During the Core workout, Horton tells you to focus on your core while during exercises. But yesterday is probably the first time I have done that. Before, I was just focusing on being able to do an exercise or just making it through the hour.
I was actually able to complete all exercises in the workout for the entire allotted time except for the Plank/Chaturunga Iso's at the end. By focusing on my core muscles, I think I took the focus on how much I wanted to die during the hour so I was able to complete more.
Throughout P90X, one of the things that really motivates me is not being able to do something. If there is an exercise that I can't even modify to complete, it really pushes me to work harder. I at least want to be able to do the modified (easier) move. But with only 6X during the 90 days, there isn't enough time to work on the Core workout in order to be able to improve.
I've brought this up before...swapping out Kenpo with Core. I think about what I'm missing by not doing the Core more and what I'd be missing by taking the Kenpo out. The cardio part of Kenpo is easily replaced by Core...they both burn about the same number of calories (700-800). Without Kenpo, the only significant thing I lose is the coordination and balance of the kicking routines...nothing else in the program covers that. But without Core, I lose a huge amount of core muscle exercises that I think are really beneficial.
The main hurdle of replacing Kenpo with Core is figuring out how to get enough recovery time. Core is very arm/chest heavy...specifically with plank/push-up exercises. It really needs to be separated from the other chest work. Since Kenpo is on day 6 and most chest stuff is on day 1, there is only 48 hours recovery. So I've decided to move Yoga to day 6 from day 4 and put Core at day 4.
We'll see how it goes. This essentially means that the Abs lose a day of rest because Ab X is on days 1, 3 and 5 and also get subjected to Yoga Belly on day 6 and Core on day 4.
