What’s the Difference Between P90X Classic, Doubles, and Lean?

P90X is organized into training blocks designed to challenge your body with its unique muscle confusion technique. Each training block is four weeks long and consists of three weeks of intensity (including the adaptive and mastery phase) and one week of recovery. However, during the one week of “recovery” don’t expect to sit on the couch and watch re-runs of your favorite reality television show. During recovery week you can expect to take a well-deserved break from your strength training workouts, but instead you’ll be focusing on seldom-used muscles as well as cardio, core strength, balance, and flexibility. Have I mentioned how fun P90X is??

The complete P90X program consists of 12 different workouts:

Chest and Back
Plyometrics
Shoulders and Arms
Yoga X
Legs and Back
Kenpo X
X Stretch
Core Synergistics
Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps
Back and Biceps
Cardio X
Ab Ripper X

(please stay tuned for an article that describes each individual workout)

Within the P90X program there are 3 different plans you can follow depending on your fitness goals: Classic, Doubles, and Lean. All 3 plans last for 90 days (13 weeks) and involve a commitment to push play at least six days a week. On average each workout lasts for just under an hour. The two exceptions are Yoga X and Ab Ripper X. Yoga X lasts for 90 minutes and Ab Ripper X is a grueling 16 minutes long. However, this workout is always done in addition to another workout so there’s never a day when you just do Ab Ripper X.

Here’s an outline of the different plans:

1. P90X Classic

P90X Classic takes advantage of the full realm of P90X workouts. No muscle is left behind! The only workout you won’t encounter here is Cardio X. That being said, you can still incorporate Cardio X into the Classic plan without going totally insane with Doubles (see below). For example, on days when I feel like I have some extra time and energy, I will do Cardio X in the evening after doing my regular scheduled workout earlier in the day. The main thing is to only add Cardio X on days when you do the strength training workouts. On days when I feel a little guilty about what I’ve eaten I also like to add Cardio X.

Weeks 1-3

Day 1 Chest and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 2 Plyometrics
Day 3 Shoulders and Arms, Ab Ripper X
Day 4 Yoga X
Day 5 Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 6 Kenpo X
Day 7 Rest or X Stretch

Week 4

Day 1 Yoga X
Day 2 Core Synergistics
Day 3 Kenpo X
Day 4 X Stretch
Day 5 Core Synergistics
Day 6 Yoga X
Day 7 Rest or X Stretch

Weeks 5-7

Day 1 Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps, Ab Ripper X
Day 2 Plyometrics
Day 3 Back and Biceps, Ab Ripper X
Day 4 Yoga X
Day 5 Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 6 Kenpo X
Day 7 Rest or X Stretch

Week 8 (repeat Week 4)

Weeks 9 and 11

Day 1 Chest and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 2 Plyometrics
Day 3 Shoulders and Arms, Ab Ripper X
Day 4 Yoga X
Day 5 Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 6 Kenpo X
Day 7 Rest or X Stretch

Weeks 10 and 12

Day 1 Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps, Ab Ripper X
Day 2 Plyometrics
Day 3 Back and Biceps, Ab Ripper X
Day 4 Yoga X
Day 5 Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
Day 6 Kenpo X
Day 7 Rest or X Stretch

Week 13 (repeat Week 4)

2. P90X Doubles

The P90X Doubles plan kicks it up another notch. Doubles adds another cardio workout to the Classic plan three or four days a week. The Doubles plan is for those who want some extra cardiovascular exercise, either for performance or weight loss. If you plan on doing Doubles, you’ll definitely need to be careful while you plan out your diet, schedule and laundry! On certain days of the week you’ll be working out both in the morning and the afternoon or evening.

The P90X Fitness Guide states, “Those attempting Doubles should be completely injury free and have plenty of energy to add another workout to the schedule three or four days per week. The Cardio X workout is the least intense of the P90X series, but it’s still a serious calorie-burner.” BTW–when they say “plenty of energy” what they’re really saying is “plenty of calories”. And not those icky empty calories!

Even if you can’t do Cardio X three or four times a week like the Doubles plan has it laid out, you can still incorporate it into the Classic plan as described above.

Weeks 1-4, 8, 13 (same as the Classic Plan)

Weeks 5-7

Same as the Classic Plan but add Cardio X on Days 1, 3, and 5. You should do Cardio X in the morning on an empty stomach and the regular P90X workouts later in the day when you’ve got more glycogen for energy. Definitely plan on eating plenty of calories if you’re going to tackle Doubles!

Weeks 9-12

Same as the Classic Plan but add Cardio X on Days 1, 2, 4, and 5.

3. P90X Lean

The P90X Lean plan has more cardio and less resistance for those who for whatever reason don’t feel like they’re ready to tackle the Classic plan. I find that a lot of women like to flock to the Lean plan because they’re afraid of “bulking up” with the resistance workouts.

The truth is, it takes more than cardio to transform your body. Strength training is the ultimate key to losing fat. Don’t worry ladies, we don’t have enough testosterone to look like Arnold! I too, was once obsessed with burning calories with cardio, but then I read The New Rules of Lifting for Women and I saw the light. This book is a nice little companion to the P90X program and I would recommend it to any woman doing P90X because it fills in a lot of gaps, especially when it comes to the P90X nutrition plan which I’m not a huge fan of. You also gotta love the subtitle: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess. Woot!

The P90X Fitness guide says, “P90X Lean is for those who want a more cardio-based and slightly less intensive program. Make no mistake, this is the real deal and no picnic. In fact, you may sweat more than in P90X. What you sacrifice in overall gains in strength and speed, you’ll make up for with positive changes in lean body mass.”

The following workouts are omitted from P90X Lean: Plyometrics, Legs and Back

Remember, even if you’re a total muscle-phobic, instead of doing less reps with heavier weights, you can do more reps with lighter weights. And if you’re using resistance bands it works the same way. The general philosophy when performing exercises involving weights or bands is that 8 to 10 repetitions will build size, whereas 12 to 15 repetitions will create a slimmer/toned look. However, keep in mind that “toning” probably won’t make your muscles look any better than they do now, even if you manage to lose the layer of fat that sits on top of them.

At the end of the day, the great thing about P90X is that whether or not you follow the Classic, Doubles, or Lean plan, each individual workout and exercise can be adjusted according to your individual fitness goals. There is definitely not a “one size fits all” approach to P90X and that’s why it works. Tony frequently talks about variety throughout the different workouts which is essential to achieving success with the program.

In fact, the more variety you put into your workout, the better and faster your results will be. Again, it’s all about muscle confusion. By providing an extensive variety of different moves that take time to master, P90X is continually challenging the body’s muscles into new growth. The more you confuse the muscle, the harder your body has to work to keep up.

And no matter what you do, as long as you stick with it for 90 days you’ll be way better off than you were on Day 1!!

PLEASE NOTE: I had to close the comments section on this post due to the fact that I could not keep up with the very high number of questions I was receiving. So I don’t need to keep answering the same thing over and over please refer to this post: Should I Do P90X Classic, Doubles or Lean? THANK YOU!!