P90X For Women?

T

tiadhani

New member
Thinking about trying P90X. Currently 5'6 and 198 lbs (Down from 225). I don't want to be a muscle machine, just lose the weight (aiming for about 140lbs currently). I see there is a Lean Version meant for women but still unsure. I got the DVDs from a friend and checked them out, definetly look difficult but I'm the type of person who is able to stick to a something if it's very straight forward which this is.

Also, I like to run around 20-30 Mins on my tredmill 5-6 days a week, helps to relieve stress and I walk my dogs for 30mins - 1 hour everyday, if I'm adding 60mins/90mins of P90X is that maybe TOO much exeresize? Or should I just be upping my Calorie intake. Currently I'm eating about 1500 a day, and while it seems low I'm definetly never hungry, just eating a lot of very healthy foods.

Input is appreciated :)
 
It's a decent program. Nothing special. Just marketed wisely and better than a lot of the other garbage pre-packaged routines offer, which isn't saying much.

But the bigger point is, no matter how great the program, you're not getting bulky when you're dieting and female.

It's just not the way out bodies work. Period.
 
Okay, I have a fair amount of muscle now, use to be a swimmer so I have muscular legs and arms, just don't want to look all buff haha!
 
Well here's the thing.

If you have a considerable base of muscle now, the more fat you lose, the more "buff" you'll appear. The fat loss will expose any muscle you currently have.

If your body's genetic proclivity is to carry a lot of muscle though, there's not much you're going to do about that.

p90x, as well as any program worth a damn, focuses on progressive overload. That's a fancy way of saying that the program forces your body to adapt positively by placing greater and greater demands on it over time.

If you don't want to risk adding any more muscle, my suggestion would be to nix the progressive overload part and merely lift the same loads over time to ensure you don't go losing muscle while you diet.

That said, I'd be surprised if you're as muscular as you think you are. Granted, there are certainly statistical outliers but by and large women who believe they're big and muscular aren't in my experience. Their perception is a product of skewed body image and their level of body fatness.

But like I said... I don't say that to offend. You very well could be an exception to the rule.

I'd also note that in very general terms, muscle growth... at least appreciable amounts of it... don't happen easily in well fed men. It's a slow, tedious process.

It requires a lot of energy (calories) to support the new tissue growth. Knowing this, dieting generally isn't a conducive time to expect much to happen in terms of muscle mass since, by definition, you're short-changed in energy.

Also, men are carrying around a significant amount more testosterone. Given this, it can be said that women, even if conditions are dialed in perfectly with calories and training, don't have the genetic propensity to gain lots of muscle without the assistance of drugs.

Just some random thoughts.
 
Thanks for the input, no offense taken. Maybe your right, I'm thinking of doing the LEAN approach of P90X which is more targeted towards women. Thoughts?
 
My boyfriend and I are gonna give p90x a go too. I'm not at all worried about looking overly muscular. It's just like Steve said; the female body just doesn't function like the male body. We don't put on muscle like they do. It's almost physically impossible, except in that .1 percent of women with the genes for it. Women have to be on steroids to build that kind of muscle. You have nothing to worry about.
Based on that, I think either program would work, the regular one or the women's one. Hell, I bet the programs are almost exactly the same, the probably just use more female fitness models in the girl's one. Honestly, I'd never even heard of a female/lean version before you mentioned it. Based on my ten-minute research, the only difference is that the lean version focuses more on cardio than the classic version. But you need muscle to increase your metabolism. So, I'm sticking with classic.
I'm excited to start, though. I think it'll be a fun change from my current work-out routine. Let me know how it works for you!
 
Would it be more beneficial for me to start with something a bit less intense like Power 90 and work up to P90X or just do P90X to the best of my abilities?

The lean is just more cardio I believe yeah, Ive read that a lot of women do that instead.
 
tiadhani said:
Thanks for the input, no offense taken. Maybe your right, I'm thinking of doing the LEAN approach of P90X which is more targeted towards women. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with it, to be honest. Do you know the differences between it and the regular version of p90x?

Without knowing the details... I'm doubtful that it's anything but a marketing ploy since in reality, there's not a whole heck of a lot of difference between training men and women since the adaptations that occur in response to exercise are the same.
 
tiadhani said:
Would it be more beneficial for me to start with something a bit less intense like Power 90 and work up to P90X or just do P90X to the best of my abilities?
Click to expand...

Possibly.

It depends on your starting fitness levels. Without knowing them it's hard to give you a concrete answer.

That said, I will say that it's generally best to start conservative and work your way up. However, I'd hate to see you spending that much money on a product that's average.

Put differently, without all the high energy weirdness (at least that's how I perceive it) that the instructor, Tony, brings to the table, you can pick up some weights and do the same exact stuff on your own.

The lean is just more cardio I believe yeah, Ive read that a lot of women do that instead.
Click to expand...

A lot of cardio isn't always the best answer. In some instances it's a good idea. In others, it's the opposite. Generally speaking, the more fat you have to lose, the more the abundant cardio is a good idea.

The closer you are to lean, however, the more it can come back to bite you in the butt.

That said, I've no idea how much cardio is actually recommended in the lean version so I can't say where it falls in terms of appropriateness for various goals.
 
I didn't purchase the program, I got it from a friend who uses it but he's a completely different fitness level then I am by a long shot (he's a firefighter). Another friend has the Power 90 program, but again, she's fit and me not so much.

I can run a good 30 minutes straight but I mean that's not much to brag about, when I first started I could barely go five so I've made progress for sure. I don't think I'd ever put the money out to pay for the program, I've lost almost 30 lbs just eating better and doing exersize so it's not rocket science but P90X appealed to me because it was very straight forward and that's my best approach with weightloss, even just on my own I make a plan each Sunday for the week and that's how I stick with it. I have to purchase some resistance bands for P90X so once I get around to doing that I think I will try the program, and hopefully not die in the process lol
 
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