First few weeks P90X2 impressions

Normally I like to put out a post after a week on a new program of my impressions. This time I thought a week was not enough. I officially started P90X2 on January 2, 2012, although I had done a walkthrough of some of the videos prior to that. The thing I noticed about many of the exercises that made P90X2 different from P90X was the learning curve.

P90X2 workouts involve a lot more balance and stability than I am used to. It has taken me a little while to get the hang of some of the moves, or to be able to do them without falling over. It can be discouraging, but I had the exact same feeling when I did P90X YogaX for the first time almost two years ago. I got better and eventually learned to embrace the things that are difficult. It's more rewarding to accomplish something that is hard than to do something that is easy from the start.

The length of the workouts is roughly the same or shorter. Yoga is about 30 minutes shorter, and the Ab Ripper routine is only on the schedule once a week for the first level. There is a greater emphasis on core strength through the normal workouts so there is not as much need for a specific ab routine more than that.

The one big thing that I notice is that the workouts seemed easier to me than the original P90X when I started. Now I see that it was more a matter of me trying to figure out the moves instead of just doing them. Once I started getting the moves down I found that I was trying to keep up with the folks in the video for reps and it was not so easy anymore. I could also increase my weights on the exercises that use them. This is also level one of three so it is going to ramp up. I'm looking forward to starting up level two in a week or two.