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Welcome to my P90X/RevAbs hybrid program! This thread is open to all veterans of P90X looking for the ultimate Ab/core & lean muscle building program!

First take a moment to review my starter P90X tips:

http://teambeachbody.com/connect/message-boards/-/message_boards/message/100639767

Disclaimer: Please do not copy all material presented here unless you have my permission!

********THE PROGRAM********

First off, let me summarize the purpose of this program. This program is intended for those that want to focus both on lean muscle gain and to build the abdominal muscles. Overall, this program will likely burn less calories than the classic P90X program. However, it is rather easy to modify the schedule if you are looking to lose more weight. Don’t get the wrong idea-- you will still burn crazy calories!

To get a more accurate baseline, use the calorie tool at Teambeachbody and enter the same goals for both P90X and Revabs and average the two calorie goals.

http://teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/nutrition-tools/caloric-needs

I have also designed the program to incorporate some more muscle confusion. Each week will alternate between using P90X Legs & Back and the Revab total body workouts. On weeks we are subbing out Legs & Back, we will be doing PlyoX. PlyoX isn’t just a cardio routine—it’s a monster leg workout too. Even more so if you do PlyoX as what I call, “INSANITY” style. INSANITY is a another intense Beachbody program that focuses a lot on building the leg muscles from all the intense squat jump exercises. P90X grads can modify the workout to always touch the floor, explode up with legs, do deeper lunges, etc to make the workout even more intense.

I also recommend doing the “Superdave123 Hot Foot,” a modified move I created, for PlyoX. While doing the hot foot, hold a light dumbbell with both hands to increase the intensity and fry your calves!

Just like the Revabs workouts, we will “Spice” up the standard recovery week. Normally, P90X focuses on the core with light cardio during recovery week. But we will switch things around and instead scale back the core work, since we will be constantly focusing on that area with the normal program, and instead rev up the cardio.

Special Note: We will be switching Back & Biceps and Chest, Shoulders, and Arms. This is the preferred P90X schedule to allow the back to recover before day 5 of another back workout.

Take Before Photos!!! Did you forget to take photos last time? Don’t make that mistake twice!

The First Day is Brutal. Even with a break, that first day will still be tough. The longer your break between rounds the tougher it will be. I strongly suggest everyone do a moderate workout several days before starting P90X to take some shock out of that first day.

Post your Accountability Daily. The message boards are a great way to stay accountable and motivated!

BRING IT! and REV IT UP!

********THE WORKOUTS********

Create a Mind/Muscle Connection. This tip is so powerful and has helped so many of my members, that I now include it in the basics. Whenever you do a rep, you should be fully aware and use the targeted muscle group. The best example is pull/chin ups. The most common mistake people make is to do pull/chin ups using their arms instead of their backs. We should all pretend our arms are dead weight and concentrate on using only our back muscles to lift. This will properly engage the back muscles and makes a huge difference in not only strength, but muscle improvement!

Track your Results. This seriously helps set your goals for the next week. Don't inflate your numbers to feel good. Only count reps of good, solid form. If you do rest pauses (go to failure, rest 10-15 seconds then do more reps), make note of that separately. Try not to do more than one rest pause per set to avoid the risk of overtraining. I have attached the P90X excel sheet below. Go to the setup page and scroll up to enter your start info.

Set your Targets and Make your Goals. If you don’t know what you did the previous week, then you risk the chance of repeating your previous results. Every week you should have a goal which is generally to do a few more reps than the previous week. I have attached the P90X excel sheet below. Go to the setup page and scroll up to enter your start info.

Your Goal is the number you want to hit for the day, but your Target is the number you think in your head while doing the exercise. Most everyone has the annoying habit of stopping too early. By thinking of a number beyond your goal, you may stop early of your target, but instead you actually hit your intended goal! Try it—it works!!

Avoid Plateaus. What were you rep ranges like last round? Hopefully you were improving each week and not stalled with the same weight and rep range. It’s always a good idea to start with lower weight and work your way up. I prefer to begin with weight numbers about a week behind my final results of my last round. Starting off heavy leaves little room for improvement.

Break Plateaus. Hopefully, you never reach a plateau, but if find your goals are the same for 2 weeks in a row, you may have hit one. Here are some great Plateau breaking techniques:

Emphasize Strength. Reps of 4-6 or negative reps are both great for boosting strength when you need to break past a plateau. Negative reps are where you concentrate on the “reverse” or “down” (eccentric) motion. Do your normal 2 second rep, but then come down in a long 5 second motion. These are HARD, but are great for boosting strength and pair up nicely with the 4-6 range since the higher intensity should cause your rep range to drop. If you don’t use negative reps, you must use a heavier weight that forces you to end in the 4-6 range.

Emphasize Endurance. The endurance range is 20-25 reps with light weights. Ordinarily, you don’t want to go over 15 reps with any set, but 20-25 puts more work on the muscles. If I ever go for Endurance sets, I like to go fast with my reps to engage the Fast Twitch muscle fibers (and burn more calories!).

Alter your rest periods. Try taking longer breaks or even shorter breaks to add some muscle confusion.

Advanced techniques. These should be done sparingly so as to not overtrain. If you choose to use these I would highly recommend you only do them on second sets or you risk doing too much.

Drop Sets. A drop set is where you go to failure, drop the weight and immediately pick up about 25% lighter weights and go to failure again. Drop the weight and pick up about 25% lighter weights and repeat one last time. Now you should be toast!

Rest Pause. A rest pause is where you go to failure and rest 10-15 seconds then pick up the same weight and go to failure again.

********SCHEDULE********

Phase 1

Week 1

Day 1 P90X Chest & Back + Mercy Abs

Day 2 P90X PlyoX

Day 3 P90X Shoulders & Arms + AbRipper, AbRipperX, Ab Core Plus, or Iso Abs

Day 4 OoO Fountain of Youth

Day 5 RevAbs Total Strength + Mercy Abs

Day 6 RevAbs Fire It Up

Day 7 OoO Recovery 4 Results


Week2

Day 1 P90X Chest & Back + Mercy Abs

Day 2 RevAbs Power Intervals 2

Day 3 P90X Shoulders & Arms + AbRipper, AbRipperX, Ab Core Plus, or Iso Abs

Day 4 OoO Fountain of Youth

Day 5 P90X Legs & Back + Mercy Abs

Day 6 RevAbs Fire It Up

Day 7 IoO Recovery 4 Results


Week 3

Day 1 P90X Chest & Back + Mercy Abs

Day 2 P90X PlyoX

Day 3 P90X Shoulders & Arms + AbRipper, AbRipperX, Ab Core Plus, or Iso Abs

Day 4 OoO Fountain of Youth

Day 5 RevAbs Total Strength + Mercy Abs

Day 6 RevAbs Fire It Up

Day 7 OoO Recovery 4 Results


Week4

Day 1 RevAbs Power Intervals 1

Day 2 RevAbs Rev It Up

Day 3 P90X Core Syn

Day 4 OoO Fountain of Youth

Day 5 RevAbs Power Intervals 1

Day 6 P90X CardioX

Day 7 Rest

Phase 3

Week 1

Day 1 P90X Chest & Back + Mercy Abs

Day 2 P90X PlyoX

Day 3 P90X Shoulders & Arms + AbRipper, AbRipperX, Ab Core Plus, or Iso Abs

Day 4 OoO Fountain of Youth

Day 5 RevAbs Total Strength + Mercy Abs

Day 6 RevAbs Fire It Up

Day 7 OoO Recovery 4 Results


Week 2

Day 1 P90X Back & Biceps + Merciless Abs

Day 2 P90X PlyoX

Day 3 P90X Chest, Shoulders, & Arms + AbRipper, AbRipperX, Ab Core Plus, or Iso Abs

Day 4 OoO Fountain of Youth

Day 5 RevAbs Total Endurance + Merciless Abs

Day 6 Revabs Fat Burning Abs

Day 7 OoO Recovery 4 Results


Week 3

Day 1 P90X Chest & Back + Mercy Abs

Day 2 RevAbs Power Intervals 2

Day 3 P90X Shoulders & Arms + AbRipper, AbRipperX, Ab Core Plus, or Iso Abs

Day 4 OoO Fountain of Youth

Day 5 P90X Legs & Back + Mercy Abs

Day 6 RevAbs Fire It Up

Day 7 OoO Recovery 4 Results


Week 4

Day 1 P90X Back & Biceps + Merciless Abs

Day 2 P90X PlyoX

Day 3 P90X Chest, Shoulders, & Arms + AbRipper, AbRipperX, Ab Core Plus, or Iso Abs

Day 4 OoO Fountain of Youth

Day 5 RevAbs Total Endurance + Merciless Abs

Day 6 Revabs Fat Burning Abs

Day 7 OoO Recovery 4 Results


Week 5 – Final Week!

Day 1 OoO 30/15 Upper Body Massacre + Mercy Abs

Day 2 P90X Plus: Plyo IntervalsX

Day 3 RevAbs Total Strength + AbRipper, AbRipperX, Ab Core Plus, or Iso Abs

Day 4 OoO Volume 3 Yoga MC2

Day 5 P90X Back & Biceps + Merciless Abs

Day 6 Revabs Fat Burning Abs

Day 7 Rest!!

Sounds good Gary! I'll be doing some random cardio workouts to relax but stay engaged before Day 1

P90X Shoulders & Arms in the bank! 1007 Calories burned. Recovery Drink *Gulp*

Wow, that was a great workout. I was still pretty beat up from yesterday. Not only did I do PlyoX and RevAbs Mercy Abs, but I went to the local Beachbody Fit Club last night and did the Rev it Up group workout from Revabs.

Tomorrow is Yoga and Mercy abs and am looking forward to it!

Hi there -
I'm thinking straight RevAbs isn't going to be challenging enough... and the daily lunges are going to kill my knees. I did Core Synergistics today instead of RevAbs total strength and still did the Mercy Abs. So I"m thinking I'm going to try your hybrid - although I can tell already that there will be days when I won't have a full hour to work out and so those will have to get squeezed somehow.

I'm going to do Fountain of Youth tomorrow, since I just did a total strength type work out today. I totally forgot about that disc - never actually did that one, so I'm pretty excited about it. Thanks for reminding me I have it!

Happy Friday! RevAbs Fire Up Abs followed by Mercy abs! 557 Total Calories burned. Those dumbbell twist ab moves are killer. I love the burn!

Welcome to the hybrid CydH! Revabs is a great starter program but isn't challenging enough for many. I'm always designing crazy hybrids so I hope you like it!

did abbreviated chest & back (only once through) and the spice round of mercy abs... really short on time today - but at least I did something!

Power Intervals 2 - my heart was racing and the sweat was pouring... amazing for only 30 minutes.
SuperDave, are you always doubling up on the abs? I didn't see that in your schedule... but I like the way you think. Do you always do Fire up you abs along with mercy abs?