Today's workout (#4) was Total Body strength training, which lasted a little over an hour. It was absolutely crushing, probably the hardest of any of the P90X workouts I've done. It is weight training but also involving some aspect of balance or core work into each move as well. It is not a cardio workout but I was completely drenched by the end. One move involved side-arm balance push-ups but with each hand on top of a medicine ball. It is unbelievably challenging to keep the ball from from rolling out from underneath you when all of your weight is balanced on that arm and trying to extend with the other arm. There is also a pull-up that is like a gymnastic summersalt (sp?) like a kid would do on the monkey bars - it was pretty fun.
Today's workout also marked the first Dreya Webber sighting of the new series. She is absolutely shredded.
I've generally concluded that P90X-2 is a next step beyond the original, as opposed to an alternative to the original. I don't think someone could do 2 without first doing the original, unless they were already in very good overall shape. While the warm-ups and cool-downs are longer in the new version so the workouts themselves are a bit shorter, there is much less time devoted to demonstrating technique and the focus is more on moving quickly through the moves, which are advanced enough that they would be very difficult to do without first having an understanding of the general techniques as well as the strength to complete them.