Today marked the start of my going back to (one of) the original programs in the Beachbody catalog, Power 90. It was the original workout program that Tony Horton put together for Beachbody back in the late 1990s/early 2000s and is the precursor workout to the wildly popular (even to this day) P90X, As I stated in my last fitness update post since I had been updating the blog regularly back in 2012, I have gained a lot of weight and become very out of shape. I never really stopped working out, but I was not working out as intensely, definitely became more sedentary as I was doing online school and working a full-time office job in which I was sitting in a chair most of the day. Then, of course, the covid pandemic hit, and working from home made it easier to be even more sedentary.
So, over this past summer, I did very modified versions of T25 and Insanity Max 30 in order to get my cardio fitness up to a decent level. Since I had gained about 40 pounds, I could not do the jumping and had to modify even some of the modified moves. But, over the 8 weeks of Insanity Max 30, I went from maxing out at the 7:47 mark of the first workout "cardio challenge" to making it all the way through the last workout "Friday night fight round 2" only taking the scheduled breaks. I started carb cycling (which is the nutrition plan that works best for me) doing 4 low-carb days in which I eat high-protein, high-fat and low carbs, 2 days where I eat more carbs and less fat and a bit less protein, and one day in which I eat whatever I want. Doing that I have lost about 11 pounds the past couple of months.
Today I started Power 90, doing the sculpt 1-2 workout. For those not familiar with Power 90, the "main" program has 6 workouts. Sculpt 1-2 which is a full-body circuit resistance workout, sweat 1-2 which is a cardio workout, ab-ripper 100., then sculpt 3-4, sweat 3-4, and ab-ripper 200 which are really just longer versions of the 1-2 workouts. Anyone who has done P90X will recognize a lot of the same moves both in the sweat and sculpt workouts. In the sculpt workouts you are to do 8-12 reps. Tony does not make it clear (as he does in P90X) that you want to max out at 10 reps if you want to build muscle and max out at 15 reps if you are looking for muscle endurance and to go for a more lean look. He kinds of hints at that, but does not hammer the point home like he does repeatedly in P90X.
Power 90 is definitely not as structured or regimented as P90X, and as such does not have as regimented a workout schedule. Basically, you do the 1-2 workouts until you can get through them without struggling (I would say when you can get through the cardio workout and ab-ripper 100 without taking unscheduled breaks or modifying), then you move on to the 3-4 workouts. So, my plan is to do the 1-2 workouts for thirty days, then evaluate my progress. If I feel the need to stay with the 1-2 workouts I will re-evaluate at the end of each week and switch to the 3-4 workouts and do them for the remainder of the 90 days. Then I will do the "master series" workouts that were meant to bridge Power 90 and P90X for 8 weeks. This plan may change based on my progress, life events, etc., but that is the overall plan. Also, note that these workouts are NOT included with the Beachbody On-Demand (BOD) subscription or sold on the Beachbody website. P90, which is a similar, updated version of Power 90 that was released around the time P90X 3 was released is on BOD, but the original Power 90 workouts are only on DVD. If you want them these days you have to try to find them used on eBay or something like that.
So, at the start of Power 90, my main stats are:
Weight: 224.9
Body Fat Percentage: 35.6% (approximate)
Waist Measurement: 49"
So needless to say, I have a long way to go, but I am determined to get there. I will update my workout progress daily and will update my stats at the end of the 90 days before I start the master's series workouts. As always, thanks for reading.
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