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Click Here or on the graphic above to start your journey of discovery with P90x or another of the great Beachbody fitness programs.
P90x is an incredible workout program. It's adaptable to your schedule, and easy to follow along with. That's NOT to say that it's easy, far from it. I thought I'd share my story with you and let you see why I am firm in this program. So here goes:
First, I wanted to say how excited I am to have this next round of P90x AND to be doing it as a coach this time. I had gotten away from working out and had forgotten how fun it really is to use a variety of workouts and push myself every day. Pushing yourself is one thing, but being there for someone else really pushes you further. I think this program is workable, adaptable, and sustainable. I look forward to being your coach through your journey. Just click the link above and send me an email and we can get started.
If P90x is not your game, there are a lot of other routines on here. Let’s find one that fits your fitness goals and get you fired up to achieve those goals. Let’s start eating right for the routine and the set goals. Let’s make those goals realistic and reachable, then push past them for the next round. Just click the link above and send me an email and we can get started.
I live in the Kansas City area, originally from this area but been all about with work and military assignments. I have never liked defining myself with whatever occupation I was in at the time; it’s just what I do at the time. Instead, I like to define myself more along with what I like to do.
I enjoy riding motorcycles; pretty much of all street classes but my preference has to be for Harley Davidson. I know, I’m getting to be an old guy now, so the full dresser, “old man’s” bike is right up my alley. I’ll ride in almost any kind of weather, been caught in the snow before and just had to deal with it and get home. Mostly, I enjoy beautiful and wonderful days to ride. I think I was getting a bit too comfortable on the “old man’s” bike though. I was starting to take on the rounded mid-section and lack of endurance off the bike. I still like motorcycles, but I think I’m going to break out the bike with pedals instead of engine a lot more this season.
Riding seems to be a common theme I guess as when it came to deciding on which winter sport I had to go with the Snowboard over Skis. I really enjoy the beauty of the mountains and really enjoy being strapped on a board, pointed downhill, and letting gravity do its work. That sounds easy, but with a snowboard the rider is keeping busy on the ride and I was getting worn out quickly in the altitude. It was a gradual thing that started by using the excuse of enjoying the scenery a bit too much. Whenever I would be exhausted I would stop and enjoy the scenery. I know altitude gives endurance quite a challenge, and I know that I’m getting older, but I’m not ready to sit by the side of a trail and watch others enjoy the snow while trying to catch my breath. I was out of shape and it was showing.
From the time I was in high school I was teaching or coaching something around swimming. Then and through college I was swimming about a mile a day as well as teaching life guarding and assisting with Water Safety Instructor courses. These were not easy courses either to teach or to take. Additionally, during that time I was running several miles a day and working in the gym several days a week. I enjoyed being in shape and had excellent endurance. I had gotten into Aikido when I was a kid, and really expanded with other forms; tae kwon do, hapkido, shaolin (northern and southern), kenpo, kendo, and muay thai. I probably played with several more over the years, but was really into form and exercise at that time for both personal and occupational reasons. When I kicked in the first Kenpo workout and I was struggling to just keep up, I realized how out of shape I had become.
I had gotten into scuba diving with one of the instructors that was in our WSI training group. She brought her gear and I enjoyed it pretty well. I would do some diving but it wasn’t until later in life when I really got back into the sport and started taking advanced rating courses. With all my swimming background I was amazed that I seriously thought I was going to drown in that course. I was out of shape and realized I had to get into better shape before I went on to the next level of diving. I hit the gym and the lap pool and tried to clean up my diet a bit. It helped a bit, but not really enough for what I was wanting. I did progress on to the Dive Control Specialist rating, but still wanted to improve my physical conditioning.
I’ll tell the rest in the transition story below, but for now I’ll change topics over to coaching. In all the sports and fields of physical training I had been involved with I had found that when I coached others I was really pushing myself. My goal was always to be able to demonstrate the next level which made me be all that much better. I really don’t think many can be successful without others pushing and driving them. There are some, but not many who can do it alone.
Working out is like the answer Gene Wilder gave when Clevon Little asked if he could use some help, “Oh, All I can get.” So I’m game for all the help I can get, and as a coach all the help I can give. Bring It !!!
Click Here or on the graphic above to start your journey of discovery with P90x or another of the great Beachbody fitness programs.
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I used to be an athlete, martial artist, and extremely active swimmer and have gotten back into scuba diving. When I moved to the more advanced courses I discovered just how horribly out of shape I was. I may have passed my rescue course, but when finishing up the practical for scuba rescue I realized that I felt like I was about to drown during the course because I was entirely out of shape. I needed to severely increase my cardio fitness and general fitness.
I hit the gym for resistance training as well as lap pool work. Tried cleaning up my diet a bit and it wasn't really getting me anywhere. A big thing was that it wasn't entirely convenient to go to the gym regularly. I went, but it was a burden that built up. I started swimming laps, and tried to work with my diet a bit, but wasn't really making that much progress. I do shift work and trying to keep my diet clean was a very difficult challenge. Also, with changing hours it was difficult to keep time scheduled to get to the gym with any regularity.
A buddy had used p90x and had shown some great improvement so I ordered the program and started watching them. I watched each through and then started just trying to do the routines. When I got to where I could keep busy through the entire routine without pressing pause (note: not keeping up yet) I actually "officially" began my "Day 1."
When I ordered the kit I weighed 202 with a body fat of 29%. When I actually started the program, my first workout had me at 197. So just getting to where I thought I could legitimately apply myself and stay with the workouts I had already started to lose weight and gain stamina. So just cleaning up my diet and trying to get ready to start showed me some improvement.
The convenience of being able to do my workouts without having to go to the gym was great. Using the WOWY system for accountability helped keep me pressing play on the days I didn't really feel like it.
I tried to work with the menu system, but it wasn't really a user friendly system if you didn't like some of the food choices. It could be that I just wasn't very patient, but either way, I tried it for a while. It is an area where, as Tony would say, "I am currently challenged." Remember, I do shift work so it's really difficult to be really clean in my diet and some of the meal preparations were not really an option for me a lot of times. I tried to come close though.
My first round through p90x I had a several schedule upsets. I went from working mornings to working evenings and back a couple of times for a few weeks at a time. And I had snowboarding trips scheduled; these trips wound up luckily landing on weeks 4 and 8 so I was able to use them as cardio weeks and just do the X stretch.
When at altitude on week 4 I was pretty much riding like I had gotten to over the years. My out of shape and overweight self was having to stop and rest regularly. Sometimes I liked to say that I was stopping to view the scenery, and while on occasion this was true, I was worn out and sucking air. My week 8 snowboarding trip was a little better, but still got tired pretty quickly up at high altitudes. I enjoyed taking long breaks and drank a whole lot of water during those weeks. The last day I was up there that week I started getting a head cold so I chilled out a little, but wound up getting sicker than a dog for several days. This was bad enough to take me out of progress for about a week. When I got back in, I got back in with a vengeance. This, along with the travel week changes and yet another mountain trip on what would be week 12, was enough for me to renumber and just start back with week 9 when I returned from the week 12 trip.
The week 12 trip had a different feel in the mountain air though. I was banging top to bottom runs repeatedly and was keeping up pretty well with locals that I ride with. I was feeling really good, and was noticing the change. I was seriously able to contend with locals on the mountain again. No, not the super rider locals, but the general people who are used to the thin air. I was keeping my breath and was relaxed in my ride. I had the strength and endurance to keep riding to the last lift chair. I was liking it.
Starting on Monday that next week, I restarted as a week 9 program. It felt good to get back into some resistance work again.
I've been using the workout tracking sheets available on the site. They are an absolute necessity to keep track of what I did, and thus what kind of goals I should be setting for the next round. However, they didn't give me any kind of numeric relation of whether I was actually improving. From the start, I had added putting my weigh-in at the top of the day's chart. I created an excel spreadsheet to track improvement and trends. For weight exercises it was simple, but I had to create numeral relationships for different types of push-ups, pull-ups, and the different band colors. So I created a factor field that lets me compensate for the different exercise groups. This has been very helpful for me, and I'll post my workout sheets here for all to see. I'll also make the .xls file available for anyone interested in playing with it. Who knows, someone is bound to improve on the idea and get me a better version.
I just finished my "new" week 12 and starting my last cardio week and I added an extra cardio week ending with another snowboarding trip. I'm looking forward to some more top to bottom runs and keeping myself on the hill all day long without needing to take breaks all the time.
I am now weighing in at 184. I'll take an 18 pound drop. A lot of programs will work, but what makes this one work best is the flexibility built into the program. I had scheduling and interruptions that I was able to work around. The routines I started just trying to complete without pause, then changed my goals to keeping up, then changed to adding weight while keeping up. It's been pretty easy to keep with this program and make real progress. That's not saying that the program was easy, far from it actually, but the adaptability and convenience has helped me keep on track.
When I get back my plan is to do some group class exercises for something different for a couple of weeks and then start back with a new round of p90x. Going to try and work out where I have less interruption, yeah right. I'll get a post picture up when I actually finish the cardio week and get my new measures as well.
I've now decided to move over to the coaching side. Seeing the change in someone else was one thing, but transforming myself really builds belief in a program. For my next round of p90x I am not only using the WOWY accountability, but banging with an active coach. I'm looking forward to major progress through this round. I also know from being a trainer before that you really get pumped when you are pumping up someone else. It really holds you accountable that way and pushes past pressing play, and beyond.
Tony uses "Do your best and forget the rest" regularly. There is a lot of truth to that. Really, I think it's the reason this program works. You don't have to be right on with the video every routine. Sometimes just getting through the routine is enough, then you set the goal a little higher. I'll continue to use the workout sheets and the excel spreadsheet using them to numerically track my progress.
Keep Using WOWY, Keep Pressing Play, and Bring It!!!
Click Here or on the graphic above to start your journey of discovery with P90x or another of the great Beachbody fitness programs.
These are my worksheets for my Round 1 with P90x. They are .pdf files so should open for you to view:
These are blank worksheets for: P90x or P90xPlus
More to come: I realized the .xls file is in the newest version, so going to make a compatable version first.
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