Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Updated 11/16/14: Original review first with final impressions at the end If you check my other reviews you'll see that I have top reviews for P90X and P90X2. I'm not a Beachbody coach. I've never purchased supplements or shakes or anything other than the original push-up stands from them. I'm just a guy who enjoys Tony's workouts and have gotten great results with them. That being said, I wanted to give you guys a breakdown of this system as I'm sure there are a lot of questions out there. Is it like the first or second series? How much additional gear will you need? Do you need to do the first two series to do this one? Is it really 30 minutes? And on and on. . . This review is designed to answer those questions for people wondering about the series that don't want to wait 90 days to find out what's in it. Here we go. . . First, calling it 30 minutes is a little bit disingenuous. Each DVD has the option of beginning with a "Cold Start" that is a 12 minute, extensive warm-up. You can choose to skip that and jump right into the workouts if you like, most of which have a short 2-3 minute warm-up that is of a higher intensity. The cool down doesn't begin until AFTER the 30 minutes has elapsed and can be anywhere from 3-6 minutes depending on the workout you've done. There's also no dedicated ab routine like in the previous 2 series. So if you want to put an ab routine in after your resistance days that's up to you. If you were to do the warm-up, the routine, the cool down, and the abs, you're now back up to about an hour. Now, this doesn't bother me as trying to cram all of that into 30 minutes would guarantee your workout wasn't very good. I was skeptical that they would try to do this and I'm glad they didn't. I rather it be a bit longer than shorter. But what about the gear? You need very little. This is one place they've embraced their roots. Gone are the army of medicine balls and plyo platforms. This is original P90X style: Dumbbells, pull-up bar, yoga mat. There are some other things you can grab, but none that are necessary. For those who didn't like P90X2 because of how much gear there was, this new set will appeal to you in its spartan attitude towards equipment. You absolutely don't have had to do any previous P90X series in order to use this. Unlike P90X2, which had a high learning curve that turned a lot of people off, this one is much simpler and straightforward. The moves are nowhere near as complex and come with plenty of modifications for people of all fitness levels. And, of course, the shorter time limit makes it more attractive to people who thought an hour and change was just too much. Even the guide book encourages people to try this first and then graduate into the other two series. I would wager to say that this is actually a better starting point than the original series for people new to this type of rigorous workouts. So what are the workouts like? Glad you asked. Unlike the first two series, Tony pushes the pace on these videos to make it all work in the time limit. While he still has plenty of banter (which I personally enjoy), it's now mixed in while people are working out. This isn't Insanity where it's literally non-stop, but it isn't meant to be. You're definitely getting your 30 minutes worth of working. Now for those of you that loved the targeted approach of P90X (chest and back one one day, arms on another) as opposed to P90X2's more compound movements, I'm sorry to say that this system is more like 2 than 1. There are no dedicated arm workouts. There is a push/pull video called "The Challenge" that is a lot of fun, but other than that you're going to find videos dedicated to Upper Body and ones dedicated to Lower Body. Others are full body and use compound movements and isolation positions to work a lot of muscles at the same time. Again, Tony is focusing on a functional body that works together and less on isolating muscle groups. But because this isn't P90X2 where it felt like every resistance exercise was done in a balance pose, you'll be able to keep your heavier weights right off the bat. It'll be interesting to see at the end of 90 days how my strength is compared to where it is now. Some of the cardio workouts definitely get you breathing. While I loathed Kenpo X in the first series because it felt like a throwaway and had too many static moments that allowed you to catch your breath prematurely, MMX (an MMA inspired cardio workout) is a lot of fun. By adding an army of Superman Punches and Sprawls (called Burpees in the non-combat world) the workout is a beast. I have to say that I was certainly challenged by MMX and CVX. Maybe the greatest thing about this series: yoga is just 30 minutes. Yes, you read that right. The most loathed of all the workouts is just 30 minutes. It's paced well and plays like a highlight reel of it's 90-minute big brother. Unfortunately, it moves quickly for a yoga workout and will not give you the results of the X2 or X1 yoga vids that were longer. But what really threw me was that Tony now has a Pilates video. Never before has a workout series had something I've never tried before. This was a first for me. Never in my life have I attended or attempted Pilates. This was probably the most challenging thus far because I've no familiarity with any of the movements. Even Tony isn't great at it, so it's even more inspiring that he's pushing himself through these workouts, still attempting mastery right along with me. It was heartening to seem him struggling. This one left me sore in a some new places. Like the previous versions, this comes with a nutrition guide that has what appear to be some solid recipes and eating plans that take into account vegan, vegetarian, and the gluten free lifestyles. The guide book has a breakdown of the four different versions of these workouts you can do: Classic (standard routine rotation), Lean (combination of workouts focusing less on muscle mass and more on weight loss), Mass (for bulking up), and Doubles (for crazy people that want to work out twice per day). The timeline is much more similar to the original series as you'll spend 3 weeks in one phase, one week in a transition/recover phase, and then repeat. There is also an Elite Phase after the 90 days ends that will use the three bonus workouts if you purchased that package. The bonus workouts are an upper body, a lower body, and Ab Ripper X3. Honestly, I like the resistance workouts a lot and am glad I got them. Although I have no need of the resistance bands or the Energy formula they provided. So those will gather dust. Ab Ripper 3 still can't live up to the brilliance of the original. It tries to be too complex with plank moves and isometric holds that don't do the job that the X1 routine does. Sometimes you just can't beat the original. So here's what we know: The system is much simpler and requires minimal gear like P90X. It uses less targeted training and more complex moves to work muscles and cardio at the same time like P90X2. 30 minutes is a stretch and is closer to 40 minutes. There's no dedicated ab routine. This is fantastic starting place for beginners. If you're out of shape or are in decent shape, this should be great. But, to be honest, I'm skeptical that this program will work for existing P90X superheroes. If you've been through the original or the sequel a few times, if you can get through Plyo X at full pace or are one of those crazies (I'm one) who mixes your P90X with your Insanity/Asylum, I'm not sold that this will challenge you. While there is solid science about the 30 minute routine, I just have a hard time believing this will push you to new heights if you can already keep pace with Shaun T in the longer Insanity vids. BUT, I do think that this is a great thing to have for those days where time is at a premium. Blend these in to the previous two series to create something monstrous and beautiful. But only time will tell and I'll update as I progress. Please feel free to ask any questions as I'm happy to help people make informed decisions when it comes to their health choices. Happy X'ing! And for the record, can we all agree that P90X3 has one of the worst, most innuendo-laced tag lines in recent memory? I just want to know how much someone got paid to create that gem. FINAL UPDATE: Let's cut down to it. Do I love it? No. Will I do it again? No. X3 has some real strong points in it that are worth revisiting by themselves. But as whole, the 30 minute limit just isn't enough to do what I need it to as someone who can hang with Tony's longer workouts. X3's biggest drawback is that it suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. It wants to be everything, and it wants to do it in 30 minutes. 30 minutes can work if you stay focused, but when so many of the discs want to be resistance workouts and core workouts and balance workouts it just doesn't do it. I did X3 earlier in the year after I had been on a bit of a layoff and it was great. But coming back to it after having been doing a combo of X, X2, Insanity, and a few other things I've put together, it just doesn't challenge me enough. Let's hit the high points first. THE CHALLENGE is a great push/pull routine with some great variations on classics that will get the work done. CVX is a true monster. It is the beast in this set. It's virtually identical to MEDICINE BALL CORE CARDIO from Tony's 1 on 1, but they've extended the time and changed the ball to a weight (I still use my 12lb medicine ball for the entire routine and it leaves me a disgusting mess, which is perfect). Either way, it hurts. MMX is a great piece of cardio work as well. Punches and kicks are so-so, but the addition of elbows (that really turn the core) and sprawls (advanced burpees) will leave you sucking air. PILATES is a shining spot. Having never done it before until X3 it was incredibly difficult. Because it's all dedicated to the core 30 minutes is more than enough to get a great core workout. A great example of how staying intensely focused on something for 30 minutes can prove effective. ISOMETRIX is incredibly difficult. Grab a pose, hold it for 45 seconds. It never gets easy. You'll feel it. They should have had the same philosophy on the yoga vid. The UPPERS and LOWERS are fine, but they still suffer from the problem of too few sets to really get the muscles growing. It addresses chest and back well enough, but neglects the arms. ECCENTRIC UPPER & LOWER work because they focus on doing slow negative movements, which can really tax muscles over a shorter time period. Conventional wisdom says that big muscles (back, chest, quads) should get 8-12 sets to be effective. Smaller (bis, tris, calves) only need 6-8. But doing negatives will allow you to get away with less sets because of the intensity placed on the muscle. COMPLEX UPPER & LOWER (bonus routines): Again, these routines don't have as many sets per muscle group as you'd like, but the manner in which the sets are done will definitely put work on the muscles. The rest just won't get it done for people in P90X shape. As much as I love Tony and his work, and that he's given me the tools to become a superhero, this just isn't his best work as a "next step" in the X repertoire. AGILITY X and TRIOMETRICS both want to be variations of PLYO X, but neither get to that level of intensity. I even did a little experiment where I did 30 minutes of PLYO X to see how it compared to its X3 counterparts and PLYO X was way better. Even just a 30 minute portion of PLYO X had me huffing and puffing. The others just have identity crisis issues. THE WARRIOR and TOTAL SYNERGISTICS and the others just try to be too many things. You'll start getting a good sweat going with the heart rate and then it comes to a screeching halt with a core move that kills the cardio, but doesn't do enough to totally work the core, either. Too many times in the middle of a workout I found myself saying, "So what's the goal of this workout? I'm not sure what the emphasis is here." And that's the big issue with it. Often times when a workout is finished you're kind of sweaty and kind of out of breath and you've got a decent pump, but no one thing feels like it's been worked more than another. Nothing feels exhausted or really worked. Even the next day there's no real soreness to let you know you had a great workout. There are no dedicated arm workouts and the Ab Ripper only comes with the bonus package and isn't used until week 14 (and that's only if you have the extra workouts and do the bonus weeks). Plus YOGA X3 is too short to get the benefits of Yoga. Yes, I hate that the original is 90 minutes long, but it is absolutely one of the most effective of the P90X series. The X3 version just doesn't provide enough time to really sink into the poses and let the muscles do their work. The strength of X1 is that you can hold a position for a while, sink a little deeper, and feel the progress. In X3 it's a couple of breaths here, move on. A couple of breaths there. Move on. YOGA is less about the movement than it is the holding of the positions. X3 just moves too fast. I almost wish they had done less positions so there was more time to hold and breathe. So where does that leave us? If you're new to the X world and are looking at getting into more intense workouts and have a low to medium fitness level this is a great place to start. It'll do plenty to get you into a good place. There are some gems here like CVX and ISOMETRIX and PILATES that I'll work in to future workouts. The problem is that they've taken all the full body, complex movements from X2 (where the workouts tended to be longer than the X1 workouts) and tried to cram them into 30 minutes. The lack of arm and ab workouts, the lack of focus in general, just didn't get me the results of the other systems. I didn't feel as challenged as I was in the other series. After PLYO X I'm a sweaty, out of breath mess. After SHOULDERS AND ARMS my arms feel like noodles when I'm done. X3 just doesn't get you into that elite place that X1 and X2 will. It unfortunately feels like less time, less focus, less results. My arms and abs are weaker than they were prior to X3, and my pull-ups have suffered. But it is still a great system that will benefit a great many people. It's just not the next step in the X series that those of us who have been with Tony for a long time are looking for. It's great in a rush or on the road, and it certainly did have its points where it pushed me. For those looking to bulk up and throw weights around, X1 all day. For those looking for athletic performance with great science like the myofascial release and PAP, X2, without prejudice. X3 is good. Better than most of what's out there. It just can't hang with its older siblings. Also, if you're looking for a workout that you can do in 30 minutes while getting a crazy resistance and cardio workout, try Keith Weber's kettlebell video (vol. 1). Subbing that in one day per week will make amazing things happen. Here's to hoping X4 takes us back into that 5 star range and pushes us even further.