Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Power 90 Masters Series Review

Power 90 Master Series



P90 Master is the program between Power 90 and P90X. Power 90 Master came out after P90X and you can tell it’s almost P90X. There are no pull-ups in the Master Series but there are a lot of push-up, weights and cardio.


Power 90 Master Series
P90 Master is the program between Power 90 and P90X. Power 90 Master came out after P90X and you can tell it’s almost P90X. There are no pull-ups in the Master Series but there are a lot of push-up, weights and cardio.

I Can’t Do P90X
There are tons of reviews and people trying P90X. Even though P90X is now the flagship home exercise video DVD for Beachbody, for those not quite at the P90X level should seriously look at P90 Master Series. The P90X precursor has many of the same moves and routines but without the pull-ups. P90X goes nuts with pull-ups and if you can’t do pull-ups either because of strength issues or the doorway pull-up bars don’t fit in your doorway and you don’t want to spend up to over $200 for a stand alone unit just yet, P90 Master is a great routine to work your way up to P90X.

If P90X is too hard to get through the first week, the P90 Master Series may be a better step down then the regular Power 90 Home Boot Camp. It’s a little more advanced and you begin to get into Beachbody’s Muscle Confusion technique, a fancy marketing term that puts variety in your workout. Where Power 90 is alternating weights and cardio every day with one rest day, Power 90 Master is three weeks of alternating weight and cardio with one week of cardio, plyo and Upper Middle Lower (UML).

Power 90 Master Series begins with a warm-up before stretching. There is still a little yoga, but no entire DVD of yoga. There are also two cardio routines, Core Cardio, Cardio Intervals and Sweat 5-6. Routines become longer than Power 90, most are almost 50 minutes with Cardio Intervals at 56 minutes.

Power 90 Master Routines
Every routine begins with a short warm up of running in place, jumping jacks or something similar followed by stretching before the main workout.

•Sculpt 5-6 is the weight workout (Power 90 had Sculpt 1-2 and 3-4)
•Sweat 5-6 is a cardio workout (Power 90 had Sweat 1-2 and 3-4)
•Core Cardio mixes cardio and sculpting with no weights
•Cardio Intervals Lots of cardio mixed with ab and other non weight moves
•Upper Middle Lower Is a series of non weight routines focusing on core, abs, legs with a little kenpo, crunches, pushups, stretching and a variety of moves.
•Plyo Legs – Plymetrics, good practice for P90X.
Throughout each workout, there is a modified version, if you’re having problems because of an injury or any other reason. P90 Master Series is different from Power 90 because many of the routines are done with multiple sets, just like P90X.

P90 Master Series seems like it was done before P90X, but there are posters on the back wall of the gym that clearly say P90X. Either way it is a great set of routines that can prepare you for your next P90X attempt or is a perfectly good program all by itself.

The Bad Part of Power 90 Master Series
There isn’t as much documentation with the Master Series as you would think. There is also no calendar and even though there are two versions of the schedule, it’s only published in the forums. There is a Lean version and the Classic version and just like P90X the Lean version is heavy on cardio with weight routines only two days a week. Both Lean and Classic have a “recovery week” where there is more focus on cardio and non weight routines.

Conclusion About Power 90 Master Series
For those that are unable to get the most out of P90X because of lack of pull-ups or lack of initial conditioning, this is a great program with plenty of variety to keep your workouts interesting. The music is low key and you don’t really hear it. Tony is his same, sometimes funny or even goofy, but encouraging.

You can buy the entire Power 90 Master Series or you can buy individual Power 90 Master DVDs to augment your Power 90 Home Boot Camp or P90X programs.

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