Greetings one and all! I'm going to be starting P90X soon with my fiance, and just had a couple of questions. We to want to be able to do the routines together, but I was wondering if the mechanics of that will work out? I imagine for most of the workouts it will just be a matter of having enough space so we don't kill each other wildly swinging our arms and legs around. Dumbbells are not problem since we will naturally be using different weights, but I did have a few questions regarding the . . .

Chin-up bar!

We're currently living in an apartment, so we don't want to screw up the walls installing a chin-up bar on a wall or from the ceiling. However, the only room that would have enough space for us both to be flailing around (see first paragraph) doesn't have a door-frame that is likely to work for a chin-up bar. Is it important to have the bar in the same room as your tv/dvd? Also, how well will things go if we have to take turns and share the bar?

From the many helpful posts I've read in these forums, it sounds like a bar is the way to go compared to using bands as an alternative. Any suggestions and pointers are very much appreciated--thanks!!

Well you don't necessarily need to use a chin up bar. You can use resistance bands for the pull up part of the workout, which would allow you two to work at the same time if there is room. However, if you do decide to use a pull up bar you can always just pause the video when need be. Shouldn't be any problems what so ever.

the bar is more effective for the simple fact that it involves your entire body.
however not everybody (unlike Iskarp at the kids soccer field) can do pull ups at the beginning so having a resistance band is a very good asset.

you don't need to do your pullup with DVD you just need to know what kind of pullups you're doing e.g. wide, reversed, switch grip. the only cons of not being in the same room is that one continuously jump from one exercise to another for example on Day 1 Chest and back you'll start like this
regular push up
wide front pullup
military push up
reversed grip pullup
wide pullup
close grip chin up

these exercises are done in succession before your first break so having to go to another room might break your momentum and if you're doing with a partner the wait might be even longer, which will cause you to cool down.

Chicks dig guys with skills... Pull up skills, Plyo skills, Superman/Banana skills....
"Napoleon Horton"

Well, after looking into a couple of "doorframe" chin-up bars and deciding that none of them will really work well without doing damage to something, I ended up getting a free-standing floor unit that also does dips and leglifts for $40 on Craigslist--woot! Yeah, it takes up more floor space, but should work more than fine (and my fiance was really excited about the leglifts )

My P90X system is orded, and depending on when it arrives, we'll probably be starting on June 2nd!

Great buy at a great cost.
this apparatus will help you with Back, Shoulders and Abs

do you have the name and model of your free-standing floor unit, so we can take a peep online?

lskarp wrote:

QUOTE:
Chicks dig guys with skills... Pull up skills, Plyo skills, Superman/Banana skills....
"Napoleon Horton"

Right on brother

Les wrote:

QUOTE:
Great buy at a great cost.
this apparatus will help you with Back, Shoulders and Abs

do you have the name and model of your free-standing floor unit, so we can take a peep online?

It's a Body Vision Power Tower. Here's a link to one online;
http://www.dynamicfitness.com/detail.aspx?ID=1631

My local Big5 Sporting Goods has the exact same model for $130.

Hi Everybody,

I've been evaluating the floor unit/free-standing pull up tower for a few weeks now. I've been using the bands to work the back, but I know that I must eventually move to pull ups/chin ups or King Leonidas will never call upon me to join the Spartan army and fight the Persians!

So, I found a site that has several different models available. Here's the link: http://www.bayoufitness.com/Power-Towers.htm

I've been leaning toward the Weider tower...a respected name in physical fitness and it's a good price. But there are a wide variety of models here, and they might appeal to others. Having the pull up bar above the supports for knee-ups is a nice space-saving feature, but I'm a big ol' boy and I wonder about fitting between the arm supports to do the pull-ups. Especially when Tony pulls out the corn cob pull ups!

Hope this helps. I'm finishing out Week 2 of Phase 2 this week and REALLY looking forward to the recovery week!

Kevin

Kevin--about the arm supports getting in the way of the pullups, from what I've seen these towers always seem to have about the same amount of space between the two arms. They design them to fit for the greatest number of people possible, both large and small. You may want to just go to a local sporting goods store that has a floor model to see if one would work, and then go from there.

ps--what's a corn cob pull up? I haven't gotten my videos yet lol, and I can imagine quite a variety of moves that might fit the name

Val, corncob pullups are a challenging move requiring you to do a wide-grip pullup, then while holding yourself up, shift your head from the center toward your left hand, back toward your right hand, back to center, then away from the bar, toward the bar, then down again. Looks like you're eating corn on the cob, the bar being the "cob".

Wow--good thing I don't have braces anymore like when I was a kid! That would be one helluva cob to get stuck in your teeth!