I feel like I did that tonight with the P90X2 Plyocide DVD. Yes they joke that it's not suicide by plyometrics...not sure why they call it plyocide.
My husband wanted P90X part 2 for Christmas, and I basically wanted nothing to do with it. Last year I injured an already injured shoulder doing the original P90X and ended up having shoulder surgery.
So why did I try it tonight? A couple of reasons...I'm older and wiser (at least in theory), I've become a certified personal trainer in the interim and think I understand body mechanics, and moderation better, and finally - one of my spark teams is doing a challenge and I get extra points if I try something new. I'm all about earning that extra point apparently.
Here's what you need: a towel and some space in front of your DVD player at a bare minimum. If you have it - they use (1) a stability ball, (2) a foam roller, (3) a medicine ball, and (4) a stretchy band. If you want to you can put a large cross on the floor with tape, or you can just imagine the line and go for it.
The DVD starts out with a disclaimer and says very clearly that this is not for beginners. They start the workout with cautions and I think this is all good. In case you don't get it when they say it, here it is in black and white - this is not for beginners and I wouldn't advise it for anyone who needs to lose a lot of weight.
Pro - they do start out with a good warmup and some foam roller stretching. I love my foam roller and use it everyday so I was good with the intro. The whole DVD takes about 55 minutes. I skipped two exercises that were too difficult for me and did high knee walking instead to keep my heart rate up. I modified many of the exercises to be low impact - sometimes he gave instructions on how to do this, and sometimes he did not.
Con - I think he's old school in hanging onto Ballistic stretching. Newer research shows that this can be dangerous and you can hurt yourself. I did slower stretching of the same body part whenever he did ballistic (fast moving) stretching.
Pro - The absolute best thing to me was the stretching they did at the end with the band. I ran a race this weekend and running on concrete or pavement can really do a number on my hip. The hip opener stretching he did was great and I feel loser now than when I started the workout.
Be sure you have a very large glass of water nearby. I was open mouth breathing during some high impact stuff and was glad to have water with me.
I used a kickball rather than a heavy medicine ball for several of the exercises. This allowed me to still get the moves, and learn the movement without trying to swing an 8 lb ball around. The 8lb ball is what was recommended when we ordered the program. I would start out with a light weight ball or a 2lb medicine ball - especially if you are new to working out with those.
He frequently reminded you that you could pause the DVD when necessary, took water breaks, and advised caution on more than one occasion. I think that was all good.
In the end I got a good workout. I found it challenging and have a lot of room for improvement. I still would advise that novices order something else or exercise caution and do low impact versions.
No comments:
Post a Comment