Hey all,
I'm entering my 1st recovery week (week 4) on Monday and had a question for you guys. I usually do my workouts in the morning before work and then two to three times a week I go to the gym later at night (around 8pm) with my girlfriend. Currently I stopped doing weights at the gym and am just sticking to cardio and some ab workouts since I feel that I'm getting enough resistance training with the P90X routine and don't want to get injured. I was just wondering if during the recovery week it would be better or worse to pick up a few weights and crank out a few arm and chest routines while at the gym (2 times a week)? Same question for ab workouts, should I just stay away from it completely this week or will it be better if I actually do some? Thanks!

my vote is for no weights
you've work so hard for 3 weeks give some muscle some rest.

I agree with Les -- it's called a recovery week for a reason, and working out while "recovering" may defeat the purpose

Also consider that a major principle that this system is built on is the muscle confusion concept, which all things considered is a tried and true principle and often goes by other names. That one week of downtime with no weights will not only give your muscles a chance to recover from the past three weeks, it will also lull them into a false sense of security. Since they'll be thinking that the hard work is over and it's time to relax, your first week of lifting in Phase 2 will really shock them back into action. Doing weights during your recovery week will reduce that effect and reduce your overall gains.

That's my guess at least

I would stay away from the weights. Cardio, Yoga, stretching would be cool. If you are doing your normal weight routine, I woudl not be worried about injury per se. But you will not get stronger. In the guide, as well as all of the sports medicine and training courses I have taken, muscle building is explained like this. Think of your muscles like a callus on your foot. You walk all over teh concrete all day and your foot is all tore up and rough (like the workout phase). If you walk the next day all over teh concrete again, you never heal and grow the callus. It just gets more tore up.

Now, walk on the rough ground, then take a day or 2 off, then do it again, what happens.. callus, your skin grew back better adapted to the task it is being asked to perform!!!

Muscles are the same way. You get micro tears and space is created in between the fibers (how creatine works is that fluid is retained in the space for longer to allow more muscle to grow in) and when you rest, the muscle fills in so you can do more.

I never felt stronger then the days after recovery week!!! My pull ups all increased and well as weights and reps.

Sounds good. Thanks for the replies guys! Much appreciated! I started my recovery week today, but missed my first workout (Yoga) due to having to catch up on some sleep that I missed out on this weekend. Anyway, tomorrow is my Core Synergetics workout (first time) so I'll be getting back on track with that. I'll keep you all posted in my logs! Cheers!