Day 8 | P90x Wisdom

A few weeks ago my friend had a birthday party that involved a Nashville party bus. This may have been around the same day I posted that I failed at my diet. The theme? The early 2000s. The nostalgia flowed through my veins as we sang Sum 41, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears tunes. The next day, I was inspired to pop in one of my favorite workouts on my laptop's DVD player to keep the spirit of the bus alive: P90x.

If you don't recall P90x, let me give you a brief summary. First, you must understand that this was during a period of time when Netflix was known for delivering DVDs to your mailbox, MySpace was king of social media (with Facebook requiring users to provide a college email to gain access to making a Facebook page), and iTunes charged a dollar or more for a song. On top of that primitive technology, consumers also made purchases by calling 1-800 numbers after they saw an advertisement on TV. There was even a store in my local mall called "As Seen On TV" with items you could buy that were usually only accessible by dialing the products 1-800 number.

One of those advertisements on TV was P90x. A fitness program promising to get your ass in the best shape of your life in 90 days if you would "just bring it", pop in their "muscle confusion" workout DVDs (yes, you needed a DVD player), and follow their nutrition program.

The ads were badass. They were one part a documentary and one part educational. They did just enough to get you wondering "damn, I wonder what I could become if I just gave my all and followed this for 90 days". Could I really get in THAT good of shape? The only way was to purchase the program and find out.

And guess what?

The program worked.

Or at least that's what my friend's Uncle, who started in college as a quarterback for a Division 1 university told me.

I thought, "well he was a D1 QB so it must be true, right"?

Word of mouth is powerful.

I had to find out myself and purchased the DVDs. I remember spending about $250 for everything. Which was a full paycheck after breaking breadsticks for a week at my restaurant job.

You had to purchase dumbbells and a pull-up bar on top of the DVDs. I ended up buying dumbbells from a friend and getting a pull-up bar at a local sporting goods store. I looked through the nutrition pamphlet and bought healthy food. I was ready.

The face and brainchild of the program was Tony Horton. An ex-actor who turned to personal training. Tony to this day, is one of the most motivating people I've ever seen on screen. He has an energy that lets you know he is better than you, but if you try hard enough, you won't even need him eventually. Fun fact: Eddie Lacy from the Green Bay Packers hired him for his services one offseason.

I never did complete the 90 days, but that program is killer. If someone is eating junk and never moving their body, P90x has to be a better alternative than doing nothing, right? I still use a few moves they teach you from the workouts and I pop in Yoga X and Ab Ripper X from time to time.

So on this day post-party bus in 2022 I decided to do the Back and Chest workout. It's so funny how inspiration comes from the most random places. During this workout, you have to do a ton of pull-ups and push-ups. So what's the problem? Pull-ups are hard. Most people I have met cannot do one. What does Tony tell us at the beginning of the DVD? That's okay.

From Tony Horton:

A lot of people say I can't do pull-ups. Change your mindset from I can't to I presently struggle with and over the course of time someone's who dream was to do one pull up will turn into 20 or more.

So the next time you say "I can't".

Change your mindset to "I presently struggle with".

And see what happens.

Thank you Tony.