CoachBioArt

It is time… after about 6 months of sputtering with Insanity/P90X/oneonone hybrids/etc with various degrees of success, I’ve decided to go back to old faithful. As much as I’ve pretty much maintained my weight loss, I haven’t been working as hard as I could and I feel like it is time to push deeper.

To that end, I started a full P90X lean cycle 1 week ago. No excuses, no breaks, no changes. Everything by the book in terms of workouts. Man, what a difference does a define schedule make… Last week was hard. If I had been doing the hybrid stuff without a real schedule, I would have skipped two days. With the schedule, I did all 6 workouts. The truth is, I was (and still am) really sore…. by choosing random workouts, I stayed away from things that were hard (like Yoga and legs). Many times I also picked easier (recovery) workouts. Yes, they work, but they also result in a little decline in your overall fitness. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still happy, but I want to have an amazing Fall season for rugby, and for that, I need to be in top shape…

Stay tuned for more updates… 7 days down, 83 to go. Started this round around 206lbs… (lowest I got last year was 197) That’s a long way from >250, but I want to get down to 180 and size 34 or less pants! wish me luck!

You’ve gotta try this… these shakes are amazing. They pack a whole bunch of nutrients/vitamins, w/ very little calories and great taste! It also feels you up pretty well.

Contact me if you want to find out more about Shakeology. I drink it every day and feel better than ever!

Take a look at this video. Beachbody has another component to it’s business and that is coaching. It basically builds on the fact that the products work so well that you become a walking infomercial (as it happened to me). When people ask you how you did it, (which happens all the time to me), you have a chance to earn some money based on the referrals and word of mouth… In addition, it is important to note that beachbody actually sends customers your way… that’s kinda cool on its own…

It’s not Amway… you are not selling detergent. It’s not a pyramid scheme. The products are tangible and they work. Finally, it’s not a scam, these people are really great and just want to help you get fit!

Contact me if you want to find out more about Beachbody and the coaching opportunity!

Trainers: Drop the ‘tude, give us your all – CNN.com.

Good article on CNN about trainers and working out. I agree with most of the points.

The only thing I would add is that you don’t need a live trainer. Any BeachBody video starring Tony Horton or Shaun T will have the same effect. They are great trainers and give you the flexibility of doing things on your time and at your pace. The videos are always available and cost a lot less than live trainers.

These pictures are 1 year apart.  I started doing P90X after Christmas, so they represent 9 months of hard work (and 50 pounds of weight lost)

Do the programs work? you bet… are they hard? sure, but… is it worth it? YES!

I did it!  I survived 60 days of INSANITY!

I’m not going to surgarcoat it… it was hard!  It took my body about a week to recover at the end so that the deep muscle pain would go away… That being said, the results in my fitness level are impressive.  Check out the improvements in the fit test on my previous post.

In terms of visual improvement, check out my continuing progress… The first 6 pictures are from the first rounds of P90X and P90X+/1-on-1.  The last 2 are after 30 and 60 days of INSANITY!.

I didn’t lose that much weight (~10 pounds), but the change in my legs and arms is pretty nice (lost between 2 and 4% body fat).  I can run faster than I ever could and push-ups are a breeze .  It is important to note that I did not follow the INSANITY! diet on purpose.  I was already doing a 1750-2000 calorie diet and my goal wasn’t necessarily to lose weight, but to significantly improve my aerobic fitness.  I’m sure that if I followed the diet, I would have lost more, but again, that wasn’t the goal.

In terms of the program, it was great.  The workouts were entertaining, and didn’t take that long.  I figured that I would be spent after every workout, and I was half-right.  It was physically exhausting, but I felt great after each one.  The Intervals were very well done. My HR was up when it had to be and it was easy to do the three different levels… here’s an example workout as recorded by my Polar RS800CX monitor.

HR Max: 176, HR Avg: 146, ~880 cals in 1 hr – WOW!

The workouts really picked up after the first month.  Not only were they longer, but they were more intense… Even the warmups got harder.  I’ll admit that on more than one occasion, I really wanted to quit during the workout (even during the warm-ups a few times), but I stuck through with it and felt so much better because of it.

BTW, Shaun T’s cues are great, you can tell he is working hard and its fun to see the rest of the players push it too.

I did have to make a few changes at the end.  I was pushing hard enough that I had to take a day of rest here and there during the week, but that allowed me to continue.  In addition, once Rugby season started, I had to do YogaX or XStretch the day before the game, otherwise I would have nothing left for the games.  That “rest” day payed off, My speed and agility were unequaled… I was everywhere on the field! It felt great, I no longer had to think about pushing to get there, I just got there.  I’ve never had so much fun!

One thing I miss is the lifting, since I lost some of the P90X strength.  I am now (after 1 week of taking easy), restarting P90X as a P90X/+/1on1/Insanity Hybrid.  I will do weight training 3 days a week and a Max INSANITY workout or other interval training twice or thrice a week.  I will also do one of the Yoga workouts once a week as a recovery workout.  Stay tuned…

The fit test consists of doing each exercise for 1 minute and counting the number of reps.

For some of the exercises, a rep consists of more than one move. For example, the globe jump is 4 jump squats: right-back-left-front

The first number is how many I did on day 1 of the program (after doing P90X/+ for about 6 months). The second number is how many I did on the last day of the program, which was about 65 days later… what can I say? the program kicked my butt, but it got me in great aerobic shape!  Full review and before and after pics coming soon!

• Switch Kicks – 40:70
• Power Jacks – 40:60
• Power Knees – 85:132
• Power Jumps – 20:46
• Globe Jumps – 7:12
• Suicide Jumps – 10:16
• Push Up Jacks – 24:40
• Low Plank Obliques – 45:65

Warning, if you are uncomfortable looking at pictures of overweight people without a shirt on, stop reading… in order to show you the “after” pictures, I have to show you the “before” ones…

Anyways, as I was saying… I started P90X on January 1st of this year (2009).  90 days later, I had lost 35 pounds.  I then started P90X+ and did a modified workout for the next 3 months (with some Tony Horton 1-on-1) while in the middle of the Rugby season (I’m a referee).

As you’ll be able to tell by the pictures below, P90X works great! and you can lose a significant amount of weight.  As a follow-up, P90X+ gives you wings! I got much faster while doing P90X+ and really enjoyed the change of pace to more intervals.

I’ve just started INSANITY to get to the next level of fitness. INSANITY is more about interval training than about weight lifting, so it keeps with the concept of muscle confusion and changing of pace.

My % Body Fat went from >25% to less than 14% and is now at around 12-13% after just over a week of INSANITY.  So far, I’ve lost >48 pounds in about six and a half months.  Yes, it was hard, but no, it wasn’t impossible! and I actually enjoyed it…

Please don’t make fun of the poses… BeachBody suggests that you take pictures flexing and side views/etc… yes, I know I look goofy… at least I’m wearing the same shorts on each picture… The same can’t be said for the socks!

First Picture:  Front Flex – Days 1, 90, 150 & 180

Second Picture: Side view – Days 1, 30, 60, 90, 150, 180

I can already tell a difference past the 180 days after doing INSANITY for just over a week… stay tuned for the 210 and 240 day pictures!

Guess what? some of these 10-minute workout programs may not be as crazy as they sound… There’s an article in the Well Blog from the NY Times that talks about new research that seems to indicate that working hard (really hard) for a few minutes three days a week may be as effective as long workouts.  The key is that you have to bust your butt during that time.  In other words, Intervals!

I’m a firm believe in interval training.  Before P90X, I would work out 30-60 minutes 4-5 times a week at a heart rate of 120-130bpm, and it didn’t do squat… It wasn’t until I started bringing my HR to >160 that I started seeing real results.  Both P90X and Insanity achieve this through different approaches, but they both work… check them out!

After P90X & P90X+, I was really looking forward to a more intense cardio program. Sure, P90X+ is more cardio and it’s great, but Insanity is something different, so I was looking for a break after 6 months of the other workouts.  I also was looking forward to a workout that used only your own body weight for a change.

I finally got the videos yesterday. I’ve been waiting for this program since I first heard about it a few months back and was as excited as a kid in a candy store… wait, that’s a bad analogy on a fitness blog .  Let’s just say instead that I was as excited as a runner making the final turn on a 400M run!.

Beachbody was smart enough to send everyone doing Tony Horton’s 1-on-1 a preview of the program (the full cardio/plyo workout) and I’ve been doing it once a week as part of my post P90X regimen. It has certainly helped my fitness and speed on the Rugby pitch.

Insanity is here, click to buy!

I will admit that I was a little hesitant at first, since I’m a big Tony Horton fan and wasn’t sure I would like Shaun T, given that I’m not a dancer and his other programs have more dancing/hip-hop moves in them.  Well, I learned that don’t have to worry about that, since there is absolutely no time for dancing in Insanity!

In any case, Insanity is designed to be a 60 day program, with workouts 6 days a week, including a weekly cardio recovery workout.  The workouts are about 30-40 minutes long at first (they get longer in the second month), but that’s plenty.  Your heart rate is >150 for most of that time

The first day is somewhat easy, since  it involved a warmup and a fit test that is taken every 2 weeks, but it is a good intro to the kinds of excercises you will do in the program.

Finally, I know the important part of the program is the content, but I have to say that BeachBody went above and beyond on the packaging.  Pretty impressive!

I will post my progress here, so keep checking in to see how it works!