P90X: "Going to find Myself" Day 68 of 90

Time to recharge the batteries.  I am going off blog for a little while to take some reflective time.  Everyone should do this.  It empties the responsibilities for a while and gives you a chance to remember what motivates you and why.  You also get to prioritize and reset the order of your life.

It’s important.

I will drop in from time to time, but I am taking my P90X Recovery Week DVD’s and going silent.

Be back soon!

P90X: "The Motivation Mystery" Day 67 of 90

I and a few of my colleagues in fitness have been mulling this over for a few days now.  I have to say, it is a subject close to my heart.  Not only have I been thinking about it in terms of my fitness, but also, I have had issues with it in my home.  What is motivation and why do some seem to have it, and some not?

Motivation is defined as the internal drive or inspiration to pursue a task with the goal of a desired outcome.  I like that.  It is a pretty clean definition.

I have watched many people over the course of my life attempt tasks with the hope of achieving an outcome.  I spent many an hour on a sports field.  I have competed in classroom settings for grades.  I have been through some pretty rigorous training programs in the military which many dropped out of.  I have seen it in my dieting and fitness as well.  We all have seen the same behavior.  Some are driven to succeed and some are not.  It is that drive that will typically determine the outcome.  The more drive, the higher the chance of success.

In my perception of motivation, there are two factors that affect the amount a person demonstrates.  The first is the difficulty of the task.  Can it be done and with how much effort?  The second is the value of the reward.  How much does the person want it?  Those two factors, if plotted on a graph, are a pretty good indicator of the level of motivation you may find in the person doing the task.  Lots of effort and dismal rewards equals little motivation.

There are other things that affect it as well. 

How closely is the task related to the reward?  For example, is the motive to study being linked to a desire for better grades or is the person studying because they were promised a different reward that they may have wanted more?...like a new prom dress. 

Are there other reward paths to get the same result?  Is it worth it to diet and exercise for a year if liposuction and stomach stapling can do the job in three months? 

Lastly, are there substitutes for the reward itself?  If the reward is not achieved, is something just as good more easily attained?

All of these things affect the level of a person’s motivation.  I have watched people just rationalize the goal away if the path looks too hard or if they are willing to settle for less.

As I have watched various people over the years, I have come to a conclusion on motivation.  While many things affect the level, there is a base level of motivation that every person possesses.  It is cultivated as the person went from childhood to the teen years.  Either the child was put in a position to compete at a young age, or not.  If they were, and there was any degree of feedback from doing well in competition, the seeds of motivation were sowed.  When a child is put into a competitive or performing setting and they do well, the feedback is the food that drives future motivation.  If they are not, they always have a very small base of motivation.  That’s my theory from studying people with high motivation.  That aspect of their life is usually seen in every area they participate in.  They are looking for the feedback high.

I think you can elevate even the most low of motivation levels.  But you can’t get the person over the hurdles unless the base level is large enough.  There are people who will, unfortunately, never be motivation material.

That’s my opinion and I will stick with it.  Prove me wrong.  What do you have to lose?

P90X: "What Day Is It?" Day 66 of 90

I am at a strange point in the workouts.  I will be in the middle of a routine, and the exercises are introduced by Tony.  I know exactly what’s coming up…but when I start into the routine, it feels like I did that set (Kempo X for example) just a couple of days ago.  It has been like that now for a couple of weeks.  It never feels like the last time was a whole week ago, it feels like yesterday sometimes.  It’s very weird.  I will see certain cast members and it feels like we were just doing this.

I know all the exercises.  I even know all the dialogue in my head.  I know Tony’s bad jokes…and I know when he is taking breaks.  I know when a move is about to be corrected, so I do it before it is said.  I am also counting in my head.

I know all the spots in the routines where the moves are shortened or messed up.  I know that in Yoga, the first side worked out is always longer than the second.  Maybe Tony runs out of patience.  I know that, in Yoga, when I am in Downward Dog and need to pull my knee to my chin, that it is three times on the right but only two on the left, so I do one more.  I know the spots where it feels more like a race and less like Yoga.

I know which cast members I look forward to seeing and which ones I don’t.  What I find strange is that I remember the names of the ones I don’t like but I can’t recall the ones I do. 

I know Wesley Idol kills me.  I hate watching him through the Kempo X routine.  He is always dogging it.  He doesn’t even look like he is trying.  The worst is that he has to stand next to one of my favorites, Tony the ex-marine, who always uses great form and gives it his all.

I know I really can’t stand Dom in the Plymetrics.  Bouncy Dom.  It’s not because he can bounce either…it’s because he’s doing all the exercises with some weird form that seemingly is meant to simply show off that he can bounce.  If I didn’t squat deep into the exercises, like you are supposed to, I could do what he is doing.  All he is doing is going for height and distance while putting no intensity on his legs.  When he has to actually squat…he is toast.  Nothing annoys me more than when he is spinning into the 360 degree jumps to show off.  He looks like a child in third grade.  He bothers me.

I know that I always smile when I see Sophia, the girl studying to be a dentist.  She makes me smile.  She is like that girl in your high school class that was always quiet but steadily doing what she was supposed to, like studying.  She never uses weights but I don’t care.

I even know when the camera is unflattering.  Like in Legs and Back, when they have used too much pancake makeup on Dreya and she looks like some kind of Michael Jackson freakazoid in some close up shots.

It’s all bleeding together.  I think that’s good.  I don’t like it when my life feels like it is moving at that pace…but I don’t really mind when P90X does that.

I think if you find yourself feeling this way…you are consistently bringing it and doing it right

P90X: "My Last Rough Week" Day 64/65 of 90

Phase II of P90X has been pretty intense.  I have one more week of hard workout sets.  I had to make some adjustments to the program to accommodate some school vacation.  I also made some changes due to moving from Lean to Classic.

The normal P90X program, lean or classic, goes like this.

Phase I, 3 weeks hard workouts.  1 week recovery.
Phase II, 3 weeks hard workouts.  1 week recovery.
Phase III, 4 weeks hard workouts.  1 week recovery.

This is what mine has been so far.

Phase I, 3 weeks hard Lean workouts.  1 week recovery.
Phase II, 1 week hard Lean workouts.  3 weeks hard Classic workouts.  No recovery.
Phase III, 2 weeks hard Classic workouts.  RECOVERY.

I am going to come back from RECOVERY and finish Phase III, with 3 weeks hard Classic and then final recovery.

I have basically added two weeks to the program but have gone 6 weeks straight with no recovery.

I feel fine.  Really.

I just feel like this recovery week coming up next week is very welcome and very needed.  I think my Beachbody Coaches will agree.

This week I made some upgrades to the Chest and Shoulders routine.  I got myself a 40 lb dumbbell as an upgrade to the 30's I was using.  That's for the lawnmowers etc.  I also got another 100 lb band to go from 100 to 200 total lbs on the bands.  So my bands for pullups are now up to 200 lbs.  I WILL get to full pullup ability.  I do the pullups on my knees and then as I pull, the resistance is so heavy I am now pulling my body weight off the floor to counter it.  I am actually doing many sets with the same weight as the best P90X cast members.

I will say this...I am working this stuff harder than any physical fitness routine in my life.  I show up every day.  I push play.  I work til I drop.  I'm watching my nutrition very carefully.  Results are happening.  No joke, it works.  Also, it can work at fifty years old.  I started losing weight when I was forty six.  I started P90X at fifty.  I started it...it can change your life.  If you want to.  Good night!