If someone starts P90X, 9 times out of 10 I get an email or question about YogaX. I have a love/hate relationship with YogaX. I “hate” yoga, and I “love” subbing a different workout for it! LOL!
This seems like a really fitting post for “yoga Thursday.” I know many of you are gonna give me crap for this, but I can’t lie. I have never liked yoga. I will always feel like yoga is a “chick thing”. Let the flaming begin! I deserve it! But at least I’m honest!!!
I tried YogaX when I started P90X Classic for the first time and quickly decided that I was going to do something else instead. I understood that it worked the core, balance, and flexibility, but I just couldn’t get into it. My heart rate never got high, I didn’t sweat much, and I sure didn’t have to start breathing hard. The moves were difficult and challenging, so in that respect it was “hard”, but I didn’t feel like I was getting a good workout. It seemed more like glorified stretching than anything else. Besides, how does an hour of downward dog do anything for me??
Well, I set out to prove that I could get the very best results EVER with P90X despite skipping YogaX… and I may have done it! I got tired of hearing people on the message boards swear that YogaX is the key to everything. Blah, Blah, Blah! I was going to prove them wrong!
Well, I didn’t do YogaX for about 6 months, instead using Core Synergistics and my P90X / Insanity hybrids. I don’t regret it at all. I think my results speak for themselves.
With the many new programs put out by Beachbody, there are actually quite a few workouts you can sub. You can find many relief and recovery workouts from X2, the Asylum, Turbo Fire, etc.
BUT …. during my Round 3, after going back and forth with some of y’all about yoga, I decided to put it back into my recovery week. And so I’ve been doing it (not every week as part of my normal training block, but once or twice on recovery weeks).
Well, do you think I’ve had an epiphany that YogaX is the key to it all? Heck no! I still hate it! I still think it feels like glorified stretching. But I’m gonna do it by golly! I think a lot of people expect yoga to be easy. It’s actually really challenging! You have to work to improve just like any other workout.
Even in my Round 4 hybrid I put yoga into the starting lineup! So all you yoga lovers could get off my back! But it wasn’t Yoga X because 90 minutes is just too much to for me bear! I used Fountain of Youth Yoga from the Tony Horton 1-on-1 series (which BB must know is more popular because they now send it out as a free gift to anyone who buys P90X through their BB coach!).
Fountain of Youth yoga is similar to the first half of YogaX but with a little more variety. In other words, you don’t spend all 48 minutes of FOY doing the exact same move over and over and over and over like you do on YogaX (can you tell I still hate YogaX! LOL!).
There is also the X2 Yoga option, which I find much more bearable. It mixes in some ab work and at least isn’t as repetitive. I use that one on recovery weeks.
So will I have candles and incense going? NO! Will I find my inner peace? NO (at least not doing yoga!). But I WILL do it anyways.
Look at my Round 4 hybrid, featuring yoga! I’ve had Round 1 (which was unnamed), Round 2 (“My Hybrid Workout“), Round 3 (“The Perfect Storm“), and then Round 4, which I will lovingly called “Constant Confusion“
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
