/mike

Try P90X yourself!

Over the years I’ve been both obsessed and completely indifferent to improving my fitness. I’ve tried several different methods, programs, and techniques to do so. I’ve done cardio only, my own weight-lifting program, Body For Life, and various others. Now I’m going to do P90X and do my best to keep you apprised of my progress.

What is P90X?

P90X is a fitness program developed by Tony Horton. It’s claim to fame is muscle confusion. Muscle confusion is very important to the continued improvement in fitness and muscle development. The best way to keep muscles growing is by working them in ways they aren’t used to.

Confusing muscles can be done in any program, all you need to do is change the exercises for the muscle groups in different intervals. Muscle confusion keeps your body guessing — and at the same time, growing.

The P90X program just lays it out explicitly for whomever wants to use it. Instead of having to figure out what exercises to change and what to change them to, Tony lays out a 90 day plan for you.

P90X comes as a set of 12 DVDs with a printed program and nutrition guide. The DVDs are set up as one days exercise per DVD. There’s no need to switch DVDs during your workout, you just pop in that day’s DVD, hit play, and workout.

Starting out

The P90X program asks you to gather up some information on your body — body fat percentage and actual measurements of various body parts. I left out a few things — height, weight — because I’ve never been a fan of body weight. I know muscle weighs more than fat and at this stage I’m not concerned with that measurement. Height doesn’t change so there’s no point in noting it — I’m 5′10″-ish if you’re curious.

This how my body measures up before starting:

• Total body fat %: 13.88%
• Measurements:
  • Chest: 37″
  • Waist: 34.5″
  • Hips: 35.25″
  • Left thigh: 20.25″
  • Right thigh: 20.25″
  • Left arm: 11″
  • Right arm: 11.25″

Bring on the pictures!

The P90X program also asks you to take pictures of yourself in the following poses: front hands on hips, front making muscles, side, side upper body twisted to camera, back hands on hips, and back making muscles. I took all those pictures and have them handily sitting in my photo archives.

I’m not going to post them now but I will post them with comparison shots after the first 30 days. I’m also going to take milestone photos at 60 days and at the end of the program.

Now, as Tony says in the videos, it’s time to bring it!

This zen thought was said during a conversation about relationship length. After asking about quantifying what counts as a relationship I expected a typical “about two weeks” or “after you’ve been introduced to the friend circle” type of response. The actual response was much more.

“I think relationships are the ones that feel like relationships.”

It is definitely refreshing to see this point of view when most people are concerned with metrics and stats.