Customer Reviews

P90X Plus: The Next Level for P90X Grads-5 New Extreme Workouts on 4 DVDs

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I purchased the P90X workouts the Summer of 2008, and I loved the original workouts. They are a must for someone working out at home, who has gotten a little bored with their traditional workout. At the same time, I bought the Plus series too. They just don't pack the punch of the P90X workouts from the standpoint of routines, challenge, and production value. They simply aren't as challenging and intense as the originals.

IntervalX and Abs/Core introduces variations of traditional ab and cardio work. Some of the new variations are fun, but they aren't that different than other routines in P90X. With me being almost done with my second round of P90X, I use these workouts about once every two weeks on average. I've been critical so far, but I do like the Interval X workout for its quick cardio. You can get a good burn doing the short 30 minute workout. Tony takes you thru 12 different routines of slow, medium,and then fast. It gets the heart pumping and you get a good sweat from it.

Total Body Plus is a 40 minute workout with 10 minutes of warm up and cool down, plus around 30 minutes of actual workout. Tony takes you heat to toe working out shoulders, chest, back, arms, and legs. Its not overly challenging, but you can get a good workout in the 25 minutes of actually working out. You do a variations of routines with and without weights. From push ups to pull ups to some lifting, this workout will work your entire body. You won't be spent after the workout, so you could do some cardio or abs along with this routine. It too easy for me, and I'm looking for something a bit harder. That being said, my teenage daughter and wife loves this workout. They do it twice a week, so its almost ideal for a total body workout at low to medium intensity. I'm not saying this workout is for women only, but its not challenging enough for me personally.

Kenpo Cardio is another short cardio burn that IS more intense than the first Kenpo P90X workout. I actually use this over the original, because while shorter I feel it gives me a better burn. The original Kenpo was more of a slow steady burn for 40 minutes, while this is more of an up tempo 32 minute burn. It has most of the same moves but at a quicker and more intense pace. As stated earlier, I use this one exclusively over the 1st Kenpo.

Upper Plus is a good solid workout that isn't much different. It variations of all your normal back, chest, and arm workouts. It maybe be the most intense of the Plus series, but its nothing you have to have or didn't do with P90X.

I don't want to be overly critical of the Plus series, but Beach Body made these to capitalize on the original. I don't blame them, but I am disappointed and wished I hadn't bought them. They simply fall short in production value, intensity, and the results you get from them. These are shorter workouts meant to go along with the P90X workouts and not to replace them. You simply won't get the results as the original routines, but I don't think they are meant to. They only compliment the others, and so I could live without them. At 40 I'm looking for intense and challenging workouts to maintain what I got, and these don't do it for me. These are ideal for men and women who want a moderate workout in less than 35 minutes. If you haven't bought the P90X workouts, then I highly encourage you to do so. You won't be disappointed and the 12 routines will keep things really fresh. If you do have the originals, you really don't need these at all. They are nice complimentary workouts , and only ideal for someone looking for a moderate workout. I'm not a fitness trainer, so my opinion may not be worth spit. But for all of you guys, that are looking for a challenging to hard workout...don't buy these dvds. They are good but not worth the hundred Plus bucks you'll pay for them.

I did the entire P90X and loved/hated every moment of it. It's the best workout program on the market. What makes it different is the workouts, the schedule, the nutrition, but really what REALLY makes it different is Tony Horton's personality. He was a great motivation in P90X. Engaging, humorous, and working his butt off with the rest of them. In the new P90X+, not so much. I think he tried to push the extreme concept too far and it fell flat with me. First, the crew of 4 people is reduced to 2. Second, Tony hardly does anything anymore. Third, he seemed to have lost his humor and free spirit. Lastly, the workouts are getting so complex and convoluted, it's hard to keep up. What happened? I think he tried to make it a trilogy and like many before him should have quit when he was ahead. I went for a second round of P90X instead and I love Tony again. BTW, a tracking spreadsheet really makes a difference if you plan on going through the 90 day program. I got mine at workoutsoft.com, they're the best.

First off, I do agree with the previous reviewer that there are certain elements missing in this series. The production quality seems to have taken a hit and the overall feel isn't at grand or dynamic as the first group. BUT. . .

These new workouts are more intense and will push you beyond the originals. They are more complicated than the previous series. But the moves in this system are no joke. The abs/core disc is worth the price of admission alone. I got these before I finished going through the classic a second time, so I substituted the new Kenpo for the old one in the "classic" timeline. The new one is much better as it keeps the pacing up where the first one tended to slow down towards the end. The full body is a great addition. The best part I've found is the mixing and matching of the old series and the new. It makes for some great weeks of working out.

So yes, it is more complicated and less visually friendly (although some member of the band Chicago wrote the music for the new series, a fact they are VERY proud to remind you of), but the workouts are 5-star through and through. Just a reminder, these are supplements to the original series and don't replace all the previous workouts. To buy just these would not be to have a complete set of workouts.

I have done many, many rounds of the P90X and purchased the Plus to augment the P90X classic. I am 46 and have been doing the P90X series for two years now. Most workouts are kept under 40 minutes. This is completely opposite from the Classic series where most workouts are 1 hr long. The difference in the Plus is that Tony keeps the participants moving from one exercise to the next one fairly quickly. This adds more intensity to the workouts. There is also a trainer's track where Tony discusses the howto and purpose of each exercise.

Kenpo+: Much better than the original Kenpo. It assumes that you know most of the Kenpo moves. To tell you the truth there really isn't any complicated moves in the original Kenpo (unlike B. Banks' Tae Bo). 40 minutes long.

Core+: This is an excellent workout for your entire core. I'd use it instead of the original Abs workouts. 20 minutes long.

Interval: WOW. This is a nasty one. Bodyweight exercises combined with some plyometrics. This one will leave you huffing and puffing. 40 minutes long.

Upper+: Just upperbody exercises in various flavors. It uses bodyweight exercises and weights (or bands). 40 minutes long.

Total+: This is a combination of upperbody/core/legs. A lot of the upperbody exercises are combined with a core or leg exercise; this raises the intensity of the workout. You will need a pull-up bar for four of the exercises.

Some of the reviewers complained about the speed of the strength-training workouts. Folks, the idea here is to move quickly from one exercise to the next to increase the intensity and combine strength and aerobic training into one session. Your sessions should not last longer than 45 minutes (from warm-up to cool-down).

My personal opinion of the P90X series (Classic and Plus) is that it is aimed at individuals who are already in shape. My only modifications to the workouts would be two things: one, the Classic's strength training workouts should be cut down to 40 minutes; and two, use P90X coupled with HIT concepts(high intensity training) to achieve better results in less time. That's what I have been doing for the last six months with excellent results; the DVDs have a ton of exercises from which to pick and create your own HIT routines.

KEEP ON PUSHING PLAY!

P90x Plus brings a new attitude and tempo to the P90x workout. The workouts are shorter, but they move at a quicker pace with less pauses for instruction, fewer breaks, and faster transitions. These workouts are for P90x graduates and they do have an "advanced" feel about them. Tony works with the same two people for each of the five workouts. Traci Morrow uses dumbbells for the resistance moves and shows some modifications (usually for plank exercises or pull-ups). Mark Briggs does the advanced moves for some of the exercises and uses bands on the resistance workouts. These workouts are different than the standard P90x, but that is what "muscle confusion" and breaking plateaus is all about.

Total Body Plus: (45:30) The warm-up incorporates moves that would be in a regular workout in the P90X series like push-ups and dive bombers. The exercises take old P90X moves and put an advanced spin on them. For example, Pull-up crunches are a chin-up where you raise your knees to the bar. There is a one-minute exercise called Sumo Chair where you jump from a squat position into a chair position (those wear me out!). It also incorporates what I like to call "stations." In the 3 & 3 exercise, you do 3 squats with weights then do 3 push-ups and then rush to the pull-up bar to do 3 pull-ups and then it's back to the squats and so on until the time runs out. I call them stations because it's like moving from one station (i.e. the squat station) to the next. I guess there is a little cardio involved if you move fast enough. I like to mix it up and alternate wide, military, standard, pike press push-ups and wide, close grip, reverse grip, side of the head (using the bars that jut out) pull-ups. There is also a 1 & 1 exercise where you do just one push-up and then one pull-up and can mix that one up, too.

Interval X Plus is only 41:30 minutes and thankfully so because it is HARD! I had to give myself extra breaks the first time I did it. There is only one break in the middle. Intervals keep the heart rate up because you are consistently moving at three different speeds, not stopping and going. Your "rest" is doing a move at a less intense level for 20 seconds, then you pick it up for the next 20 and go full tilt for the last 20 seconds. After one move you go immediately to the next move at 20 seconds easy pace and so on. You also do Core Synergistic moves like Loading Dock and 3 Count and Prison Cell Push Ups (I HATE those!) which adds to the intensity. After a minute break, you do the same moves again but in the opposite order, so you do the Prison Cell push-ups back-to-back! Ugh! This workout is probably effective as heck, but I dread it!

Upper Plus (41:35) This workout is intense because it moves so quickly and some of the moves work multiple parts of the body (i.e. core, arms, legs) at the same time like the "Fly Blast" and "Warrior Swim." The "Combat Push-ups" are very hard. They are military isos where you move your feet from side to side for each rep. It runs for 90 seconds, which is very difficult. What I've found with a lot of the exercises in the P90x Plus series is that they are timed rather than maximum reps. The "Shoulder Everything" and "Bicep Everything," where you do shoulder lifts and bicep curls in different positions, isn't difficult at first, but they each run 90 seconds which really tests endurance as well as strength.

Kenpo Cardio Plus (41:30) In these moves you transition a lot more quickly than Kenpo X. You also move back and forth with the exercises and not one side at a time. You move laterally more in this workout, so make sure you have enough room. You also combine more moves which makes them more challenging. The first exercises where you do the shuffles, I like to move forward and shuffle back each time. New moves include "The Gladiator." This exercise is tough. You lift one knee up and kick with the other leg while in the air and then punch down towards the floor. That move takes practice. The "Spinning Swords" are difficult for me. You throw swords (and later add back hammers) to the back while turning and looking to the back. Those make me dizzy. I don't look to the back when I do those moves. There are no stationary "block" moves in this workout.

The Abs/Core Plus is excellent. It runs 20 minutes, so it is about 4 minutes longer than Ab Ripper X, but, unlike ARX, it does not consist of just floor exercises. Each round consists of an exercise hanging from the pull-up bar, standing sometimes with weights, in plank position, and on the floor. There are 5 rounds with all different movements. Most of them are 30 seconds long which is a relief when doing the hanging crunches because they are hard--especially "Mixed Bike" where you're cycling your legs while hanging. A couple of the plank exercises count repetitions. The weights used are very light (2.5 to 5 lbs for women, probably 7.5 to 15 lbs for men). Brand new moves are introduced in this workout including "Scorpion Plank" and "Cherry Bomb." New music is used in these workouts, too, but listen for the one played during "Wood Chopper"; it sounds like a whale sneezing.

Here's a comment from an old weight lifter who converted to the P90X Series and loved it. Fellow weight lifters, heres the deal. There is very little muscle confusion dynamic in the Plus. The rest week offers a change in routine but basically you'll be doing the same workout for 90 days. By the second phase I was changing things up by inserting P90X routines or making up different exercises, etc. Make no mistake, this is cardio at its best. But legs!! Where was the leg workout? Not enough for me. The bottom line. You'll burn calaries like crazy but don't expect to maintain the P90X muscularity without adding some of your own creativity later in the series. It appeared that Tony and company hastily threw this thing together as the next step with the help of Bowflex. Consequently, I gave it 3 stars...down from 5.

I've finished the P90X program and decided to try 'the next stage' in Tony's program. They really messed up with this one; it is nowhere near as good as the original P90X program. You will burn calories, but it seems like it is more of a cardio workout than anything. Other problems:

1.) It is too rushed! For some reason they decided to make each dvd shorter ...about 40-45 minutes now instead of the 60+ in the original dvd's. To do this they had to 'hurry' things along. My pull up bar is in my hallway and I have to walk about 20 paces to get to it....usually by the time I get there 10 seconds of the routine is gone. You barely have enough time to 'write it down' as Tony likes to say. By the time you write your info down on your sheet, get to your dumbbells (or selectechs in my case-dial in the proper weight) the routine has already started. This is very annoying.

2.) Sound quality is just terrible. It sounds like Tony is speaking in a box and his voice overwhelms the music(which you can barely hear).

3.) Tony basically does little to nothing in the form of a workout...it was inspiring to see him do the routines in the original. He does more flirting with the girl than anything else...

4.) The abs routine is nothing special....not nearly as good as the original.

5.) Kenpo is the weakest dvd....I realize that this is basically another 'rest day'.

6.) I think they sat around and tried to come up with exercises that were new...and they did...but they are unnecessarily complicated and rushed.

I'll continue to use them, but I'm basically going back to the old P90X routine and I'll throw one of these in my routine now and then to vary things up. P90X was/is very successful for a reason...it works...they tried to capitalize on the success of that program by rushing this out. I think most of us who have completed the program wanted something more/different to continue on....changing the original format was a huge mistake.

I am a "graduate" of P90X and loved the workout and got excellent results (See my p90X review). I was really looking froward to taking my workout to the next level with P90X+.

I am very dissapointed. There is much less energy. Their are only 2 exercisers and it the same 2 exercisers on all the DVDs. They do not bring the same energy levels that the exercisers on P90X have. On P90X there are 4 exercisers on each DVD who change on each DVD. This is just one of the little things that helped keep me motivated.

Specific comments on P90X+ -

1) Instruction "manual": a very small 14 page pamphlet that's mostly advertisemets for other products. Compare this to the excellent P90X manual. What happened?

2) Constant hawking of Bowflex selecttech dumbells. I know they have to have to make money but the constant hawking of the selecttech dumbells gets really annoying. BTW, the powerblock is consistently rated higher than slecttech.

3) The workouts. Interval X is very good, my heart rate really gets up there. I rate Interval X as the best P90X+ workout

4) Abs core plus - a good workout but I think that Abs ripper X isolates the abdominals much more.

5) Kenpo cardio plus - I really think this is the worst workout in the series and waste of time. There is absolutely NO energy in this workout. I workout with a heart rate monitor and I can barely burn 300 calories during this workout. I thought Kenpo was the easiest workout in the P90X series but I think its much better than Kenpo Cardio Plus.

I am going back to P90X.

The BEST part is that these workouts are SHORT!, you warm up,stretch, work out,and cool down in ~40 minutes. However, after completing both this and first P90X, this is more of a P90X LEAN and somewhat more of a "maintenance" work out.

Every day is a Cardio Day. The strength training days (like Upper+ and Total Body+) are WAY MORE CARDIO-intensive than those in P90X, but you're also distributing less time over more muscle groups (instead of POUNDING a specific group for an hour as in P90X) and you ending using a lot LESS WEIGHT compared to P90X. If you just do P90X+ for a while and go back to P90X, you will feel the pain and realize just how less weight-intensive it really is. For this reason I tend to prefer P90X weeks most of the time.

KEMPO CARDIO + IS FAR BETTER and more effective (and shorter!) than the original and forever replaces it. INTERVAL X is A LOT MORE FUN than Plyometrics, it's on par with it, and I much prefer the quick/short transitions between working and recovering, and it's lower impact/easier on the knees.

MY ONLY DISAPPOINTMENTS
P90X's YOGA X is an hour and a half!!!!!!! It's my favorite day of the week, but I would have LOVED to see a shorter, P90X Plus-LIKE Yoga workout with a heck of a lot less TALKY TALKY.

I don't love all of Abs/Core plus, I prefer Ab Ripper in general even though its harder. I like the seated moves(like Cherry Bomb) and the standing/twisting X moves, I'm annoyed by the hanging and push-up/plank based moves. It's ~5 minutes longer than Ab Ripper (which seems to bother me somewhat since it always lands at the end the workout) and it's much less intense, but it does work the obliques and other core areas more so than Ab Ripper. It adds variety.

NOW, I just mix it up, I usually alternate the two P90X weeks with a P90X+ week in-between, I might go back and redo P90X by the book again at some point

OVERALL, these P90X/P90X+ work outs reveal what a total waste of time and money my gym membership days really were.

First off, count me in as someone who much prefers KenPo+ to the original, mainly because it's shorter and well-paced. You can make it as intense as you want. Interval X is ok, I guess, but I prefer the original Plyo. Abs Plus has 20 separate exercises in it, which is a lot of transitions, but I like it much better than Ab Ripper X because it works your entire core in a more sensible way. Ab Ribber X is my least favorite of the original P90X workouts because it's just too intense and repetitive for my abs, especially three times a week (maybe I'm getting too old). I'd liken it to doing nothing but curls for 15 minutes.

My problem with P90X+ is really with the pace of the sculpting workouts. It's interesting that one reviewer doesn't think they're hard enough; I think they're too aerobically intense, which makes it hard to focus on the weightlifting. I find myself constantly hitting pause and taking 75 minutes to do the 40-minute Total Body and at least 60 mins to do Upper Body because I'm catching my breath and I want to do all of the exercises, concentrating on the resistance training. It's kind of annoying to have to keep doing this. I think the transitions between exercises are too fast, too. Even when my conditioning allows me to transition at the DVD's speed, I cannot keep up how quickly they jump between exercises. They don't give you time to write things down, go pick up a new weight, etc. The moves in general are more compound and more complex. I'm sure this was done to shorten the workout.

In general, I prefer the original P90X DVDs. However, P90X+ is a worthy way to mix in some new exercises and I'm glad I bought it. If I redo P90X classic, I'll probably mix in some of these tapes, and I will definitely replace Ab Ripper X with Abs Plus and KenPo with KenPo Plus.