Now that I've completed it, I can confirm that: (1) Power 90 Road Warrior is nowhere near as challenging as many of the workouts we've seen from Tony, but (2) it's tough enough to rival Core Synergistics as a damn satisfying, full-body Recovery Week session.
More after the jump...
Power 90 Road Warrior is aptly named: It incorporates many of the same moves found in Power 90, and it can easily be done on the road -- with nothing more than a single resistance band. (I don't know why I didn't wait to try this workout tomorrow, when I'll be stuck in a hotel room again. But I digress.)
I've never really done much with resistance bands before. We have a set of 'em, and I've used them in group exercise classes before, but with plenty of free weights in my garage, I've never really felt the need to use the bands while working out at home.
But for the most part, I enjoyed using a resistance band today. I didn't get myself tangled up (too much), and I only whacked myself with the handle once. Plus, I didn't have to keep picking up and replacing dumbbells, nor did I have to bother with selecting the right weight for each set of exercises.
The Power 90 Road Warrior workout itself wasn't too shabby, either. I was using a medium-resistance band, so I knew I wouldn't be lifting heavy today -- and Tony acknowledges this, mentioning that the "burn" doesn't enter the picture until after about 20 reps, as opposed to 8 or 10. But while low-resistance, high-rep exercises aren't going to help build muscle, they do help build endurance and burn calories.
I also liked that in Power 90 Road Warrior, Tony takes us through four circuits of exercises that hit the entire body in sequence: chest, back, shoulder, biceps, triceps, glutes, and quads. In order, the moves are:
Circuit 1
- Standard Push-Ups
- Lawnmowers (familiar to those of you who've done P90X Chest & Back)
- Shoulder Presses
- Bicep Curls
- Single-Arm Triceps Extensions
- Squats
- Lunges
- Side Arm Balance Push-Ups (like the ones from P90X Yoga X)
- Heavy Pants (from P90X Chest & Back)
- Deep Swimmer's Presses (from P90X Shoulders & Arms)
- Open Arm Bicep Curls
- Triceps Kickbacks
- Run Stance Squats (from P90X Plyometrics)
- Side Lunges
- Hands-Out / Hands-In Push-Ups (do a couple of push-ups with your fingers on each hand facing each other, then do another two with them facing away)
- Lawnmower Intervals (just like Lawnmowers, only you alternate between five slow reps and five fast ones)
- Straight Arm Shoulder Flys
- Twenty-Ones (you know them from P90X Back & Biceps)
- Side Tri Rise (from P90X Shoulders & Arms and Chest, Shoulders & Triceps)
- 12 / 12 / 12 Squats (3 squat variations, each successive one deeper and more challenging than the last)
- Switch Lunges (basically the "skip" version of Mary Katherine Lunges, which I did instead)
- Standard Push-Ups
- Lawnmowers (familiar to those of you who've done P90X Chest & Back)
- Shoulder Presses
- Bicep Curls
- Single-Arm Triceps Extensions
- Squats
- Lunges
But aside from the post-cool-down surprise ab exercise and the earsplitting Tony Horton musical interlude (I'm going out on a limb and guessing that Tony is terrible at karaoke and rap battles), I had a good time with this workout. In terms of intensity, Power 90 Road Warrior doesn't hold a candle to 30-15 Upper Body Massacre, any Insanity workout or even a 12-minute session of kettlebell Man Maker training, but if you don't have room for more than a band and a DVD in your suitcase, or just want a change of pace from Core Syn, this workout may be just the ticket.
