Sore, Hungry, and Slow: 3 Signs That Show Your Program Is Working

Exercise makes us feel great. It makes us less hungry. It helps us perform everyday tasks better. Besides our health and the way we look, feeling great, being less hungry, and performing better are exactly the reasons we put ourselves through exercise. However, en route to ultimate fitness, there are some hurdles we all need to clear. Mainly, they include being faced with the opposite of our intended goals. Enter the trilogy of grumpiness: getting sore, slow, and hungry. We tend to look at these as negatives, but how about a little New Year's spin? You want these feelings because they're clear signs your program is working.




Sore, Slow, and Hungry

Before we analyze why you need to embrace "going backward," let's answer the obvious question: why would we design this type of program? Certainly, there are exercise programs that don't put you through torture. Could we have chosen such a path with P90X®?



The answer is that programs lacking this trilogy don't provide you an incentive to get in top shape. In the early stages of any exercise program, it's possible to structure the schedule and diet around making small improvements. I call this the Curves® template. You push your body above its normal output, though just barely, and you keep it there. If you are greatly deconditioned, it will yield improvements. This approach doesn't hurt, and frankly, it helps people who've never exercised—mainly due to the mental boost they get from feeling they can exercise. It's a nice alternative for some people. But let's be realistic. None of them would sit through a P90X infomercial, much less be inspired by it.



The Curves template is what we would call a foundation phase of training for someone who has never exercised. The next step would be one of our programs, like P90X or Slim in 6® (these programs also work on the Curves template because you can choose modified variations). The upside with this method is that each day you leave the gym feeling better than when you walked in. The downside is that you'll never have the body of a fitness model. To achieve a higher level of fitness, you need to periodize your training and eventually stare into your Nietzschean abyss. That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger is more than a cliché with P90X—it's your life.

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Shock Plyo HIIT 2 Workout

Are You Eating The Right Foods to Fuel Your Workout?

Whether your goal is to get lean for the summer or bulk up to play a sport what you eat and when you eat is very important.


If your goal is Weight Loss you want to be at a calorie deficit by the end of each week while still maintaining your hard earned muscle. Timing your protein intake around your workout is a good way to do that while still losing fat.

Calorie Deficit: Write down the total amount of calories your eating in a day. Then cut that by 250 calories. If (when lol) your weight loss plateau, lower your calorie intake by another 250 calories.


If your goal is Muscle Gain your body needs to be at a calorie surplus as to get enough nutrients for growth. Eating a meal rich in protein and carbs before and after training will speed up that muscle growth.

Muscle Gain: Eat, Eat, Eat lol. If your goal is to be at 160 pounds, eat 40 grams of proteins and 40 grams of carbs about 90 mins pre - and post - workout. While the protein is more important for gaining muscle keeping the carbs in your meals will help you hit your daily calorie gain easier. You should be eating a little over 2300 calories a day. If your on a fairly aggressive resistance training program and burn calories really fast like I do add 250 to 500 cals a day to that.

If your goal is to bulk up I suggest trying out the BodyBeast program. It has instructions for just getting bigger and just getting leaner while gaining muscle.