RippedBody.org

Does the P90X or Insanity home workout system best meet your needs? There are distinct differences in each of the workout systems and in this article I will be discussing and examining each of them.

We will begin with one of the more important factors: cost. The initial cost of each workout system is the same, $119.85. The P90X however has added costs that come along with it. These added costs should not be a deterrent because the P90X is designed to target different parts of your body and give you different results than the Insanity program.

The P90X is a program that is designed to improve both your cardiovascular health and your strength. There are 6 workouts a week. Three of them are strength workouts and the other three are cardiovascular workouts. When I completed the P90X I lost more than 20 lbs. of fat and put on around 7-10 lbs. of muscle.

The added costs that come along with the P90X involves purchasing stretch bands/dumbbells and a pull-up bar. Some may have dumbbells lying around their home so this cost will not be an issue for them. I didn’t have any lying around so I purchased some stretch bands from Beachbody for around $30. I can confidently say that the bands that Beachbody sells are close to, if not, the best on the market. Don’t buy the Gold’s Gym bands at Walmart because they slip out of their groves and snap when stretched to their max. The Beachbody bands NEVER snapped once on me. I have used dumbbells plenty of times before and the bands gave me just as good as a workout as the dumbbells would.

The next cost associated with the P90X is a pull-up bar. It is probably safe to say that nobody has a pull-up bar lying around their home. I purchased a pull-up bar from Beachbody for 39.95. The pull-up bar installs very easily. It actually took me more time to put it together than it did to put up in a doorway. The pull-up bar is designed to be put up and taken down in any doorway. It is extremely safe and will not damage the trim in your doorway.

Finally, each P90X workout is at least an hour long. As stated earlier, three days a week you will be doing strength workouts. After each of these workouts you will do the Ab Ripper. The Ab Ripper is 15 minutes added onto your initial workouts. Both workouts end up being just over an hour long. The remaining cardio workouts are about 50 minutes each.

If you would still like to purchase the P90X I would recommend purchasing the P90X Peak Results Package. This comes with the P90X, a pull-up bar, stretch bands, and a months supply of recovery drink. The recovery drink is taken after each workout. It taste and works great!

With the Insanity workout, what you see is what you get. There is no added cost for additional equipment. The Insanity workout system does not focus on strength training too much. I feel that most of the people that you see in the testimonials who are really ripped already had those muscles underneath their fat and just needed some help toning them up. Don’t get me wrong, your muscle mass will increase a bit with Insanity, but not as much as it would with the P90X.

The Insanity workout system is perfect for people who just want to lose a lot of weight, are not too concerned about putting on muscle, and who love a tough cardio workout. Depending on how hard you go, you can plan on burning between 600-800 calories per Insanity workout. Some who go “crazy” during the workouts will burn close to 1000 calories.

The Insanity workouts on average are around 40 minutes long. They are shorter than the P90X workouts but you will burn more calories with Insanity. Before my first Insanity workout I refused to believe that I would burn more calories with Insanity. I knew the workouts were shorter so it just didn’t make sense to me. It was about 10 minutes into my first workout when I became a believer. I couldn’t remember having worked so hard and sweat so much.

Insanity is created on the “Max Interval Training” technique. If you have no idea what that means don’t feel bad, I had no idea what it meant the first time I heard it either. Basically, it means that you work your butt off for 40 minutes with three or four 30 second water breaks placed in there. He (Shawn-T) will bring your heart rate up to around 160 bpm and hold it there for a bit. He will then give you a break to bring it back down to around 125 bpm. Do this 3-4 times and there is your workout.

The Insanity workout program will get you into great cardio shape. I wrestled in high school and during the season considered myself to be in top-notch condition. I could wrestle for 6 minutes straight without stopping. After completing the 60-day Insanity program I honestly felt that I was close to being back in “wrestling shape”.

Insanity is perfect for people who love a tough cardio workout. People that love to run and who are training for a road race, Insanity is perfect for you. Insanity will allow you to change up your mundane workout routine without your lungs and heart missing out on the needed training.

Depending upon your needs will determine what program to go with. If you are looking to improve both your cardiovascular health and increase your muscle mass than the P90X is for you. In the end the P90X with stretch bands and a pull-up bar will cost you around $190.00. If you are just looking to melt some fat off of your body and like short, intense workouts than Insanity is for you. Plan on spending $119.85 for the Insanity workout system.

Today’s workout was the P90X Chest/Back workout. Two new developments today: The first is that I did today’s workout without the video and it took me half the time. I went ahead and followed the workout sheets and it helped the workout go much quicker. I saved a lot of time between reps when Tony is usually showing us how strong he his or talking his face off. Unfortunately chest/back is one of the few workouts that has all of the exercises on the workout sheets.

The second development is that my push-up reps are increasing dramatically. Today’s workout has me doing normal, military, wide, diamond, decline, and dive-bomber push-ups 2x each. I ended up doing 175 push-ups in the 12 sets. Not too bad. The easiest push-ups are the normal ones of course and the toughest ones have got to be the dive-bomber push-ups. Whenever I do dive-bombers I think of Catherina Zeta Jones in this movie in which she played a burglar, opposite of Sean Connery, in which she is forced to contort herself through these lasers. I just can’t shake it. Oh well. To top off my workout I also did 20 minutes of an Insanity workout today. My wrestlers did it for 20 minutes so I decided to show them that a 33 year-old man can do it too.

Breakfast:

2 bowls of raisin bran with skim milk 500 Calories

Beachbody Vitamins

Snack:

An apple- 180 Calories

1 slice of colby cheese- 200 Calories

Lunch:

Cinnamon Oatmeal- 300 Calories

Low-Fat Vanilla Yogurt with flak seeds- 260 Calories

Snack:

None

Dinner:

BBQ Chicken 250 Calories

Chicken Flavored Rice 240 Calories

Wheat Thins- 300 Calories

Post Workout Recovery Drink- 240 Calories

Total Caloric Intake: 2470

Today’s workout was Insanity’s Cardio Power workout. This workout had me fooled to begin with. It started off very easy and gradually got more and more difficult. The end was almost impossible. Shawn T had me doing these leg extension things that worked the hip flexors. Talk about burning, wow! My legs were on fire and I had to take multiple breaks. All in all the first week of the P90X/Insanity challenge went well. I completed every workout and never strayed from the diet.  Now on to a well earned day off and then back at it on Saturday.

Breakfast- Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios – 230 Calories

Snack- Protein Bar- 240 Calories

Lunch- Baked Chips- 150 Calories, turkey sandwich 325 calories, Low-fat yogurt w/ flack seeds and rasberries 150 calories

Snack- Protein Bar 240 calories and a Ritz 100 Calorie Snack Pack

Beachbody Recovery Drink 240 Calories

Dinner- Whole wheat spaghetti – 700 calories

Total Calories For the Day – 2375

Today was the P90X Legs/Back and Ab Ripper. This is one of the easier workouts and it was a welcomed one as well. The hardest part of the workout is the 8 sets of pull-ups which were a welcomed relief this time. With the last workout I did I couldn’t do too many pull-ups and was slightly discouraged. My back must have been slightly tired for that workout because my pull-ups increased in just 3 days.

Breakfast- Egg BeaterOmelet (30 Calories), Bagel(240), Milk (90) and a Banana (75)  435 Calories

Beachbody Vitamins 0 Calories

Snack- Beachbody Protein Bar 240 Calories

Lunch-Oatmeal w/ almonds   300 Calories

Ritz snack pack     100 Calories

Apple  75 Calories

Afternoon Snack- Yogurt with Protein Powder and Flack Seeds   250 Calories

Dinner-  Chicken, mushroom, onion, and  broccoli   400 Calories

Glass of skim milk    90 calories

15 Baked Lays Potato Chips   120 Calories

Beachbody Recovery Drink 240 Calories

Total Calories For the Day: 2250

My caloric in getting better but Beachbody recommends that it be around 2,500 per day.

Today’s workout consisted of the P90X‘s shoulders and biceps workout. This workout wasn’t nearly as tough as Sunday’s P90X workout, however, I was sure to feel the burn in each set. I tried to get each set’s reps to 10-12.  The Ab Ripper was extremely challenging too. “They” are correct when they say that if you don’t use them they go away. I thought the Ab Ripper was going to kill me today. At the end of my first round of P90X the Ab Ripper was still challenging but I could complete it fully. Each exercise has 25 reps in it and I was barely able to complete all of them with 20 reps.  The only thing I can do is to continue to bring it. See you tomorrow!

Breakfast- Omelet with feta cheese     320 Calories

Glass of Milk                           100 Calories

4 Cups of coffee                      150 Calories

Beachbody Vitamins 0 Calories

Snack- Beachbody Protein Bar 240 Calories

Lunch- Chicken Wrap                           800 Calories

Afternoon Snack- I missed it. Opps! Not good for the metabolism!

Dinner-  Turkey burger with onions and salsa on a whole wheat bun.     280 Calories

1 cup of brown rice                                                                                       120

Spinach salad with low-fat Italian Dressing                                       80

Total Calories For the Day: 2090