No doubt you have seen or heard about the P90X home exercise program. It has been regularly advertised all over the TV channels and the Internet. 

Tony Horton is the mastermind behind this program and he personally leads the group exercise on all the recorded sessions. I bought the DVD set to try as a 60th birthday present to myself. 

The program requires little equipment, a set of dumbells and a chin up bar is all you really need. Rubber exercise bands can be substituted in each exercise if you would rather have a bit less resistance. What is required, is the time and dedication to get through the busy workouts. Motiviation is provided by the energetic and personable Horton, who along with various workout partners, makes the program come alive in your living room, or den. It is just like having a personal trainer at home. 

There are workout record sheets to keep track of your progress, and you are encouraged to take a "before" photo. You can upload the photo to the P90X web site; Beachbody.com and chat with others in online forums, all to keep you motivated and involved. I participated in the "Over 50s doing the X" forum.

My experience with the program was really good. I jumped in dedicated to sticking it out for the 90 days and seeing what it would do for me. I was already somewhat fit, but the program kicked my butt! Some of the movements were impossible for me to accomplish at the start, and the multiple sets of pushing and pulling, were often hard to get through. I started with being able to do a few of  the pushups and pullups required, and advanced to higher reps as the weeks went by.

My muscles were often sore, but the "muscle confusion" concept worked. This is the P90X theory that constantly challenging the muscle groups in different ways will spur growth. You may do a set of pushups, and then follow with a set of pullups. One day you are doing chest, shoulders and back, the next day legs or Yoga. Ab work is done almost every day.

After 90 days I was noticeably more muscular and had gained some strength. My pullups went up from 5 or 6 to 15 and later to 20. My pushups went well past the 25 I started with to easily over 50. I started with 15 and 20 lb dumbells and progressed to 25 and 35lbs.

The downside to the program was the amount of time you have to invest. For me on summer break, it was do-able, but once work resumed it became hard to squeeze over an hour work out in every day. The actual time for some of the routines was almost 90 minutes.

The bottom line:  P90X is a well organized, engaging and interesting workout series, it will get you in shape, or increase your strength and muscularity in the 90 days, if you stick with it and follow the suggested healthy diet tips.That is if you can handle it!