ACE Fitness scores P90X High on the Bring It scale

ACE Fitness scores P90X High on the Bring It scale

Yesterday a great friend pointed out an article titled “Does P90X Really Bring It!” (written by Joel Woldt, M.S., John P. Porcari, Ph.D., Scott Doberstein, M.S., Jeff Steffen, Ph.D., and Carl Foster, Ph.D., with Mark Anders) This post, on the Fitness Training blog by Ace Fitness. It was nice to see Ace Fitness taking a good honest look at a program,that sold more than 3 million copies as of November of 2010! That is 3 million people wanting to Bring It with trainer Tony Horton.

Ace Fitness has this to say about the trainer Tony Horton and his program:

“Horton, the quirky yet motivating star and creator of P90X, first made a name for himself as a trainer for Hollywood’s elite, including actors Sean Connery and Ewan McGregor, musicians Sheryl Crow, Usher and Bruce Springsteen, and ‘80s rocker Billy Idol. It was Idol who gave Horton the nickname “Muscle Confucius,” a tip of the hat to Horton’s favorite fitness concept, muscle confusion, which is at the heart of the P90X program. Exercise scientists call it daily undulating periodization, which is the principle that by changing up workouts regularly, the body doesn’t have time to adapt and become efficient at the exercise. This, in turn, means the body burns more fat and builds more muscle, more quickly.”

Ace talks about the fact that no scientific studies have been done regarding the program and took it upon themselves to do some testing. Ace Fitness brought in John Porcari, Ph.D., and Joel Woldt, M.S., the researchers from the University’s Exercise and Health Program, added 16 healthy subjects, ages 19 to 26, who were regular exercisers  with P90X or a something like it.

First they established a baseline for each individual using a treadmill to find their maximum heart rate and their VO2Max. Next they chose 4 workouts that represented the program: Plyometrics, Legs and Back, Chest, Shoulders and triceps plus Cardio X.  Once each subject was proficient in the selected workouts they ran the tests across multiple days, giving each testee a day rotation just as they would if doing the program at home. Ace Fitness describes the testing like this:

“The subjects exercised to the best of their abilities (e.g., performing the maximum amount of repetitions possible using a weight of their choice) throughout the warm-up, conditioning phase and cool-down, as researchers kept tabs on subjects’ heart rates (HR) by taking recordings at one-minute intervals throughout the workout. At the end of each workout, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded while the heart-rate data was plugged into HR/VO₂ regression equations that were created from the maximal exercise tests to determine the predicted VO₂ that the subject exercised at during that session.”

The Results
After weeks of testing, the research team crunched the data (Table 1). Porcari and his team reported that the average heart rate for all four workouts was 67 percent to 83 percent of HRmax for the male subjects; 65 percent to 88 percent of HRmax for the females (Figure 1). Meanwhile, the calculated VO₂max values were between 45 percent and 70 percent of VO₂max for males and between 45 percent and 80 percent for the female subjects.

As for calorie burns, the male subjects burned 10.5 to 16.2 kcals per minute, while the female subjects burned 7.2 to 12.6 kcals per minute. Male subjects totaled 441 to 699 kcals burned per workout. The females expended a total of 302 to 544 kcals per workout. The Plyometrics workout proved to be the biggest calorie burner, while the Chest, Shoulders & Triceps routine burned the fewest number of calories.

Researchers noted that given these results, the P90X workouts that were tested (and, therefore, most likely all of the P90X workouts) meet or exceed established fitness industry standards for losing weight and improving cardio respiratory fitness.

The results definitely came back positive, in fact, Dr. Porcari had this to say about the P90X program:

“There’s no doubt that if people want to get into shape, the best way to do it is with high-intensity, interval-training like you’re seeing here with P90X.” “When it comes to your muscles and your cardiovascular system, if you break them down, they bounce back stronger,” continues Porcari. “But they kind of get used to any chronic stimulus, so by doing things differently you’re just constantly challenging the muscles and cardiovascular system to respond and improve.”

But don’t just take their word for it, take the word of so many others who proudly proclaim success with their levels of fitness after bringing it with P90X.  The hardest part isn’t just the workout themselves but sticking to the routine as detailed for the complete 90 days.  Many times people have said they started but life interrupted them and they never went back to it.  I always advise people to pick it back up, brush off the DVD’s and start “pushing play,” as they say, so you can get into the best shape you have ever been in at what ever age you are..

You have to believe in yourself because you can do it.  The biggest part to remember is that you want to work at your own level and take breaks when needed until your body builds up to the level of fitness needed to push through like the trainers do.  Don’t be afraid to push pause in your own house.

Porcari’s fellow researcher, Joel Woldt, M.S., agrees. “If you do P90X, at least the four workouts I’ve tested, and if you do it to the best of your ability,” he says, “there’s no way you’re not going to get results.”

Do you want to push play and bring it into your next workout?

For your own P90X workout DVD’s please click this affiliate link

To read the full report from Ace Fitness titled: Does P90X Really Bring it  By Joel Woldt, M.S., John P. Porcari, Ph.D., Scott Doberstein, M.S., Jeff Steffen, Ph.D., and Carl Foster, Ph.D., with Mark Anders

Click this image to download you own PDF copy of this report from ACE Fitness.