Round 3 / Day 31: One-on-One with Tony Horton - Killer Abs

Is it just me, or are the Ab Ripper 200 moves more difficult than the Ab Ripper X ones? Perhaps it's because I'm used to cranking out Fifer Scissors, V-Up Roll-Ups and Mason Twists, while simple crunches are a shock to my system. But it's just plain weird that the first half of this workout seems so much tougher than the second half -- especially since Ab Ripper X was clearly intended to be a step up in intensity level.

P90X Day 31: Back & Biceps + Ab Ripper X

Just as I was starting to think I could hang with Tony and his cohorts as they cranked through the P90X videos, they threw me for a loop with Back & Biceps.

This relatively-short (51-minute) program was, to put it mildly, a killer. I started off just fine -- I did a set of wide grip pull-ups, lawnmowers, and the "Twenty-One" bicep curls without any problem -- and then I just fell off a cliff.

Here's the list of medieval tortures to which I was subjected this morning:

• Wide Grip Pull-Ups
• Lawnmowers
• Twenty-Ones
• One-Arm Cross-Body Curls
• Switch Grip Pull-Ups
• Elbows-Out Lawnmowers
• Standing Bicep Curls
• One-Arm Concentration Curls
• Corn Cob Pull-Ups (see below for a video clip of this obscenity)
• Reverse Grip Bent Over Rows
• Open-Arm Curls
• Static-Arm Curls
• Towel Pull-Ups
• Congdon Locomotives
• Crouching Cohen Curls
• One-Arm Corkscrew Curls
• Chin-Ups
• Seated Bent-Over Back Flys
• Curl-Up/Hammer-Downs
• Hammer Curls
• Max Rep Pull-Ups
• Supermans (Supermen?)
• In-Out Hammer Curls
• Strip-Set Curls

I started off with fairly heavy weights, but towards the end of the workout, I was astonished by the fact that I could barely manage to do curls with light (15 to 20 pound) dumbbells. And an hour and a half after finishing this workout, I still shudder at the thought of Corn Cob Pull-Ups.

Shockingly, by the time Ab Ripper X started, I actually let out a sigh of relief.