Core is an excellent workout that focuses obviously on your core muscles while performing other exercises. For the Classic schedule of P90X, Core is only performed six times during the entire 90 days. Core is also pretty non-stop and therefore very cardio-like. I've measured and it burns just as many calories as Kenpo so I don't lose any cardio by switching them out. Essentially, what I lose in some balance and coordination, I get back in core work. Mind you, I'm not losing all the balance work. Yoga is practically all balance and the Legs/Back routine incorporates a lot of balance.
Another thing...I'm not going soft here. Core is WAY HARDER than Kenpo. I am actually making the program HARDER by putting it in. There is NOTHING in the Kenpo plan that I cannot do very easily. However, there are a lot of exercises in Core that I won't be able to do for a long time.
The real issue to swapping out Kenpo with Core is how to schedule it. I've found that the P90X schedule is actually made very nicely to allow for recovery and prevent over training. Kenpo is on a Tuesday. However Core is actually pretty chest heavy with a lot of push up like exercises. Thursdays are always full of chest exercises and those two days don't feel like enough time to rest. From the advice of Stephanie Osborne, I've decided to put Core on Monday and move Legs/Back from Monday to Tuesday. The only problem with this is that there is quite a bit of lunge and squat stuff in Core too...hopefully not enough to put me off Legs/Back the next day. We'll see.
Core went pretty well today. It can really be an exhausting routine. Most exercises don't use weight but those that do require very light weights because of the high number of repetitions. I use only ten pound dumbbells for these. Some of the more challenging exercises included are Sphinx push ups, Plank/Chaturanga runs and Plank/Chaturanga isos. Each of these I can actually do by themselves on any given day. But when you put them in the middle of the workout, they become exponentially harder...or almost impossible.
P90X has really start to lose the magic for me. The reason why is that it isn't really magical to begin with. It is marketed and talked about as if it is some type of supernatural force. But after 60 days of doing this, I am realizing that it is just a workout routine...three days of cardio and three days of weights. It is well regimented and put together, but it isn't anything super special. And after doing it for a while, I begin to realize that it isn't as hard as everyone says. People actually scare you when they talk about it. But once you get in the groove, although it is definitely challenging, it isn't impossible. It isn't walking on water...it is just working out.
