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.
ING Direct is an online bank offerings accounts in a category usually referred to as online, high yield savings accounts. I have personally had an account with ING Direct for almost 5 years now and have really enjoyed my experience with them.
ING Direct is different than your average bank or credit union. It doesn’t have local branches. You can’t walk into a building and speak to a representative face to face. Deposits made to the account are not always immediately available for withdrawal. In fact, you can’t even order check books! So, why would you consider using such an institution?
Because ING Direct doesn’t have the overhead of branches (and, therefore, employees), it is typically able to offer you a much higher interest rate on your deposited money than the traditional brick and mortar institution would be able to. This makes it an ideal candidate for hosting your emergency fund or other short and long term savings funds. The money is accessible, yet enough of a hassle to get to that it makes you think twice before spending money you shouldn’t. Your deposits are also insured by the FDIC just like they would be at any other bank.
How it works
As with any financial institution, you can set up your direct deposit to go straight to you ING Direct account. This grants you immediate access to the funds through your Orange Checking account; while you can’t get checks, you do get a debit card that can be used fee-free at ATM’s throughout the country (and even some outside of the country).
To access the rest of your funds, however, you need to link your ING Direct account to a checking account at your local financial institution. That’s right, even though ING Direct doesn’t have local branches, you are required to have an account with a brick and mortar bank or credit union. Once the accounts are linked, you can then initiate transfers from one account to the other. These transfers usually take about 2 business days and are pretty easy to set up. One special note here to be aware (and beware) of: funds transfered from your local checking account to ING Direct are not available for withdrawal for 5 business days and do not start accruing interest for two days after the transfer is complete. This is a relatively minor issue for me, however, as most of the transfers I make to my ING Direct account are for long-term use.
And as with most financial institutions these days, ING Direct does offer free bill pay services. So, it can really serve as a great options for all of your financial transactions! You can also sync your transactions with financial software and online sites like mint.com.
The ING Direct “sub-account”
Many users of ING Direct (myself included) seem to stick with it for one additional reason: you are able to set up as many savings accounts as you would like under your general account. This means that you can have one account set up for your emergency fund, another for regular automobile expenses, another for your house down payment, and yet another for your looming tuition bill! Sure, you could just budget these accounts on paper, but the ease with which you can set up and manage these so-called sub-accounts makes the process very easy. In short, sub-accounts are the way that I manage most of my major budget categories. It’s an awesome way to help you meet your financial goals.
The referral program
Rather than telling you that ING Direct has a special bonus promotion going on, I’ll tell you the truth. ING Direct is always seeking ways to broaden its customer base through its referral program. Existing customers are given the opportunity to invite their friends, relatives, etc. to join and receive a $25 account opening bonus. This creates a no-cost method and incentive of getting started with ING so you can check it out and see what you think. If you’re interested in this offer, let me (or any one of many hundreds of people you can easily find online) know and I’d be happy to send you an email link so you can take advantage of it. I’ll also go the extra mile and tell you what most others do not: If you accept a referral from an existing member, you get a $25 bonus and the referrer (me, or whomever else you choose as your referrer) will receive a $10 referral bonus. Do with that what you will!
Are you a customer with ING Direct? What do you think of it? If not, do you have any concerns with the idea of doing business with an online bank?
This is a review of the Kenpo X workout, part of the P90X program. To learn more about the program and see reviews of the other workouts in the program, click here.
Kenpo X is, along with Plyo X and Cardio X, a cardio workout. It’s one of the workouts of the P90X program that is designed for just one purpose: to burn calories. For one hour, you’ll be engaged in kicking and punching moves designed to get your heart rate up and body fat down.
From beginning to advanced
As you begin this workout, you will start by engaging in some simple punches. Gradually, more will be added to these moves until you are moving pretty quickly in order to get in all the moves involved.
The “break”
Every so often in this workout, you get the opportunity to take a break… from punching and kicking. You see, while Tony calls it a break, you really just spend about 90 seconds jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, and doing bigger jumping jacks. Many of the weeks of the program, I actually use the break of this workout to get my heart rate up to the level I want it to be at. Yep, that’s extreme!
The fastest hour of P90X
The best part of this workout is that it goes by quickly. Unlike many of the more difficult workouts in the program, it feels like this one is over before its even begun. Sure, it has its challenges, but you never actually get the feeling that you’re going to die before the workout is over.
However, this means you need to be careful. It’s also possible to take this workout easy and not get the most out of it. You really have to constantly remind yourself to Bring It and push harder and harder throughout the course of the workout. If your heart rate is not up the entire time (which, for me, meant that I had to push really hard), you are not working anywhere near hard enough. You’ll just have to find a way to take smaller breaks and move faster than Tony.
Overall, I really do enjoy this workout. It is fun, effective, and a nice break after completing a really intense workout like Legs and Back.
Photo by Cayusa.
It seems like there is rarely a day that goes by that I don’t hear an ad on TV or the radio for ways to “save money” on your TV service by switching either to cable or satellite. Offers to switch to this bundle or that package abound. Ignoring the fact that it’s impossible for both options to be less expensive at the same time (they are, after all competitors making the same claim), I have found ways to pay even less than what these companies are willing to offer.
hulu.com
If you haven’t tried watching your favorite TV shows (or, often, movies) on hulu.com, you’re really missing out. It seems like every television network is now offering viewers the chance to stay caught up on the newest episodes of their favorite shows online the day after they air. And while it’s possible to go to the website of the TV station directly to watch the show, it’s a lot easier to view them all on one site: hulu.
The shows on hulu.com are brought to you free thanks to hulu’s advertising partners. That’s right, instead of watching 3-4 commercials every few minutes on TV, you get to watch one quick ad. The net result: you can watch your shows anytime with fewer commercials, thereby requiring less overall time to watch the latest episode of The Office.
Watch out, though, because hulu isn’t able to make every episode of every show available indefinitely; they’ll usually only have the last 5 episodes online. That just means you need to make sure not to fall too far behind if you want to use this service.
Netflix
Yes, it’s true, you do have to pay for Netflix service, but you really get a lot more than you might imagine for the money. While the movie rental service is nice, my favorite feature of Netflix is its Watch Instantly feature. With this option, you have the ability to watch thousands of movies and TV shows via stream to your computer or, with the use of a special converter or XBOX 360, straight to your television. What’s really great is that many of the newer films and shows are even offered in an HD format. So, for $8.99 per month, it’s definitely a lot cheaper than cable!
Over the air
Many people are really surprised when they come over to my house and see my 42 inch LCD TV with an old set of rabbit ear antennas wedged between it and the wall. Yep, I have a very new, fancy television using an antenna that is probably the same age as I am! But, the beauty of the new digital television standard is that I get about 25 channels, over the air, absolutely free. I don’t pay a dime to get HD programming on my TV. The picture is great, the sound perfect, and the price even better.
In summary…
For a total of $8.99 per month, I’ve got more TV programming than I could ever watch. If you haven’t looked into trimming your budget in this way, I’d recommend giving it a shot!
Do you pay for TV service? What free sources do you utilize for watching your favorite shows?
Photo by Bonnaf.
This is a review of the Legs and Back workout, part of the P90X program. To learn more about the program and see reviews of the other workouts in the program, click here.
In order to put the Legs and Back workout into perspective, you need to first imagine how tired you likely are from doing your first 4 workouts from the week. You’re thinking, “I’ve made it through so far. How bad can it be?” And then you begin this workout. About half way through the first exercise, you realize, “Oh man, this is gonna be rough.” That’s how I would describe this workout.
The overall premise
So, for this one, you’ll be doing 2 leg exercises followed by pull-ups, for a total of 8 rounds. The good news is that,although it starts out a bit on the rough side, the workout quickly becomes manageable due to the length of each section. Please understand, this is not to say that the workout ever gets easy. It certainly does not. It’s just possible to wrap your head around it all and push through. It’s really quite similar to other workouts like Chest and Back and Shoulders and Arms in this respect.
The pace
Where this workout sets itself apart from others is in its pacing. Because there are very few max rep workouts (meaning, once you’re done, you’re done, and you have the rest of the time given for that exercise to rest), you will experience a pretty steady transition from one exercise to the next. Sure, if you can’t do many pull-ups, you will get some rest there, but, if, like me, your pull-up bar is in the other room and you’re doing a pretty good number of pull-ups, you will often show up a few seconds late for the next part.
Finishing…
The roughest part of this workout comes at the second to last exercise: Debbie Siebers Speed Squats. I’m not really sure who Debbie Siebers is, but I don’t like her. On this squat exercise, you have the option to go extreme and jump at the top of each squat, and this is what I always chose to do. While I guarantee that doing so helped me to get in better shape, this exercise has a way of leaving you gasping for breath as you go into your last pull-up set. I was always amazed at the overall cardio effect of this non-cardio workout.
Image from Gregor Rohrig.
My name is Branden. I am a high school teacher, a track coach, and a fitness and finance junkie who happens to think that life is pretty rough without viewing it through a spiritual lens. On this site, I hope to help you explore how to get into peak physical and financial shape while serving others, growing spiritually, and giving both time and money.
