What Workout Should You Do to Stay in Shape After You Finish the P90X?

Finishing the P90X workout program is an ultimate achievement. The highly explosive training regimen that you conquered has likely increased your endurance level, allowing you to dominate high-intensity conditioning programs. The extreme advancement of your physical fitness level will enable you to use newly developed strength to accomplish difficult modes of training exercise, like interval training. Going back to a conventional workout program after completing the P90X won’t yield the results you have become accustomed to. However, the vigorous intensity of interval training increases muscular endurance and promotes body fat loss.

  1. Extreme Workout Activity

    • Thousands of studies have cited the benefits of structuring a workout program that combines strength training and conditioning. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends expanding your workout regimen beyond the basics of strength development, however. Advanced workout aficionados need to incorporate challenging modes of exercise into their training program to gain maximum results. Maximizing overall conditioning, energy level, strength and well-being requires intense cardiovascular exercise and extreme resistance training, according to the ACSM. Activities such as kickboxing and stair-stepping, for example, provide an applicable level of challenge and benefit for post-P90X exercise enthusiasts.

    Benefits of High-Intensity Exercise

    • In 2012, the "International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism" published a study that determined the effects of sprint interval training and continuous endurance training. High-intensity interval training requires segments of maximal exertion, according to Web MD. This type of training elicits tremendous benefit to overall cardiovascular function and muscular endurance. The study concluded that participants who reached maximum oxygen intake, also referred to as V02 consumption, experienced significant body-fat reduction due to an increase in post-exercise metabolism. The resulting effects of interval training on a periodic basis spanning three to six weeks has a substantial positive impact on overall fitness.

    Sprint Interval Training

    • P90X graduates are dedicated and hardworking to the point of fitness excellence. Calorie-torching workouts, like P90X and interval training, are extremely intense. A highly efficient interval training workout consists of sprinting and weightlifting. Web MD cites a workout constructed by certified personal trainer Michael Banks, who emphasizes the necessity for challenge when working out. Banks’ routine starts with a seven-minute power walk on a treadmill, followed by a hard, 30-second sprint at maximum exertion. Each segment of sprint-interval training should be completed with brief cool-down period to allow the heart to subside to a normal working rate.

    Maximizing Difficulty Level

    • The difficulty of interval training is maximized when weightlifting is incorporated into extreme cardiovascular activity. Banks recommends performing 15 to 20 repetitions of squats and overhead presses at a comfortable weight after your first sprint interval. Get back on the treadmill and sprint for an additional 30 seconds afterward to increase rate heart and maximize difficulty. The next phase of weightlifting includes 15 overhead triceps extensions and pushups. The final phase of your interval workout requires an additional 30-second bout of sprinting, 15 jumping jacks with light-weighted dumbbells, a brief walk on the treadmill at an incline and stretching.