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Reviews, Sleep, Technology

The BedJet v2 Review – Reviewing The BedJet v2

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My BedJet Review for v2 of the BedJet

BedJet on Kickstarter

​​The BedJet v2 was another project I backed on Kickstarter.

Their version 1 had great reviews on Amazon and their Kickstarter campaign piqued my interest. As someone who experiments with sleep gadgets and habits a lot and emphasizes the importance of a quality night of sleep, the BedJet v2 seemed like an interesting product.

​BedJet Features

The feature that most interested me was the custom tailored temperature settings that would adjust the temperature throughout the night to keep you at the ideal body temperature for the entire sleep duration.

bedjet review
BedJet body temperature schedule settings

I sleep hot so the cooling feature was also very attractive to me. I even made a BedJet video to win a second BedJet. (Hint: I didn’t win)

They also market the benefits of the dual zone, but I can’t comment on that as you need two BedJets for it to work – one for each side of the bed.

First Impressions for the BedJet

Installation is pretty easy and the BedJet is mostly unnoticeable except for the nozzle at the foot of the bed, which sticks out a bit and can get in the way sometimes.

The app is clunky and difficult to figure out at first, but after a few minutes playing around with it you’ll get the hang of it.

To take full advantage of the BedJet v2 you also need to purchase their air comforter, which is a big bummer. The air comforter is fairly comfortable and has an opening at the foot of the comforter that you insert the nozzle head into. The air comforter works well by allowing the BedJet’s airflow to make it all the way towards your head.

The warm function is UNBELIEVABLE, especially in the winter months or on those cold nights. BedJet also included some aroma therapy strips you can use by adding a couple drops of an aroma therapy oil such as lavender to the strips and then clipping them to the mouth of the nozzle. The aroma therapy stuff seemed to be an afterthought as it is kinda cheap-looking the way they designed it, but combining it with the warm function truly is a wonderful experience. It’s the best part of the BedJet, in my opinion.

Is the BedJet v2 worth it?

The BedJet v2 let’s you set a schedule depending on your temperature throughout the night. The problem is the BedJet isn’t able to measure your temperature so it’s a lot of trial and error. The defaults they gave me for my age and sex and all of that kept waking me up in the middle of the night all sweaty. That’s the biggest issue with the Bedjet. It never gets cool enough, and gets further exasperated by their air comforter. The problem is the air comforter is far too thick. I end up sweating a lot more with air comforter and the BedJet’s cooling function set to the maximum then I do without using either and going with my trust Sheex bedsheets. Unfortunately the BedJet is not compatible with Sheex. And honestly, between Bedjet and Sheex, I choose Sheex all day.

BedJet Review Thoughts & Conclusion

Sadly I’ve stopped using BedJet completely. The air comforter is just far too uncomfortable for me, especially during the hot summer nights. And the fact that the BedJet won’t work with a breathable sheet like the Sheex is a deal-breaker for me. As much as I loveee the warm function during the winter, I can’t justify recommending the BedJet v2 just for that due to the costs, setup, extra accessories like the air comforter, and so forth. So in my opinion unless you sleep really cold throughout the night all year round I think the BedJet v2 is worth skipping.

BedJet Pros

  • Warm function works great
  • Create temperature schedules with the app
  • Aroma therapy strips enhance the experience
  • Easy setup

BedJet Cons

  • Expensive
  • Air comforter needed for maximum airflow
  • Air comforter not included
  • Air comforter too thick
  • BedJet v2 not compatible with breathable sheets like Sheex
  • Nozzle slightly noticeable, can kick it with feet sometimes
  • App is ugly and has a learning curve

Overall, I like the idea of the BedJet. I think where it falls short is on the air comforter and the fact that it can’t get any cooler than simply not using the BedJet and air comforter altogether. I give the BedJet v2 a 2.5 out of 5. We’ll round up to 3 just for kicks. I hope you enjoyed my BedJet review. And I hope it helped you in your decision on whether to purchase a BedJet for your own needs. You can get BedJet here.

Reviews

BetterBack Review: Effortless Perfect Posture or Scam?

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BetterBack Review. Does it work as promised?

 

What is the BetterBack?

The BetterBack is a portable harness used to secure your lower back while you sit. It claims to help improve posture, ease back pain and improve your health with just 15 minutes of daily use. Does it live up to the claims? Read on and find out.

The Kickstarter connection

The BetterBack was a product I discovered on Kickstarter, back when I used to visit the site daily to look at all the new products that were being crowdfunded on the platform. It was the second product I backed after first supporting my buddies project, the awesome compression socks by Top & Derby. I ended up getting an early bird 2 pack so that I could give one to my dad, who also spends a lot of the time sitting in front of a computer like me.

BetterBack on Shark Tank

The crowdfunding campaign was a huge success and raised over $1 million buckaroos. They were also on Shark Tank. This was over 2 years ago so my memory is a little hazy on all the details, but I do remember getting screwed over by BetterBack (at least that’s how I felt at the time). When they were ready to ship the products I was traveling in Asia and asked if they could hold off on shipping it. They said no and instead shipped it to a non-early bird backer. Then they put me on a huge waiting list. So I ended up having to wait another 4 months and lots of back and forth emails before I finally got them. At the time I remember being frustrated, but over time I’ve come to realize that this is par for the course when it comes to crowdfunding campaigns. There are always delays and customer support generally stinks to high heavens.

In the end the most important question for me was, “Did I get what I paid for?”.

At the time I ordered the BetterBack, I was having frequent bouts of low back pain. Off and on pain that plagued me for years. Stress, sitting, deadlifts, and jiu-jitsu could trigger back pain seemingly at any moment. So if there was a low-cost, easy to use solution like the BetterBack that promised to reduce the back pain, I was willing to give it a shot.

And so the question is, does it work? For me, the answer is a resounding yes. And it works quite well. As soon as you strap yourself in you realize how good it feels on your lower back. It instantly makes it easier to sit up straight and harder to slouch. Now I don’t know about their 15 minutes a day claim, because I use it pretty much all the time when I am sitting, but I do know that after some time my low back pain has improved dramatically. I still get low back pain here and there, usually from pushing too hard in the weight room, especially after a long day sitting in front of the computer, but the BetterBack has most definitely helped.

A colleague was also complaining of low back pain and when I got her a BetterBack it all went away.

They had a second successful Kickstarter a little while back, but I didn’t support that one. It seems like a slightly improved version that also has hot/cold therapy.

There are knockoffs you can get now, as well. I can’t speak to how good they are but it might be worth checking out if you are bargain hunting.

betterback review
my betterbacks!

BetterBack Review Conclusion

As far as crowdfunding campaigns that I’ve backed, the BetterBack is one of the best I’ve backed and I’m quite happy with the product.

I would definitely recommend the BetterBack if you have low back pain and are looking for a low-cost solution. The BetterBack really does help keep your low back secure while sitting. It may be able to help if you suffer from low back pain and sit a lot. I recommend it.

I hope you enjoyed this BetterBack review. If you think you’d like to find out more about the BetterBack, you can get it here.

Health and Fitness

P90X3 Review : Pretty darn awesome!

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I recently finished a round of P90X3 and had a lot of fun doing it so I thought I’d do a little review with my thoughts and experiences with the program. I liked it so much that I’ve actually started a second round, this time doing a different calendar. Read on to find out more!

What is P90X3

P90X3 is the latest program from the P90 series designed and instructed by everybody’s favourite coach, that crazy kook Tony Horton. In typical Tony Horton fashion, he brings his wise cracking coaching style to the program that makes the workouts a lot more fun. So why the hell do you need another P90X program, you say? Simple, this one is shorter. 30 minutes, in fact. For me, this was a huge draw to the program as time is currently my most precious resource. If I knew that I only needed to set aside 30 minutes every day, then it was simply a matter of throwing it into my calendar. I didn’t have to worry about a 45 minute program one day, and an hour and 15 minute program the next. Just 30 minutes, every day for 90 days.

Note that the program has optional warm up and warm downs, but I never did them. I wanted to be in and out in 30 minutes FLAT so I would have zero excuses. If you were to do them, set aside about 45-50 minutes per day instead.

One thing I didn’t like about P90X2 was that you needed way too much equipment. Well they fixed that in P90X3, woot! All you really need is a pullup bar, and some dumbbells or resistance bands. Everything else is optional, like towels, yoga mats, and pushup stands. So if you’ve done P90X or P90X2 in the past, then you should be good to go.

Program Calendars

There are four 90 day calendars to choose from: the regular one that I just completed, the lean one that I just started, a mass one for muscle building, and a doubles calendar for those who miss their hour long workouts. There’s also an elite 1 month block that I’m not sure what it’s for. Eliteness, I guess.

Like most of these programs, there’s also a nutrition guide that I never follow. In fact, I made no modifications to my eating whatsoever and still got some awesome results. A few times during the 90 days, I also binge drank, ate like an asshole on many, many occasions, and just generally didn’t care too much about being super strict or tight on calories.

There were also some days that I was out of town for a few days, so what I did was double workouts on some days (and even a triple on one) just so I could stay on schedule. But I think 85 out of 90 days I was on point and stuck to the calendar, although I did switch around some workouts depending on what I was doing on my strength training days. That’s right, I did not give up my barbells. I would do the P90X3 workout in addition to them. I found the intensity of the P90X3 workouts allowed me to do this without any recovery issues whatsoever. I don’t think I’d be able to do this if I were to do P90X.

P90X3 Workouts

 

The workouts themselves varied in difficulty, purpose, usefulness and fun. My brief thoughts on each below:

Total Synergistics is a full-body workout that focuses on multiple muscle groups and stabilization stuff. In my opinion it’s a pretty easy workout that tries to do too much in 30 minutes.

Agility X is a cardio workout that has a little bit of plyometrics, a little bit of balance, and a bunch of agility “X marks the spot” training. Overall, it isn’t too intense or difficult. Newcomers might find it hard, but I think anybody who has done previous P90X programs won’t find it too bad. The good news with Agility X is you can push yourself really hard with some of the exercises by jumping harder, higher, deeper, faster.

X3 Yoga is a very short and awesome yoga program. I really like it because it allows me to do weekly yoga without taking 60+ minutes of my time and without all of that woowoo omm stuff. I just want to stretch and breathe and balance and quiet the mind, and I want to do it in 30 minutes. X3 Yoga is perfect for me and one of the best workouts in P90X3 and one of my favourite yoga workouts I’ve ever done. Love it.

The Challenge is a very simple pushup and pullup program. This is the only program of the 16 that left me sore the next day after doing it for the first time. I really like the simplicity of the program as well as the progression involved. It’s really easy to track your progress on subsequent workouts and I love that. Another one of my favourite workouts in P90X3.

CVX is pretty cool. It’s a mix of cardio and resistance training. For about 80% of the workout, it is very similar to a complex routine where you have a weight in your hands at all times and do a bunch of exercises. It’s tough and fun, but definitely not exhausting.

The Warrior requires zero equipment so you can do it everywhere. It involves a little bit of pushing, some jumping, and some isometric holds. It’s not too difficult, but works quite well if you’re stuck in a hotel room and need to get a 30 minute workout in.

Dynamix is a mobility workout. I love this routine because I know that without it I wouldn’t do any mobility work even though I know how important it is. So this forces me to get off of my ass and do some mobility stuff. I find it really has helped make my body more durable, less achy, and less stiff. This is probably my favourite workout in the series.

Isometrix is 30 minutes of static yoga poses. I like it because again, it isn’t something I would do without an actual program that tells me to do it.

Accelerator is another one of those cardio workouts that doesn’t require equipment and has low and high speeds. Not too difficult and sorta fun. I don’t hate it.

Decelerator is my least favourite program of the bunch. I am not sure what they are trying to do with this one. The upper body exercises are much more difficult than the lower body exercises, and some of them are just ridiculous. I am glad to see that the other calendars don’t have a whole lot of Decelerator in them, because if they did I’d likely replace them with something else.

Pilates X is a pilates program. I’ve heard of pilates in the past but have never tried it before. I can see why people like it. I personally found it quite challenging, and I am really glad this workout was included in the program because it lets me do something fun and challenging that I would have never tried otherwise.

Eccentric Upper is an upper body workout that focuses on slow, eccentric movements. It has the most challenging exercise in probably the entire P90X series: the eccentric V Pullup. It hurts every damn time.

Eccentric Lower is the lower version of Eccentric Upper. I did not find this lower body routine nearly as challenging as the upper body routine. Even still, I never do slow eccentric movements, so I’m glad that these are in the program.

Triometrics is like a way less intense version of Plyometrics X from P90X. The schtick of this one is that they do three versions of jumping: low, medium, and high. It’s ok, not my favourite workout, but plyo training is good for you so I still do it.

Incinerator feels the most like an original P90X workout in terms of exercises, but not in difficulty. A lot of weighted resistance work followed by bodyweight work working the same muscle groups.

MMX is the most fun workout in the program and also the sweatiest. Inspired by MMA, it involves lots of punching and kicking and sprawling. Lots of fun!

Conclusion

Personally, I loved the program and am already doing the lean calendar. Within the first month I was down 1 belt notch on my lifting belt. Within two months I was down two notches, and in the final month I was down three notches, but it’s very tight. I would say this program is really great for busy people, those who want to supplement their existing workouts and hobbies with additional exercise, and those new to the P90X workouts who aren’t quite ready to tackle the longer and more challenging workouts. For me, it’s a very good fit. I think hardcore P90Xers might find this program too easy, and that is understandable. And for those people who feel like they need to feel sore and exhausted for the program to work, P90X3 might not be a good fit. However, I love that this workout makes me feel alive and energized rather than sore and zapped. I highly recommend giving it a go.

Goals, Habits

Memrise vs DuoLingo

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So I have been using both Memrise and DuoLingo for over a year now to learn Spanish and thought it would be fun to compare the two. I’ve used DuoLingo longer and have recently finished the entire Spanish track.

What are they? Memrise is an online memorization tool. It uses flashcards, mnemonics, and spaced repetition to help memorize things. I think anybody can create a course and the courses vary from all sorts of topics, not just languages. I use it mainly for Spanish. DuoLingo is a language learning tool presented in a gamified way, complete with leaderboards, trophies, unlocking levels, and points.

Let’s try to compare them over various criteria randomly chosen from my brain.

Design – Winner: DuoLingo
They are both nicely designed actually, but DuoLingo is absolutely beautiful. It plays out so much like a video game, or journey of sorts that you can really tell they put a lot of thought into. Memrise, on the other hand, while still nice looking, isn’t quite as polished as DuoLingo. That isn’t to knock Memrise, though, because I can’t think of many websites or apps quite as polished as DuoLingo. It really is tops for design.

Usability – Winner: DuoLingo
Slight edge here, but the controls on DuoLingo are just slightly more intuitive. You press Enter or number keys or hover over words and DuoLingo just responds exactly the way you’d want it to respond. Colors change and sounds are triggered appropriately if you do something right versus wrong in both programs. If you get something right, things turn green and you hear pleasant sounds. Things go wrong, and things turn red. With Memrise, you don’t quite have the flexibility in controls like you do in DuoLingo, in my opinion. It’s hard to explain, but sometimes you are forced to use the mouse only in certain exercises versus being able to use the keyboard, too. With DuoLingo, it is a more consistent experience.

Effectiveness – Tie
Tough to tell. Memrise is simply memorizing words and phrases, with little helpful mnemonics to help you better understand whatever you are trying to memorize. DuoLingo, on the other hand, has a larger focus on the traditional way of learning languages, with nouns and verbs and sentences and all of that fun stuff. It’s hard to tell if one is better than the other, but I will say that without a doubt they complement each other very, very well. Many times I’ll be doing a lesson in DuoLingo and know words I have already memorized from Memrise, thus helping with my understanding of the lesson.

Fun – Winner: Memrise
Memrise is just more fun, period. Because when you are done “planting”, aka doing a lesson, there isn’t a pass or fail. You get a message, some stats and a percentage of how accurate you were, and you can’t fail and are never forced to do the lesson again. You just simply get more practice on the words and phrases you struggled with during your next “planting” session. And when you are ready to “water the plants”, aka refresh lessons, you conveniently get more practice on the words you struggled with, and less so on the words you breezed through. With DuoLingo, not so much. I can’t even tell you how many times I cursed at the screen because I’d accidently spelled a word incorrectly, thus losing a heart. Three hearts is all you get, and then you fail and have to start over. So many times I was on the very last stage of a lesson with zero hearts left, only to fail because of something silly. You ever play a video game and are right at the end only to get stymied? You know how frustrating that is, right? Well DuoLingo is like that x1000. They have recently improved the three hearts rule by letting you fix your mistakes in a stage, thus only removing half a heart, but it is still nowhere near as fun as Memrise. This one isn’t even close.

Replayability – Winner: Memrise
Now that I am done the Spanish track on DuoLingo, I’m not sure what to do. I still do the daily practice, and I try to do the timed practice and fail miserably, but aside from that and the real life translations, there isn’t much to do except for try and pick up another language (which I don’t want to do as I still haven’t even gotten Spanish yet). Memrise, on the other hand, has so much material on Spanish alone it is staggering. I won’t be done with it anytime soon. I recall reading something recently about DuoLingo opening up their platform to allow others to contribute courses as well, so their limited language courses/materials might change in the future.

Innovation – Winner: DuoLingo
Overall, I think DuoLingo is moving at a quicker pace than Memrise. They both have mobile apps, but DuoLingo keeps rolling out features like crazy. DuoLingo is actually really cool, because it not only helps you learn Spanish but it also helps translate real articles and websites into different languages. That’s the innovation from DuoLingo: take an article from the interweb, let 100 people try to translate it into a different language, if they can come to an agreement with a certain amount of accuracy, chances are the translation is pretty good. Genius! Memrise also has a pretty innovative approach. Take a word as a flashcard and add a mnemonic to it. Let anybody add a mnemonic, thus you have a crowdsourced version of flashcards. I have found that looping through various user submitted mnemonics helps reinforce words quite well. Anyway, I’m rambling. Bottom line, DuoLingo now has courses, practice – both regular and timed, immersion of real world articles, forum discussions, and vocabulary practice, and they keep on coming. Memrise still goes with the flashcard and spacing approach, but they are mixing it up a little bit with different ways to interact and answer questions.

Overall – Winner: Memrise
Fun and replayability go a long way. Despite many of DuoLingo’s advantages, I still much prefer Memrise to DuoLingo. With DuoLingo, some days I actually don’t want to do anything on it, but never with Memrise. I almost always look forward to plant and water in Memrise. However, there are some things I absolutely hate about Memrise. For example, the word for car has many alternatives in Spanish (like 3 or 4 that I have run into so far). Well the answer it is expecting is only 1 (or 2, at best). So even though you are right, it isn’t the answer Memrise is expecting and you get the question wrong, wtf!! Super annoying, but at least you get to keep playing unlike DuoLingo which fails you and forces you to start over if you run out of hearts.

So which should you choose? Well, none, if language learning isn’t your thing. But if you have the time, and like free, and prefer to learn at your own pace, then do both. Like I said earlier, they complement each other quite while. It does take a little bit of dedication and consistent practice, though. Dabblers beware, you’re just wasting your time if you can’t get into a routine with them. Also, I definitely wouldn’t say that either of these programs are the best way to learn a language. There are paid alternatives such as Pilmsleur and Rosetta Stone, as well. Are they more effective? Perhaps, but again they do require some dedication. I still think the best way to learn a language is total immersion – that is, move to the country that speaks the language, and only speak that language and not your native tongue (I have never done this so this is a very light opinion). However, for practicality purposes, I think that DuoLingo and Memrise are very attractive choices.

Technical

Backbone vs Ember vs Angular vs Knockout Review

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In the summer of 2012 I wanted to learn javascript. I had played with all of these web services for years that were doing some magic in the browser I just didn’t understand, but wanted to learn. Javascript was the secret sauce. Somewhere along my travels, I came across some lightweight Javascript MVC frameworks that were getting a lot of attention and gaining in popularity. These were Backbone, Ember, Angular, and Knockout. During the month of August, I decided I’d give each one a spin for a week and decide on which one I wanted to use to build my first full fledged web application (Rentything). Below are my thoughts that I can recall in regards to each.

Disclaimer: This is from a newbie’s perspective who was simultaneously learning javascript through Code Academy. If you are the type who spends any time whatsoever debating whether x framework is truly MVC, or not a framework at all, or something else even remotely resembling an already formed opinion of the four frameworks in question, this post is not for you. Also note that by the time you are reading this the information is likely outdated, as these frameworks have been moving at lightning speed. And finally, I am doing this writeup largely from memories of how I felt using the frameworks from 8 months ago, and my memory is terrible. You’ve been warned.

Knockout.js
First up was Knockout. Immediately I was impressed. Their website was beautiful, well documented, and had some amazing interactive tutorials. I watched some screencasts and was very impressed. Things just worked. I had no troubles picking up the syntax at all. There was just one problem, no router (that’s the thing that takes you from /page1 to /page2 and so on)! I tried using Sammy, Davis, Pathjs and a bunch of other javascript routers out there but couldn’t quite get them to play nicely with Knockout. Rats, unfortunately it was a dealbreaker. Sigh, I was almost in love. I am not sure if Knockout has a router built in these days as I haven’t looked at it since. Knockout, you’ll always be my first.

Ember.js
Next up was Ember. It was hard. It promised all this awesome stuff and the site looked cute and I wanted to learn a little bit of templating and Handlebars sounded cool so I figured I’d love this framework, but sadly I did not. Frustrating was what it was. I spent hours just trying to get really basic stuff going that took me minutes with Knockout. The reason, I’m not sure. I think the team behind Ember came from existing open source projects and so had an opinionated way of how things should be done. And I guess that opinion didn’t fit into my pea brain. Another reason, the documentation really sucked. I mean terribly. I would literally spend hours copying and pasting documentation straight from their documents and all I got were errors that I didn’t understand and had no idea how to troubleshoot. I cursed a lot using Ember (if you could call it using). I was glad to move on.

Angular.js
Angular was awesome. I really loved using it. Pretty easy to understand, although their website left a lot to be desired (disorganized mostly). I really loved the form handling capabilities. I was like “Oh snap, that shit works and I don’t have to do a thing”. Everything was going peachy but then I hit a juggernaut of a roadblock. These things in Angular called directives. I wanted to use a Bootstrap carousel, which with every other framework or library, simply required you to declare the Bootstrap script like you would any other. Not with Angular. I didn’t understand. So I asked what the heck was going on in the forums. People replied saying I had to write a directive thingy. So I went looking into what that was. Man oh man, I was WAY in over my head. So I backed away. Dealbreaker, again. Sigh. Don’t make me go back to Ember, please God no. Only 1 framework left. Backbone, man up and do what you do, only let me understand you while you’re doing it.

Backbone.js
I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Everything was confusing to me on their website. There were no examples, there were no simple tutorials. The website was filled with jargon that I just didn’t understand. I was thinking oh man I am seriously lost. But Google to the rescue. I must had done every single tutorial that was available on the first three or four pages on Google. They all did things slightly differently. It was annoying, but I also began to see the power in the flexibility of Backbone. Slowly but surely I started to get it. I put it through the paces and I didn’t run into the roadblocks that the other frameworks did (Knockout’s lack of router, Ember’s terrible documentation, Angular’s complicated directives). Still, aside from Ember it was the least enjoyable to work with. I found it repetitive in certain tasks and lacked some of the cool things that made the other frameworks strong, such as Knockout’s two way data binding sorcery. So I started looking around to see if there were any libraries built on top of Backbone. And yes, there were a ton. I tried Knockback, which combined Knockout and Backbone, but it had its own way of doing things which was just another thing for me to learn. Then I came across Marionette, and it made my relationship with Backbone so much nicer. With Marionette, I actually started to enjoy working with Backbone.

So after all was said and done, I chose Backbone for Rentything because it had what I needed, didn’t have terrible documentation, didn’t have any deal breakers, was the most mature of the frameworks with the most plugins and largest community, and Marionette saved me a ton of time with it. Just in time, too, as I was about to give up on learning javascript completely.

So to recap, from a newbie’s perspective using terrible reconstructive memory from events that happened 8 months ago:

Best Website: Knockout.js
Worst Website: Angular.js

Best Documentation: Knockout.js
Worst Documentation: Ember.js

Most Fun: Knockout.js
Least Fun: Ember.js

Easiest to Learn: Knockout.js
Hardest to Learn: Ember.js/Backbone.js

Most Mature: Backbone.js

Largest Community: Backbone.js

Most plugins/libraries: Backbone.js

Hardest Component: Directives in Angular.js

Things have probably changed dramatically since then. I just started scanning through the frameworks websites as I am writing this, and it looks like Knockout still doesn’t have a router, Ember’s documentation still sucks and they know it (and are working on making it easier) according to http://emberjs.com/blog/2013/03/21/making-ember-easier.html , Angular now has a lot of contributors who have made tons of directives for Bootstrap and other things, and since I’m most familiar with Backbone, I know they recently released version 1.0.

I think for any projects in the near future, I’d probably give Angular another go as the community has grown drastically and it was a pleasure to work with. For smaller projects, I’d definitely go with Knockout since it was just so fun. Backbone has been great, but only after I’ve stacked it with quite a few plugins/libraries to help speed up development. I’d like to try working with a framework that just pleasantly works out of the box next time. My own javascript knowledge has grown a considerable amount since I gave these frameworks a go, so I am sure a second time around will be much less painful.

Health and Fitness

P90X2 Workout Review

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Tony Horton and the Beachbody crew are back with their latest home workout program, the sequel to the massively successful P90X series. It’s called…wait for it….P90X2! I just finished this beastly program and found it quite difficult to complete. There was definitely a lack of motivation with P90X2.

I started with P90X way back in the day. It was the first home workout program I ever completed, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Oddly, I never wrote a review for it for some reason despite it being such an excellent program. P90X2 tries to raise the bar, and Tony Horton mentions throughout the program that this is meant for P90X grads, but in reality you can do this program just fine without having ever done P90X or other similar programs.

Much like P90X, X2 is a 90 day program that consists of 3 phases. Phase 1 is called Foundation, phase 2 is called Strength, and phase 3 is called Performance. With the original P90X, there were very specific programs to follow. If you wanted to get lean, you would follow the lean calendar. There was also the classic calendar and doubles, both of which you would follow a very specific routine. With P90X2, you are given more leeway to decide on how long you want to stay in each phase. So for phase 1, you can stay in the phase anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks, phase 2 is anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks, and phase 3 is anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks. While some people might appreciate this flexibility, I am going to guess many will not. Many people who go through these programs like to be told exactly what to do. They want to be able to follow the calendar exactly and press play. With P90X2, the leeway is ambiguous enough to make people wonder how long they should do each phase for, as long as it adds up to 12 weeks. I ended up going with 3 weeks in phase 1, 5 weeks in phase 2, and 4 weeks in phase 3. This was largely arbitrary, except I wanted to spend the least amount of time in phase 1, because I feel I am in pretty good shape and didn’t need the extra time to “build up” to phase 2 and 3.

All workouts range anywhere from 50 minutes to 75 minutes in length. The longer days are the days that require X2 Ab Ripper. This will not be a shock to P90X grads who had to go through something similar in the original P90X. The workouts vary from phase to phase, but some workouts are used in multiple phases. X2 Yoga is used the most, as it is required in all three phases. Plyocide and X2 Recovery+Mobility are used in both phase 1 and 2. Workouts are 5 days per week with 2 rest and recovery days, which is 1 more day of rest per week compared to P90X.

The workouts in phase1 include X2 Core, Plyocide, X2 Recovery + Mobility, X2 Total Body, X2 Yoga, X2 Balance + Power, and Ab Ripper.

The workouts in phase 2 include Chest + Back + Balance, Plyocide, X2 Recovery + Mobility, X2 Shoulders + Arms, X2 Yoga, Base + Back, and Ab Ripper. In addition, you can substitute V-Sculpt for Chest + Back + Balance, and X2 Chest + Shoulders + Tris for X2 Shoulders + Arms. I did the substition for the last two weeks of phase 2 out of sheer boredom and curiousity.

The workouts in phase 3 include P.A.P. Lower (P.A.P. stands for post activation potentiation, which is a fancy term being thrown around fitness circles), P.A.P. Upper, X2 Yoga, and X2 Recovery + Mobility. There is also a random recovery week tacked onto the end of phase 3 should you need it, which is basically X2 Recovery + Mobility and X2 Yoga alternated every day.

Phew…that was a mouth full. It isn’t so confusing once you actually see the calendar and your options and start the program, though. The one thing that I believe is a big no no for this program is the sheer amount of equipment needed, which is tons more than P90X. You’ll need a mat, towels, tape, up to four(!) medicine balls, dumbbells of various weights, a pullup bar, resistance bands, stability balls, a plyo box, a foam roller, push up stands, and a bunch of other stuff that I’m probably forgetting. Conviently, Beachbody sells all of the stuff you need. I didn’t have all of the equipment needed, but I had most of it and made due. Tony Horton does emphasize that you can do this program in your hotel room if you are traveling, and thus don’t need all of the equipment. In other words, a lack of equipment should not deter you from starting the program. Nonetheless, it is always nice to do the exercises as they are designed for maximum benefit, but the sheer number of “stuff” you need for P90X2 makes this very hard.

I am not going into what each workout consists of individually (that would ruin the surprise!). Just know that there will be a lot of familiar stuff from P90X such as a warmup and cooldown, lots of pullups, pushups, dumbbell work, etc. But there will also be a crapload of new stuff including tons of stability ball work, medicine ball work, and foam rolling. I really liked the foam rolling, that was a nice touch, since I usually neglect foam rolling despite it being so important for recovery. The medicine and stability ball stuff was interesting, but also not really needed, in my opinion. I don’t doubt that the exercises were difficult, because some were (Impossible-Possible was one such move that destroyed me). But what did it accomplish aside from making me better at that particular exercise? That, I’m not so sure of. I’m not convinced that there is a skill transference to other activities, and I’m not convinced you can’t get just as strong or fast doing simpler exercises. But I digress, that’s neither here nor there. Variety is the spice of life, right?

Overall, this was a very good program. Tony Horton was his usual hilarious and whacky self, and most of the workouts were very good and left you feeling like you put in some good work. My results were pretty good as I leaned out some more while packing on a bit of muscle and got stronger. If you have the equipment or are willing to purchase them, this would be a great program. Alternatively, the original P90X is also really awesome, requires less equipment, and had more hilarious moments with Tony Horton. If you’ve never done P90X I would suggest doing that first, and if you are looking to try something new you can’t go wrong with P90X2. You can get P90X2 in both DVD and Blu-Ray. It comes in 3 sizes: Base, Ultimate, and Deluxe, which vary with the number of equipment included.

Blu-Ray: Ultimate, Deluxe, and Base.

DVD: Ultimate, Deluxe, and Base.

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If you liked this review, you may also like my Insanity Asylum, GSP Rushfit, Rip:60, P90X+, Insanity, RevAbs, or RMAX BER reviews

Health and Fitness

Insanity Asylum Review

1 Comment

I finished Insanity Asylum a little while ago and haven’t gotten around to writing about it until now. Here are my thoughts:

Insanity Asylum is a 30 day home workout program from Beachbody and hosted by Shaun T, the same dude that brought you programs like Insanity, which I found to be a mofo. This program is no different in that regard. Shaun T really likes to kick your ass. The program is designed for people who have already completed Insanity and want to take their athleticism to another level. It is designed for athletic performance.

Equipment Needed: You need a little bit more equipment in this one compared to some other home programs, including an agility ladder, jumping rope, dumbbells, resistance bands, and an optional pull-up bar.

Workouts: There are 6 workouts and 2 bonuses. The workouts are Speed & Agility, Vertical Plyo, Strength, Back to Core, Gameday, and Relief. The bonuses are the assessment, which you do before and after the program to show your progress, and a 15 minute overtime program, which you’ll wish you didn’t have to do since its after Gameday. Asylum also comes with a nutrition guide, worksheet to track progress, and a calendar.

You combine the 6 core workouts for 30 days, which goes by very quickly. You can also use these programs in addition to Insanity or P90X, but I imagine you would be very, very tired. Workouts are usually about 45 minutes, except Gameday which is closer to an hour and Relief which is a 30 minute stretching program you have to do a few times in those 30 days. Of the 30 days, you only get 2 rest days so plan your time accordingly.

I found Insanity Asylum to be pretty challenging and tiring. I have never used an agility ladder before and discovered how embarrassingly uncoordinated I was at the beginning of the program, but gradually improved over time. The movements might feel unnatural and complex at the beginning, so you may need to practice a bit before getting them down correctly. Shaun T stresses the importance of proper technique for maximum benefit of the program. The assessment did show a significant improvement in performance numbers in a number of exercises compared with my pre Asylum numbers, so I guess that means Asylum helped.

I did find that this program really strained my lower back. Especially after the Strength program, I would find my lower back aching the entire next day. My feet and ankles were also sore until after the program ended (I did the workouts wearing Nike Free shoes). Also, be aware that you will sweat a lot in the program. A LOT. I would suggest a towel to dry off any chance you are able to because if you are working out on a smooth service such as hardwood, concrete, or tile, you WILL start slipping. It happened to me a bunch of times and I almost landed right on my ass once. In the videos, they do the workouts on astro turf so never run into the issue. You have been warned.

Overall, I give the program a thumbs up. I felt it really helped with my balance and coordination, especially. I cannot say for sure if that translated to improved climbing or grappling, it could be all in my head, but I did feel it. If you are looking for a challenge and improvement in athletic performance, then definitely give it a try. You can get Asylum here.

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If you liked this review, you may also like my P90X2, GSP Rushfit, Rip:60, P90X+, Insanity, RevAbs, or RMAX BER reviews