American Council on Exercise Compares Rushfit, Insanity and P90X

Promoted to the Front Page by Beth

via www.acefitness.org

The American Council on Exercise (ACE) published a comprehensive comparison of three popular workouts that are also heavily advertised on television: Rushfit, Insanity and P90X.  Rushfit is named for and features Georges St. Pierre along with trainer Erik Owings.  Both P90X and Insanity are produced by the same company, Beachbody, but each features a different trainer: P90X features creator Tony Horton and Insanity features creator Shaun T.

All three programs are in the general category of "Muscle Conditioning".  The article provides a refresher of what exactly Muscle Conditioning means:

Before we get started, let’s briefly review the overall concept of metabolic conditioning (MC), which is defined as training that incorporates more integrated (whole-body), high work rate–type exercise sessions of moderate loads (resistance), coupled with shorter active recovery periods (activity during recovery) or even no-recovery periods. One key goal is to boost caloric expenditure during and after workouts (i.e., excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC). This form of training is generally achieved through a combination of one or more of the following:

• Manipulating load (force generated) or the amount of resistance
  
  
• Manipulating the volume of work performed (usually quantified by the amount of sets times the number of repetitions performed in a session)
  
  
• Manipulating power or the rate at which work is performed

The article continues on to provide comparative numeric ratings of the three programs in such areas as Initial Product Impressions; Program Objectives, Format and Details; Program Specifics; Coaching and Delivery; Specific Program Components (Assessments, Warm-up and Cool-down); and, finally, Overall Scores.  Each rating comes with explanations to support it.

GSP fans will be pleased to learn that the Rushfit program did very well in this evaluation.  The program finished second to P90X by only 3 points in the Overall Score (P90X scored 106 out 120 possible points and Rushfit scored 103).

A few of the positive aspects of the Rushfit plan that were noted are minimal initial investment in additional products or equipment, a simple nutrition plan that requires no supplements, a consistent day-to-day program layout and a good variety of exercises.  ACE found the cardio aspect of Rushfit to be generally weak, and also gave lower ratings for GSP and Erik Owings than for the trainers in the other programs.  They felt like Owings, although clearly knowledgeable about the science behind the workouts and the techniques, came across as a bit dry, and GSP, although clearly pleasant to watch, was sometimes difficult to understand. Rushfit also scored high in safety aspects and Owings was praised for showing alternatives and modifications for novices.

The article concluded that Rushfit was overall a comprehensive training program that, while including movements and techniques needed for fighting, also includes moves that will support its customers in their normal, everyday lives. 

The [Rushfit] workouts offer a comprehensive approach to MC training that targets a variety of the health-related parameters of fitness (endurance, strength, flexibility and cardio) and the skill-related parameters of fitness (power, agility, balance, coordination and quickness).

The comparisons between the three programs were very interesting and detailed.  I was surprised to see how poorly the Insanity workout was rated compared to the other two.  As a GSP fan, I was pleased to see that the Rushfit program was rated right up there with P90X, and to learn that there was obviously a tremendous amount of thought and consideration that went into the design of Rushfit.  This has convinced me that I need to go ahead and remove the plastic wrapper that currently surrounds my Rushfit DVD and just go ahead and do it!

Read more at: American Council on Exercise