Team Beachbody ¡preestreno!Español Guest

I'm an Insanity graduate, and one of the things about a cardio program like Insanity is that I believe once you hit play you should never hit pause. Heart rate goes down, muscles stiffen, you miss out on pushing yourself at the climax of each circuit.

With the cardio workouts for P90X--i.e., PlyoX and KenpoX, and also Ab Ripper X--I follow the same philosophy. Press play, keep caught up, push myself when exhausted.

But for the weight training exercises, I've been taking frequent and long pauses during the workouts, and it seems beneficial. Part of the reason is that those workouts are already quite long--almost 60 minutes followed immediately by Ab Ripper X. Breaks help me keep my focus. But I also experience a lot of muscle exhaustion during the weight-based exercises, and the breaks let me recover that some.

I take probably 60-second or so breaks between almost every exercise during the weight routines, and today I took a good 10-minutes break in the mid-point of Back & Biceps to handle a few pressing personal matters and then jump back into it. Through that, I found my ability to use heavier weights and continue doing unassisted pullups through the end of the routine to improve.

Tony often says that pausing the DVD is perfectly fine (whereas ShaunT never gave that advice for Insanity) so I feel like I'm not cheating or anything, but he probably doesn't expect quite as many breaks as I'm taking. So I want to make sure that it isn't going to cause an interference in the results I'm seeking.

Overall, P90X has been great for me. I'm in Week 7 right now, and experiencing continued positive results in weight, strength, and appearance going right on the heels of the positive outcome from Insanity.

Nonsense.

Taking breaks between resistance exercises is the most efficient way to build strength. Once you develop strength, then you can consider reducing the interval between sets to build strength endurance.

Most strength training experts recommend 3-5 minutes between sets done at maximum intensity. This gives more than adequate time for the targeted muscles to recover adequately. A set ends when perfect form cannot be maintained. Working in poor form or with muscular fatigue puts excess load on smaller stabilizer muscles and sets the stage for injuries to joints and ligaments.

Focus on perfect form, slow reps and maximum intensity. Not heart rate. Not keeping pace with the DVD. Until you reach weights that challenge you, you may find that you need less than 3 minutes to recover for the next set.

This is what I had heard in order to build size/strength. As far as it being against the P90X philosophy, I think that's just because the program is geared toward maximum calorie burn, & the breaks would gear the routine less toward burning calories & more toward size strength.


I took 2 min breaks between every move in "Shoulders & Arms," & I noticed I was able to do higher weights & more reps throughout the exercise than without the breaks. It took about 2 hours to finish, but it felt more efficient for size. Can someone confirm for sure that this is a more practical way to lift for size?