With Phase 1 complete, and having taken a week off, it is past time for me to begin Phase 2 of P90X.

I wrote about the 3 Phases of P90X a bit in A Brief Overview of P90X.

Now that it’s time for me to begin Phase 2, let me go into Phase 2 in a little more detail…

In the previous post, I said, “The purpose of Phase 2 is to start to really push yourself“.

Now that you have completed Phase 1, your body has grown accustomed to working out, and you are stronger and more flexible, and thus, less suseptible to injury.  As a result, you can begin to push yourself significanlty harder than you did during Phase 1, without the same level of risk, and with the intention of seeing bigger and faster gains.

One way that I intend to push myself harder during Phase 2 is by lowering my reps through upping my weights.

If you want to add muscle mass, you want to lift bigger weights with less reps… generally speaking 8-10 reps is a good rule of thumb.  If you want to develop lean muscle, you want to lift smaller weights with more reps… generally speaking 12-15 reps is a good rule of thumb.

Throughout Phase 1, I was going for 10 reps.  Generally speaking, even if I could have pumped out a couple more reps, I stopped at 10, and made a note on my worksheet to increase my weight next time.  By the time I complete Phase 2, I want to be in a place where I have upped my weights enough that I am maxing out at 8 and 9 reps with some frequency.

Another way that I intend to push myself harder during Phase 2 is by focusing on my core.

During Phase 1, I was focusing on my upper body, and, as a result, while my upper body strength increased significantly, my core strength did not.  During Phase 1, I got about one core workout in per week.  During Phase 2, I would like to get two core workouts in per week.  If I do get in two core workouts per week, I believe that I will be able to say that my core strength has increased significantly as well.

Especially given that I have taken the past week off from working out in order to get this blog set up properly, I can’t wait to start Phase 2 tomorrow!