Slow, deliberate weight work wins the fat-loss race

Slowly, slowly, slowly, I'm working my way through the Beachbody catalog. And this week, after "P90X DVD" and "Insanity," I slowed down even more for "P90X DVD set."

Frankly, I'm relieved. While ChaLean is demanding, another all-encompassing P90X DVD boxset exercise series and nutrition regimen meant to be executed over 90 days, it's less grueling and thus perhaps more suitable for the average person than the others.

Where P90X Extreme and Insanity are all about machismo and pushing your body to the brink, ChaLean, developed by trainer Chalene Johnson (creator of "P90X Extreme Home Fitness"), is calmer, focused on women, and aims for steady, incremental progress.

Make no mistake, though: Johnson wants to build muscle. Lots and lots of muscle. Only the point isn't so much to become buff as to exploit the fat-burning properties of muscle to get and stay thin. Turn here for definition, not bulk.

Johnson's philosophy is also different. In P90X DVD, trainer Tony Horton espouses "P90X DVD set," the active avoidance of routine. Johnson, by contrast, preaches isometrics, performing motions slowly and methodically, to the point of failure.
If you go slower than she does, that's fine. Faster is forbidden. And if you're not achieving failure, you're doing something wrong.
Here's what you get when you order ChaLean from any of several online stores: P90X DVD boxset , including "Kitchen Makeover" and "P90X Extreme" discs, workout and nutrition guides, a resistance band and body-fat calipers. Not included but required are free weights.

Before getting started, you'll also need to perform a P90X Extreme Home Fitness test. This serves two purposes: to evaluate your current abilities and establish proper form in key moves such as crunches, push-ups, squats and presses.

Rather than take on all 90 days of ChaLean, I dropped in for a single session with Hillary Goldberg, an ultra-fit Beachbody representative in Shaker Heights who completed the P90X DVD series but still incorporates certain workouts into her personal schedule.

Any of the 13 workouts would be representative, she said, although several are intended for months two and three of the program, the "Push" and "Lean" phases. In the end, I opted for "P90X DVD set" from the opening "Burn" phase. Each workout lasts 30 to 40 minutes.

P90X DVD boxset quickly emerged. Most of the exercises, I found, are two-part combos, motions with weights performed while holding the body in a related pose. Squats with biceps curls, for instance, or dead-lifts followed by rows with weights. That kind of thing.

Factor in the slow pace and the difficulty soars. Ordinarily, I have little use for 15- and 25-lb. dumbbells, but with ChaLean, these weights felt gigantic. Failure came early and often.

Trickiest for me, besides her daunting "P90X Extreme" push-ups, was balancing on one leg, pushing with the other leg against a resistance band wrapped around your legs, and doing biceps curls with both arms, all at the same time. I'm just not that coordinated.

I have yet to commit to ChaLean in full, but I'm seriously considering going "P90X Extreme Home Fitness." Judging from my experience the other day and my own history of lifting weights, slow and steady works. Failure may be Johnson's mantra, but ChaLean strikes me as a valid path to success.
_______________________________

P90X DVD
P90X DVD set
P90X DVD boxset
P90X Extreme
P90X Extreme Home Fitness