POWER 90 – Taking Your Fitness to a New Level

In my article, Rejuv Protocol, I wrote how I lost over a stone (roughly 9kg or 20 lbs for you Americans) near the end of last year.  Now that I had instilled discipline into my life I wanted to continue my efforts in losing the remaining fat and tone up my body.   For 2011, I was convinced there had to be a fitness regimen to meet this goal other than going for a 50 minute run each morning or spending large amounts of money on a gym membership.  Who really gets their money’s worth out of a gym anyways?  After pondering about what I should do, my husband pointed me in the direction of P90 or Power 90 by Beachbody (www.beachbody.com).

The P90 series includes a vast array of products:  P90, P90 Master Series, P90X and P90X Plus.  These are basically separate grades of exercise videos with a set time line of 90 days, hence the name P90.  They were developed in the USA by Tony Horton and Beachbody and encourage you to create a ‘boot-camp’ style workout in your home that consists of a variety of exercises: Yoga, Stretching, Cardio, Free Weights, Core Cardio, Cardio intervals and more.

To begin my new exercise regimen, I started off with the Power 90 series from www.beachbody.com.  The program consists of 4 levels grouped in 2 phases (1 and 2, 3 and 4) on two DVDs:

• Sweat (Level 1 and 2) – Consisting of pilates, kickboxing and cardio moves to burn fat fast.
• Sculpt (Level 1 and 2) - Simple moves that work to tone and strengthen your whole body.
• Sweat (Levels 3 and 4) – Adding more challenging moves to build leaner, stronger muscles.
• Sculpt (Levels 3 and 4) - Taking in up another level to burn more calories and increase fat burning.
• Ab Ripper 100 (Levels 1 and 2) & 200 (Levels 3 and 4) – Ab routines designed to give you the flat stomach you always desired.  10 different ab routines of 10 reps for 100 and 20 reps for 200.

Now you may be thinking the same thing I did….. let me assure you… it’s not the same old “Rah Rah” type of fitness program that what you may have seen and done before.. Promise!

They were perfect for starting a fitness program and may look easy but believe me, they are not.  Each day was different and challenging which I loved.  After a few months and having conquered the initial 90 days, I moved on to the next level of DVD – Sweat 3/4, Sculpt 3/4 and Ab Ripper 200.  Taking it up a notch kept my interest but once again after a considerable amount of time and again increasing my fitness level, I needed another challenge.  Initially, I was looking into P90X from www.beachbody.com when my husband said to me, “why don’t you try the P90 Master Series (P90MS) before you look for something else?”

I am now about 2 months in to P90MS and am loving the challenge.  He was right to suggest the P90 Master series first as I am no longer bored.  Every day I have a completely different workout.  The workouts are designed to get you faster and better results in the shortest amount of time possible.  This is all because of a what Tony calls “muscle confusion”; various exercises done on different days without a set routine simply “confuses” the muscle not to remember the exercises which it turn tricks it into thinking this is the first time you have been working out.  It is simple, doesn’t cost much and has made a profound difference in how I view exercise.  You simply just need to buy it!!

After only 2 months I am already starting to reap the rewards of this fat busting program. Check out P90, P90 Master Series and P90X (for you hardcore exercise fanatics!!) at www.beachbody.com and get the body you desire in just 90 days.

My next challenge is to take on P90X which I’ll write about in the coming months.  As Tony Horton would say, “BRING IT!”

*picture from www.getmovingcatalog.com