P90X Extreme Home Fitness Program - Does It Work?

I wanted to take a look at this diet and fitness DVD system to see whether it works, what people say about it and to see whether it's a good way for you to lose belly fat and get flat abs.

I also wanted to see whether this system is worth the $130 price (not including shipping).

This review is based on the extensive research I've done and my in depth diet and fitness knowledge.

What Is P90X Extreme Home Fitness 

P90X (also known as Power 90X) Extreme Home Fitness is a 13 DVD home workout system which also includes a diet manual and other tools which I'll list below. The DVDs are run by famous trainer Tony Horton and comprise a 90 day home fitness system for men and women.

This is a strength and cardio workout system, so the purpose is to burn off body fat and develop lean muscle tissue at the same time. However, this isn't a bodybuilding system, so don't expect to bulk up.

The 13 DVDs include the following:

1. Introduction DVD which explains the basics of the program
   
2. Chest and Back strength exercises
   
3. Plyometrics - a cardio routine based on jumping (also known as Plyo X)
   
4. Shoulders and Arms - Various exercises to tone and strengthen shoulders, biceps, and triceps.
   
5. Yoga X - A Combination of stretching, cardio, and breathing exercises
   
6. Legs and back - Extensive legs and back workout
   
7. Kenpo X - Intense cardio workout involving kicking and punching
   
8. Stretch DVD - Improve flexibility and reduce risk of injury
   
9. Core Synergistics - A workout DVD which focuses on the core muscles and serves as a foundation for your entire body.
   
10. Chest, shoulders, and Triceps - Strength exercises for 3 upper body muscle groups
    
11. Back and Biceps Workout - A great workout for the back and arm muscles.
    
12. Cardio X - A cardio workout with low impact exercises
    
13. Ab Ripper X - Intensive abs exercises to help you tone your stomach

In addition to the DVDs, the program includes:

1. A detailed nutrition plan
2. P90X fitness guide
3. A special calendar to help you plan your progress and stick to it.

As you can see, P90X works the entire body, both strength and cardio and also contains nutritional guidelines. Each workout is about an hour long and can be quite intensive.

You can workout at your own pace. However, this is a program which requires hard work.

How Does P90X Work

Our muscles need variety to continue developing. The more our body gets used to a specific workout or exercises, the less effective our workouts become. This is known as the Plateau Effect. To prevent this from happening to you, you need to change your exercises from time to time. Changing your exercises prevents the Plateau effect because you're basically confusing your muscles by never allowing them to adapt to any specific workout.

P90X helps you do that by changing your workout routine after the first month. You can easily alter your workouts from one month to the next and continue seeing results as you go along.

What's even more impressive if that you can rearrange the workouts according to your fitness goals. You can have more fat burning oriented workouts or more muscle development ones. The program shows you how to do that.

P90X Schedule 

Here is how your workout schedule will look like week by week:

• Weeks 1 through 3 - Days 1, 3, 5 you'll do strength workouts and days 2, 4, 6 you'll do cardio. Day 7 is an optional stretch day which I do recommend doing.
• Week 4 - All cardio and stretching week
• Weeks 5 through 7 - Basically the same day to day rundown as weeks 1-3 but with different strength workouts to achieve muscle confusion
• Week 8 - The same as week 4
• Weeks 9 and 11 - The same as weeks 1-3
• Weeks 10 and 12 - The same as weeks 5-7
• Week 13 - The same as weeks 4, 8

Each workout is about an hour long so this does take some free time to do.

Does P90X Really Work

If you check out the user reviews of the The P90X Extreme Home Fitness System on Amazon, you will see that at the time I'm writing this review, 228 people out of 269 who placed a review of this program gave it 4 or 5 stars. That's around 85% approval rate which is tremendous for a fitness product.

This shows that this program does indeed work. However, it does have some cons as I'll list further down this page. In addition, you need to work very hard to make this program work because it requires a lot of time and a lot of heavy workouts. There's no doubt that this is a hard workout but the results are worth it.

Can You Get Flat Abs With the P90X Extreme Home Fitness System?

Even though this isn't an ab program, it doesn't really matter because you only get flat and sexy abs when you get lean and strong all over your body. Remember, spot fat reduction is a myth and so you don't need to focus on your abs to get a sexy stomach. You burn fat from all over your body or not at all.

The P90X is a great program to help you burn body fat and get toned. Once you begin to burn fat, you will also lose belly flab and will see your muscles toned in your abs as well as the rest of your body.

Following a complete body approach like Tony Horton advocates in the P90X system is the way to go. There's no doubt about it.

Whether or not this program is worth the $130 price (not including shipping and other equipment) is a question worth answering right after I go through the pros and cons of this program...

P90X Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Tony Horton is an excellent presentor and really keeps you going even when the workouts get hard
• Involves cardio and strength workouts
• Has a detailed dietary guide
• Doesn't get boring because there's a lot of variety
• Works every body part
• Helps you change your routine to maintain your results
• Can be done at home with little equipment (see below)
• Hard and intensive workouts which get results
• Excellent testimonials

Cons:

• Requires a lot of free time at home
• Dietary guide may be a bit complicated
• Requires additional equipment:
• • Chin Up Bar 
  • Dumbbells or Workout Bands 
• Gets a bit pricey with the shipping and equipment - close to $200