As a beastly routine for my arms today, I decided to do the P90X Back and Biceps workout with Tony Horton. Part of the reason that I chose to do this routine today was due to the fact that I just got my new Bowflex Selecttech 55.2 dumbbells shipped in yesterday and wanted to put them to the test. Another reason that I wanted to do this workout today has to do with the fact that I haven’t done it in a long time and totally forgot most of the exercises. Although I wrote about my daily experiences with P90X in a blog format (see the P90X archives), it has been over a year since I have done any of these workouts. I did the P90X Chest and Back workout a couple days ago and needed a new routine to keep my strength workouts fresh.
Back + Double Biceps = Max Pwnage
I am well aware of the fact that I could have chosen to do the Shoulders and Arms routine or Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps routine, but I knew that this particular workout would allow me to get maximum use out of my new dumbbells. When I first started doing this routine today, I thought that it was going to be pretty easy, but it actually turned out to be a lot tougher than expected. I totally forgot that there were the wicked corn cob pull ups which I kind of dislike because the bar on my door mount pull up bar extends out and I almost hit my chin every time when moving side to side. With that said, I actually am glad that Tony included some pull ups in this routine because they really make your arms work even harder.
Although I wasn’t sweating a ton by the time I got to the end of this routine like I do for cardio (and Insanity workouts), my arms (especially my biceps) felt a massive burn. If you work hard during this routine and challenge yourself with every exercise by choosing the heaviest weight that you are capable of handling, you are going to get a huge pump in your biceps. As is mentioned by Tony, if you want to bulk up and gain mass in your arms, you should be shooting for about 8 to 10 reps with a heavier weight. If you want to keep your arms toned, you can pick a lighter weight and do more reps. I was going for size so I chose a heavier weight to make the last few reps burn on every exercise.
P90X Back and Biceps Review
The Back and Biceps routine is done in Phase 2 of P90X. Since I have finished the entire P90X program twice (yeah 180 days) I now randomly mix up my workouts and don’t really care to follow the protocol. Anyways this routine is definitely one of my favorite P90X workouts in the entire program. Although I really like the Chest and Back routine, this routine also gives me a great workout every time and I love doing pull ups and curls. I would say that I when I have badass dumbbells like my Selecttech’s I enjoy doing curls even more. The reason that I like doing curls so much is that they are simple, they don’t require cardio, they burn if you pick a heavy enough weight, and there are a lot of variations. Another thing that I LOVE about this workout is that you don’t have to do the same exercise more than once. You do each exercise one time and then move on to something else – this is different from other P90X routines that involve some repetition.
P90X Back and Biceps Crew
For this routine the P90X crew consists of: Tony Horton (head honcho) the P90X mastermind, Tim (Timmy) the former Marine (and a trainer), Katie (interior designer / P90X grad) – she is also called “Kate,” as well as the infamous Bobby Stephenson from “Power Half Hour”; I personally think Bobby is the coolest because he acts hilarious. All of the guests are pretty cool in this routine though and all show up ready to work hard. I do laugh at one point when Tony gets Tim to “up” his band weight by talking a little smack…haha. I also laugh a little bit when Katie tries acting like a corn cob pull up professional when she’s using the chair…pretty effing hilarious.
Structure: Back, double bicep, back, double bicep
This particular routine was engineered so that it starts out by doing one exercise to engage your back muscles, and then the next two exercises geared towards working your biceps. This is primarily a biceps workout, but I think having your back muscles get worked every third move is a good way to mix it up and get great results. Plus even while you are working your back during “pull ups” you are still working your arms. Most of the time, your biceps will also stay engaged so that by the time you are done with this routine, your arms will feel like they are inflated with helium and about to pop…haha. If you want to know all of the exercises that are done, read below for the breakdown and analysis.
P90X Back and Biceps Workout Exercises
Warm Up
- Knees Up – You start out the warm up of this routine by walking in place with high knees and breathing. This is the move that pretty much begins every warm up…
- Running In Place – After getting your knees up for walking in place you get your heart rate up a little bit by running in place. You also do running in place with your knees out to the side like you’re “riding a horse” – Tony shows you how it’s done. After the horseback riding, you keep your knees down and heels up so that you are almost kicking your butt.
- Jumping Jacks – You do some jumping jacks after your running in place and Tony goes back and jumps next to Bobby because he thinks he may be getting lonely in the back…haha.
- Run Lunge – After the jacks, you do a run lunge with pulls from your arms while you are lunging. So you basically split your legs and reach out with the opposite arm of the leg that is forward in the lunge.
Stretch
- Head Rolls – You take deep breaths and as you exhale, you roll your head to the other side. While doing these you should not have tension in your head or neck area. Additionally, you should be reaching down to the floor with your arms. I believe you do a total of 6 head rolls – 3 to the right and 3 to the left. These should loosen you up a little bit before the workout.
- Shoulder Rolls – You roll your shoulders back 6 times and then 6 times forward just to get your upper back and shoulders loose and ready to go.
- Cross Arm Stretch – You hold your arm straight across your body and then pull on your arm so that you feel a stretch in your shoulder and triceps. You repeat this with your other arm so that you get them both stretched out.
- Elbow Pulls – For these you reach behind your back with a bent elbow and pull down. While you pull down on your elbow you should feel a significant stretch in your triceps. With that said, make sure you don’t overdo it or you might pull something before the workout – this is a light stretch.
- Wide Back Stretch – This is one of Tony’s favorite stretches that involves “plugging your fingers into the ceiling” and then spreading your elbows to the side so that your arms and back get loosened up. This is a stretch that I think is perfect for a workout like Back and Biceps so make sure you aren’t slacking on this one.
- Topas Stretch – Yet another one of the infamous P90X stretches which involves standing with wide feet, starting with your hands in prayer (or “Namaste”) and opening up your chest so that your thumbs move as far behind you as possible with flat palms.
- Arm Circles – While keeping your palms and fingers up, you do arm circles forward and in reverse. You should be feeling a pretty beastly burn by the time you are done with these – especially while going backwards and doing them in reverse. You don’t need to go overboard with these, but make sure that you get enough of a burn so that your arms are ready to go for the actual workout.
- Shake It Out – During these, Bobby says something like “that’s a nice dance move” which gets Tony laughing a little bit. Anyways, with the “shakers” you just shake out any tension in your arms and legs… If it looks like a nice dance move, even better…haha.
- Huggers – You hug yourself while standing in place to keep your arms loosened up. This is a ballistic stretch.
- Reachers – You reach your arms straight up overhead like you are doing the wave and then your arms swing down and reach behind. These should loosen up your shoulders and arms before the workout.
- Palm to Palm Shoulder Stretch – You do this by putting your palms together in front of your body with a little twist so that the right palm is on the left side and the left palm is on the right side of your body. During these you press your shoulders together to get them even more warmed up along with your triceps. Additionally, you interlock fingers behind your back with your palms together – this should give you an even better stretch in back. While doing the final stretch, Kate says “bring it, bring the pain” and Tony made me laugh by saying, “there’s no pain, it’s all fun.”
P90X Back and Biceps Workout: First Half
Each one of these exercises is done for approximately 30 seconds and you are supposed to do maximum reps unless otherwise specified by Tony. The cool thing about this workout is that unlike some of the other routines, it is not divided up into “rounds.” In other words, you end up doing each move once and then moving on to the next. This is one aspect of the workout that I really like because it really brings a lot of variety. Even though you do a lot of “curls” they are all different types of curls.
Me and my Bowflex Selecttech Dumbbells chillin'...
Wide Front Pull Ups
This routine starts out with “wide front pull ups” which basically involve the hands being wider than shoulder width. While you are doing these, make sure that you are using good form and going all the way down so that your arms are fully extended when you at the bottom of your pull up. Tony wants you to also make sure that you lift yourself up so that your chin is above the bar while you are at the top of each pull up. You are doing “strict” pull ups here without kipping like those Crossfitters…haha. I was able to do 23 reps and felt pretty good about what I did here. During these Tim shows you how to do these with the bands, but I think the bands are dumb because they don’t really deliver maximum burn like the pull ups.
Lawnmowers
If you have been doing the P90X workouts in order, you should already know how to do “lawnmowers.” You keep one leg bent, the other leg extended back, and rest your elbow on the knee that is bent. With the other arm you lift weight off the ground in the same pulling motion that you would use to start up a lawnmower. You should probably choose a pretty heavy weight for these if you want maximum burn. I was actually kind of feeling the burn still from the pull ups, but I still did 8 reps per side with 60 lbs. each. Tony uses 50 lbs. here but I knew that I could handle 60 lbs. because that’s what I used during my last Chest and Back workout. Next time I think I’ll try to do a few more reps to really heat up the burn.
Twenty Ones (21’s)
These “twenty ones” are basically a total of 21 curls, but they are done in sets of 7 reps. You start out by curling only halfway up and then going all the way down for the first 7 reps. Your next 7 reps you curl all the way up and stop halfway down. If you picked a heavy weight you should really be dead by the time you are on your last 7 curls which are full curls – all the way up and all the way down per rep. I was using 22.5 lbs. in each hand and these were pretty tough for me by the time I got to the final 7 reps.
One Arm Cross Body Curls
To do these curls, you basically bring the dumbbell slightly across your body so that you are actually curling from your chest out to the side with each rep. Since I thought the weight was pretty tough on the previous exercise for me, I decided to go with 25 lbs. on this move. Although I actually moved up in weight, doing cross body curls are easier to do with more weight than standard curls. I did a total of 10 reps per arm with my 25 lb. dumbbells but I made a note on my worksheet that I should move up to 30 lbs. the next time I do this routine.
Switch Grip Pull Ups
Switch grip pull ups are pretty self-explanatory. You start out with a normal pull up grip for two reps and then flip your hands to a reverse grip so that they have an underhanded chin up grip for the next two reps. You alternate between standard grip and reverse grip every two reps so that you are “switching.” I would recommend trying to do these without your feet touching the ground, but if your door is really narrow and/or you have a pull up bar with double bars, it may be tough to switch. Anyways, I managed to do a total of 14 reps here and my arms were really heating up from the burn.
Elbow Out Lawnmowers
To do these you maintain same position that you would for the standard “lawnmowers” that you already did in the workout. Although the fact that you turn your wrist so that your elbows flare out to the side makes these tougher than standard lawnmowers, you should probably be able to handle a fairly heavy weight. I dropped down 10 lbs. from the mowers that we did earlier in the workout and did 10 reps per arm with 50 lbs; this turned out to be the perfect weight for me (I made a note on my worksheet).
Standing Bicep Curls
These are good old fashioned regular bicep curls but your arms will be tired from having already done a lot of beastly exercises. I was lucky to have chosen a weight that worked my biceps for the perfect amount of burn. I used 30 lbs. on each side and did a total of 9 reps – my arms were feeling max burn. Normally I could probably have used more weight but I didn’t want to sacrifice form. If you notice that you are really leaning and pulling with your back to get up heavy weights – you are using too much; lighten up before you get injured. I always laugh at people that think they’re badass by curling a lot of weight, but it’s really more like Fat Joe doing the “lean back.” Make sure you are using primarily your arms here, a tiny movement by the back is okay, but if you are honest with yourself, you will know whether your arms are doing most of the work.
One Arm Concentration Curls (Lawnmower Stance)
As you should know by now, your biceps are going to get hammered with curls before this workout ends…haha. For these, you get into lawnmower stance, rest the elbow of one hand on your knee like you normally would, but this time you make a fist. In front of your fist, you put the elbow of your other arm and do as many curls as you can with the proper weight. I ended up doing 10 reps per arm with 20 lb. dumbbells but made a note to myself that next time I should be able to move up to 22.5 lbs. The thing with these is to make sure that you maintain flat back and are curling all the way up. If a weight seems too heavy and starts messing with your form, then lower it.
Corn Cob Pull Ups
I know a lot of people hate doing corn cobs, but I actually like them. The name kind of reminds me of a highly ignorant Juicy J song…haha. Anyways corn cobs are badass because they involve doing a pull up, then while your chin is above the bar, you move it all the way to the right, then all the way to the left, then you push your chin straight back while holding it up, and finally you bring it back forward and drop down – that entire sequence counts as one rep! My pull up bar absolutely sucks for these because it has rounded extensions that damn near pwn my chin when I move from side to side. Anyways, I managed to do a total of 7 corn cob pull ups today… Final note: I always laugh when Tony Horton says, “We got Bobby Stephenson’s personal favorite Corn Cob Pull Ups” and then Bobby says, “I hate this one.” Even though he may hate it, he did 8 reps which is pretty damn impressive at this stage of the workout.
Reverse Grip Bent Over Rows
To do these, you keep one foot back but bend the knee of your back leg as well. Your front leg should be relatively straight with a slight bend in the knee. Anyways, to do this move you grab a dumbbell in each hand and while maintaining flat back, you do a “bent over row” to engage your back muscles. At first it may feel weird doing these in reverse grip, but the burn will definitely be there if you are doing these with proper form. As Tony points out, these may also work your rhomboids. I was laughing when Tony walked over to the weights and said “I’m a forty five man” but then stopped to check on the kids ASAP…haha. In case you were wondering, I did 8 total reps with 35 lb. dumbbells – these were a little on the heavy side for me on this move.
Open Arm Curls
For open arm curls, you open up your arms so that when you curl up, each of the weights comes up from the side of your body – so basically these are like doing curls from the side of the body. My arms were pretty damn tired here so I decided to go with 25 lb. dumbbells on each side. Next time I think I might try moving up in weight to see whether I can handle it because I did 10 reps.
Static Arm Curls
For the static arm curls, you will want to make sure that you choose a weight that burns, but don’t go overboard here. I chose weights at 22.5 lbs. per side and they turned out to be perfect if I was only doing 12 reps here, but everyone (“male, female, young and old”) is required to do 16 reps, so I had to take a mini break before finishing. Next time I do this move I’m going to drop down the weight to 20 lbs. per side and see if I can knock out the full 16 reps.
Water Break – At this point you are halfway done with the workout. Although your heart rate probably isn’t jumping out of your chest like it would be for cardio, your arms probably feel like they were shot with a tranquilizer gun. Make sure you get some water and do some ballistic stretches to shake out the burn.
Back and Biceps Workout: Second Half
Towel Pull Ups
For the towel pull ups, you don’t need a full size towel, just a towel that you normally use to wipe off sweat. Back in the day when I did P90X and forgot to bring my towel, I always just took off my shirt and threw it over the pull up bar as a replacement for the towel. Anyways, to do these, you wrap your towel around the bar and grip the towel with one hand and the bar with the other hand. You do three reps with the towel on one side and then slide it over and do three reps with the towel on the other side. As usual, you are supposed to do as many reps as possible. Today I felt good about doing 12 reps because my arms were really tired at this point. As a final note on this particular exercise, I would NOT follow Tony’s tip where he says to pour a little water on your towel for the grip because it will likely cause your hand to slip.
"Shawty I'm Flexxin" (like Flocka said)...
Congdon Locomotive
This is one of Tony’s favorites and is a move named after Beachbody president Jon Congdon…haha. To do these, you bend forward just like you did for the “reverse grip bent over rows,” but you keep the weights parallel on this one so that they are facing forward and back (just like “lawnmowers”). While in a crouch with flat back, you alternate lifting dumbbells until you have done a total of 40 reps. I chose to do this exercise with 30 lbs. in each hand and it was honestly pretty tough for me to finish the last ten reps, but I toughed it out and pushed myself. I think I’ll stick with 30 lbs. next time because it was right on the brink of being too challenging yet I still finished with good form.
Crouching Cohen Curls
Whoa, back to back exercises named after someone?! Hmm… Apparently this one is named after Ian Cohen (world famous crouching curling kind of guy) according to Tony Horton…haha. You have the option of using the wall to butt up against for this move or doing it with no wall. Either way, the form is the same… You go down into a squat, lean forward, and maintain a flat back. While you are in this position, you tuck your elbows inside of your knees and do curls. I lightened my load to 20 lbs. and it worked out perfectly for my 10 reps… The whole key with this exercise is to stay in the crouched position with flat back while doing full range of motion curls.
Corkscrew Curls
This is one of my favorite exercises in the routine where you start out holding dumbbells so that your knuckles are facing forwards. You then twist your arm (doing a “corkscrew”) so that when you come up your knuckles are facing away from your body at the top of your curl. When you bring the weight back down below your waist, you reverse the twist so that your hands look like they did when you started. What makes these tough is that you only do one arm at a time so you have to do a curl both the right side and left for it to count as one rep. So although it may seem like you did 16 reps total, you really only did 8 per side… I did 8 per arm with 30 lbs. and it was the perfect weight.
Reverse Grip Chin Ups
Keeping your arms shoulder width, you grip the pull up bar underhanded so that you’re in a “reverse grip” for your chin ups. These are called “chin ups” because you need to bring your chin “up above the bar” for it to count as a rep. At the bottom of each rep your arms should be fully extended. You will likely notice that this move does an overhaul on your biceps which have already been heavily worked from the curls – so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a lot of reps here. I was able to do a total of 14 reps, but I took one break when I hit 10 before eeking out my final four.
Seated Bent Over Back Flys
To do these, you get a chair, keep your legs together so that your knees are touching, and bend over so that your back is flat. While you have a dumbbell in each hand, you do a “back fly” so that you go back with the weights and engage your “back muscles.” As is pointed out by Tony, if you go “out” instead of “back” it turns into a shoulder exercise which is NOT what’s supposed to happen here. You get a lot of time for this exercise so you may want to take a break after 10 reps or so to re-group before doing more. I was using 20 lbs. which was heavy enough and did 10 reps and saw that there was time left on the clock so I did 4 more reps. I think next time that I do this workout I’ll move up to 22.5 lbs. to see whether I can handle the increase.
Curl Up Hammer Down
This is basically just like doing a regular curl except when you bring the weight down from the top of the rep, you turn your hands so that the weights are parallel like ski poles on the way down. You should already know what a hammer is, but I just threw that analogy out there to help clear up confusion. The “hammer” sequence is designed to give your forearms a little bit of work. I find that anytime there is a “hammer” involved in the curl sequence, it is easier than a standard curl. For this exercise I chose to work with 25 lbs. in each hand with dumbbells for a total of 8 reps – I felt the burn.
Hammer Curls
Right after doing normal curls with the hammer downs, you keep your hands in the hammer position. So for this exercise your hands are turned to the side so that the weights are parallel the entire time. I wish I could have used heavier weights for this one, but my arms were dead from all of the exercises that I have done thus far. I stuck with 25 lbs. just like the previous exercise but did 10 reps instead of eight.
Max Rep Pull Ups
I like how he throws in maximum rep pull ups near the end of this routine. You get to choose whatever style of pull ups you want to do here which is cool. Tony recommends that if you’re feeling “good” to do whatever pull up you thought was toughest. What I say is that if you chose the right weight for every exercise thus far, your arms should not be feeling “good” enough to handle corn cobs – they should already be out of commission from the hard work that you put in. Katie acts like kind of a badass by going for “corn cobs” here, but it made me laugh a little bit because she has been using really light weights and the chair for most of the workout. I chose to do standard pull ups here and managed to crank out 14 reps, but there was definitely mid-set break taken; no way in hell would my arms have been able to handle 14 straight reps at this point.
Superman
While I was doing this move, the entire time I was thinking about how much harder the swimmer exercises were in The Asylum: Back to Core workout. You basically do 5 Supermans – which involve lying on your stomach while raising your arms and legs off the ground as high as possible. Your arms should be pretty darn tired from all the moves that you have done up to this point, but if you engage the core, tighten the glutes, and keep your head down, you can hang on for five 10 second sets.
In and Out Hammer Curls
I rocked with 22.5 pound dumbbells on the “In and Out” hammer curls. This move is just like the regular hammer curls except you curl once in the front and then once out to the side. One curl out in front and one curl to the side counts as one rep. In other words, doing 20 total curls here counts as 10 reps because two per side counts as a single repetition. When you finish this move, you will feel super amped because there is only a single move left in the workout (before Ab Ripper X).
Strip Set Curls
This is the final exercise in the Back and Biceps routine and it is a beast. My arms were so tired here I had to lighten my weights a ton just to make it through. If this move were at the beginning of the routine, I would probably start out using 35 pounds or 30 pounds. Since it’s the last move and my biceps feel like they went through black ops combat training and an asphalt hot patcher, I had to start out using measly 20 pound dumbbells for my first set. To make things clear, you do four sets of eight reps for the “strip set” and after each set, you lighten up the weights. For my second set I used 17.5 lbs, third set I used 15 lbs, and for the final set, I was down to 12.5 lbs. What’s funny is that although 12.5 pounds felt really light for my final set, my arms could honestly barely pick the weight up at this point. It was pretty hilarious to watch myself struggle with such a light weight, but that’s what happens when you work hard the entire time I guess.
Cool Down & Stretch
It’s really important to make sure that you stretch out your arms after this hardcore back and biceps routine. Tony casually asks the crew, “Hey everybody at home, you got tickets?” and Kate responds with “Tickets to what Tony?” and he says “To the show,” and Kate says, “What show?” and as he’s flexing, Tony says: “THE GUN SHOW”…LMAO. It gets me laughing every time because I’m a seriously a huge fan of Tony’s jokes…haha. I’m a huge fan of the jokes because it makes the workouts more fun. I also love when he critiques the soup selections from the other crew members (during the Karen pot stirrers) with comments like “I hope those are whole wheat noodles” and “I got the non-dairy corn chowder.”
- Huggers – You hug yourself across your body when you finish the workout just to loosen up your arms a little bit. If you did the workout with someone, you can always hug them too…haha.
- Shake It Out – To quote the Ying Yang Twins, you can “shake it like a salt shaker”…haha. Seriously though you just do some ballistic shakers and just shake out everything from head to toe so that you are feeling loose.
- Karen Pot Stirrers – Damn these are world famous and Tony always asks what kind of soup you are stirring up. I would definitely say that I’m stirring up some broccoli soup or chicken with wild rice. Usually after these workouts though, I’m stirring up some scrambled eggs though…haha.
- Elephant Trunk – I love coming up with my arms hanging low like Jibbs’ chain… dangling side to side like an elephant trunk…haha. This is one of the coolest cool down moves for sure.
- Wide Back Stretch – You reach up to the ceiling, “plug your fingers in” as Tony would say (hopefully there aren’t any electrical outlets), and then spread your elbows to the side so that you feel a huge stretch in your chest and back as you exhale.
- Side Stretch – You bend to the side so that you feel a stretch in your entire arm and oblique as you kick your hip out to the side. Tony calls this one the “coup de grace” because it’s the last stretch and really works everything from your hips to your fingertips. Although this is the final stretch of the workout, you can certainly do more if you need more.
P90X Back and Biceps Review (Conclusion)
Having done this “Back and Biceps” routine plenty of times, I can safely say that it is one of my favorite workouts in the entire P90X program. If you are looking for a structured workout that targets your biceps, I personally haven’t found anything better. This combines it all using different types of curls, pull ups, chin ups, and other lesser known exercises. You also will feel some burn in your back muscles from this routine because for every two biceps exercises that are done; you do one exercise that really engages the back. If you want your biceps to feel like they are growing muscles and literally inflated with pressure by the time you are done with a workout, I would highly recommend this routine – it’s impressive.
Always keep track of your reps and weight...
If you challenge yourself, you will get great results
Really the only way to guarantee that you are going to get results is to keep challenging yourself. Although you NEVER want to sacrifice form just to move up in weight because it will result in injury, you should make sure that you are conscientious of the weight that you use for each of the exercises. By keeping track of the weight that you use and taking note of whether the weight was “too heavy,” “too light,” or “perfect” – it will help you progress and get better results. This workout is really nothing if you don’t have challenging weights, so make sure that you have dumbbells that challenge you. Also know that you will need different dumbbells because you will not want to use the same weight for every single exercise. By getting the Bowflex Selecttech 55.2 pound dumbbells like I was reppin, you can adjust to the perfect weight for all of these exercises.
Use dumbbells NOT bands…
I personally have experience with both bands and dumbbells and can safely testify for the fact that you will get a lot better results if you use challenging dumbbells. If you don’t have a set of dumbbells to use, I would order the Bowflex Selecttech set without thinking twice. You can adjust them from 5 lbs. all the way up to 55.2 lbs per side. When I did my first round of P90X I actually used the bands and although I got good results, I would have gotten a lot better results with dumbbells. I was using the set of bands that included: maroon, red, green, and black. The black band was like a fire-hose and definitely induced a burn, but the problem was that I didn’t know if I was moving up at all or how to really move up. Increasing tension in the band can only be done so much before it limits your range of motion on the exercise. So if you want the best possible results, just set the bands aside for when you’re on vacation or something.
Thoughts on doing assisted pull ups with a chair…
I would recommend that you do NOT use a chair for pull ups unless you find using one 100% necessary. The problem with using a chair is that it takes away from your arms actually doing work. Instead of using the chair, I would recommend doing as many reps as you can, shaking out your arms, and hopping back in for more reps as soon as possible before the timer runs out. Yes, there are some people that may actually need a chair because they may not be able to handle pull ups here – that is perfectly okay. BUT if you have been using a chair for awhile, you may want to just stop using it and try what I recommended instead.
Final thoughts: Back and Biceps… (Don’t forget Ab Ripper X)
Anyways, I think I’ve made it clear that this is a super flame biceps routine that will really own your biceps if you are doing the exercises properly with challenging weights. If you are using light weights, well then the routine may seem easier than it should be. Although you probably won’t be super “tired” after this workout like you would be from an intense cardio workout, your arms will be done for the day. When I finished this routine today I did Ab Ripper X because that’s what you’re supposed to do if you’re legitimately doing P90X. Even though I’m not doing another round of P90X (I have done it twice “back to back”) I didn’t want to skip the ripper because it makes me feel like other people would be out working me…haha.