I’ve been doing P90X for almost 7yrs mixed in with a myriad of other workouts and modifications. All you need is 1 hr/day — shouldn’t be that tough for most developers especially if you work from home; plus, I find I’m refreshed and ready to code at a high rate again right after due to the influx of endorphins and higher blood flow.

Jesse’s pretty much covered all the tips I’ve given him over the last year and I don’t want to repeat, but here’s my best advice for the program:

Ease Into It
When you start, take the first wk and only do 30-40 mins — about 1/2 of the hr long workout. Or try the whole workout, but only do 1/2 the reps/exercise — the key is to really “ease into it”. Get your body familiar the movements and give it time to recover and learn. And then in your second week, count it as the actual first wk and repeat wk 1; so you’ll do 4 wks of the phase 1 workouts to start instead of the normal 3 + 1 wk recovery. This keeps you from going out too hard on wk 1 and hurting yourself and/or getting demotivated.

Listen to Your Body
There’s good pain and bad pain and takes time to tell the difference. The bad pain leads to injury — this can be tearing, bruising, and the like, while the good pain leads to the promise land of personal gain and pushing yourself to new levels. Your body will tell you what it can and can’t do. If the pain is uncomfortable but it’s more “wow, I’m tired and my arms are sore” then you’re in the good zone. If it’s like “ow, this really hurts and my lower back is about to give out and/or seize” this is bad. I have really bad knees after yrs of volleyball so I have to take note every time I do plyometrics. The key here is just to listen and make smart decisions. It’s always better to caution on the side of “bad pain” so you’re not out for 4-6 wks. Plus, there are alternate moves for everything so if it hurts you can always find another movement that doesn’t. Sometimes I just run in place or do jumping jacks for an entire exercise to keep my heart rate up, but without hurting myself.

80/20 Rule
If you have any ailing body parts or don’t feel safe doing a particular isolation move, modify it so you’re using 80% of the desired, isolated side of the body and offer 20% assistance with the other side. This can be great if you have bad knees, shoulder, whatever…example, 1 arm pushups are much safer on the shoulder if you put 80% of your weight on the side you want to isolate and offer some help with the other arms.

This rule is similar to the “listen to your body” rule and learn how to distinguish good from bad pain. If it hurts, either modify so it doesn’t or try the 80/20 rule or do something to keep you moving like jumping jacks for the skipped exercise to keep you HR up.

#KeepPushingPlay

Remember, there is a 10 Minute Trainer that only requires 10 minutes a day, 7 days a week, for 1 month, with no required diet. I’m working with her majesty to do this one.