I agree with a couple points you make. Let me attempt to clarify. First of all you are right, I don't know you. But I have been in amateur bodybuilding competitions and im a medical school student. So I understand the science behind how muscles work / respond. That being said:
Soreness isn't an indicator of the effectiveness of your workout. You get more sore when you work your muscles to fatigue through high rep / low intensity. That doesn't mean you are getting any stronger. You say you weren't getting results in the gym. I can assure you, unless your workouts were terrible (if you were working out for 10 years lets hope not) that means you weren't trying hard enough. I see it all the time and I have done it myself. People fall into routines in the gym, especially when they workout alone. Numbers are what govern their routines instead of intensity. You have to push yourself to exhaustion, squeezing out that last rep when you think you have nothing left.
I say its not for experienced lifters. What I mean is its not for people who are already in shape (I realize this is a relative term.) My mom does p90x and I did 4-5 workouts when I was home over the holidays. It was a good cardio workout but I wasn't forced to build anymore muscle. Why?? Because to get stronger you need to stress muscle. Doing push ups and pull ups only get you so far. Those paid advertisements are perfect examples. Here is a fun fact. Horton (creator) paid motivated (keyword) individuals to follow his program so he could prove its effectiveness. What he doesn't tell you is many of those people were trained seperately in gym's and did seperate cardio in addition to the p90x program. That is a fact.
And "muscle confusion" is BS lol. You can't confuse your muscle. Your muscles adapt when they are stressed. Simple as that. If you do wide grip bench press all the time you will hit more lats and outer chest. Then if you switch to closer grip 4 weeks later you will focus on inner chest / tri's. So changing things up is good but your not "confusing" anything.
Im not coming off as arrogant. Im just laying it to you how it is. I praise horton for creating an appealing program that simply restates what is already common. He has made millions.
"typical americans" are well . . . typical americans. Data shows that most americans are overweight / out of shape. There you go. A generalization . . . yes . . . but its true. Thats the crowd this program is geared towards.
In conclusion I wanted to illustrate that p90x is a business product just like any other. There is nothing special or unique about it. I think he does a good job making things fun and the DVD's are easy to use. But what you are paying for is essentially a workout routine. But if thats what it takes to get you motivated to push yourself . . . than its worth it.
I also think its great for beginners or people who don't have the time to hit the gym (which are few and far between). Or those looking to loose weight. Its not like im some superhuman bodybuilder anyway. Im only 5"10, 168, 8% BF. I can rep out 225 lbs 11 times so doing bodyweight exersizes / pushups wont net me results.
First of all I applaud your stats and your ability to maintain such peak form, especially while juggling the demands of medical school. Ive been in the medical field as a paramedic for almost 7 years and have my fair share of knowledge on the subject as well. You're still reading way too much into this though. The OP is not a bodybuilder. P90X is not for bodybuilders. Never said it was. Its a
fitness program that focuses on so much more than just getting built and strong. Its strength, speed, agility, endurance, balance, coordination, core strength and flexibilty, which seeing how this is a
tennis forum, and the OP was asking whether this program would improve his
tennis I would have to say it would. And why not promote it if its done wonders for me?
I was at a point in my life where I wasnt getting results at the gym anymore. For one, all my gym buddies had bailed on me and I was working out by myself. That makes it extremely hard to stay motivated and keep pushing yourself as hard as you can. As you can tell from my before picture, I had lost a lot of my muscle tone and general fitness and was headed down the same path as many late 20 somethings who eventually get discouraged and fall off the fitness wagon into "past their prime" obscurity. When I found P90X that all changed for me and I can honestly say Im in better shape at nearly 29 than I was at 20.
Also, no its not geared towards out of shape, overweight people. If you go to the website and read about it, there is actually a fit test that you are supposed to be able to pass before they recommend you to try it. They make it very clear that P90X isnt for everybody, its for people who are already in pretty good shape who want to push their bodies to the limit.
Sure, beachbody, the company who made P90X, is business, its about making money. But isnt everything these days? Personal trainers, gyms, etc all that is about making money too. The bottom line like Ive said before is improving the quality of your life. P90X did it for me and I will continue to recommend it to anyone who wants to challenge them self and improve their overall athleticism and general fitness.
