I was musing about P90X when I took my son to the park today. He has a Fliker, which is great fun to ride but used to really make my glutes and calves burn. Now it doesn’t at all, and I’m much better at riding it. It was just another time I noticed how much P90X is improving my fitness. I do look a bit better, too (not so much yet, but some) – but mainly I’ve noticed how much better I feel already. This is a great thing, although I wish there was some way to take a day zero and day 90 picture of how I feel. That’s partly the reason for this blog.

One other thing I’ve noticed is that because the workouts aren’t about isolating muscles much, they tend to work whichever of my muscles is weakest. I’m assuming this is a good thing, because I need to balance my muscles so they can work together effectively. Still, it’s quite funny to notice.

Chest & Back, despite the name, works my shoulders more than anything else – for the first three times I did it, that was about all I felt. This week, for the first time, I also worked my back a bit.

Shoulders & Arms mainly works the shoulders, as well. I guess my shoulders are really not my strong point, huh?

Legs & Back works mainly my quads, but also my hamstrings and glutes a bit. That one’s not too surprising. My calves really don’t suffer at all on this one.

Ab Ripper, interestingly, is working mostly my hip flexors and glutes, rather than my abs.

None of this is that surprising, when I think about it, but it’s still strange to notice how the same workout will affect different muscles on different days. I think that’s probably one of the reasons why P90X is so good.