Day 90 Pictures and Measurements/Review

So I thought that since we have now finished the 90 days I would summarize some of my thoughts on the program as well as give some things that I think might be useful to anyone considering doing the program. Oh yeah, I also have my day 90 photos.

Equipment:

According to the fitness guide that came with P90X the following equipment is recommended, and surprise you can buy it all from beachbody. I would not recommend buying the gear from beachbody though since from all the research I did you can easily beat their prices at a local sporting goods store and not have to wait for delivery.

Yoga Mat - I used it for many of the workouts and I would recommend one for anyone without a very soft floor to workout on but not required by any stretch of the imagination. You can get one of these for as little as $15-20 at Dick's or other sporting goods store.

Chin-Up Bar - You really are not going to get too far in this program without one of these. If you have resistance bands Tony shows alternatives for all the pull-ups but some of them are not entirely the same. I built my own pull-up bars out of black pipe, a couple of elbows, and a couple of floor flanges. I lag bolted the assembled pipe, using the flanges, to a 2X8 and then lag bolted that to the rafters in the unfinished part of my basement.

Dumbbells and/or Resistance Bands - You can use either but you don't need both but one or the other or a substitute such as the selecttech dumbbells are absolutely required. I bought the bowflex selecttech dumbbells mentioned later and I like them.

Heart Rate Monitor - I bought a Sportline from Sports Authority for $70 on sale but there are various ones at different prices and if you want to skip this it is not needed for the program. I like it and use it but you could save some money by skipping it.

Yoga Block(s) - They say you need 2 but I only used one and you could get by without it and use books or something. I do recommend something though if you are new to yoga since it will help you get into some of the positions and get you a better stretch. I bought mine from Sports Authority for $10 for 2 but you can get a pair for as cheap as $5.

Body Fat Tester - I saw no point in this but get one if you want. I do not feel that I missed anything by not having this and I do have a scale that give a body fat reading. These scales are notoriously inaccurate but you can get a good idea of progress from one if you always use it at the same time of day under the same conditions and ignore the value and just pay attention to the change over time.

Power Stands - This is just a specific set of push-up stands that beachbody sells and you don't need to have push-up stands for the program if you don't want them. I did buy some and used them because they helped prevent wrist pain. Keep in mind you will be doing a lot of push-ups so you may experience some wrist issues. I bought mine from Dick's for $20.

Selecttech Dumbbells - I bought these after much research and I loved them. The web site is here. I decided to buy some adjustable because of space issues but after researching I discovered they were much cheaper than buying the same number of regular dumbbells. If I bought the equivalent regular dumbbells to the selecttech 552 I would have spent around $1000 and these cost me $350. These are not the only adjustable out there but from the research I did you want to stay away from anything but these or the Power Blocks because the rest of them suck. I tried a bunch and most were hard to adjust which will be a giant pain in the ass while doing the workouts.

This seems like a pretty extensive list but there are some other things you will need to have handy to do some of the workouts. These are not likely to be things you need to buy but you will still need them. You need a chair or stool for some of the workouts for things like chair dips. You also will want to get a good pair of cross trainers to wear during most of the workouts and make sure they fit well or your feet will be sliding all over during the plyometrics workout.

Supplements:

Again the fitness guide has a convenient list of products available from beachbody. I know some people have used these and had good results but my research led me down a different path. From what I was able to discover the beachbody bars and supplements were at best no better than what I could get locally and at worst not as good and more expensive. I took the following but do your own research based on your goals and decide for yourself what you want to do for supplementation.

Gold Standard 100% Whey - I took one serving post workout and one serving in the morning on a rest day. This tastes great, I like the double chocolate, and is loaded with protein and almost no sugar. I always took this with skim milk, it tastes nowhere near as good without the milk.

Muscletech Cell-Tech Hardcore - This is a Creatine product and I took half a serving during phases 1 and 2 which is 5 grams of Creatine. I upped the dose during phase 3 to the manufacturer recommended serving which is 10 grams of Creatine. I took this post workout and in the morning on off days. I noticed a fairly significant difference in phase 3 and I sort of attribute it to upping the dosage on this so I would probably start there if I were you. The one drawback on this is it is high in sugar but that is supposed to be part of how it works. If you don't buy the hype on this you can get a Creating supplement without the sugar and use that in the same dosage.

Multi Vitamin - I intentionally did not put down a brand here because I think that is less important than taking one. here is one supplement that I would say you should take it is this. You are going to be working your body hard and draining it of its resources so this could be helpful in helping you stay healthy during the 90 days. If there is one complaint I have heard from a few people it is they got sick while doing the program. It is a 90 day program so that is bound to happen sometimes, it did to me, but I could see how if you were not real good with the nutrition you might have problems and this could help too.

Vitamin C- 1000 milligrams a day. This was something I took prior to this program and not something I did as part of this.

Fish Oil - EPA 600 milligrams/DHA 400 milligrams/Other Omega-3's 200 milligrams. This is also something I took before the program partly to control cholesterol but also as part of my weight loss program. There have been some interesting studies linking fish oil to weight loss so if that is your goal you might want to research it. You can find a million things about this by doing a google search.

Nutrition Bars - I found 2 I liked Clif Builders and Zone Perfect. The Clif Builders are a high protein bar and the peanut butter is yummy. The zone perfect is not really as high in protein but is tasty as well. There are a bunch of these out there though for you to choose from. I bought a bunch of singles and tried them all early on and picked the ones I liked to buy later. I used these as a snack from time to time when I was out or in a hurry but that is all I used them for.

Nutrition:

Not much to say here other than follow the nutrition plan if you want to see results. It is my opinion that this is probably about 70% of the program. The amount of effort and will power this will take will depend on what your habits today are. If you eat junk all the time this is going to be tough but stick to it. If you slip don't beat yourself up just get back on that horse and go at it again. If you follow this plan for 90 days it is likely that you will change the way you eat for good which is what you really should be looking for, lifestyle change. Once you feel like you are to this point you might want to be a little more lax on the nutrition and just do something like following the rules outlined by fitbomb here, he also has a great description of the nutrition plan there so I won't repeat it.

Tips:

If you want to be successful in this I suggest you do your homework and plan ahead. Order the program and take some time to read through everything and then get online and do some research. Do this before you start so you will know what you are getting into. I would go so far as to suggest that you do as many of the workouts as you can prior to actually starting the 90 days. At the very least watch them all but doing them will allow you to get a decent idea of what rep counts and weights you will be doing and will give you a chance to see how they are se up and the speed at which they move.

Get some workout sheets and use them. There are some available from beachbody online such as this one for Chest and Back. These are what I used but when I start again I will probably make my own because there are some things missing from these and some entire workouts have none and probably should. It is key that you track you progress though and constantly try to increase. This is something I think I could have done a better job on. I don't feel like I pushed hard enough to increase on every exercise in every workout which is what I plan to do next time around.

Hold yourself accountable somehow. Blog about your progress, tell your friends, tell our family, work out with a friend whatever it takes to make it harder for you to just stop without someone asking you about it. This can be helpful and the good thing is the workouts are much like the nutrition, once you get through 90 days of this you are likely to want to continue because it becomes a lifestyle change.

Read other P90X and fitness blogs. Read the nutrition and health articles in the newspaper or look around online for similar stuff to keep your interest up. The bottom line is have fun and keep pushing play and bring it and you will like the results you see.

So are my pictures and I plan to do the fit test Friday night and post the results I do have measurements thou so here it goes. I am actually including extra pictures here that are a little more close up. Have a look back at my previous pictures if you want to see the differences.

Weight -

Day 1 - 160 pounds

Day 30 - 155 pounds

Day 90 - 155 pounds

Chest -

Day 1 - 38"

Day 30 - 36"

Day 90 - 38"

Waist -

Day 1 - 35.5"

Day 30 - 33.5"

Day 90 - 30"

Hips -

Day 1 - 35"

Day 30 - 33.25"

Day 90 - 29.5"

Right Thigh -

Day 1 - 21"

Day 30 - 22"

Day 90 - 22.5"

Left Thigh -

Day 1 - 20.75"

Day 30 - 21"

Day 90 - 21.5"

Right Arm -

Day 1 - 13.5"

Day 30 - 13.5"

Day 90 - 13.5"

Left Arm -

Day 1 - 13.25"

Day 30 - 13.25"

Day 90 - 13.25"