P90X Series: Ab Ripper X

Tony Horton
Year Released: 2004

Categories: Abs/Core


This workout features 11 exercises done for about 25 reps each. The first half are seated exercises for example, seated and bringing your knees in and out, seated bicycle, seated crunch. The latter half are more traditional crunch/reverse crunch/roll-up variations.

This was not a good workout for me. I have a really tight back and hip flexors, and this can impede my abilities with this sort of workout, where flexibility can come into play as much as core strength can. I also found that in a few cases Tony was trying so hard for a creative and innovative new impressive thing that he forces us to needlessly twist into some really odd and uncomfortable positions. I much prefer the more traditional moves in the original Power 90 Ab Ripper.

Tony is not the best cuer in the world, and tends to favor the ‘watch me’ style of instruction. Some extra form pointers might have been nice, and I have yet to meet an ab workout that shows modifications not only for core strength but for flexibility too. That was needed in this routine. I just couldn’t figure out how or if some of this could be modified. I will likely not do this workout again, and I would not recommend it for anyone who has flexibility problems.


Joanna

09/03/2004