a sweat doing it.  I did Tae Bo pretty much every day for 2 years and Tony is no Billy Blanks.  In fact, I recently went back and re-did all of my old (I'm talking circa 2000) Tae Bo VHS workout tapes (before donating most of them) and was reminded again of how much better Tae Bo is than Kenpo X.  I had forgotten how fun Tae Bo is and you really sweat.

This workout is about an hour and, honestly, there isn’t much of anything that I like about it.  I don’t like the ‘saunders cycle’ (or however that is spelled) warm-up.  The workout itself – a combination of punches and kicks – is slow, repetitive, and boring.  I guess the cool down is okay – and the best part of this because getting to the cool downt means that it’s almost over.

I don’t think I’m being overly cranky about this, but Kenpo X is the weak link in the P90X program.  And you do it every week, including the recovery weeks.  At least with the Yoga there is some value to the stretching.  I’m not sure I would do this DVD again if you paid me.  Seriously, go buy a Tae Bo DVD and replace Kenpo with that.  You'll be glad you did.

P90X: Workout 5 - Legs and Back

This workout has grown on me over the years.

When I first started doing P90X, I didn’t love Legs and Back.  I honestly don’t know what it was, but I found myself rushing through the reps so I could say I did 15 reps but it was honestly more momentum than muscle.  Going back to this routine after a long-ish period of time though, gave me a new appreciation for it. 

There are still moves I don’t like – there is an exercise that I believe Tony calls the ‘Congdon Curl’ that can be done either in space or braced against a wall but you are hunched over with your elbow resting inside and slightly below your knee and then you do a curl.  I do it against the wall and it still hurts my back.  Tony is not always great at describing the correct form for the moves so it does pay to be careful.

The pull-ups, though, have some interesting variations which I do like and there are some dumbbell- or band- based back moves that are also good, though I think I still put too much arm into it.  I was also able to increase my dumbbell weight over the course of 90 days which made me feel good – evidence of increased strength.

There isn’t a move that seems to focus on the inner thigh, which bums me out as a woman in need of inner thigh exercises.  And I wish there was something that focused a bit on the glute muscles.  Overall, though, this is a good routine that lasts slightly less than 60 minutes.  However, it’s also an Ab Ripper X day, so that pushes the workout to a good hour and fifteen.