Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps

This is a review of the Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps workout, part of the P90X program. To learn more about the program and see reviews of the other workouts in the program, click here.

Chest, shoulders, and triceps is the first workout you will do in the second phase of the P90X program. After a few weeks of hard work followed by a recovery week, you should feel ready to go when you start this workout. At this point, you’ll probably be wondering just how the whole muscle confusion experience is going to work and you get ready to start a week with a few new workouts. Here’s a hint: it’s hard.

Chest, shoulders, and triceps is all about 3 things: push-ups, shoulder presses, and tricep extensions. Unlike a lot of the other workouts in this program, you won’t be repeating a single exercise here. Nope, Tony has managed to come up with 24 unique exercises designed to get you into great shape!

The first exercise

As ready as you might feel for this workout, you very quickly learn that it is not just as easy as combining elements of Chest and Back with some from Shoulders and Arms. While some of the exercises from these workouts are repeated here, there are quite a number of new moves. The first move, in particular, is, in my view, pure evil. It is called the Slow Motion 3-in-1 Push-up. Basically, you do a relatively small number of push-ups, but very slowly and at 3 different angles (hence the name). What this essentially boils down to is a feeling of push-up burnout at the very beginning of the workout, with 45 minutes left to go!

Not to worry, though, you will make it through this workout. The exercises are pretty fun and you always have the option of selecting the right weight for you and working at your level of fitness.

Some of the other exercises you can look forward to include: One arm push-ups, Clap or Plyo push-ups (for the plyo push-ups, your feet come off the floor, not just your hands), Side-to-side push-ups (think Spiderman), Weighted circles (shoulders), Fly row presses (how many shoulder moves can you do at once?), and about 8 varieties on the tricep extension.

When all is said and done, your upper body will feel like jello, but you should feel like you’ve really accomplished something, especially after the third week of doing this workout. Sure, it’s tough, but that’s why you signed up for P90X!

Don’t forget to take a look at other workouts in the program.

Photo by deskounlmtd.net.