P90X Day 11 - Yoga X

I'm not sure that P90X understands the purpose of yoga.

For all the good that this program does for me, the one workout that I really don't like is the Yoga X workout. The first problem is the length; the workout is over 90 minutes long, and if I were to start the program on a Monday, I would have to find that time on a Thursday in order to keep with the program. Finding that amount of time on a weekday is never easy.

Fortunately, I've already anticipated that issue and, by starting on a Thursday, have managed to keep the majority of those workouts on Sunday. The exception, of course, will be the step-back weeks, but again, we'll talk about the issues with that week when we get there.

The first half of the workout is the vinyasa section, or the moving yoga. When I first did this program, this was the part of the workout that I disliked. It's much more difficult than the second half, and there are several poses (half moon, for example), that I'm just not able to do, at least, not yet.

After my month of yoga at the beginning of this year, however, I have a different point of view. Now that I have a much better understanding of the various poses, I can stay in control during the workout and not feel bad about being imperfect. Last week, my arms were so tired from the first week's workouts that I had a great deal of trouble, but today, I felt much stronger and was able to at least attempt each pose through the first half.

My real problem is the last 20 minutes or so. After the vinyasa section ends, there are some balance postures, which I also enjoy. Eventually, though, it gets into basic stretching.

Okay, yoga is about stretching, but this doesn't feel like yoga. It's not about being centered and focused and synchronizing the breath, it's just about stretching the muscles, no different than the Stretch X workout.

Then we go to what Tony calls Yoga Belly 7, which is nothing like any yoga I've done. It's an ab workout. He even acknowledges at one point that he's "yelling too much for yoga," which I completely agree with. He's trying to get the others in the room to work their abs, which doesn't seem to be about meditation and centering at all. Much like when Tony encourages us to do push-ups in between upward and downward dog, this seems almost like an apology. "Sorry we brought yoga into this, here's where you can buff yourself up."

Really the whole concept of "Extreme Yoga" seems like an oxymoron, but hey, maybe that's just me.

I really feel like we could have dropped this workout to an hour and left out some of the not-so-yoga aspects. That said, I felt infinitely better this week than last week, and while I don't feel too much need for Yoga Belly 7, I guess I have no problem with having a strong core.

Eventually, I look forward to having my own workout plan, including running and some variation of P90X workouts, and while I don't think that this particular disc will be a part of that future, I agree that yoga can and should be a part of my healthy plans going forward, though I'll probably stick with Yoga With Adrienne.

Or something else that is actually, you know, yoga.