P90X-2 (Day 41): Tony Horton's 1-on-1 4 Legs Review

Another somewhat overdue post/review!  For Sunday's workout, Katie and I swapped in Tony Horton's 1-on-1 4 Legs DVD, which comes as a bonus with the deluxe version of P90X-2.   This was in place of Base + Back, which if you've read my earlier review of it you know how brutal that one is!  Needless to say, I was happy to have a new workout to held break up the routine.

For one thing, "4 Legs" is ALL about legs, which tend to get neglected somewhat in Tony's programs .  Sure, you have Plyocide and Base + Back, but that's pretty much it!  Plus, even though I know many P90X fans love pullups, I was more than happy to not have those to worry about this time.  "4 Legs" is a legs-dedicated workout with a lot of additional twists to help keep it exciting.  Each move is done on only one leg and balance is incorporated throughout, in keeping with the P90X-2 balance/core focus.

The other main item to note is that this is the first workout I've ever done from Tony Horton's 1-on-1 subscription series.  Basically, these workouts put you right with Tony in his home gym along with Mason Bendewald who is the producer/camera guy.  The banter between Mason and Tony is actually pretty funny, and in some ways I preferred the laid-back, no-pomp-and-circumstance attitude of the production.  I definitely will consider adding more of these 1-on-1's to my lineup!

Overview

• Length - 53 minutes (felt pretty quick) 
• Structure
• Very seat-of-the-pants warmup (basically Tony arbitrarily hopping around, etc.) and cooldown, but not bad ones by any means.  
• The workout itself is only 10 moves (and you do each leg separately for each move), but you do them pretty slowly. 
• Advice
• Try not to blow past Tony in terms of your speed.  For some of these, I was perhaps going a bit too quickly, which might have reduced the burn.  That's not to say I didn't feel it on every single move, but you might as well really try to focus in on the balance aspect in this workout.  If you do finish a move before Tony, just add in a few extras like I did to compensate.
• Notable Moves (some of these names may not be right)
• Half Moon Side Lunges
• Start off standing straight, but then lunge off to the side.  From the bottom of your lunge, extend yourself up on leg being "lunged" on and go into a half moon yoga pose.  Then descend back into your lunge before finishing where you began, standing up straight.  You'll need some hip flexibility for a lot of these moves!
• Mason Pumpers
• Ooo these burn!  Very creative move though, and I definitely liked them.  Stand up straight balancing on one leg while clasping your hands around the knee of the free leg up towards your chest.  From there, descend down into a one-legged squat, keeping your "free" knee in towards your chest at an equal distance throughout the movement.  Then, from the bottom of the squat, explode up on the support leg so that you jump off the ground just a bit.  Repeat!
• Royal Dancer Kicks
• Another one where you'll need your hip flexibility and balance in full effect.  Start in a Royal Dancer yoga pose, then after releasing the pose bring your non-support leg/knee into your chest while standing up straight.  From there, extend that same leg out in front of you before heading back into Royal Dancer.  Repeat.  
• Single Leg Chair Pose
• Just like it sounds.  Do a chair pose on 1 leg with the non-support foot sitting on your support leg's knee/lower quad.  Ow!

Summary

Really liked this workout.  Good pace, good "feel" (meaning that Tony's trademark sense of humor, etc., are perhaps in even greater effect than normal, especially since he has Mason to play off of), good burn.  AND, it's all legs!

I will be keeping this in my go-to repertoire going forward for certain.