Round 3 / Day 15: One-on-One with Tony Horton - 30-15 Upper Body Massacre + Killer Abs

In just 60 minutes, the One-on-One 30-15 Upper Body Massacre workout video perfectly encapsulates the very best and worst of Tony Horton.

First, the bad: Tony has plenty of time between exercises to indulge in his usual preening theatrics -- which, admittedly, have finally become more amusing than irritating to me. (Tony's like the loud, close-talking uncle who drops in for dinner and cracks stale, vaudeville-era jokes while poking a finger into your chest to punctuate his punchlines; it used to piss you off, but now you just roll your eyes and chuckle at how he can't seem to help himself.) And once again, Tony plugs his overpriced PowerStands, though to be fair, he also points out that if you bought a door-mounted P90X Chin-Up Bar, you're not going to be able to do all the pull-up variations in this workout.

But enough about the negatives. The good stuff vastly -- VASTLY! -- outweighs the bad. I kid you not: This is hands-down the best upper-body bodyweight resistance workout I've come across yet.

Details after the jump.

Round 2 / Day 15: P90X Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X

Tony Horton spends a lot of time talking and taking breaks.

Image Source: LCD Love

After working out with Insanity for a couple of weeks, I've noticed that Shaun T doesn't waste time with meaningless jibber-jabber. He doesn't brag about how his dad "pitched a couple of no-hitters," or ramble on about how he "loves-loves-loves" one of his workouts "until daddy takes my T-bird away." Rather, Shaun T is constantly on the move, and the vast majority of his comments involve instruction or encouragement. He hustles people back from their extremely brief water breaks -- during which he's often already demonstrating the next move. Perhaps that's why the Insanity workouts -- at least the first months' sessions -- are so much shorter than Tony's P90X workouts.

I got started a little later than usual, and had only an hour to complete both Chest & Back and Ab Ripper X before the kids got up and demanded food. But I noticed that Tony was -- as usual -- spending tons of time chit-chatting between moves. This was fine (or at least tolerable) when I was a novice P90Xer, but at this point, I know how to perform a Diamond Push-Up and a Close-Grip Pull-Up, and don't need to listen to Tony's explanations for the millionth time. Nor do I want to hear Tony boast about how he can "do hundreds of [push-ups]" but has to "check on the kids."

So I grabbed my P90X Fitness Guide and just cranked out all the exercises in Chest & Back without regard to what was happening on the TV screen. I took a few breaks, but kept them as short as possible before diving right back into the next exercise. By the time I was on my last move of the workout, Tony and gang were six exercises behind. By moving ahead and ignoring Tony's mindless prattle (and by also skipping the cool-down because it's pointless), I managed to complete Chest & Back in slightly under 40 minutes, which gave me plenty of time for Ab Ripper X.

The only negative? With little-to-no rest between exercises, I had a hard time increasing my rep counts. But in the end, it was worth not having to suffer through Tony's douchetastic verbal diarhhea.

P90X Day 15: Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X

Chest & Back is definitely getting easier. Again, I'm not a believer in "muscle confusion" as applied to P90X -- to me, it's just a marketing ploy -- but I do believe that my body's getting more accustomed to cranking out dozens of push-ups (and a few pull-ups). This is still crazy-intense, but perhaps I'm starting to get used to crazy-intense.