My Take on “The Truth About P90X”
For those who haven’t seen, Men’s Health Magazine Fitness Editor Trevor Thieme wrote in a blog back on May 21st his views of P90X. (Update: His blog post has since been taken down by the editor.) In it he states that it is another fitness fad-type workout that has managed to stick around much longer than other home-based workout systems, and “it’s likely not the total-body fitness solution that most people are looking for.”
Trevor calls on a strength coach to help back up his claim that P90X isn’t introducing anything new, and that can actually hinder muscle growth. The strength coach and Trevor are both Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists or C.S.C.S. And if you are serious about being in the bodybuilding business or work with others who want to get fit, a C.S.C.S certification is a good thing to have. I, myself have looked into it with my background of being a Certified Athletic Trainer, but I found that I already received most of the training necessary, and have similar knowledge, but I didn’t want to pay MORE money, and spend MORE time getting continuing education for something I didn’t need. I only bring this up because while he has a very good background knowledge to base his claims on, I also have a similar basis of knowledge, and my opinion is completely different.
It seems to me, and the comments on the blog confirm it, that Trevor has never done the P90X workout. Yes, it is a little different from your typical free weight workout, and it does influence a lot of fat loss. I agree with their comments there. What I disagree with is that they state that muscle growth does not happen while using P90X. I just finished my first round with it, and while I did not get the results you see on the infomercials, I lost weight, lost inches from fat loss (like Trevor’s blog states), but I gained inches in my upper arms and chest. How did I do that? MUSCLE GROWTH.
In the blog, they say that confusing the muscles to prevent the plateau effect actually hinders growth. These C.S.C.S. folks say doing the same routine to make your body adapt to it is what gets the results and growth. They are right to a point. If you work the same exercise the same way, over time your body will adapt to it and it will become easier due to the environmental stimulus you put it under. But for them to say that P90X is counter-productive is just ridiculous. If you look at the exercises done in P90X, you see that the same muscles are worked by 5-6 different exercises throughout a 3 week span, and what muscles depends on the workout. Then, these same muscles are doing 5-6 other exercises for another 3 weeks. THEN, for the next 4 weeks, you combine the 5-6 from the first 3 weeks with the 5-6 from the second 3 weeks!
While P90X calls it confusion, I call it “muscle growth.” I didn’t gain inches on my chest and arms by doing bench press and preacher curls. By doing some exercises for an amount of time and then working the same muscles using a different exercise but same motion, I was doing what the Strength Coaches in the blog were saying to do, work the muscles by giving them “multiple exposures to the same stimulus.” Sure, it isn’t the same EXACT stimulus, but a pull-up is a pull-up as far as your lats are concerned, a push-up is a push-up as far as your pecs go. Why? Because in both cases, the muscle is performing the same motion. Variations of the pull ups and push ups are actually what cause the help in growth. Trevor even says that in his post, “Variation is key to any good training program….”
Yes, I know, they also said “…as long as it’s not too frequent.” Well, I don’t think once every three weeks is very frequent. In fact, that is what I loved about it. I was struggling with some exercises, and then, BOOM I had to change to a routine that isolated certain muscle groups so you weren’t working competing groups at the same time. And what happened when Phase 3 came around when you go back to the first set of exercises? I could do more because they were easier. My muscles went through the sarcoplasmic hypertrophy during the second phase that caused a change in growth and strength.
So, while no results are even typical with any workout, I find that “The Truth about P90X” didn’t get all the facts in. Yes, there was accuracy in that post, however, I found that this is just one more blogger who doesn’t think that P90X does as much as they advertise.
You want to find out for yourself? Take the P90X challenge!
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