Tony Horton P90X3 Interview

He Knows How You're Going To Shed 1/3 Of Your Body Fat By November - Do You?

August 7, 2014

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When the movie’s a hit, you know there’s bound to be sequels. That’s what has happened with the ever-so-popular at-home workout P90x. Millions of people trimmed down and got into shape with the 90-day program, which is why BeachBody produced sequels.

P90X3 came out earlier this year and now that we’ve spent the 90 days testing it out and chatting with creator Tony Horton, we’ve determined that BeachBody has another winner.

What Is P90X3?

So if you’re unfamiliar with the P90x series completely, the easiest way to understand it is that it’s an at-home workout regimen. You get a set of DVDs and each day, there’s a different workout. The workouts are intense and range from weights, to plyometrics, to yoga, to Pilates and more. It’s a full-body workout that challenges you to your core. The idea is that it’s 90 days long and as long as you follow the calendar, you’ll be in fantastic shape by the end of it.

So How Is P90X3 Different From The Others?

The first thing to note is that this isn’t a graduate program. In other words, if you haven’t done P90x, you can still start off with P90X3. As far as the main differences between the programs, the first thing you’ll notice is that X3 is trimmed down to just 30-minute workouts.

“There have been numerous university studies over the past few years that have centered on working out within a 30-minute time frame,” says the program creator Tony Horton. “What these studies have shown was that the maximum benefits of a workout occurred within the first 30 minutes. Not to say that minutes 31 through 60 aren’t useful, however these findings told me I could take a traditional hour-long P90X workout, cut the time in half while maintaining the intensity, and see the same great results in only half the time.”

We’ve seen workouts trend in that direction — especially with the success of Focus T25. Nowadays, with so many things competing for our attention, spending an hour in the gym is no longer ideal. People want maximal results in minimal time, which is why we’ve seen shorter, more intense workouts are on the rise. The good news is that while you get a shorter quantity of Horton and his teammates per workout, they definitely don’t skimp on quality.

How Challenging Is It?

P90X3 is very intense. Just as when P90X came out, it was the challenge in workout circles, this one will test your resolve just as much.

The idea behind the original was muscle confusion and then X2 was about muscle integration. As for X3, the theme behind this series of workouts is muscle acceleration.

“P90X3 is based on what I call 'muscle acceleration,'” says Horton. "It takes much of what I’ve learned in the past, introduced in P90X and P90X2, and structured it in a way that minimizes downtime and adds extensive variety and intensity, so that you’ll be challenged for the full 30 minutes over the course of 90 days. I knew that if I put the right moves in the right sequence it could be done, and the test group proved it. In fact, the average body-fat loss among this group of forty people was 34%. Over 90 days, this group lost an average of one-third of their total body fat — that would be an incredible statistic with an hour-long program, but the fact that these folks had such tremendous results working out only 30 minutes each day is remarkable.”

That’s the beauty of P90X3. The focus is building muscle in many of the workouts — like the Power and Resistance Workouts — but you’re doing it at such an intense level that it feels like you’re covering cardio at the same time.

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