I recently completed another excellent Beachbody program called P90X Plus. Its an extension of the extremely popular P90X series that you see on all of the infomercials. I’ll probably get around to writing a review of that program as well sometime in the future. P90X Plus, or sometimes referred to as P90X+, consists of a mix of the original P90X workouts in addition to five new workouts. These new workouts are Upper Body Plus, Abs Core Plus, Kenpo Cardio Plus, Total Body Plus and Interval X Plus, which are about 40-45 minutes in length except for Abs Core Plus. Like P90X, this program is a 90 day program (actually, a 12 week program) consisting of 3 phases, phase 1, 2, and 3 duh! There are 3 different calendars you can do, Classic +, Lean +, and X + Doubles. I did the Classic +, and I have to say, it is one hell of a program. I can tell you that it is tougher than P90X but also that the results for myself have been amazing. You should do this workout if you have already done P90X. You should not do this workout if you have not done P90X or if you do not have the original P90X workouts, as those are required on some days. The most used workout from P90X is the Yoga X workout, which is required quite a bit.
P90X+ Calendar
Each of the phases is basically 6 days a week, with an option for X-Stretch or rest on the 7th day. This is true for all of the calendars. For the most part, I decided to rest instead of doing the X-Stretch. I think I only did the X-Stretch 2 or 3 times during the entire program. Probably due to laziness, but I would say X-Stretch is a really good stretching program so don’t neglect it if you can.
Equipment Needed
The good news is you don’t really need a lot of equipment, much like P90X. All you really need is a pullup bar, water bottle, mat, pushup stands, and dumbbells. Heck, you don’t even really need a mat, water bottle, or pushup stands if you are on a budget or something.
Critique of the new workouts:
Total Body Plus
This is a very good total body workout. Its a lot of fun exercises, 20 in total, that focus on synergistic moves that work multiple body parts at once. Its a tough but fun workout and one of the better new workouts that come with P90X+. Its about 45 minutes with a warm up and cool down period, and by the end you’ll feel you had a good workout. You’ll need a mat, dumbbells, pullup bar, a water bottle and pushup stands.
Abs/Core Plus
This workout isn’t as intense as Ab Ripper X from the P90X series, but it does a decent job of working the abs and the core. It is a short, 20 minute workout and by the time you are done it you should be feeling your abs a little and worked up a light sweat. This is also the only workout where Tony Horton assumes you’ve already stretched a little bit and just goes right into the exercises. It does have a very short cool down period. Abs Core plus consists of 20 exercises, and the equipment required are a pullup bar, dumbbells, and a mat.
Kenpo Cardio Plus
What a joke, much like the original Kenpo Cardio X. This program doesn’t belong in the P90X+ series. I’m serious, I had a really hard time working up a sweat with this one. I barely even felt my heart rate go up. Some days where I was supposed to do Kenpo Plus I would replace this workout with an Insanity workout instead, because I know in those ones I have to bring my A game. Its similar to the original Kenpo Cardio X where you are throwing a lot of kicks and punches, but I would think for anybody already doing P90X+ they are in good enough shape where this program won’t really do much for them.
Upper Body Plus
This is the PLUS, in P90X+. It is an absolute monster. And the kicker? You do this workout twice a week for 10 of the 12 weeks, stacked on top of the Abs/Core Plus. Talk about a tough day! Upper body consists of tons of pushups, tons of pullups, lots of dumb bell curling for a grand total of 20 exercises. oi! But I can tell you, this is the toughest of all the workouts from this and from P90X. Near the end of phase 3 I was seriously dreading doing this workout, not only because I had an irritated bicep from a night of drunken debauchery going into phase 3, but also because I’m always trying to up my numbers from previous workouts, and since Upper Body Plus is done no less than 20 times in the calendar, you can imagine how difficult that gets at the end. There were days doing this workout where I literally could not type on the keyboard, brush my teeth, or put on a shirt, that’s how serious this one is. You’ll need a pullup bar, dumbbells, pushup stands, and a water bottle for this one.
Interval X Plus
This is a pretty good cardio workout. I would say its the most fun of all the workouts but isn’t used all that much compared to the other workouts in the Classic + calendar. It does a decently good job of getting your heart rate up. It is no comparison to any of the Insanity workouts in that department, but compared to the P90X cardio workouts like Plyo X it holds its own.
In Closing
Motivation was tough near the end. Mainly because I was dreading that Upper Body Plus workout, but also because I was getting pretty bored at the end with doing the same workouts over and over again. P90X did a much better job of mixing it up and thus keeping me motivated. This one, I really had to push through. I would still recommend this workout to P90X grads, as my results after this program have been excellent. However, I think after doing the calendar once you can take the workouts and start formulating your own workouts. I may try some of the other calendars, as they do look pretty interesting, but I don’t know for sure. Beachbody and Tony Horton have another excellent product in P90X+, I give it a thumbs up. You can get P90X Plus here.
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If you liked this review, you may also like my P90X2, Rip:60, Rev Abs, Insanity, GSP Rushfit, or RMAX BER reviews