Re: P90X
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: rbstokes22</div><div class="ubbcode-body">i personally think its a bullshit program for anyone that wants to build. Its an excellent program for people looking to cut and lose fat usually for the older folk. </div></div>
This is actually fairly accurate. I'm now on day 83 of the program (whoo!) so it's a pretty timely topic for me.
The basics of the strength exercises are push ups, pull ups, and general weight lifting. In other words, your average, run of the mill strength training. If you've never done this type of thing before (like my roommate, who's almost at the same stage of the program as me) - you will see bulk gain, but really no more than you would doing those exercises otherwise.
I, on the other hand, had just come off of very similar exercise programs (Navy SEAL Fitness Guide by Stu Smith, weights, sprint swimming, etc.) I saw almost no bulk gain despite seeing the expected gains in weight lifted and reps. I did increase muscle tone though.
HOWEVER...
You lose fat. You really, truly lose fat. My roommate lost a bunch, I dropped from 12% to currently around 6.5% body fat- and most importantly, if you go their forums (beachbody.com) and look through all the before and after picture threads, it's pretty much universal- everyone becomes more muscularly defined *within* their existing frame on the program. This is one of the reasons why heavier people have such drastically different results. The guys starting out heavy will lose 30-40lbs. and suddenly look cut as hell, but if you look carefully you notice their overall frame does not change much. The skinnies, on the other hand, have much less dramatic results. They'll generally lose a few pounds and get a bit more definition. It's actually quite astounding how different the results are for these two body types- see the pics, they really paint the picture.
So it's great for definition and fat loss, and if anything, it teaches you a bunch about diets, different food types, how they will react with your body, etc.- not through data, but through doing! You change your diet every 4 weeks and it's amazing what a different effect each phase has.
But for bulk? Nope. Certainly not the right program.