If you’ve chosen to get in shape using the P90X home workout program, you’ve made a wise choice. This workout is organized into training blocks that are designed to challenge your body with a technique called ‘muscle confusion’. Put simply, muscle confusion consists of hitting your muscles at various angles using different types of workouts and routines. The idea is to keep you from reaching a plateau in your training. This ensures fast results as your muscles remained ‘confused’ all throughout the workout, which ensures maximum muscular growth, fat loss and body conditioning at all times.

How Does It Work?

The P90X workout is separated into four-week blocks, with three-weeks of intense workouts and one recovery week. The recovery week isn’t quite like it sounds, however. This is a week where you put the heavy stuff on hold, but you still work. The idea is to keep your muscles working, while also allowing them to recover for the intense workout to come for the second week.

The training will then switch up after the recovery week, so as to confuse your muscles even more. This will continue for three weeks and then you’ll go through another recovery week, whereby the workout will be switched up again for the final four-week block. The entire workout is scientifically developed to build strength, endurance and flexibility in just 90 days.

But the best part about P90X is that it’s completely customizable, depending on your needs and fitness goals. The three methods include:

  • P90X Classic: This is the original P90X home workout, which focuses on cardio, resistance, balance and conditioning, all in one easy-to-follow workout routine.
  • P90X Doubles: The doubles program consists of the original plan plus three to four extra cardio exercises per week. Typically, people will do the regular workout in the morning and then cardio in the evening, or vice versa.
  • P90X Lean: The lean program focuses more on cardio than resistance and is perfect for dropping more fat or for those who may be nervous about starting the Classic workout the first time around.

Regardless of which method you follow, P90X will get you into the best shape of your life if you follow the workouts exactly as they’re stated in the program, and you follow the included eating guide. But the following descriptions may help you decide that one method is perfect for you over all the others.

P90X Classic

P90X Classic is the original design of this home workout system, and uses all of the workouts except one. Cardio X won’t be used at all in this workout, but you can use it if you choose the Doubles method.

The Classic workout consists of:

For Weeks 1Through 3, you’ll do:

Day 1: Chest & Back along with Ab Ripper X

Day 2: Plyometrics

Day 3: Shoulders and Arms and Ab Ripper X

Day 4: Yoga X

Day 5: Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X

Day 6: Kenpo X

Day 7: Rest (Or you can use X Stretch)

Then the following will be done for recovery Week 4:

 Day 1: Yoga X

Day 2: Core Synergistics

Day 3: Kenpo X

Day 4: X Stretch

Day 5: Core Synergistics

Day 6: Yoga X

Day 7: Rest or X Stretch

Then, we’ll switch things up for Weeks 5 through 7:

Day 1: Chest, Shoulders and Triceps, along with Ab Ripper X

Day 2: Plyometrics

Day 3: Back and Biceps and Ab Ripper X

Day 4: Yoga X

Day 5: Legs and Back and Ab Ripper X

Day 6: Kenpo X

Day 7: Rest or X Stretch

For our recovery Week 8, we’re going to do the same as we did in Week 4.

Then, for the last week, we’re really going to switch it up. For Weeks 9 and 10, we’ll do:

Day 1: Chest and Back and Ab Ripper X

Day 2: Plyometrics

Day 3: Shoulders and Arms and Ab Ripper X

Day 4: Yoga X

Day 5: Legs and Back and Ab Ripper X

Day 6: Kenpo X

Day 7: Rest or X Stretch

And then for Weeks 10 and 12, we’ll do:

Day 1: Chest, Shoulders and Triceps and Ab Ripper X

Day 2: Plyometrics

Day 3: Back and Biceps and Ab Ripper X

Day 4: Yoga X

Day 5: Legs and Back and Ab Ripper X

Day 6: Kenpo X

Day 7: Rest or X Stretch

Then, for our final recovery Week 13, we’ll do the same as we did in Week 4.

P90X Doubles

If you want a killer workout and you find that P90X just isn’t challenging enough, you can try the doubles workout. This is where you will add an extra cardio workout to the Classic plan three or four days per week. This provides extra cardio conditioning and is for any athlete looking to increase performance or for anyone with much more weight to lose than normal.

According to the P90X guide, you should be free of injury and you should be in top physical condition before you try the doubles phase of the workout. This is the most intense version of the P90X program, and is usually reserved for the extreme athlete or for those doing multiple rounds of the system.

P90X Lean

The P90X lean plan focuses more on cardio than resistance and this method is perfect for anyone who is timid about trying the classic plan the first time around. The lean program will help you lose fat, however, since it focuses heavily on putting you into that fat burning cardio zone that is necessary for dropping the pounds. For the P90X lean program, you won’t perform the plyometrics or the legs and back workouts. But you will sweat, as the cardio workouts are designed to burn the maximum amount of calories in the shortest possible time.

And there you have it: Three workouts in one, enabling you to tailor the entire program for your specific needs. Whether you want to lose that gut, get ripped like never before or you want to outperform everyone else on the field, track or court, there is a P90X program for you. Which one will you choose? Leave your comments below and let us know!

Share Button