Actually a pretty demanding program. No it will not get you on a national bb stage, but most of the population would see good results. The main problem I saw was the time involved, they are asking people to commit 2-3 hours per day 6 days a week to the program, and on top of this eat a near perfect diet. It is hard to get the average person to commit to 1 hr 3x a week in the gym let alone this. Seemed like massive overtraining to me!
As for the 2 - 3 hours per day, that is only for 2 special programs within the series.
There's a LEAN version, where you do a session in the morning and a cardio session at night.
The Cardio X program done at night is 42 minutes, and you do it 3 times per week.
And there's a DOUBLES version where again, you do a morning and evening session.
The base program is generally an hour, with Ab Ripper X being 16 minutes ( and you do it 3x per week until your
rest week). I usually did the base program in the morning, and ABX at night.
The Yoga is 90 minutes, but even then, because it works on 3 different areas, you can split them up. There were days I did the Astangas and balance postures for an hour in the morning, then did the stretches at night. For some, they can skip the Yoga altogether and just do the Stetch X, since a lot of the same moves are incorporated, or the Cardio X because he starts it out with about 15 minutes of Yoga.
And also note, they say it's NOT for everyone, and they recommend that a person have some level of fitness. There's a fit test that they have people do before they try the program. They basically call for you to do a certain number of movements, and they have minimum criteria. If you can't do 20 pushups, then it's probably not for you. If you can't do jumping jacks for 30 seconds without getting into your anerobic zone, then it's not for you, if you can't do a pullup unassisted, then it's not for you.
As for overtraining, I don't see it. You will work your Back 2 times per week(mostly via pullups), but all other bodyparts are worked once. And after 3 weeks, there's a rest week that is mostly cardio, stretching and yoga.
I think Arnold's Encyclopedia of bodybuilding routines are more overtraining for a guy starting out the box.
But I digress. It is what it is. As said earlier, it will NOT get you ready for the nationals.... unless perhaps you used the cardio X program rather than getting on a treadmill, but that may even be too intense, as you may be carrying a lot of muscle, and some of those moves may be too much for your joints. You may also spend too much time in your anerobic zone, which could kill your gains.
