Get ready, get set, tomorrow we “Bring It” as they say
…P90X starts tomorrow.
I was watching bits of the videos yesterday, and wow, is that intimidating. Not, funnily enough, because of the exercises - those look hard, as they should be, but I'm not worried about being able to do All The Everything on the first go; I'd much rather have the system as a whole last me for many cycles, which means I want it to be stupid hard at first - but because of the, well, aesthetics of the thing.
Tony, the guy who leads these, is definitely one of the more perfect examples of the specimen of humanity that he is. His look is flawless, his "patter" is the perfect mix of motivating and non-intimidating, and his environment is just about perfectly tailored to impress a certain kind of person.
Which is about as far from me as you can get.
I don't find the people in the videos attractive or sympathetic; I snort at the "motivational" hoorah and constant hilarious use of XTREEM linguistics; faced with the carefully-tailored Fitness Environment, I feel both bored and uncomfortable. But, I've had to ask myself, are the aesthetics of such a program what we really need to be in line with? And the answer is no: I want a good, non-shortcutty fitness program with structure and discipline elements, and P90X looks made-to-order for that. So I will get started with it as it is, and I'll tailor my clothes and my workout space - my aesthetics - to make me comfortable. That probably means kungfu clothes and turning Tony's patter down so it's easily overwhelmed by hardcore. ;)
Here's what prep has entailed:
- Complete Google Doc where I'm keeping all the notes for tracking and cheat-sheety use later on (diet, workout schedules, water requirements, that kind of thing)
- Setup the space: Clean, and get my TV's sound working (Thank You Husband!*)
- Find all the gear: 5lb square weights that are also push-up handles, rubber bands (starting at 8lb, to be adjusted if needed…I typically move more weight than the Average Girl Weight, due to being built on the curvy/muscular side rather than the thin one; but I'm not intending to get higher than 20lb total with this, since martial arts needs lean, not bulky, muscles), mat …need some water bottles still though, and more workout clothes would not hurt eventually
- Plan the schedule: I'll do all my workouts first thing in the morning, which means I need to wake up no later than 6. If I'm not polyphasic that'll mean a bedtime of 10pm, which will fry my bacon, but I'm not planning to put up with raw monophasism very long…maybe for recovery purposes the first 3 weeks (in fact I may take a daytime nap plus 8h of night sleep for that phase, since better recovery = better progress), but after that I'll be eyeballing how to sleep less if I can. Expect a post or ten on that, of course. ;)
- Remove all junk food from the house…sadly, this has meant eating most of it. ;)
- Buy non-junk food so that I have a chance in hell of meeting the insanely protein-heavy dietary requirements of the first month…pepperoni slices, pickles, cheese, eggs, and tuna fish all over the place, plus as many fruits and veggies as I can shove in the fridge. I have to eat a whopping 1800 calories a day, which, while still less than the "average", is a full 400 more than I usually aim for (and generally hit), and since it has to be 80% carb-free at first, that means a lot, lot, lot of unusual (for me) food, and pretty much eating it constantly. Should be interesting.
- Mindset: Doing more kungfu/taiji practice when I want to "relax"; and pausing often to feel the turning of the cycles and prepare for the THUNK! as a new, pretty heavy gear slams into place tomorrow … this "preparation" for something hard is a trick I learned getting big tattoos, if you care. You get excited about it, you wait for the pain as a harbinger of a change you really want … this got me through 22 hours of labor too, same deal. When you've mentally equated pain to a goal you really want to reach, you don't flinch from the pain, and not flinching is, in my experience, a good half of the battle. ;)
So, to summarize the lessons so far:
- Make your own aesthetics
- Plan your butt off as a way to pre-commit to difficult paths
- Don't assume that all techies know shit about your TV ;)
- Get ready to welcome necessary pain: Not flinching is half the battle.
*Yes, my husband does all things relating to TVs and stereos and crap. My (yes, considerable) technical expertise ends at the computer keyboard, and while it does spread out into some heavier machinery (I like me some shop equipment, oh yes), it doesn't go anywhere near consumer electronics. I even got a friend to root my cell phone!
Originally published at *Transcendental *Logic. You can comment here or there.