I Do My Ab Ripper At Night (So I Can, So I Can)

Bobby, Alphonso, Tony and Collette doing Scissor Twist

I have a confession to make: During seven complete or partial rounds of P90X, I didn't complete the Ab Ripper portion of the workout nearly as much as I should have. In fact, as I got several weeks into the 90 day cycle, I would do it less and less. The problem? Lack of time. P90X workouts generally take me a little longer than the elapsed time on the screen, because I have to hit the pause button to change places in the room, or adjust weights, or because I didn't quite start at the same time as Tony and the Kids. So the 60 minute workout might actually take 70 minutes, plus a few minutes to clean up my stuff. At that point, I always told myself, "So much for Ab Ripper! Maybe next time!" Occasionally, I promised myself to do the 15 minute ab workout in the evening, but I rarely did.

Finally, in late 2011, P90X2 came along, and X2 Ab Ripper was born. By this time, I had read several suggestions on the Team Beachbody message boards that it was OK to do the Ab Ripper at a different time than the main workout, if a person was too tired to go from one to the other. I committed myself to evening Ab Ripper sessions during the P90X2 Phase 2 workouts, since there is no Ab Ripper in Phases 1 and 3. As a result, I am happy to report that I did the X2 Ab Ripper on scheduled days most of the time!

Do I have washboard abs as a result of this technique? Well, no. I might have a little body fat covering them, or maybe I need to work on it a little longer. I do have a strong core for push ups and other P90X2 exercises requiring the use of the stability ball, so I can confirm that it's working!

Does anyone else have difficulty doing Ab Ripper as scheduled during a 90-day round of P90X or P90X2? Do you have any suggestions?