Do You Change Exercises Daily Doing the P90x?

The P90X home workout program involves alternating between a variety of cardiovascular, flexibility and resistance workouts on different days. Also known as cross training, varying your workouts from day to day is a great way to boost your overall fitness level. Although P90X is generally a cross-training program, you do repeat some exercises during this three-phase, 13-week program.

  1. Phase One

    • The first phase of the classic P90X routine involves three weekly repetitions of six mandatory workouts and one optional stretch day. Days 1, 3 and 5 are hour-long resistance workouts for your chest and back, shoulders and arms, and legs and back, respectively. Day 2 is an hour-long plyometrics routine that involves a lot of jumping to help work on your legs and cardiovascular fitness. Day 4 introduces Yoga X, a power vinyasa yoga workout that spans 92 minutes. Day 6 is an hour-long kenpo karate-based cardiovascular workout. Depending on how you feel, you can use Day 7 to rest or complete the hour-long X Stretch stretching routine.

    Phase Two

    • Phase two spans your fifth through seventh weeks of the classic P90X routine and follows a similar format as phase one. In fact, you make only two changes to your weekly schedule when you transition from the first to the second phase. Day 1 replaces the chest and back workout with a chest, shoulders and triceps routine. Day 3 introduces a back and biceps workout in place of the shoulders and arms routine. Otherwise, you do the same workouts in phase one and phase two on Days 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

    Phase Three and Recovery Weeks

    • Weeks nine through 12 involve alternating the weekly routines from phases one and two. As such, you do a week of phase one, a week of phase two, another week of phase one and a final week of phase two. You follow this with a recovery week, which you also perform after phases one and two. These recovery weeks are the only ones involving some repetition. In addition to a kenpo karate workout on Day 3, you do Yoga X on Days 1 and 6, a core workout on Days 2 and 5, a mandatory X Stretch on Day 4 and an optional X Stretch on Day 7.

    Ab Ripper and Cardio X

    • P90X pairs every resistance workout with an additional 16-minute abs workout called Ab Ripper X. As such, you do Ab Ripper X three times per week during phases one, two and three, but not at all during your recovery weeks. Another workout that you might repeat is the 43-minute Cardio X routine. The more intense P90X doubles program adds this workout to all resistance and Ab Ripper X days in phases two and three, with an additional Cardio X workout in phase three on plyometrics days. In addition to being a supplemental workout, Cardio X is a substitute workout if you ever feel unable to do any of the routines in P90X.