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Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously

danshipper.com

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Re: Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously

#2

Post by Peteris »

I agree with the general principle. Interestingly though, for fitness, the opposite worked for me. I threw myself into P90X, which is on 7 days a week, sometimes even two workouts a day. I've been exercising with similar or higher intensity ever since. The integrity of the program and the trust you can have knowing you will get better if you stick to it makes it hard to quit. If you start slow, you'll just lose time.

And there is nothing like seeing and feeling results three weeks in to take one through and beyond.

Re: Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously

#3

Post by dshipper »

Peteris wrote: post #2

I agree with the general principle. Interestingly though, for fitness, the opposite worked for me. I threw myself into P90X, which is on 7 days a week, sometimes even two workouts a day. I've been exercising with similar or higher intensity ever since. The integrity of the program and the trust you can have knowing you will get better if you stick to it makes it hard to quit. If you start slow, you'll just lose time.…

I agree it's definitely not one size fits all. But I'm curious to know, had you been exercising at all before you started out on P90X? Or was it just one day to the next you were working out full time?

Re: Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously

#5

Post by Peteris »

dshipper wrote: post #3
Peteris wrote: post #2

I agree with the general principle. Interestingly though, for fitness, the opposite worked for me. I threw myself into P90X, which is on 7 days a week, sometimes even two workouts a day. I've been exercising with similar or higher intensity ever since. The integrity of the program and the trust you can have knowing you will get better if you stick to it makes it hard to quit. If you start slow, you'll just lose time.…

I agree it's definitely not one size fits all. But I'm curious to know, had you been exercising at all before you started out on P90X? Or was it just one day to the next you were working out full time?

I did karate in grades 2-8, but I was never very keen on the fitness stuff and didn't push myself very hard. I enjoyed doing sports recreationally, e.g., soccer, volleyball, basketball. But then all through high school I would only have a PE class once a week and maybe do some cross country or cycling occasionally. So very little exercise. When I started P90X last summer, it was very much the discrete switch you describe. I was about to start working at a startup that summer, so I aligned the two to start the same day and committed to both.

Re: Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously

#6

Post by chubs »

Peteris wrote: post #2

I agree with the general principle. Interestingly though, for fitness, the opposite worked for me. I threw myself into P90X, which is on 7 days a week, sometimes even two workouts a day. I've been exercising with similar or higher intensity ever since. The integrity of the program and the trust you can have knowing you will get better if you stick to it makes it hard to quit. If you start slow, you'll just lose time.…

I've got a couple friends doing p90x as well, and i'm concerned that it'll simply make them look like endurance runners, eg skinny as rakes, unless you're on steroids. What's your thoughts on that?

I'm personally trying the reg park system (pre steroids style powerlifting, through stronglifts.com) because i'm aiming for a bit of bulk (i have no illusions of becoming mahoosive).

Re: Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously

#10

Post by Peteris »

chubs wrote: post #6
Peteris wrote: post #2

I agree with the general principle. Interestingly though, for fitness, the opposite worked for me. I threw myself into P90X, which is on 7 days a week, sometimes even two workouts a day. I've been exercising with similar or higher intensity ever since. The integrity of the program and the trust you can have knowing you will get better if you stick to it makes it hard to quit. If you start slow, you'll just lose time.…

I've got a couple friends doing p90x as well, and i'm concerned that it'll simply make them look like endurance runners, eg skinny as rakes, unless you're on steroids. What's your thoughts on that? I'm personally trying the reg park system (pre steroids style powerlifting, through stronglifts.com) because i'm aiming for a bit of bulk (i have no illusions of becoming mahoosive).

I've always been quite skinny and my metabolism drives it very well, I sweat fast, etc. And I'm tall too, which means more muscle mass to get the same size. I also did the P90X doubles version, which starts at month 2 and adds 3 more endurance workouts weekly. All that taken into account, I still managed to get good functional muscle growth.

It is very easy to modify the program to suit your needs. If your friends do not care that much about endurance, I would suggest not doing the doubles version, keeping rep counts low (eight or less) and trying to increase the weight from week to week. They should also take in enough protein, perhaps through whey protein supplements, but definitely no steroids.

What's more important than anything of the above is how much effort you put into every workout. If they push themselves hard enough during the resistance training parts, there will be nothing to worry about and there's plenty of massive after-pictures from P90X online to prove this.

P90X will give you massive performance improvements for almost every physical activity. If you just want to bulk up, look up hypertrophy training. That will be much easier mentally if you don't necessarily care about fitness.

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