P90X: Week 1 Recap

My first week of the P90X program is officially in the books. I can honestly say it was one of the most intense weeks of workouts I have done in my life. It sort of reminded me of football practice back in high school. My entire body felt sore at some point throughout the week. I had sore muscles that I didn’t even know I had.

For all those who are thinking about doing this program, I highly recommend it. Here is a breakdown of the first seven days and what you can expect from the program. I also included the soreness level for the day after on a scale of 1 – 10, with 10 being the most sore.

Day 1: Chest & Back

The P90X program starts out with a bang. The chest and back workout forces you to do a bunch of push-ups and pull-ups with a ton of variations. I barely made it through the workout and felt super pumped up (and exhausted) by the time it was done. I was sweating more than I have in the last 6 months of workouts combined.

My first thought was I hope everyday isn’t like this…

Soreness the day after: 6/10

Day 2: Plyometrics

Just when I thought the first day had to be the hardest, this workout comes up. The plyometrics DVD basically has you jump for 60 minutes straight. I was sweating twice as much as the first day and could barely stand up when I finally finished.

The next morning, I could barely get out of bed. My quads were on fire along with my hamstrings, calves, and every other part of my body.

Soreness the day after: 10/10

Day 3: Shoulders & Arms

The shoulders and arms workout was the first one that I didn’t feel completely exhausted at the end. It goes through and has you do a bunch of different shoulder and arm exercises using dumbbells (or bands). However, it was much more intense than the old shoulder routine I was doing in the gym. I really enjoyed this DVD and all the different exercises involved in it.

Soreness the day after: 3/10

Day 4: Yoga

As soon as I saw yoga on the agenda, I figured day 4 would be an easy off day to stretch and get ready for the rest of the week. Wow was I wrong! Instead, I got my ass kicked for an hour and a half and could barely move. This is some pretty intense yoga that really pushes your body’s limits. I was not only sweating, but struggling to do some of the moves included in the DVD.

The day after yoga, I was once again sore all over my entire body. However, I did realize that yoga is a great thing to do and highly recommend not skipping this DVD if you do the program. I have a feeling I will get better at it as I do the DVD more and more.

Soreness the day after: 8/10

Day 5: Legs & Back

I was a little worried about the legs and back DVD, mostly because my body was sore from doing yoga the day before. Luckily, this DVD was not too bad. It involves a lot of lunges and squats but it actually made my legs feel better after I finished. A lot of the exercises can be done with body weight only, while a few require dumbbells or bands.

Soreness the day after: 5/10

Day 6: Kempo

This DVD was the only one that I had no idea what to expect going into it. I knew kempo was some sort of kicking or karate but had no idea what it involved. As it turns out, it’s a bunch of different kicks, blocks. and punches. More or less, it is a great cardio workout. I was sweating buckets from this workout as well, even though I didn’t feel like I was working that hard. Some of the moves are actually fun, which takes your mind off the fact that you are exercising.

What I did not expect was my calves being dead the next morning…

Soreness the day after: 8/10

Day 7: Stretch/Rest

Finally…a day to rest and let my body rebuild itself. The program gives you the option of taking the whole day off or doing the Stretch X DVD. I chose to do the DVD since I figured it would help me loosen up and relax a little bit. It’s still a 50 minute workout but all it focuses on is stretching. I felt pretty good after doing it and am pretty sure I’ll be ready to roll for tomorrow’s chest and back workout.

Soreness the day after: 0/10

Looking Ahead

Over the next two weeks, I will continue the exact same schedule above. Once those two weeks are complete, I will have a recovery week which consists of yoga, cardio, and stretching. After the recovery week is over I will be done with Phase 1 of the P90X program. From there, I will have 2 more phases to complete before I am done with the whole thing.

I’m feeling really good so far. Besides kicking my own ass, I am also eating as healthy as I ever have. I already feel leaner and stronger which is always a good thing after one week of something. In the upcoming weeks, I will do another recap and will post my photos after I am done with Phase 1.

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Update: I managed to finish Phase 1, which you can read about here.

Published on May 25th, 2009. And don't forget to check out my book, Life After the Cubicle.