Post P90X – Revised Primal Workout Schedule
November 22, 2009 | Filed Under Micah
Having gone through P90X, I’ve determined two main conclusions:
1) it works (it kicks your butt)
2) it is not the most efficient way to achieve my personal fitness goals
P90X is super time consuming. It’s also super effective. It’s also super tiring and drives you to consume lots of calories. To be in super fit shape, you really don’t need to be investing 1.5 hours per day. It’s excess. Especially Ab Ripper X. The only way that the time, energy and calorie investment is worthwhile is if you are trying to whip your body into shape in the shortest amount of time possible (you’re on a deadline) or if you are really trying to be a top performing athlete and don’t mind fatiguing your body to get there. If you just want to be a fit guy like me, you can do so much more efficiently and gracefully (giving your body plenty of rest along the way).
Here’s my new workout schedule for my post P90X life. I’ve tried to integrate P90X with some of the ideas that Mark Sission has presented on Primal workouts. I like the structure and convenience of P90X (especially when it’s cold or raining outside) so I’ve kept them. This is not necessary. In fact, people doing CrossFit have even more efficient workout programs… it’s just that I need the structure of something like P90X to really make this fitness thing work.
So, I still use many of the P90X sessions … I just spread them out more and integrate them with less time consuming workouts. Each week has about 3.5 hours of workout (rather than the 7-8 hours of the normal P90X). I’ve completely removed Ab Ripper X because it’s really best to get your ab workout from natural compound full body movements anyway.
Anyway, I hope this is helpful to someone out there. I like the way it works off a 3 week rotation to keep things interesting.
Monday – Sprints/Sledgehammer (10 minutes each, total 20 minutes)
Tuesday – Chest & Back (about 1 hour)
Wednesday – Play/Walk (who cares how much time it takes, it’s fun and painless)
Thursday – Plyometrics (about 1 hour)
Friday – Sledgehammer (about 10 minutes)
Saturday – Core Synergistics (about 1 hour)
Sunday – Play/Walk (who cares how much time it takes, it’s fun and painless)
Monday – Sprints/Sledgehammer (10 minutes each, total 20 minutes)
Tuesday – Shoulders & Arms (about 1 hour)
Wednesday – Play/Walk (who cares how much time it takes, it’s fun and painless)
Thursday – Legs & Back (about 1 hour)
Friday – Sledgehammer (about 10 minutes)
Saturday – Kempo X or Yoga X (about 1 hour)
Sunday Play/Walk (who cares how much time it takes, it’s fun and painless)
Monday – Sprints/Sledgehammer (10 minutes each, total 20 minutes)
Tuesday – Chest/Shoulders & Triceps (about 1 hour)
Wednesday – Plyometrics (about 1 hour)
Thursday – Play/Walk (who cares how much time it takes, it’s fun and painless)
Friday – Sledgehammer (about 10 minutes)
Saturday – Back & Biceps (about 1 hour)
Sunday – Play/Walk (who cares how much time it takes, it’s fun and painless)
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3 Responses to “Post P90X – Revised Primal Workout Schedule”
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I just bought p90x and some of the stuff they say you need, or closest I could get here (but not going to use suppliments). Glad after searching your site to hear it worked for you. I think at this stage I need the structured plan and the gym personal trainer hasn’t worked for me. Not sure I will be able to “bring it” for the full 90 days but maybe I will surprise myself
Interesting post; I’m just finishing Phase 3 of P90x and have gotten into the primal blueprint over the past few weeks. I was wondering how this workout modification worked for you, as I was thinking of doing something similar when I finish, keeping the lifting workouts & either modifying/slowing down the Kenpo & Plyo or substituting with other “fun” cardio like cycling, hiking, etc., in addition to adding sprints once per week. Any thoughts? Thanks!
~Amanda
Hi Amanda, sorry for the delayed response. In all honesty, I’ve further optimized my workouts and have gotten down to working out only about 10 minutes per day and then doing just one P90X workout per week.
When you hit the place you want to be, it’s fairly easy to maintain. It’s just a lot of hard work getting there. Now I mostly try to make my workouts as fun as possible… and I try to space things out. I might do a max set of pullups. I can do about 25. I push myself to go until failure. And then I’m done with pullups for a few days. Same with pushups. I also really enjoy doing primal movement exercises (crab walk) while chasing my kids around the house… you can’t get much better than mixing play and exercise.