SO...um, yea. Here we go.
Been athletic all my life. Worked my share of calories into oblivion in Football, Wrestling & Track all through high school. Wrestled a little in college & continued into body building and owned my own gym right up the street from Ron Jon's Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, FL for a few years where I was also a personal trainer. The end result as of 6/09?
I'm a fattie.
There, I said it. I'm a fattie. 5'6" and I hover in the 200-210lb range. I’d conservatively say my body fat is 35% or more (once it’s officially measured, I’ll report it in coming blogs). During my body building days, I was around 185 but built like a scale model truck. My shoulders were bowling balls, my chin was chiseled and I was benching small cars and squatting small trucks. I hovered in the 4-8% body fat range consistently without trying. So though all the "charts" out there said I was obese because of my height/weight ratio, I knew better. Now, I'm not so sure about it. Obese? No, not at all. But definitely not in shape. Definitely a fattie.
Since entering my professional career of sitting on my fanny for a living, coupled with getting married to a gorgeous tropical island beauty queen who's a wonderful cook, all while being an avid gamer, I've now come to this point: I'm a fattie.
Did I mention yet that I’m a fattie? Dang…
In a T-Shirt & jeans, you'd never know it as I've maintained the same build I've had since the testosterone kicked in as an early teen. For a while there through ‘07-‘08, I was doing relatively well being a hard rock band drummer playing 4 times every weekend + practices. But ultimately, muscle has been displaced with fat. Good cardio with Jell-O. Superb health with ultra-fattieness. It's flippin' gross man.
Amazingly, I'm still relatively strong as I've always been. It's very weird. However, the strength is very short lived as I have the endurance of a wounded sloth traveling uphill in winter.
So What's This All About Anyways?
Having been an avid workout kinda guy who trained others in the art of losing the flab and getting in shape, I'm very, very critical of most "home gyms" and "workouts" out there. They're more about money than the results. Folks that run most of the crap programs out there know that if anyone will get off their duff and do something, anything, that's not sitting around eating Bryer's all day, they'll get in semi-ok shape. So, they come up with wimpy little workouts or diets with just enough exercise and enough hype to turn someone on just long enough to fork over their credit card number and jump in. Or worse, they engineer a few CAD drawings of a cheap home gym, ship the schematics off to China where they can be build with pot metal and gum for pennies, then they slap an insane pricetag on it and spend tens of thousands on marketing. After that, they no longer care. If the customer bails, or if they succeed, they've got their cash.
But many years ago, some folks came out with something called the Bowflex. Since they were originally the same creators of the Soloflex, I didn't give them a second thought at first as the Soloflex was a complete piece of crap. However, after being forced to watch a commercial somewhere, I did a little more research. Lo and behold, the Bowflex freakin' rawks. Take it from a former gym owner. It’s awesome. I own the Ultimate 2 and I love it!
Well, I'm even more passionate about my disgust with workout programs. They're a dime a dozen-dozen and most are junk. Just enough of keeping the duff off the couch to get yer cash & leave you hanging. Very little support and only enough motivation to get your money. Now, I’m not attempting to make a blanket statement about everyone out there. Please read the “most” word when I say these things. Most means most, not all. “Most” workout programs suck.
Enter P90X
This thing is incredible. It’s the closest thing I’ve found out there to what every good personal trainer does with their clients. Not to mention the fact that it’s a workout that’ll completely destroy you. Believe me when I say I’ve never been a Tony Horton. But one of the things we always told our frustrated patrons who had plateaued in their workout was to dramatically change the workout. Therein lies the premise of the P90X program. Muscles form habits just like we do. When habits are formed, there’s a streamlining process that one does naturally to make the habit as easy as possible exerting the least amount of energy for the absolute maximum output.
Your muscles are no different. When they do the same thing over and over, they streamline the process and get into a groove that “maintains”, even if you increase the workload. In order to make the muscle continue to grow (or just lose more fat), you have to introduce what Tony calls “muscle confusion”. I won’t go into anymore detail with what that is. I’ll let you do the research yourself.
So what will be following will be my “journal”, if you will, chronicling my adventure into P90X. The workout is NOT for the faint at heart. You’ll read all about that if you look into it and they tell you all along the way that you need to be of a certain caliber of fitness before attempting it. They actually take you through a “Fit Test” first. If you don’t make the cut with the fit test, you’re supposed to bail and go with something a little more feeble until you’re ready for the big-dawg that is P90X.
How’d I do on the fit test you ask?
Um, <cough>, well…I ah…let’s just say I passed “my” fit test. {-o)
I know this is supposed to be a tech blog. But quite frankly, I know a LOT of fatties in this industry. We really do need to get off our butts more guys & gals. When I work out and eat right, I think better, am much more alert, attentive and detailed, I get up earlier, go to bed later and sleep better the whole time. It makes me a better programmer overall as well as a better husband and father. The stress is not less in volume but less in its affect against me. Etc. You all know this as much as I. But since I have 5 young’un’s, I’ve decided I need to be around for them for longer than I will be if I don’t do something about my health.
So, to all my friends that’ll be following me on my trek through the next 90 days as I destroy myself on P90X, enjoy.
Nose Plugged - Check
Eyes Shut Tight - Check
Lucky Blankie - Check
Scared Crapless - Check
BANZAI! <splash>