What Is Kenpo X in P90X?

If you want to live longer and be healthier, aerobic exercise is one of the best ways to achieve this. But if you don’t want to pay for a gym membership, you need to find ways to exercise at home or outside. Workout videos are a great option for working out at home, and sometimes you can find a whole set of videos with different workouts, like P90X. Kenpo X is included in P90X and it gives you a fun, martial arts-style cardio workout.

  1. Martial Arts-Style Exercises

    • Martial Arts is a broad term used to define a variety of exercises that include different punches, strikes and kicks. This includes exercises like karate, taekwondo, and aikido. Kenpo is a form of karate. These are sports that include an opponent, where you are performing these moves against the body of the other person. In the exercise world, aerobic classes and videos have been designed after these martial arts to perform similar moves, but without an opponent. Sometimes a punching bag is used, and sometimes you just perform the moves against the air, such as in Kenpo X.

    Benefits of Kenpo X

    • Besides being a fun, high-intensity cardio workout, the moves in Kenpo X are designed to improve your flexibility and balance. This is done by the different moves in the video, using your core for balance and stretching for flexibility. Your coordination will improve after doing Kenpo X on a regular basis because your body will get familiar with the moves until they are easy to do. Endurance is improved by exercising day after day, according to Fitness Magazine.

    The Kenpo X Workout

    • The Kenpo X workout on P90X is about 45 minutes long. You will start out with a 12-minute warm-up, which includes many stretches. The stretching will help you become more flexible over time, making the exercises easier with practice. Following the warm-up and stretch is about 30 minutes of aerobic Kenpo X workout. As cardio, it is meant to increase your heart rate and you will burn calories. The instructor teaches you proper form for each of the kicks, blocks, punches, and other movements so that even a beginner can follow and understand this workout. The workout ends with a short, two-minute cool down and stretch.

    Enhance Your Kenpo X Workout

    • Naturally, after working out for a few weeks your body will begin to get stronger and your endurance will increase. When that starts to happen, Kenpo X will be easier, and you may want to adjust a few things to add intensity. You can do this by making your movements more pronounced or stronger. For instance, for your kicks you can lift your legs higher, or kick with more body force. Beyond that, you can add weights to your workout through hand-weighted gloves, wrist weights, ankle weights or even a weighted vest. Adding this extra weight will make the moves more difficult, increasing the effort you need to complete the workout. This will increase your calories burned and improve your endurance and strength even more.