Someone commented on my Asylum hybrid training posts that they’d like to see a schedule with a program that is already available, so here’s a hybrid training system primer. I’ve been creating training programs for pretty much my entire life—well, ok, that’s an exaggeration. I was eleven when I made my first training program after watching the Munich Olympics.
Anyways, if you dig through this blog, the Beachbody Message Boards, or Birthdaychallenge.com you’ll see training program examples for all sorts of targeted events. I've made these with pretty much every program we've sold, from Slim in 6 to Turbo Fire to Power Half Hour to Ho Ala ke Kino (this will test your Beachbody knowledge). But to start here are a few more formal articles I’ve written about how to create a training program suited to your individual needs.
Creating Hybrid Programs
Insanity and The X
Customizing P90X
Customing P90X Part VII: Triathlon
pic: from brad schilt's birthday challenge
12 comments:
If cobbles aren't mentioned in any of these then I seriously question their value.
Yah, agreed. Some cobbled training is essential, eh. April approaches!
Steve, I have a question about your article, "Insanity and the X." You write, "This means you can start INSANITY on the heels of P90X, and its first week will function as your recovery week." I am about to finish P90X and am planning on starting Insanity. So are you saying I should/could skip Week 13 of P90X (recovery) and start Insanity then?
yes, you could do that if you wanted to treat Insanity as another training block of P90X. You don't have to. If you want to see your 90x progress I'd rest, do the fit test to check improvement, and then begin Insanity. One way is not superior to the other except that you'll get fitter, quicker, with the first scenario but only by a few weeks and, even then, only if you aren't destroyed by 90X and in need of a week off.
Steve, I'm in week 13 of P90X and brought insanity. But I'm a bit leery of doing only insanity...no real strength training from what I can tell, at least it doesn't seem to be the focus. Can I just jump to a P90X hybrid where I substitute some of P90X workouts for insanity?
I never thought of combining X and Insanity, but I could see a good match there.
Thanks for showing the workout ideas, I hate getting bored and love seeing constant results.
You Rawk!
Wow! Great article- next week is week 12 of p90x for me and I usually slack off during recovery weeks. I got insanity in the mail and now I am really excited to finish up week 12 and jump right into insanity! Thanks for the ideas!
Hi Steve;
A quick question: In X, Tony has preached 8-10 reps for size, higher reps for lean. In a recent P90x One On One MC2 workout, he mentions that research is showing that higher reps is the way to go for size. Has Tony changed his philosophy on this? Thanks!
Reps is really a simple way to measure time. Nothing has really changed. The process for gaining size is to stimulate growth hormone/testosterone release. The study the measured reps didn't account for time and one person's fast 8-10 is another's 5 or another's 20, depending. For hypertrophy we generally look towards slower reps to prolong contraction time over the course of the workout. For strength you want to increase force and speed, and for endurance you want to length the time to take the stimulus out of the anaerobic system.
There will be some explanation in the mc2 guide but we are still looking for mainly overall fitness in these programs which is why you see us doing things a myriad of ways in the workouts.
I did a round of P90X (May-Aug), a round of Insanity (Sept-Nov), a 2nd round of P90X (Dec-Feb), and I'm in the middle of 2nd round of Insanity :)
When I did round 2 of p90x i tried swapping in some Insanity workouts instead of p90x, esp PlyoX or KenpoX. After a few weeks I stopped doing that, I felt i was missing out. It seems to me the p90x program is so well designed that i didnt want to mess with it. For example, while KenpoX is cardio, it works the hips legs and arms in a way that really rounds out the p90x program, Insanity doesnt.
- on the other hand, during Insanity days off I've done YogaX or just StretchX, and it was exactly what my body needed.
- Some weeks I've had to "miss" a day, to go skiing or something. Or I just felt like popping in a DVD from the other program. If it was a rest day, I'll just keep on schedule after that, but otherwise I push everything out a day to preserve the sequence.
- Which leads me to think, it seems completely arbitrary that all the programs use 7 day cycles (obviously understandable, but still fairly arbitrary). Why not an 8 or 9 day "week", especially when mixing a hybrid program?
@linoj: because there are 7 days in the week. UH DUUUUUUHHHH!
@anonymous: sure. But except for biblical origins, unlike days and (lunar) months and years, weeks are not based on a physical or celestial cycle. And i wonder if anyone's actually studied whats the optimal cycle for workout routines.
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