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A new system of home work has been making a lot of buzz recently. The technique is named Power 90 Extreme, or P90X, and can be performed with regular exercise equipment at home. The system is developed exercise instructor Tony Horton together with Beachbody, and promises to get you into top physical form in just 90 days.

P90X is the current incarnation of several generations of training programs developed by Tony Horton with the Beachbody home fitness company. In 1998, Horton began his relationship with Beachbody when he created, along with fellow fitness trainer Debbie Siebers, a series of workouts called Great Body Guaranteed. Tony’s next fitness program was the Power90 in-home boot camp, which combined cardio and strength training. Power 90, marketed via infomercials and other broadcast media, was a best-seller in the fitness arena, and in 2004 Beachbody debuted Horton’s “extreme” version.

P90X was designed for the graduates of Beachbody’s fitness programs who were demanding a more rigorous regimen. Horton honed the program by utilizing the exercises and techniques he used personally to stay fit as well as consulting fitness experts in disciplines that he wanted to incorporate into P90X. Beachbody began testing the program in March 2003. Due to the extreme nature of the 12 fitness routines, there was difficulty casting for fitness professionals to be featured in the filmed workouts. The decision was made to use test group participants when shooting the workout videos because they were the ones who could handle the program’s rigors. In total, Horton has created four different 90-day programs associated with the Power 90 name: Power 90, Power 90 Master Series, P90X, and P90X+, which is intended for P90X graduates.

P90X continues to be Beachbody’s best-selling product after years of positive word of mouth and heavy infomercial advertisements. Since its introduction, P90X has been used by a reported 2 million people.
In April 2008, P90X became the most successful infomercial of any type in the United States.

P90X combines a variety of exercise styles, including strength training, cardio, yoga, plyometrics, and stretching. The system also stresses overall fitness by including bodyweight exercises such as pull-ups and push-ups, as well as plyometrics (dynamic training), yoga, and kenpō. Most of the workouts are just under an hour in length, and feature Tony Horton as instructor and motivational leader along with 3 or 4 fellow exercisers as backup. For workouts that require weights, one of the backup exercisers will generally demonstrate the exercise using the alternative resistance bands. The backup exercisers also demonstrate some moves at lower levels of intensity for participants who aren’t as fit. With the exception of the Ab Ripper X routine, each workout generally begins with about a 10 minutes dynamic warm-up and ends with a cool-down of 3–5 minutes.

Source: Wikipedia.