Bling Blaow Burr

Today I threw in the P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps workout with Tony Horton. This is a routine that I hadn’t done in weeks and I needed to get it back in my workout mix just for something different. I typically always try to start my week off with an (out here in these woods) unforgivable upper body workout because I need something to blast me out of Shaun of the Dead zombie mode on Mondays. Even though this routine may not be nearly as physically assaulting as P90X Chest and Back or the infamous Upper Body Massacre with a weight vest, it slays my arms every time. When I wake up the next day following this routine, I open my eyes, try to move my arms, and I feel like a fucking yacht anchor; I can’t move.

The thing that I like most about the P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps routine is that there are 24 exercises and no repeats; when you finish one move you can say adios and move on. Although I don’t have anything against repetition, hitting Phase 2 and getting a workout where each exercise is done just once without looking back is nice because there ends up being more variety. Every time I have to do a second round of maximum rep Diamond Push Ups in Chest and Back, I know I always feel like I am committing first degree homicide suicide. Another thing that I really like about Chest Shoulders and Triceps is that a lot of fun moves are introduced such as: Pike Presses, Side to Side Push Ups, Clap or Plyo Push Ups, Floor Flys, and every showoff / narcissists dream – the One Arm Push Ups.

If I had to pick a favorite move from this workout, it would be the Floor Flys because I can knock out a lot of reps and my muscles feel like they have been mashed to butter by the time I finish spazzing out with these. The exercise with the highest degree of lethality (without a shadow of ayfa king doubt) in this entire workout are the Two Twitch Speed Push Ups. These involve doing 4 fast push ups, followed by 3 slower push ups, then 4 fast, 3 slow, and the cycle repeats. The slow push ups always seem to find a way to rape my muscles no matter how strong I think I’m getting. Below is my Chest Shoulders and Triceps review that you can read if you want a fully comprehensive breakdown.

P90X Chest Shoulders Triceps Review

The P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps routine is meant to be done on the first day of Phase 2 (i.e. Mondays). For peeps that ended up swimming in a pool of sweat with two middle fingers aimed at their pull up bar after Chest and Back, this routine should make you feel a little better. This is a great workout for people who are allergic to pull ups and ran out of Claritin cuz you don’t do a single rep of pull ups. You don’t even have to look at your pull up bar if you don’t want or you can taunt it if you are feeling extra cocky…haha. You will still be doing plenty of push ups, so hopefully your push up stands are ready for some action.

When I did my first 90 days of P90X, I remember that I was like damn I love Phase 2 because I don’t have to get owned by P90X Chest and Back every Monday (thank basedgod). Eventually I came full circle and P90X Chest and Back ended up being my favorite routine; ironically, I actually really like pull ups now – talk about odd future (wolf gang) I know. Although this is basically a replacement for the P90X Chest and Back workout, it targets different muscles as to keep the “muscle confusion” concept alive. It manages to deliver a highly targeted workout to (you guessed it): the Chest, the Shoulders, and the Triceps through a wide variety of impressive exercises involving dumbbells and push up stands.

P90X Cast

Phil Maltin – Phil is probably my favorite of this crew because he’s both hardcore and hilarious. He doesn’t take kindly to any jokes from Tony and seems like a stone cold badass. At the beginning, when Tony walks over to Phil for the introduction, he says, “This is Phil – look at his face.” Haha. Then he says, “That’s an intense face. This man likes to work hard and he’s going to show you.” And then he makes it clear that he has got both “brains and braun all mixed in” and is also a karate man.

As the warm up progresses, the unadulterated badassery of Phil ensues. At one point Tony asks Laura if she feels the burn from arm circles, and she convincingly says, “Yeah I’m feeling it.” Tony then asks, “Big Phil?” (in regards to feeling the burn) and Phil responds with a stone cold, “No.” Tony then starts laughing and deems Phil “La Máquina” which is Spanish for “The Machine.” Hahaha – damn he is definitely too cool.

During my first 90 days I was thinking that maybe this guy just hates Tony or something, but I highly doubt that’s the case. I was just so used to everyone following Tony’s naturally caffeinated personality with the i-love-life / i-eat-breathe-sleep-P90X / every-soup-i-stir-is-healthier-than-thou-and-contains-whole-wheat-noodles type attitude that Phil’s personality offered some nice contrast. Don’t get me wrong, Tony is always awesome, but gotta love Phil is the MVP here.

Oh he also stirs up “Trouble Soup” at the end of the routine, which is probably the best soup ever brewing in P90X. Side note: If you need to hire a lawyer and want someone that kicks P90X ass, consider consulting Phil R. Maltin…haha. He is recognized as a Southern California “Super Lawyer” – an elite classification given to no more than 5% of the So. Cal Bar and works for Gordon & Rees – specializing in business discrimination and harassment claims. Who wouldn’t want this guy as a lawyer? (Hint: Probably someone that wants to lose their case, LOL). If I hired him though, I would hope that he would at least do the Wide Knee warm up run in the court room like a P90X boss.

Perhaps the most infamous line is when Phil is working his ass off, and Tony giddily walks over to him and asks, “I’m not in your space am I?” Phil keeps it PG with an instant response of, “Would you get lost!” – The first few times I saw this I literally broke out laughing at the fact that Phil was in no mood for a joke. At this point, I consider that little dialogue an instant P90X classic between Mr. Maltin and Mr. Horton. Bottom line: Don’t mess with Phil. All I can really say is damn Phil is a beast.

Dave (Davey) – Dave a.k.a. “Big Dave” b.k.a. “Davey” (or anything) is the guy that will be demonstrating how to use the “bands” in this routine. According to Tony, “He’s a stud, he’s strong, he’s built.” He’s also a major bike rider, loves the bicycle and he’s out in the outdoors, breathing clean air. Oh and Dave is also a substitute teacher (which we appreciate)…haha.

Laura – She was in the P90X test group. Fired up on all 10 cylinders. Brought her daughter with her and both of them survived. She has been done with P90X for awhile and has still been working really hard. She invites people on hikes, workouts, and in the words of Mr. Horton, “she’s a monster.” Haha. I think Laura is pretty cool, definitely looks tough and is staying healthy, glad to see her in this routine.

Structure

• 24 Exercises (No Repeats)
• 2 Rounds (12 Exercises Per Round)
• 8 Cycles (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps)
• 1 Water Break (Halfway Point)

The Chest Shoulders and Triceps routine is divided into 2 halves (or rounds). There are a total of 24 exercises and none are repeated; when you finish one move, you don’t have to worry about doing it again. The first move of the workout is a Chest exercise (Push Ups), the second move is a Shoulders exercise (Flys), and the third move is a Triceps exercise (Dips). When you do this routine, you will recognize that the initial pattern of Chest, then Shoulders, then Triceps holds stable throughout.

Although there is only one water break, you could think of this workout as having 8 cycles (each cycle containing 1 Chest exercise, 1 Shoulders exercise, and 1 Triceps exercise). It’s pretty simple to understand the thought process behind this type of structure. The goal is to work one muscle group hard, give it a little break (or recovery time) for the next two moves, and then pwn the same muscle group again with a different exercise.

Equipment Needed

• Dumbbells – I have gone on several rants as to why I think the bands are garbage compared to a legit set of dumbbells, so I will try not to again. I have personal experience with bands for my first 90 days of P90X, and used dumbbells for my second 90 days. Although I could certainly work up a burn with bands, the burn is not as intense as the dumbbells. Additionally, how can you keep track of your “band” resistance or weight? Are you seriously going to make a fucking band loop measurement? LOL. I typically only recommend bands as a last resort for any P90X routine – just buy a damn set of dumbbells without thinking and don’t look back. I have a homemade set that were found on Craigslist and I also ordered Bowflex Selecttechs. Both are types of dumbbells are great, but I actually prefer the complete set of weights because I can have them all lined up and don’t have to keep adjusting the dials of the Selecttechs to increase or decrease weight. Anyways if you want to get the best possible results from this routine, be a boss and get dumbbells.
  

  CST Chop Shop... Iz u workin hard or iz u hardly workin?

• Chair(s) – You only need one chair for this routine that you will use for Chair Dips as well as other moves like Side Leaning Tricep Extensions and Slo Mo Throws. If you use just one chair for your Chair Dips, try to focus on maximizing the range of motion that you get out of each dip. In other words, drop down as low as you possibly can, and then fully extend your arms at the top of each rep to maximize your height at the top. Since I have been around the P90X block for awhile, I like to do the 2 Chair Dips with a Leg Raise (alternating legs every 5 reps). This isn’t necessarily a way more advanced version, but it offers some extra variety. If you have regular Chair Dips mastered, you may want to try them with two chairs during this routine.
• Push Up Stands (Optional) – Let me make this clear: You don’t need push up stands or Tony’s infamous “Power Stands.” I used to do all of the routines with bare hands and my floor, but after experimenting with a cheap set of push up stands, I ended up really liking them. Eventually I ended up falling victim to Tony’s shameless plug for his “Power Stands” and splurged on a set. Let me say that although they are somewhat expensive compared to other “push up stands,” I would buy them again in a heartbeat – they are the best. What I like most about the Power Stands is that they are extremely stable and offer more range of motion than standard push ups (with my hands on the floor). These can be used for most of the push up variations in this routine as well as for the Pike Presses.
• Plastic Plate, Cardboard, Towel – Depending on the type of surface you are doing the CST routine on, you will have to choose between using a Plastic Plate, piece of Cardboard, or a Towel for the Floor Flys (my favorite move). These days I am in a basement where the floor is half carpet half linoleum, and I simply shift over to the linoleum half and use a Towel for the Floor Flys when that move rolls around. For awhile I was using a Paper Plate on thin carpeting and it worked pretty well. One day when I lost my plate I ended up using one of my folders from one of my college classes and it worked fine as a substitute. If you are on carpeting though, I recommend experimenting with different materials. I personally would probably try getting something laminated because laminated material always slides easy.
• Yoga Mat (Optional) – A yoga mat is always useful for doing Ab Ripper X after this routine ends, but I also like to use it so that I don’t slip during Side Tri Rises. If you don’t have a good grip on the floor (especially hardwood or linoleum), you may be flopping around like a fish outta water. Once again, not completely necessary (I used to do the STR’s without a mat and it still worked) I would rather stay fairly stabilized and make sure I am targeting my triceps and not getting the flop effect. A towel may work too here for balance, just make sure your legs aren’t throwing intermittent Ronaldo scissor kicks with each rise.

P90X Chest Shoulders Triceps Workout

“The reason why Chest Shoulders and Triceps are in one workout together is because this is all about taking the energy and the resistance and pushing it away from you – and that’s why it works. It’s just good old fashioned weight lifting 101. This stuff’s been around a long time, but it’s kinda got lost out there in fancy gidgets and gadgets and stupid things that don’t work! If we neglect this (triceps) we can’t develop the shoulders and chest as well, so it’s very important to work the triceps as much or as hard as we do everything else.” – Tony Horton

Tip of the Day: “The magic, the money comes in the last 3 reps – that’s where the intensity needs to be. You gotta bring it at the end, if you don’t you’re wasting your time.” – Tony Horton

What he means here is that you need to make sure that you actually challenge yourself all the way to the end of each exercise to get the best possible results – otherwise you are wasting time. If you do these moves half assed, you are going to wonder why you are only getting half assed results. P90X is a program for people that are willing to work and are up for a little challenge each day. If you aren’t willing to actually push yourself, go fuck around on an elliptical machine at your local YMCA or something and engage in some disinfectant spray bottle warfare with someone nearby so that you actually have some fun…haha. Seriously though if you are doing P90X and are in Phase numero dos, you should know the drill: pick tough weights, continue doing max rep push ups until the time runs out, yadda yadda, blah blah, etc. Got it? Chea chea, fo sho fo sho, aww yea aww yea, no doubt no doubt.

Warm Up

• High Knees – Walk in place with high knees to warm up the lungs and the heart. You should already know the drill. Make little targets with your hand if you want, just make sure your knees rise above your waist with each step.
• Run In Place – After walking in place with High Knees, start running in place while maintaining high knees. If you have any tension in your upper body, Tony instructs you to shake it out.
• Knees Wide – Continue running in place with high knees, but take them wide (i.e. outside your hips). If you listen closely to the commentary Tony looks at Phil and says, “Bet they never saw you do this in court.” Phil smirks a little and responds, “Not yet.” And Tony says “There’s a time for everything.” This makes me laugh pretty much every time because I imagine how hilarious it would be to witness stone cold Phil do the Wide Knee Run in front of the jury…haha.
• Knees Down (Heels Up) – Switch from running with Wide Knees to keeping your knees down and lifting your heels up. If you do this properly, you should actually be doing “butt kicks” or at least coming close to kicking your own butt. This is just another variation of running in place to keep switching things up during the warm up.
• Jumping Jacks – These are more like half hearted jacks because your arms only come up to shoulder height with each jack; which is fine – it’s just to get loosened up. You aren’t going through an Olympic cardio montage, so just keep it simple and get warmed up.
• Run Stance Lunges – There are a couple of different varieties of Run Lunges: the straight arm or pull variety. To do these simply have your left foot forward, right foot back, right arm up high, and left arm lower and do a little hop while switching the position of your feet and arms. With your first hop, your left foot goes back, right foot hops forward, and your right arm lowers, while your left arm rises to the top. Keep alternating until you have finished getting a decent warm up. You can choose between the straight arm variety: keeping your arms locked straight out as you move them up and down – OR the pull variety: act like you are reaching out and pulling towards your body each time your hand rises up at the top of the motion.

Stretch

• Neck Rolls – Roll the right ear to the right shoulder, hold it for a few seconds, then roll the left ear left shoulder, hold it for a few seconds, and repeat. This stretch helps get rid of all tension built up in your neck area. I make sure that I do all of these neck stretches because I have pulled a muscle in my neck before and know how shitty it feels. Fortunately it was a minor pull that went away within 48 hours, but still. Since these are in the warm up, just do them and feel the relaxation.
• Neck Stretch – Although you don’t hook up a weighted chain to your neck and perform neck lifts during this routine like a caged beast or UFC fighter, your neck muscles are indirectly stimulated a lot during many of these lifts and push up variations. For this second neck stretch in the warm up, you grab your right wrist behind your back with your left hand so that it appears as though you have made a “Chicken Wing” on the left side of your body. Lean your left ear to the side of the chicken wing (i.e. left shoulder) and feel the stretch in your neck. Hold this for awhile and then switch by grabbing the left wrist with the right hand and making a “Chicken Wing” on the right side. Stretch the neck in the opposite direction by leaning to the right this time. I like when Tony says, “Listen to your shoulder, what does it say?” And then he whispers, “P90X rocks!” Classic, I think that’s exactly what my right shoulder said – I think my left one might have said “bring it” or something too but I wasn’t listening yet…haha.
• Shoulder Rolls – Simply roll your shoulders back about 6 to 8 times so that they feel loosened up. To do a shoulder roll, simply shrug up as high as you can, move them to the back, and then down so that they rotate in a cycle. After you have done your shoulder rolls to the back, reverse the cycle and do 6 to 8 to the front in order to further loosen up any remaining tension.
• Front Shoulder Stretch – To get a little more of a stretch in your shoulders, cross one hand over the other, twist your wrists, and press the palms of your hands together. So basically your right hand is on the left side and left hand is on the right side, but your palms press together in the middle. Your primary focus here should be on pressing the insides of your shoulder blades together as much as possible towards the center of your body.
• Back Shoulder Stretch – After you have stretched your shoulders in the front, bring your hands behind your back (near your butt), interlock your fingers, and clasp your hands. Once you have clasped your hands and brought your palms together, press your hands as far down as possible to feel your shoulders shift back. This may be a little uncomfortable at first, so don’t overdo it if you experience pain, but know that it will really help keep your shoulders loose if done properly.
• Wide Chest Stretch – Yeah yeah yeah (no Chris Breezy), this is an all time classic. Separate your feet wider than shoulder width, and reach your arms straight up overhead while spreading your fingers. Plug your fingers into the ceiling while extending your arms as high as possible. If you have electrical outlets above your head, try to plug your fingers in – the shock should help you get a little more fired up for this routine…(just playing, but if you need some quick self-administered ECT or something, I know it may seem tempting). After you have plugged your fingers into the ceiling, pull your elbows wide as you exhale your arms downward. Continue to plug and unplug your fingers until you have received an adequate chest stretch.
• Arm Circles – Extend your arms straight out to their respective sides at about shoulder height, and do small arm circles forward. Keep your fingers up like you are washing windows. After your forward circles, you do reverse circles – keeping them small. Then after some small circles, you make the reverse circles bigger and turn your fingers downward. The idea here is to really loosen up the shoulders, arms, and your rotator cuffs. After your big reverse circles, keep your fingers downward and circle your arms forward.
• Shake It Out – Do some ballistic shakers like a boxer going into the ring. Kick out the tension in your legs and feet, and shake out the tension in your arms and hands.
• Huggers – Hug yourself to continue loosening up your arms. Hug yourself with your right arm high, then left arm high, and continue to alternate arms top and bottom with each hug.
• Swimmers – Do the back stroke with just your right arm for 6 reps, then do 6 front strokes with the same arm to activate some muscles in the opposite direction. After you are finished with your right arm, do the back stroke with your left arm for 6 reps, then 6 front strokes and you are done getting your Phelps on.
• Reachers – Place one foot in front of the other, keep your arms extended, and reach up with the palms of your hands going towards the back of the wall. Then bend forward slightly and swing your arms down and raise them up to the back with your palms up. The initial stretch with palms to the back opens up the chest and shoulders, while the stretch to the back does a great job of engaging the triceps. After these Tony yells at everyone and says, “Are we arm, give me ready!” Laura says “Ready!” and Phil softly says “Ready.” I usually get a little amped and yell “Ready!” just to get a little more pumped up…haha.

Round #1: P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps

Slow Motion 3 In 1 Push Ups

The first move of the Chest Shoulders and Triceps routine is the “Slow Motion 3 In 1 Push Up.” If you have never done slow motion push ups before, just know that they can get pretty fucking wicked in a hurry. Upon starting this move, I was thinking that they were going to be nice and easy due to the fact that I am pretty damn good at push ups and actually enjoy them. With that said, the reason these get insta-badass status has to do with the fact that they are done in “slow motion.”

If you listen to Tony, it usually takes him 4 seconds to drop down to the bottom of each push up, and 4 more seconds to push himself back up. When you drop down, you are moving slowly through the motion – you don’t just drop down and hold yourself in low plank or rise up really quick and hold high plank. You maintain a sloth-like movement throughout each push up so that you stay moving through the rep, but are really slow. These are basically push ups that have been chopped N screwed (swag). Your goal here though is to maintain proper form throughout each rep so that your muscle stay engaged.

There is no “stalling” part way down – if you do each rep correctly, you should be moving the entire time – just slowly. The slow motion push ups keep your muscles engaged for longer periods of time than a standard push up – they also retain a greater degree of burn. These are almost like an isolation type push up, and are highly effective. The reason that this particular move is called the “3-In-1” push up has to do with the fact that there are 3 different variations of slow motion push ups that are done in this exercise.

1. Wide Push Ups – For the Wide Push Ups, position your hands (or push up stands) reasonably wider than shoulder width. Your arms should be wide like you are doing dual shoulder flys as you drop down for each rep. These are the easiest type of push ups for me because they allow you to use your entire arm, chest, shoulders, as well as upper back muscles to help lift your body up from each rep. You do 4 total reps of slow motion Wide Push Ups before moving on to the next type.
2. Standard Push Ups – Once you have finished your Wide Push Ups, don’t mess around, quick re-position your grip so that your hands are just about shoulder distance apart. If it helps, you can turn your hands at a slight angle inwards, but don’t get too carried away. Lately for Standard Push Ups, I have been doing these with my hands shoulder width apart, but I let my elbows flare slightly to the sides. The closer your elbows are to your body, the tougher these will be – just don’t have them too close or you will end up doing Military Push Ups. Anyways, do 4 reps of the Standard Push Ups before moving onto the third and final type.
3. Military Push Ups (or Chaturanga) – For the Military Push Ups, you will want to make sure that your elbows tucked as close to your sides as possible as you drop down for each rep. Also make sure that your elbows are pointing straight back (i.e. not flaring off to the sides) with each push up. I try to line my push up stands about even with my nips (pause) because if you have them too wide, you won’t be doing Military Push Ups. The difference between these and other types of push ups is that they really put a lot of pressure on your triceps to lift your body up; you aren’t using your entire arm here. You are to perform 4 reps of the Military Push Ups in slow motion.
4. Bonus Push Ups – HYFR that’s wassup! Didn’t see the bonus round coming did ya? I absolutely 1000% love the bonus round here because it lets everyone know that we are here to actually fucking work out, not sit around, sip syzzurp, and eat mall pretzels on a bean bag massage chair. During the bonus round, you have the option of doing fast push ups or slow push ups – you also get to pick the type (i.e. military, standard, wide, diamond, etc.). Since we just did a bunch of Slow Motion Push Ups, I usually like to bring things back to 1x normal speed and go for maximum rep Standard Push Ups for the remaining time. Today I was able to knock out an additional 13 bonus push ups after I finished getting my sloth on.

Unrelated: Whenever I think of “slow motion” I always think of the Chappelle’s Show sketch where “everything looks better in slow motion.” Although I got these 3-In-1 Push Ups down pat, I haven’t been able to replicate the same laundry experience as Dave…yet…haha.

In and Out Shoulder Flys

The second exercise of this routine are the In and Out Shoulder Flys. Since we really worked the Chest with those push ups, we are now moving onto targeting the Shoulders. Although it may be targeting a different muscle group than the initial move, your shoulders were still engaged during the first move – so don’t get too cocky here. This is not an easy move and if you want to use good form, you probably shouldn’t be using very heavy weights. The goal here is to isolate the shoulders and to avoid leaning (i.e. using your back) to help lift your dumbbells.

Another reason you should probably use light weights has to do with the fact that everybody (male, female, young, and old) are expected to do 16 reps – and each 2 move combination “In” and “Out” counts as 1 rep. So basically you are doing a total of 32 Shoulder Flys – which is certainly a beastly number of reps. Anyways, to perform the In and Out Shoulder Flys, simply grab a couple of (light) dumbbells (I used 15 lbs. per hand) and stand up tall. If you want you can position one foot slightly in front of the other – this will help prevent you from using your lower back to lift the weights.

When you are standing tall and ready to roll, simply hold the weights in front of your legs with your knuckles up. Then keeping your arms straight and shoulder distance apart, lift them straight up and keep them fully extended. Once they reach shoulder height, do a little isometric hold, and slowly lower them back down. This sequence is considered the “In” Shoulder Fly because your arms are inside your chest. This portion is considered the first half of a rep.

Once you have finished your “In” portion and have lowered your hands, bring the weights to the sides of your hips so that they are parallel. Your knuckles should now be facing to the sides of your body (out from your hips) instead of towards the front. Once you have them in this position, you simply keep your arms fully extended and lift up for an “Out” Shoulder Fly. Then lower them back down slowly. Once you have completed an “In” and an “Out” combination, you have done a single rep.

Do this 16 times and your shoulders should start feeling the burn by your last three reps; remember the tip of the day. If you don’t feel the burn, adjust your weights so that next time you do this exercise, you feel it. Another trick I sometimes do when I’m experimenting with weights is that if I don’t feel the burn, I usually quick click on the progress bar, and restart the move before moving on so that I get in reps with a heavier weight.

Chair Dips

Once you have worked your Shoulders with the In & Out Shoulder Flys, you get to do some of the classic Chair Dips. I am a huge fan of Dips in general because they are tough and really crush the Triceps every time. For these Chair Dips, you have a few options here: you can do these with one chair, two chairs, and/or add a leg raise to either of those ways. Since I have been around the block with Chair Dips, I know what works best for me – I enjoy doing the 2 Chair Dips with the Leg Raise (alternating legs every 5 reps).

When I first started, I was only using one chair and I still got great results. The whole key with these though is to make sure that you are getting full range of motion with your dips. If you are dropping down only part way and aren’t coming up all the way to the top, you are cheating yourself. Don’t be a DIPShit – go down all the way and come up all the way (fully extended arms at the top); don’t do little pulses. If because you are using good form you get less reps, who really cares? It just means you are working harder and know what you are doing.

With a single chair, I actually think I can get a little bit better range of motion than using 2 Chairs, so don’t think that because you are using a single chair you can’t get good results – that’s clearly not the case. When you have mastered the single chair version, have added the leg raise, and know what you’re in for, you can try these with 2 chairs to see whether you like it. If you add the leg raise, try to keep it as straight as possible.

There are also different variations as to how you can grip your chair for these. I used to grip on the corners and it worked amazing, but I found out that if I grab a little more inwards by my butt, and place my palms on the edge, that it engages my triceps more. It may be a little tougher grip and your hands may slip (depending on what type of chair you are using) but I found that it engages my triceps more – that’s what I want. Today I ended up doing 30 Chair Dips with 2 chairs and an alternating leg raise every 5 reps.

This was an improvement from last week by 5 reps, but two weeks ago I beat this by 5 reps. Don’t think you have to improve every time you do this workout, sometimes you may just be having a really good day and Chuck Norris roundhouse kick some extra ass.

Plange Push Ups

Although it may be up for debate as to whether Plange Push Ups are more badass than Military Push Ups, they always will deliver a nasty burn if you do them properly. In my experience they have been tougher than Military Push Ups simply due to the fact your hands are positioned below the ribcage with the fingers flared out to the sides and thumbs facing forward (parallel). This is an abnormal push up grip and that’s part of the reason that these are so damn tough. In addition to engaging your chest and arms, the Plange Push Ups also really target your entire core if you know how to do them properly.

Alright, so how do you get your Plange on? To perform these, you need to pay careful attention to hand positioning as well as the distance between your hands. Your hands shouldn’t be very far apart and they should be dropped as far back as possible near your lower ribcage. I position mine so that my wrists are at about the same latitude as my upper abs or lower ribs. It’s important to experiment here with distance because if you have your hands too far back, you may not be able to prevent your body from flopping at the bottom of each rep.

Have your hands far back, but not so far that when you drop down your quads touch the floor – your body shouldn’t be touching the ground at all. Tony’s recommendation of having them aligned with your ribcage is perfect. As I already mentioned, when you place your hands on the floor, your thumbs should both be facing forward and parallel. Your fingers should be slightly spread and splayed out to the sides at a slight angle. Have your feet positioned together and core tight the same way you would for any type of push ups.

Maintaining your hand position, drop down to the bottom of your push up rep. When you drop down, your elbows should be tucked near your sides just like they were for Military style. Then using your arms and tightening your core, do your Plange Push Up to the top. As you reach the top, Tony instructs everyone to raise the middle of their back up. This is an important tip to keep in mind if you want to get the most out of this exercise – always raise your back up higher at the top of each rep. As you raise your back, you should really feel your core tighten – this is a sign you are doing them properly.

Of course you can raise the middle of your back with any type of push up at the top of each rep, but this raise is a specific characteristic of the Plange Push Ups. I actually really impressed myself today by doing 21 reps of these; this was a personal best for the past 4 times I have done this routine. I consider anything over 15 reps with proper form to be extreme, but always push to the final second.

Pike Presses

The Pike Presses are different than traditional Decline Push Ups, so make sure that you get the form correct. To do the Pike Presses, start by getting into Plank and then bringing your body into Downward Dog position. In Downward Dog, your body is essentially in an inverted “V” position. If you feel as though your feet are too far back, you can walk them in – just make sure your butt is up and you look like an upside down “V.” Your legs and arms should be locked straight out before you start. When you are ready to get in some Pike Press reps, drop your head straight down to the floor between your hands.

Your head doesn’t need to touch the floor at the bottom of each rep (so don’t smash your head and get concussed). As you lower your head between your arms, make sure that your elbows flare directly out to their respective sides. If your elbows don’t flare out to the sides, you are doing this move wrong – make sure you are using good form. When you think your head is down low enough, “Press” it back up to the top quickly with your arm strength. If you want to try a more advanced version, you can follow Phil’s lead where he elevates his feet onto a chair to put more pressure on his arms.

If you want to try an even more badass version, you can try the version of Pike Presses that Tony introduced in the One on One Diamond Delts workout. Basically these involve elevating your feet even higher than a chair so that all of the pressure mounts up on your shoulders and arms. In my basement I have a little shelf about 4 feet high where I can place my toes, which creates a lot of resistance for each Pike Press. I use my Power Stands (push up stands) so that I get a deeper range of motion as well throughout each rep. Today I managed to knock out a total of 9 Pike Presses with my feet elevated high on my shelf and they were tough. I then shook out my arms for 10 to 20 seconds and hopped back in for 7 more reps for a total of 16 Pike Presses.

You do NOT want to overdo it here or you may end up eating floor or smashing your dome. When you get tired, just stop and shake things out. If you get tired during the advanced version, you may want to switch to the standard version with your feet on the floor and try for some more reps. Your arms should be plenty tired going into this move from all of the push ups, dips, etc. so don’t feel bad if you can’t do a bunch of reps here. Do as many as possible with good form and when you get tired, shake it out, write down your reps, and if you feel like you have a second wind like me, go for it. Perhaps the most advanced version of these would be a vertical headstand press with elbows flared, but I’m not going to discuss those because I don’t do them and don’t want any noobs to get cracked domes.

Side Tri Rises

You know em, you love em, they are the always dope Side Tri Rises – such a classic P90Xercise. Anyways, for these I recommend taking out a yoga mat so that you aren’t flopping around like a fish Pokemon (i.e. Magikarp) or something. Although I am doing this workout on a thin layer of carpeting, I still slide a little if I do the Side Tri Rises without my mat and sometimes get carpet burn. To avoid moving around and any potential burns, lay out your mat and start going for maximum reps here. As you already know, if you do these properly, they should induce some pretty beastly burn into your Tris.

To set up for this move, simply lie down on your right side and stack your left leg on top of your right leg (left foot also atop the right foot). Then place your right hand on your elevated left shoulder and place the palm of your left hand on the floor near your right armpit. Your hand should be facing sideways and your fingers should be pointing towards your head. When you are ready to go, simply push up the upper half of your body with your left arm until that arm is fully extended. Once your arm is fully extended and your upper half has been elevated, lower it back down, and repeat the process for maximum reps.

The way you have positioned your left arm should really induce burn in the triceps. If you aren’t feeling your triceps engaged during the Side Tri Rises, check your form and try to match that of the crew. If you still aren’t feeling it, make sure that you are pressing with your arm on the floor – not rocking up to the top. If you are “rocking” your body to reach the top of each rep, you aren’t doing the right move. This involves NO rocking just pressing with your arm (i.e. triceps) so that your “Side” rises….haha. When you have finished maximum reps in the allotted time whilst lying on your right side, quick flop to your other side and do the same thing there to work your right arm.

Floor Flys

The Floor Flys are my favorite exercise in this entire workout because it’s like the tipping point of the entire routine. If you push hard here, the rest of the routine becomes even more challenging – which is a good thing. If you baby yourself here and only knock out 20 reps when you’re capable of 35 or 40, you might be able to brag about being able to do the Two Twitch Speed Push Ups later in the routine, but the rest of the moves won’t be as nasty as they should be. To get the full effect here, you need to put on your Floor Fly face and get ready to pwn. I go absolutely ape shit with these because: A) I like them and B) because I do them on a linoleum surface which is perfect for the sliding “fly” motion with my Gatorade tennis towel.

Anyways to do the Floor Flys, you need to first decide what you are going to use to help you “slide.” If you are on carpet it is recommended that you use a plastic plate (a paper plate will work fine too). If you are doing these on hardwood floor, tile, or linoleum you should be using something like a towel or cloth that will slide easy from side to side. Tony says, “Don’t use ceramic and don’t use glass” because it might “bust” in your hand which would be pretty bad – LOL definitely a good tip. He also says that if you want “a little extra slippy slide” get some floor wax and spray it on the bottom of your cardboard. I don’t know how much that would help, but he’s the guru here so give it a shot if you want.

Once you have figured out what you will be using, get into plank position, keep your core tight, and place your towel (or plastic plate) under the palm of one of your hands. Make sure that your feet are together and hands are about shoulder distance apart. When you are ready, you slide your left hand with your towel (cardboard, slider, etc.) as wide as possible as you go down for a push up. So basically you are doing a “floor fly” as you are dropping down for a push up. If you watch Tony and company, your feet should stay together the entire time during this exercise – you don’t step out like you would for a moving push up.

By keeping your feet together, it puts more pressure on your core in addition to your arms. Once you have finished 4 reps by doing these “Floor Flys” to the left, you bring your towel or slider to your right hand (i.e. the other side) and do 4 Floor Flys in that direction. Keep alternating sides every 4 reps until your arms collapse of exhaustion. When they collapse, shake them out for a few seconds, and try to get back in for some more reps. Also if you want to make this exercise more challenging, make sure you are switching the “slider” from one hand to the other while staying in plank. What if you don’t have a “slider?” Just watch Tony and Dave, they do them with nothing – all you do is lift your hand, place it wide, do a push up, bring your hand back in, and repeat.

If you watch the video, most of the people drop their knees to the floor and are kind of slacking actually compared to what they could probably do if they were really going for max reps. Think of this move as half Floor Fly, half push up. They really should be called “Floor Fly Push Ups” or something. Each individual rep is easier than an individual rep of a standard push up because these are wide, but they will zap you of all strength if you are using proper form and going as hard as possible. I ended up finishing a total of 40 reps which was fucking brutal, but I had to take 2 mid-set breaks (one after finishing 28 and the next after finishing 32) but there was still enough time for me to get 40 reps and I worked until the timer ran out.

Scarecrows

After the Floor Flys, your arms should be pretty beat up, but here you are trying to isolate the shoulders, so the burn shouldn’t be quite as wicked on your chest. For the Scarecrows, you will need to grab a couple of dumbbells and get back to doing either 8 to 10 reps (for size) or 12 to 15 reps (lean). Although I always go for size, I am not able to handle a very heavy weight on the Scarecrow with good form, so I only use 15 lb. dumbbells per side. I don’t know if it’s my body composition or what, but even doing these with no weights at all feels uncomfortable – especially at the bottom of this move. My shoulders don’t seem like they were meant to be bent downward like I have to here, but whatever, I still do the damn thang and feel my shoulders working.

To do the Scarecrows, grab one dumbbell per hand and lift your arms up so that your elbows are shoulder height and positioned to the respective sides of your shoulders. From here, you will want to make sure that your biceps and forearms form a 90 degree angle (with your elbow being the connector on each side. Next make sure the palms of your hands are facing forwards and your knuckles are facing behind your body. Once you are in this position, you will be ready to scare off some crows…haha. To do a rep, simply lower both of your forearms and hands with your weights, while maintaining shoulder height with your elbows and biceps.

You are essentially making a transition from forming 90 degree angles on each side with your forearms up to having dual wielded 90 degree angles on each side with your forearms down. At the bottom of each rep, your knuckles should be facing forward and palms should be facing the back. Then to finish the rep, lift the weights up so that you are back to starting position (palms forward and knuckles to the back). Keep transitioning from a Scarecrow with your hands up, to a Scarecrow with your arms down for as many reps as your shoulders can tolerate with your weight selection.

If it helps, imagine that there are metal rods going straight out from your shoulders through your elbows – which stay at shoulder height the entire time. Actually wait, that sounds fucking painful, but yeah, this move always is for me regardless, so yeah. Just know that to do these properly you should maintain approximately 90 degree angles throughout – this is what creates the burn and isolates the shoulders. Like I said, for me to keep my elbows up at the bottom of each rep with good form, I need to use a lighter weight – 15 lbs. per side has been working perfectly for me here and I doubt I will increase the weight anytime soon.

Overhead Tricep Extensions

The Overhead Tricep Extensions are a good ole exercise that a lot of peeps do at the gym to help them build up their triceps strength. To do this particular move, stand up tall and grab a couple of fairly heavy dumbbells (don’t go overboard though). To help protect your lower back and achieve a good balance, you can place one foot in front of the other. When you are ready, bring your dumbbells together, and press them straight overhead. Once they are pressed overhead, keep them pressed together and lower them behind your head. As you lower them, your elbows should be bent, but they shouldn’t flare out to the sides too much.

At one point, your elbows should be pointing straight up, the dumbbells should be pressed together behind your neck (or upper back). From here, simply straighten your arms (or do an Overhead Triceps Extension) with both arms so that your elbows are straight again and there is no kink in the elbow. Then bend your elbows again, lower both weights at the same time (dropping your forearms) and complete another rep. There are a couple of things to keep in mind during this exercise: 1) Keep the weights together; 2) Keep the elbows tucked in; 3) Get a full extension with each rep.

Keeping the weights together ensures that you aren’t lifting one arm separate from the other and it also will help you keep your elbows tucked in. If your elbows start to drift or flare, it may be a sign that you chose a weight that’s too badass for you to handle. With this exercise, you want to choose something that will challenge you for 8 to 10 reps, but if the weight is too heavy, you might pull something in your triceps on the way down (or you might drop a weight like a noob) and get hurt – don’t set yourself up for injury. You should have a pretty good idea of what you can handle here – if it feels like too much to do with good form, it probably is.

Lastly, making full extensions with each rep overhead means that your elbow should be fully locked out and your arms should be completely straight. If you can’t lift the weights high enough to straighten your arms fully, it’s probably too heavy. Partial extensions will still strengthen your triceps, but these aren’t partial extensions, they are fully extensions – so do them correctly. I started out using 30 lbs. per hand and was only able to do 4 reps before I’m like damn my triceps are wasted right now, I gotta lighten up to 25 lbs.

So I knocked out 5 more reps at 25 lbs. which was great. The reason I tried 30 lbs. was due to the fact that I had been at 25 lbs. for the past four times I did this routine, so I wanted to just see whether I could handle moving up – turns out I couldn’t, but I’m glad I tried so that at least I knew what was up. If you have been at the same weight for awhile, you may want to consider trying to move up in weight just to see whether you can handle it. It’s better to know for sure than to sit around wondering.

Two Twitch Speed Push Ups

In my opinion, this is the hardest move in the entire P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps workout. As I mentioned earlier, if you slacked off on some of the other moves up to this point, you may be able to do all of the reps like a champ, but damn you probably need to step your swag up if that’s the case. A few times during my first 90 days of P90X I was able to make it through all of the Two Twitch Speed Push Ups with Tony and the rest of the crew. However, looking back, I realize it’s just because my arms weren’t as tired from earlier moves up until this point. Currently I am a helluva lot stronger than my first 90 days of P90X and I can only make it through 3 Fast Push Up Rounds (16 reps) and 2 and ½ Slow Push Up Rounds (10 reps).

To do these 2 Twitch Speed Push Ups, simply position your Push Up Stands (or hands) about shoulder distance apart (wider if you want easier, closer if you want tougher). Then start out by knocking out 4 “Fast” Push Ups; this is the first speed. Although the initial 4 Push Ups are “Fast” it doesn’t mean you should do half assed reps – go down all the way, and come up all the way, use good form – just do them as quickly as you are able. After you have finished your first 4 Fast Push Ups, you are expected to do 4 Slow Push Ups – this is the second speed. Remember the first move of the Slow Motion 3-In-1 Push Ups? Well you are basically moving at sloth-mode for the next 4 push ups here too.

The Slow speed here is what makes my arms feel like they are in a rotisserie slow cooker; and all the fat is getting cooked off. Anyways to do these properly you should spend 4 seconds gradually moving to the bottom of your push up, and 4 additional seconds pushing up to the top of each rep. You should be moving the entire time – you don’t push to the top and wait, or bottom and wait for Tony to count. After your 4 Slow Push Ups, you transition right back to the initial Fast speed and knock out 4 more fast reps. Then you transition back to Slow for 4 more, and keep alternating until your arms fall off or your head explodes or both…haha.

I really like what they did with the music here – playing calming music during the Slow reps and hyped up rock during the Fast reps – it helps your brain make the transition if you lost count. During the second round of Slow Push Ups is where I usually get raped. I typically survive the second set, but barely. Immediately after, I have no strength for the next round of fast push ups, so I have to shake out my arms. Although there is a lot of time left at this point, my arms are ready to be shipped out to the city morgue. After I shake them out and eek out 4 Fast Push Ups to finish my max reps, my arms feel like a Joseph Kony victim.

Y Presses

The Y Presses are one of my favorite movies in this entire routine, and if you do them right, you will understand why: (in the words of Juicy J) they “keep a lotta heat, like Pat Riley”… (Also, I ain’t jokin, my name ain’t Rickey Smiley). Once you are ready to start wylin with this gem, grab a couple of fairly heavy dumbbells and stand up nice and tall with one foot slightly in front of the other. Today I decided to stick with my traditional weight here of 30 lbs. per arm because I usually cannot make it to 10 reps after all of the craziness I have already done thus far in the routine. Since Tony uses 35 lbs. per side and isn’t really “working out” the entire time, I can’t keep up with him – plus he is a natural beast so yeah.

Once you are ready to go, bring your weights up to shoulder height with your palms facing forward and your knuckles facing the back. Then simply press the weights up and out at a slight angle so that at the top of your rep, your body looks like a “Y.” Then bring your arms back down so that the weights drop back down to about shoulder height and repeat for another press. Make sure you aren’t “resting” the weights on your shoulders at the bottom of each rep – your arms should still be engaged. This is not quite the same thing as a regular shoulder press because for those, you generally press the weights straight upwards (not at as much of an angle).

For this move, you are pressing the weights at more of an angle while targeting your shoulders. If you want size, you gotta be using fairly heavy weights and going for 8 to 10 reps. I was able to knock out 9 reps with my 30 lbs. per arm and it worked out great. Normally I can do more weight here, but since I had already been working my shoulders and arms to the max with some other moves, this was wicked enough at the weight that I had chosen.

Lying Tricep Extensions

The Lying Tricep Extensions are the final exercise before the water break, so don’t hold back – go H.A.M. You should already be familiar with this move from the P90X Shoulders and Arms routine. If you need a quick refresher, just remember that this is the exercise where you don’t want to “smash your face”…haha. You lie down (preferably on a mat so that you don’t slide) and grab a couple of dumbbells. I recommend using moderate weights because you will want your triceps to feel maximum burn. I generally roll with 30 lbs. here, but today I wanted to test my strength so I moved up to 35 lbs. per side. In other routines that have this move positioned earlier in the workout, I can do 35’s easily. In this routine, 35 lbs. turned out to be a little too beastly for my arms after 5 reps, so I dropped down to 30 lbs. for the next 4 reps.

To perform the Lying Tricep Extensions, lie down on your mat with your back and place your feet firmly on the floor; your knees should be bent and pointing upwards towards the ceiling. When you are ready, bring the weights center and press them straight up so that the sides of the dumbbells are facing front to back. At this point both of the dumbbells should be parallel to each other and your arms should be fully extended upwards. Next you simply bend your arms at the elbow while lowering the weights to the respective sides of your head (near each ear). From this position, you simply press both weights up with your triceps. The burn from this move should be isolated in your triceps if you are performing it properly.

Think of this move as being very similar to the Overhead Tricep Extensions that you did earlier, except here you are lying down. Although I initially used to perform this move lying on my yoga mat with bent knees, I don’t feel like I get the full range of motion when I lower the weights. So what I did was take a page out of Tony’s X2 Chest Shoulders Tris routine and implemented it within this original workout. I like to do these while lying down and balancing on a stability ball. The stability ball offers more range of motion and makes me feel like I am getting more out of this move in comparison to doing these on the floor. I encourage you to try the same if you feel as though you aren’t getting enough burn here.

Water Break – It’s a Bar Mitzvah, it’s a Quienceañera, nah just playin, it’s something better…it’s a water break from this Chest, Shoulder and Tricepwnage. This is your first and only water break during this routine, so take advantage of it. Wipe down that sweat, pour some drank in yo cup, and sip like a pro. Also if you happen to have a premium blend of your recovery formula made, you may want to take a sip here as well. I typically like to give my muscles a little bit of my protein drink here (like a sip or two) in addition to plenty of water – I don’t go overboard though because I don’t want to puke in the second half. Tony really rapid-fire spams some Beachbody products (like the bars, supplements, recovery drinks, etc.) like a boss. I love when he says, “That’s why I work out – so I can drink the recovery drink”…classic. I also like when Tony makes Phil growl “ARRR” before the next round starts…LOL.

Round #2: P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps

Side to Side Push Ups

After the only “water break” of the routine, you get to start up the second round with some Side to Side Push Ups. Normally these aren’t that tough, but after putting your arms through a brutal round uno, these are badass. My whole frame from my shoulders to my lats, to my biceps and triceps starts to feel super wizzeak during these. As soon as the timer ends from the break though, you need to be ready to work through the pain because if you pushed yourself for the first 12 moves, you should be in pain here. As Tony mentions, there are three variations as to how the crew performs this particular exercise.

Variation #1 (Easy): If you want to do them the super easy way, follow Laura. She keeps her feet stationary and basically moves one hand out for a Wide Push Up, then brings it back in, and does a Wide Push Up on the other side, brings that hand back in – and continues to alternate between sides. I don’t really recommend doing these like Laura because her version is essentially the same as the Floor Flys without a slider (that you may have done earlier).

Variation #2 (Moderate): Another version you could do is that of the homie Dave. He does a push up, comes up to high plank, slides over (walks his hands and feet to the right or left for one step each), and then does another push up. Then he slides over in the other direction (moving each hand and each foot once before doing another push up). This version is a little tougher than Laura’s but still not too wicked.

Variation #3 (Hard): The last version is that of the most badass mofo in town, Phil. When I first saw this version, I was like WTF did I just see – I couldn’t tell what was going on. Eventually I figured out that Phil drops down to low plank, does 2 movements to the right (i.e. 2 movements per hand to the right and 2 movements of each leg to the right) while in low plank, and then comes up to high plank quick, does a push up with wide feet (hands normal distance), and repeats the sequence in the other direction. It may be tough to understand what he’s doing, so watch closely and try to pick up on it. If you aren’t as cool as Phil (hint: no one is) you could drop to low plank, and do one movement with each appendage (both hands / both feet) instead of two, but it’s up to you.

Variation #4 (Ideal): For me I like to take the confusion out of moves and don’t like to have to think about what I’m doing while I’m working out. I always feel like I got mindfucked watching Phil’s variation. I have tried Phil’s variation, but it’s just not really for me – it seems like there is too much of a low plank walk and not enough of a side to side push up motion. So my variation basically involves taking a page out of Shaun T’s “moving push ups” which I did during Insanity. These involve moving the right arm and right leg for one step, doing a push up, then moving the left leg and right arm so that your body is square again. I usually do 4 moving push ups to the right, then 4 moving push ups to the left, and continue until the timer runs out. Today I ended up doing 21 which was ridiculously tough for me.

Who knows maybe you will even come up with your own variation of these that works out well. Just make sure you are doing the variation that delivers the most overall burn and go for maximum reps. Sometimes during these I collapse after about 15 reps and have to quick shake out my arms before knocking out 6 more reps. As long as you are doing your best, that’s all that counts. But just realize that it’s a helluva lot easier to get more reps doing these Laura or Dave’s way compared to Phil’s variation.

Pour Flys

After getting in your max rep Side to Side Push Ups, you move onto a move called “Pour Flys.” For this particular move, you need to grab a couple of relatively light dumbbells. Tony says that he uses 15 lbs. per arm here – and that you don’t need any more than that. And unless you are a major Hulk you shouldn’t be using more than 15’s (I don’t even think Phil uses more than 15 lbs.). Anyways I have tried to match Tony’s swag here in the past and I was only able to survive for about 5 reps until I had to lighten my weight.

To perform the Pour Flys, grab your dumbbells and position them down by your hips (one near the right hip, the other near the left hip). The dumbbells should be in the same position as they were for your “Out” Shoulder Flys from the In & Out Shoulder Fly sequence. When you are ready, simply do an Out Shoulder Fly with both arms at the same time. At the top of the rep, when the weights have been elevated to shoulder height, twist your wrists so that it looks like you are “pouring” liquid out of your dumbbells. And who knows, if you are working hard, maybe there will be a nice stream of sweat flowing down so that it looks like you are pouring out water or something…haha.

Once you have made your synchronized “pours” at the top of the fly, twist your wrists back so that the dumbbells are even again (keeping them at shoulder height), and then lower them back down to your hips. This entire sequence counts as one rep – which is pretty wicked. This is a slow, methodical move that requires strength, concentration, and maximum effort if you want to achieve good form. I ended up using 12.5 lbs. per arm today with my Selecttechs and eeked out 7 reps. Then I grabbed 10 lbs. (which is what I normally use) and finished 5 more reps. If you keep your arms straight, do the proper isolation hold, and make good pours, this is a nasty fucking move that will bring the burn even at light weights.

Side Leaning Tricep Extensions

After you finish with your Pour Flys, it’s time to pull up your chair and get ready to blue dream and Lean to the Side for some Tricep Extensions. Turn your chair sideways and grab a single dumbbell of a respectable weight (not too heavy though). Make sure that your feet are firmly planted on the ground as you are sitting on your chair and leaning to the side of the chair’s back support. My chair feels fairly uncomfortable for this, but it still works out fine. Initially let’s imagine that you are leaning to the left.

If you are leaning to the left, the back support of your chair should be on the left side of your body, and your dumbbell should be in your right hand. Your left arm should be hanging down on the outside of the back support and your body should look kind of like a sideways “U” or backwards “C” with the bend in your oblique area. When you are Leaning to the Side like a pro, punch the right hand with the dumbbell up towards the ceiling and fully extend your arm. Next lower the dumbbell sideways so that it drops behind your neck (or left shoulder) depending on how you are positioned.

Next all that you need to do is a simple Tricep Extension with your right arm for however many reps you are capable of handling. This move is always deceptive for me because the first few reps feel like I am lifting feathers at 25 lbs. However by the time I reach the 5th rep, it feels like someone is taking a fucking Back N Decker power drill bit to my damn triceps. Today I managed to do 8 reps with my right arm at 25 lbs. and 8 reps with my left arm at the same weight. The whole key here though is to make sure that you are leaning and keeping your elbow pointing straight up.

When you have finished your reps leaning to the left and doing the extensions with your right arm, rotate your chair so that the back is facing the right. Then lean your body to the right, grab the dumbbell with your left arm, and repeat the exercise for maximum reps in that direction. If your elbow starts to flare or drop, then you probably need a lighter weight. You will know if you start to struggle here because you will start moving and rocking your entire body to lift the weight up. With this exercise, the ONLY part of your body that should be moving is your arm that’s holding the weight.

One Arm Push Ups

As I already mentioned, every narcissist that owns P90X and enjoys an ego boost will love showing off their ability to do the super gangsta 1 Arm Push Ups. But to be completely honest, if someone does a bunch of these, I’m not that impressed – especially during this workout. If you worked your ass off up to this point, you should really struggle with One Arm Push Ups here. Although I wasn’t really able to do these until the final 30 days of my first round of P90X, looking back, I don’t even care that I’m able to do them now, I kind of think they are actually pretty dumb…haha.

First things first, let’s discuss how to do these One Arm Push Ups. Although they are tough, they probably won’t be quite as tough as you think. To do these, get into plank position like you would if you were going to do standard push ups. Next spread your legs as wide as possible (this will give you more balance). Then decide whether you are going to do the push ups with your right hand or left hand. Let’s say you decide to roll with your right hand first. You will want to twist your wrist a little bit so that it’s not perfectly straight and bring the hand a little bit closer towards the center of your body (this will also provide more balance).

When you are ready to test your ability to do One Arm Push Ups, drop down for a push up. A great tip that can be transferred over from other exercises that will apply here is, “Don’t smash your face!” If you are feeling weak (which you should be if you have been going max weight and max rep on all previous exercises), don’t drop down super fast to the bottom of your rep or your arm might give out – which means you are eating carpet, floor, etc. Although Tony has his people alternate arms with each rep, I recommend knocking out as many with one arm as you can, and then switching to the other arm when your initial arm gives out.

As I have increased reps and weights at earlier exercises in this routine, I have gotten worse at these because my arms are already checked out. Today I was able to do 5 reps per arm, which was good. However, the motion and “twist” that I have to do in order to complete these just seems unnatural and I don’t like it. So when I realize that my arms are out of strength, I stop with the One Arm Push Ups and just do maximum rep standard push ups for the remainder of the time. I generally can’t get many of those done because my arms are so out of commission, but at least I’m going hard til the timer ends since I am out of strength for the One Armers.

Weighted Circles

Although doing Weighted Circles looks pretty easy, these are fucking wicked at the lightest of weights. Hell my guess is that if you pushed hard thus far, you could get a burn with no weights. A few weeks ago I tried doing these with 7.5 lbs. per side, but my form looked like shit and I struggled to make it through all 40 cycles. So now that I’ve dropped down to just 5 lbs. per side, I am able to survive all 40 cycles without any setbacks and without compromising form. Anyways, when you are ready to perform these, grab some light weights and do an “Out” Shoulder Fly just like you did for Pour Flys.

Once the weights have been elevated to shoulder height, simply do 10 slow forward arm circles while holding your weights. You can listen to Tony here because he counts each circle for you so that you don’t even have to think. After your initial 10 forward weighted circles, continue holding your arms straight out and do 10 backward weighted circles. When you have finished your initial 20 circles, you get a few seconds break from the circles – but you don’t set down the weights. After the short-lived break, you lift your arms back up to the Out Shoulder Fly position and repeat 10 forward weight circles and 10 back weight circles for 20 more reps.

As I mentioned, I used a measly 5 lbs. per arm and by my last 15 reps I am feeling the burn. The key is to keep your arms elevated the entire time, complete each full rep (i.e. full circle), maintain a nice slow speed, and keep your arms straight (i.e. no bend). If you follow those rules, you probably shouldn’t be able to use anything over 10 lbs. per side. This move should burn your shoulders to volcanic ashes by the last few reps if you know what you’re doing.

Throw the Bomb

Hell yeah, we get to get our Tim Tebow on in the 4th Quarter and snipe Demaryius Thomas for the game winning OT drive…haha. For this move Tony has the crew point to their receivers. Big Dave is throwing his bomb to Jerry Rice, and Tony is throwing his bomb to Lynn Swann. To throw your bomb, you need to grab just one dumbbell with one hand and stand up with one foot in front of the other. Grab the dumbbell with your right hand, and extend the weight straight up behind your head and bend your elbow so that it drops down behind your neck. With your free left arm, extend it straight forward while pointing to an open receiver to let him know what the “bomb” is coming…haha.

Then simply do a tricep extension with your right arm while twisting your hips slightly as if you were doing an actual throw. Make sure that your arm is fully extended after you have done your tricep extension, and then twist your hips and lower it back down. If it helps you hold onto the weight better, you can choke up so that the edge of your wrist is touching the end of the dumbbell (this way it won’t be sliding). I don’t usually “choke up” because I think it’s tougher without choking up, but that’s just me, do what works best for you (as always). Today I decided to do 9 throws to like Tebow to Dwayne Bowe (I call that a TD Bow(e) haha).

Anyways then I switched the weight to my left arm, pointed with my right arm, and threw the bomb like Aaron Rodgers (my favorite QB). I threw 9 reps of the 30 lb. bomb with this arm (so basically 9 touchdowns) and was certainly feeling the burn in my triceps. Make sure you don’t extend too far out in front of your body here. The weight is supposed to come slightly out in front of your head, but you don’t “follow through” all the way – if you do this, you might get hurt. Using 30 lbs. is pretty tough for me here because at this stage of the workout, my triceps are already rocked.

Clap or Plyo Push Ups

This is Tony’s “personal favorite” – the Clap or Plyometric Push Ups. There are several ways to do these depending on your strength and how hard you are willing to work. Although it would probably have been better to have had these earlier in the workout, there are modifications you can use to make them easier if you find them too tough. So let’s break it down, how do you do the Clap or Plyo Push Ups? To set up for these, get into plank position with hands and feet both wider than shoulder width. When the timer starts, you have three options as you go down for your push ups.

Variation #1 (Easy): The first variation is the way Phil is doing them – just Plyo Push Ups. Here you keep your feet touching the floor, drop down, do a push up, and when you push up to the top of each rep, your hands come off of the ground. Then you drop back down, do another push up, get air under your hands at the top of the rep, and repeat.

Variation #2 (Moderate): If you can easily do these the way Phil is doing them, then you may want to add a clap like Dave. In this variation, you drop down for a push up, come up to the top of each rep, and get air with your hands, but instead of dropping them back down, you add an airborne clap to the equation before your hands hit the ground. Then you go down for another rep and continue to get air with your hands and do another clap.

Variation #3 (Psycho): The final variation of these is the version that I always do because if I’m going to waste time getting air and clapping, why not go all out? If you watch Tony, he has his hands and feet wide, and as he comes up to the top of each push up, he jumps with both feet and both hands to get airborne. He also adds a mid-air clap like Dave and is basically a total boss for a lot of reps. Although Tony is a beast and does a lot of these, he also hasn’t been working as hard as the other crew members so don’t feel bad if you can’t keep up with him.

Today I dug down deep and knocked out 17 reps of the airborne version, but they were hard as fuck – I felt like my arms were going to break or something. When you are tired here, you might want to stop because I actually have collapsed; not good because you may smash your face. Fortunately I didn’t smash my face the time when I collapsed. After knocking out my initial reps, I shook it out and did 5 more psycho reps for a total of 22 reps (my personal best).

Slo Mo Throws

After those psychotic arm crushing airborne push ups, pull your chair back out for some Slow Motion Throws a.k.a. Slo Mo Throws. For this move, you should grab a dumbbell in each hand of a relatively light weight. Sit up tall on the edge of your chair, and when you are ready, extend both arms straight out in front of your body, and raise them to about shoulder height (i.e. do an “In” Shoulder Fly). Then as your arms are extended, bend both elbows so that the forearms bring the weights near your ears. While the weights are by your ears, your elbows should be pointing straight forward and close to the side of your body.

If your elbows start to flare a little too much like the homeslice Phil, you are probably rocking with something too heavy. When you bring the weights to your ears, you are basically doing dual “curls.” The only nuance is that your knuckles should be facing up and palms down as you curl – some people would classify these as “reverse curls.” Anyways when you curl the weights back, you also want to make sure that your elbows stay at shoulder height. From this curl position, simply press them both forward so that it looks like you are throwing them in slow motion (or doing a “Slo Mo Throw”).

After you have completed your “throw” your arms should be extended straight out at shoulder height like they were before you did the curl motion. Then simply lower the weights back down to your sides, and you have completed a rep. Then bring them up for another fly, do a little isometric hold at shoulder height, bring the weights back for a curl (keeping your elbows up), extend them back out (i.e. do the throw), do a little isometric hold, and lower your arms by your sides. Keep this up for as many reps as possible with good form. I did pretty solid with my 15 lbs. per side and managed to complete 10 reps.

Front to Back Tricep Extensions

Here we are back to working the tris with the Front to Back Triceps Extension. Grab just one dumbbell and stand up tall with one foot in front of the other and bent knees to take pressure off of your lower back. For this particular move I rocked with a 25 lb. dumbbell and it da burn was straight fuego, dinero, pesos, real talk. Anyways, when you have selected a dumbbell of appropriate weight, grab it with your right hand and step forward with your left leg. Place your left hand on your front left quadricep, bend your knees, and extend your right arm straight up towards the ceiling with the dumbbell.

Next, simply bend your elbow and lower the weight (keeping your elbow pointing up as the weight drops) behind your neck near your back left shoulder. From the bottom of the rep, use your tricep strength to press the weight upwards until your arm is fully extended and pointing towards the ceiling. After you have lowered the weight behind your “back” to your left shoulder, you now move your arm slightly so that for your next rep, the weight gets lowered in “front” (i.e. in front of your face) to the front of the left shoulder.

Continue to alternate between doing a tricep extension in “front” and “back” with the right arm. When you are finished and have totally pwnd your tricep, switch the weight to your left arm, switch your leg positioning (i.e. right leg in front, left leg in back), and extend your left arm straight up towards the ceiling. Then continue alternating between “front” and “back” tricep extensions on that side for maximum reps. Although there are slight variations in the triceps exercises during this routine, moves like: Throw the Bomb, Side Leaning Tricep Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Overhead Tricep Extensions are all fairly similar. With that said, they will all work great at helping you improve your tricep strength if you use good form and beast weights. Just don’t drop the weight on your head here during transition or you might K.O. yourself or something.

One Arm Balance Push Ups

You already finished the One Arm Push Ups – so know that this isn’t the same thing. You may remember this particular move from Yoga X. To do these “One Arm Balance Push Ups” you get into normal plank position, do a push up, and then twist your body to the side for a short isometric balance hold. If you start out twisting to the right, you keep the palm of your right hand on the floor while turning your right foot so that the outer right side of your shoe is holding a balance. Your left hip should be pointing up towards the ceiling and your core should be tight. Meanwhile, your left arm should be fully extended and reaching straight up as well.

If you turned to the right, the only parts of your body that should be in contact with the floor during this “Balance” are your right hand and the outer right crest of your right foot. If you are new at this, simply stack your left foot on top of your right foot when you turn to the right. If you really suck at this, you could even leave both feet in contact with the floor as you twist. Once you have done your push up, turn, and isometric balance hold, you simply twist, bring your left arm back down to the floor with your left foot, do another push up, and turn to the left.

Turning to the left means that your right arm extends up and right leg stacks on top of your left leg as you hold the side balance position. Keep going back and forth between doing a push up, turning to the left, balancing, and doing a push up, turning to the right, and balancing. If you are as cool as Dave (or as fit or both) you can add a Leg Raise to the equation during your “Balance.” So if you are turning to the right and balancing on your right hand and right foot, you would raise your left leg as high as possible while holding this position. Don’t just throw it up though, use control and keep your core tight.

Besides adding the leg raise, another way to make this move tougher is to do Military Push Ups instead of standard width. I generally always do Military here because it makes me focus and work hard for the entire time. By the last 5 reps, I am always fighting to just keep myself up (no Viagra). But seriously, tweak the type of push ups you are doing if you want more or less of a challenge. If you wanted to make things easier for yourself, you could do Wide Grip or something. Another thing I have been doing lately to make this routine tougher is to add a couple of medicine balls to the equation for balancing.

I basically swag jacked this idea from X2 Total Body where I first did the “Push Up Side Arm Balance.” It is the EXACT same exercise except you are balancing on medicine balls. So what I did today was Military Push Ups on 2 Medicine Balls and was able to complete 14 reps – which was very tough. If you ever decide to add a couple medicine balls to the equation, just know that you may not want to stack your feet or add the leg raise. Additionally, if you do add these to the equation, you need to really focus or you might twist your wrist – one lapse in focus during the Side Arm Balance may put your wrist out of commission for awhile so concentrate.

Side Note: The name “Push Up Side Arm Balance” would have been more appropriate than “One Arm Balance Push Ups” just because the name given makes it seem like we are doing single arm push ups…haha. Anyways if you are doing push ups with one arm here and then the balance, you are probably one of The Avengers or something.

Fly Row Presses

The Fly Row Presses are another one of my favorite moves in this entire routine because they rip the shoulders and make you put in work. For this exercise, you grab a couple of dumbbells and get ready to work your shoulders. When you are ready to get your FRP on, start out by doing a Shoulder “Fly.” This involves having a bend in both of your elbows and lifting the weights up like you have wings. The dumbbells should be out in front of your body as you lift your arms up for the “Fly” with the strength of your shoulders. Then lower the weights down by your sides like you would after completing your dual shoulder fly.

Next you simply bring the dumbbells in front of your quads and lift them straight up to do an Upright “Row.” You should know what’s good with the “Row” because you have done these in the P90X Shoulders and Arms routine plenty of times. Keep your elbows up higher than your hands as you pull (lift) the weights straight up to about shoulder height. Once you have reached the top of your Upright Row, you lift your hands up (with the dumbbells) by your ears. From this position, your elbows are now lower than your hands.

When you have done your Row and have flipped the weights by your ears, your palms should be facing forward, knuckles to the back, and the weights should be facing side to side. After holding the weights by your ears, do a Shoulder “Press” with both arms so that they fully extend straight up towards the ceiling. As you are doing the “Press” motion upwards, twist your wrists so that at the pinnacle of your press, your palms face each other, knuckles face outward (to their respective sides) and dumbbells are parallel (hammer position). From the peak of this Press, simply lower your arms back down to shoulder height, and as you lower them, twist your wrists 90 degrees so that your palms are facing your shoulders.

From this position, your knuckles should be facing away from your body, palms toward your shoulders, and it should look like you are at the top of a standard curl. Then simply lower the weights down to do a “reverse curl” as Tony calls it (basically a “half curl”). This entire process of the Shoulder Fly, lowering the weights back down, doing an Upright Row, lifting your hands, doing a Shoulder Press with a twist, then lowering them back down for a Reverse Curl counts as a single rep. This sequence will blast the shoulders one last time with a little bit of everything before the workout ends. I usually use 20 lbs. per side and am able to complete 10 reps – which is actually a lot considering all of the individual moves within this combo.

Dumbbell Cross Body Blows

Okay peeps, this is the last MF move, so go on a swag attack and step it up or do whatever you need to do. Good form and good weight selection here is crucial – along with the classic “maximum, maximum, maaaaaxxxxiiiimmmmuuummm reps!” *(Insert Tony GIF Here)* Haha. For the Dumbbell Cross Body Blows, you should probably get a yoga mat (or something padded) to lie down on. As the name of the move implies, you should also grab a couple of dumbbells that you think will be able to knock out any wild Pokémon that decide to attack (or I guess you can just punch air).

Anyways once you are lying down on your mat, bend your knees, and place the bottoms of your feet on the floor. Your hands should be positioned by your sides and your arms should be bent at the elbows. Keep your fists pointing up and make sure you have your wrists turned the right way for this move. You should have your knuckles facing front (i.e. towards your lower body) and your palms should be facing your upper body (i.e. towards your face). Although this move is meant to engage your triceps, it really engages your entire arm and chest if you know what you’re doing.

From this lying position with dual dumbbells, start out by throwing a punch across your chest to the opposite side of your body until your arm is fully extended. From a fully extended right arm to the left side of your body, simply bend the elbow once again and bring the weight back in towards your side. Next throw a nice Pacquiao cross body blow with your left hand to the right side of your body until it reaches full extension, and bring it back in. Although this may feel a little bit weird with your wrist turned inward, that’s how it’s done. Continue alternating between right and left for maximum reps (or until the timer runs out).

I ended up rocking with 30 lbs. per side and managed to complete a total of 22 punches (i.e. 11 reps per arm) before the time ran out. This is an amazing way to end the workout, so go bananas until the end. The whole key with this move though is to make sure you are getting a full extension out of your arm with each punch – and to make sure that the punches are being thrown directly across your body. When you finish this move, get some recovery syzzurp, and do the cool down.

Side Note: Dave looks like he could be in the next Street Fighter or something the way he is throwing dem bands like a boss to fight off enemy hostiles. Or maybe he’s just trynna be like Captain Falcon and throw a Falcon Punch or something.

Cool Down Stretch

• Fist Pound – Chea, celebrate, you just finished.
• Shake It Out – Do some ballistic shakers to loosen up and star the cool down.
• Huggers – Love yourself by hugging yourself and slow down your breath.
• Karen Pot Stirrers – Phil is stirring up some “Trouble” – that’s just how badass he is. Laura is stirring up some Chicken Vegetable soup, while Dave is stirring up some Menudo soup. Tony is stirring up some Sweaty Sock soup and is kind of jealous that Phil had the best soup. I was stirring up some of Lil B’s traditional Wonton Soup.
• Elephant Trunks – Once again sway side to side like and let your arms hang as you rise like you are shaking out dual wielded Elephant trunks.
• Side Stretch – Drop the left arm down to your knee, and reach overhead with your right arm. Then drop your right arm down to your right knee, and reach overhead with your left arm to get the stretch on that side.
• Hang Down – Separate your feet wider than shoulder width, bend at the waist, and drop down for a hamstring stretch – fold your arms if you want and rest your forehead on your forearms.
• Side to Side Rockers – From the hanging down position, you can rock side to side to engage each hamstring individually.
• Cat Stretch – This is good for the spine. Head down back should rise. Inhale, head up, back should flatten.
• Seated Arm Stretch – Sit back on your butt, extend your arms straight out, then move your right arm to the right, and stack your left hand on top of your right. You should feel this stretch from “your hips to your fingertips” if you do it properly. Then switch sides and slide your left arm to the left, cross your right arm over, stack your right hand on top, and hold for the stretch.

P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps Review (Conclusion)

The P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps workout is amazingly effective at working the three muscle groups that the title implies: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps. I really like this workout in Phase 2 because it’s not quite as intense as what we were used to in Phase 1, but it’s got a ton of new exercises that will start to confuse your muscles (i.e. muscle confusion) so that your body starts to change and get stronger. As I already mentioned, another aspect of this routine that I particularly enjoy is the fact that when you complete an exercise, you don’t have to worry about doing it again later in the routine.

In Chest and Back, completing one round of “max rep” Diamond Push Ups, made me feel like I was going to puke, choke, and die. Then knowing that I had a second round of punishment on deck with the same move was a total nightmare on p90X street – especially during my first 90 days. For the second 30 days through in Phase 2, if you push yourself during this routine (on Mondays) and do your max during Back and Biceps (on Wednesdays) you should notice some serious improvements in your physique by the time you make it to Phase 3.

An adequate replacement for P90X Chest and Back?

It’s not necessarily meant to “replace” Chest and Back per se because it is a different style of workout. I know a lot of people like to make comparisons, but this involves zero pull ups and also incorporates Shoulders and Triceps as being primarily targeted. Chest and Back was pretty much push ups to pull ups, more push ups to more pull ups, and repeat this sequence until your body turns to tar – then repeat the whole thing again.

If you want to attempt to make logical sense of the new Phase 2 structure in order to satisfy your brain, then think of this routine as keeping the “Chest” element of Chest and Back due to the fact that there are push ups. Then think of it as swag jacking Shoulders and Triceps from the Shoulders and Arms workout, while donating the “Back” aspect. That’s why on all Wednesdays during Phase 2 you will be left with the P90X Back and Biceps. So basically Tony is shifting shit around so that your brain and muscles don’t hit a plateau. Phase 2 is where you get to directly experience the concept of “muscle confusion” because the script gets flipped.

Doing Ab Ripper X after finishing…

Immediately when you finish the Chest Shoulders and Triceps workout, you have the notorious Ab Ripper X workout tacked on. I usually sip on my recovery drink during the cool down of the workout and have a little bit of water and sometimes even eat a banana before starting ARX. Sometimes I get a little bit annoyed if I drink too much water because it like gargles around in my abs while I am doing the ripper…haha. Anyways as I have recommended in other reviews, do Ab Ripper X immediately after you finish the main routine if you are capable. If you wait too long, you might second guess yourself and may even talk yourself out of doing it – don’t give yourself time to think – just start immediately.

Think of Ab Ripper X as a required extension of the main routine. On a day with Chest Shoulders and Triceps, I would say that Ab Ripper X isn’t too bad. It is way tougher to do ARX after a day like Legs and Back when you really blast your legs (part of your core). If you already have finished P90X, you don’t necessarily need to do ARX every day if you’re bored with it. Although I did Ab Ripper X today, I also sometimes like to do Killer Absdiamo on Monday just to push myself extra hard at the start of the week. Bottom line: Make sure you get your Ab Ripper X done before you start pouring more drank in yo cup like Kirko Bangz.

P90X Chest Shoulders Triceps vs. X2 Chest Shoulders Tris

Having experienced the routine called X2 Chest Shoulders Tris from P90X2, I can testify for the fact that it is fucking beastly. There are 2 less exercises in the X2 routine (only 22 total instead of 24), but it packs a mean punch in a shorter amount of time. The design for the X2 CST routine is different because you do 11 exercises, get a water break, and then repeat the same 11 exercises for a second round; in the O.G. P90X there are no repeats. So which routine is harder or better? The X2 workout has a lot more complicated exercises – so if you have trouble with some of the moves in this routine, master them before you start thinking X2.

The original P90X CST routine is great because there is a lot of variety, it has a nice structure, and there are 24 badass moves with no repeats. Both the original and X2 routine are structured similarly in the fact that they cycle through a Chest move, Shoulder move, then a Triceps move for the entire workout – so think C, then S, then T (repeat). I personally love both these routines – I basically alternate between them depending on what kind of a workout I want. If you are looking for something that is short, more complex, and fucking intense, I would recommend the X2 workout. If you are looking for something that is thorough and that will give your muscles an extended burn, rock with the original.

Yeah I know right…

I realized that I got a little bit carried away with this review in terms of length, but in the words of Juicy J… “Oh well.” I tried to keep it thorough so that if people had any questions about the form, weights, etc. they would get answered.  Feel free to spam up the comment form if you have any other questions (besides how many calories this will burn).  The number of calories you will burn depends on how hard you are working, how good of shape you are in, genetics, etc.  It’s impossible to say for sure you will burn a specific number of calories for this workout.  Just keep working hard, eat healthy foods, and don’t worry about counting calories – you will get into good shape.

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