Workout this part of your body (and your arms*).
I came home from work today and this disk was in my mailbox. I’ve just been juggling workouts for the past few weeks, so I figured I’d give this one a shot.
Upper Body X is really just Chest, Shoulders & Triceps part 2. I’m not really sure why they called it “Upper Body X” it’s certainly not a complete upper body workout like Upper Plus.
This is another workout that utilizes medicine balls, something I don’t own, and don’t care to spend the money on right now. I did recently by a BOSU ball, so I modified some moves to incorporate the ball = there’s even a move where Tony “recommends” the BOSU, but can’t demonstrate it because Beachbody doesn’t sell it. Lame. He has two hanging on the wall of his gym in the video, and he sings the BOSU ball’s praises in his book. The workout also has a band exercise, but Tony shows you a modified move.
So let’s break it down:
Chest: The chest moves are pretty solid. The first one is called “2 Dog Push-up” and you do a push-up, then downward dog, then a push-up, then upward dog. It’s a nice warm up into the workout and you can crank out a lot of them since you’re not using any balance balls. My favorite chest exercise is the “Caturocker Push-up” where you do a push-up, then go down on your elbows while you slide your feet on some cardboard. It’s a little hard to explain but it takes a lot of core stability and balance to pull off.
Shoulders: The shoulder moves are the hardest out of all the moves in this workout. There are a set of strip presses, similar to the strip curls from Back & Biceps. The toughest are the “Bent Over Circle Flys” which don’t look particularly difficult but even Tony is using the smallest weights I’ve seen him lift and he’s struggling through the whole thing.
Triceps: I love tricep exercises, but I don’t find many of them challenging. This workout was hit-and-miss. “One-arm Bench Dips” were almost impossible, and really hurt my left arm for some reason. High Bar Band Extensions were probably my favorite workout of the day, they use the bands and attach them to a bar or a door frame. The resistance from the band was incredible – though I was a little afraid the band would snap again, and this time hit me in the back of the head.
Overall I wasn’t a huge fan of this workout. I know they are trying out some moves for P90X:MC2, so hopefully they keep the good ones and throw out the weaker or more awkward moves. While I was happy to use my BOSU, I found that I was working much harder to balance myself than I was on the muscle I was supposed to be working. I think they might be trying to squeeze in a little too much core work this time. Also, Tony takes a lot of breaks during this workout, and I eventually found myself fast-forwarding through his breaks.
Blood, Sweat & Beer 