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!

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…

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!

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!

I’ll admit it, I never did Yoga before P90X.  I thought it was somewhat silly and didn’t really think it would help my strength/fitness.  Boy was I wrong.  YogaX is an integral part of P90X and it has made me stronger and much more flexible.  Sure, there are a few poses I can’t do yet… but I’m working on them.  I hated downward dog at first.  My wrists would hurt like hell and I was close to tears a few times.  With time, however, I’ve gotten much better at it, and it has significantly helped my push-ups (and many other moves).

Here’s a short post from www.fitsugar.com that shows you 5 very good poses.  I can’t do the last two properly, but I really like the first 3

It’s insane in a good way… I’m doing a number of the P90X+ videos at the moment. The original P90X videos gave you time between exercises. The goal was to do some reps and you had extra time to do them (and write down your progress). It worked great.  I lost weight and got stronger.  I did get faster too, but the emphasis was clearly on strength.

P90X+ is something completely different.  There’s no time between exercises, and you are supposed to go for time and not reps (do something for 30 secs/etc). This is great.  You end up working out at a higher pace and are much more spent at the end of a shorter workout.  Similarly, both the Kenpo/Cardio+ and IntervalX+ workouts are all about intervals and moving non stop for around 40 mins.  These workouts certainly kick my butt (in a good way). I really like the contrast between P90X and P90X+. It’s amazing how hard these new workouts are and it is clear that you really should do P90X before attempting them (or be in great aerobic shape). I wish there were more videos, but it is a good complement to P90X. It’s not uncommon for my heart rate to be in the 160s for most of the cardio workouts…Adding these workouts to your routine will certainly give you more variety and better results.

On a related note, I received Shaun T’s Insanity Cardio/Plyo preview and I love it. The Insanity program is coming soon from Beachbody and it is all about cardio and body weight exercises. I love the preview workout and can’t wait ’till the program is released. I will order it on day one Stay tuned for the review! (and let me know if’d you’d like to try it too)

It’s funny… if I had seen the P90X infomercial before I started the program, I would not have bought it.  It’s not that the infomercial is bad (it’s actually pretty good), but as a rule, I don’t like/trust infomercials that much… Thankfully, a friend told me about P90X and after visiting beachbody.com I bought it as my Christmas gift.  My wife was skeptical, but supportive (she’s happy now though!)

What a great program!

I started Jan 1st, 2009 and stuck to the workout schedule as much as I could (a couple of recovery days here and there, but pretty good for the most part).  I tracked my workouts in the beachbody club tracker (WOWY or “Work Out With You”).  Because of family and work obligations (and not being a morning person), most of my workouts were at 10:30 or 11PM.  It was easy to get into a routine to go down the basement and work out late at night.  It was really something I started looking forward to doing… and seeing the change in my appearance (and comments from others) kept me coming back for more.

So… does it work? YES! 90 days after I started, I was down over 30 pounds, and in the best shape of my life!  I was running like a madman in the rugby fields and keeping up with college kids during their breakaways (I’m a rugby referee).  I have since started doing P90X+ and some of the Tony Horton one-on-one videos to add variety etc.  I’m down almost 40 pounds and over 7 inches of waist at the moment (size 36 pants from size 42+).  I’ll review P90X+ and the other videos later.

I really enjoyed working out in a group when I was an active rugby player.  These videos mimic some of the same experience.  If you get into them, they are fun. Tony Horton is a good instructor and his comments would often made me feel like he was watching me… things like “Get lower on the squat”, “keep it up, we’re almost at a break” were really well timed and in places I usually needed the encouragement.

Here’s my quick take on the different P90X videos (I’ll have detailed reviews in the future, this is meant as a brief summary):

Chest & Back:

A good place to start.  Hard to do too many pull-ups at first, but I had an assisted pull-up station, so I could subtract up to 80 lbs from my weight.  I stopped using the assisted by the end of the program and routinely do over 40-50 pull-ups during a session now.  Lot’s of push-ups too.  Fun workout

Plyometrics:

Scary at first, but lots of fun.  This workout is probably responsible for my increased speed and agility.  You are moving and sweating the entire time.  Love it!

Shoulders & Arms:

Good upper body workout.  Easier than Chest & Back, but I can feel it after I’m done

YogaX:

The first 45 minutes of this (all movement exercises) are intense.  This video is about 1.5 hours… when I first started I didn’t know the last half is mostly stretching, so I thought I was going to die.  I had never done Yoga before this video.  I didn’t bend the way they did at first… Now I do.  Enough Said! Great workout.

Legs & Back:

It’s a good thing this is only once a week.  Lots of Squats, but great for your legs.  Back exercises are good too.

KenpoX:

I had never done Kenpo before (or anything besides Judo).  It was great to learn the moves and it is a good workout.  It took a while to get good at many of the moves, but I enjoy it.  Highly recommended to get a full-body workout (if you get into the moves).

XStretch:

A really nice change of pace on the rest day.  You still get to sweat a little during some of the stretches, especially the warmup salutations.  Very good to do if you are sore from the previous day.  Relaxing.

Core Synergistics:

Good change of pace on recovery week, but it is hard.  I thought recovery week was supposed to be easier (it isn’t).  Some of the moves are hard, especially because you only do them once or twice every 4 weeks

Chest, Shoulders and Triceps:

Three muscle groups one after the other and then back to the first muscle group.  Different exercises every time.  Really like this one.

Back & Biceps:

Similar as above, but different muscle groups.  Lots of involment of the other muscles too.

CardioX:

Haven’t done this one, since I prefer Plyometrics or the P90X+ workouts… looks good though

AbRipperX:

339 sit-ups/reps in 11 exercises… hard to do the full thing.  I could do at most 10 of each at the beginning, probably up to 20 of each by now.  Good workout, though hard to do immediately following the resistance workouts as suggested.  Good set of exercises to do anytime you have 16 minutes to spare