Not so motivating blogs

I was trolling around cyberspace a bit this evening searching specifically for P90X blogs like this one. Muddy and I are not in any way unique in trying to detail our journey with the program, but I have noticed a few things with all these blogs that we need to avoid.

1) Everyone is really gung-ho when they start and then disappear almost immediately. This is kind of a no-brainer since you're always excited about something when you first start it. We need to keep the intensity up throughout the entire process. I've actually found this blog very relaxing at night, and as you can tell there is no lack of words from me. I know our words will probably get more sparce as we continue, but we need to blog every single day, even if it's nothing more than, "Worked out, feel good. Going to bed."

2) Everyone seems to modify the program to what they think they need/want/etc. This is one of those common pitfalls I've seen so many times in the fitness industry. Clients always think they know better (yes, I know... you DO know better. That's why you pay a personal trainer $100/hour to get you fat ass into shape. You obviously know better, but I digress...). Now I'm sure there are people that can take and modify P90X to suit their specific needs to get additional performance out of it, but most people can't and absolutely shouldn't. The program was designed with several approaches (classic, lean, doubles) and workouts can be changed very simply by changing your reps. I figure they made the program this way for a reason, so why mess with it? The finicky people making changes never seem to finish the program anyway. They just mosey on over to problem number 3.

3) Excuses, excuses, excuses. On so many occasions I read, "I missed the Yoga this week," or, "I didn't do so well in week 9, so I'll have to pick it up again in week 10." The mindset that you can just fix what you didn't do by getting back on the horse is what gets most people into trouble. Should you stop working out if miss a workout? Absolutely not. However, if you miss a workout you should be thinking, "shit, I missed the workout. I need to make up for it NOW!" If you have time to complain about missing the workout then you have time to be working out.

There's the old adage of there's always tomorrow. That is absolutely correct, and when it comes to difficult things like this you need to keep a positive mind. However, when you find yourself missing workouts or making excuses, thinking that you can fix it tomorrow won't get you anywhere. Instead you need to be thinking of what you can do today to make it better. In the end, what you do tomorrow doesn't mean squat - it's what you're doing right now that's going to make the difference.

The whole purpose of this blog is to give Muddy and I an outlet while we bash ourselves into shape. It's also a tool to help keep one another motivated. Getting insight into how he feels about his workouts makes me work harder and want to write things that will get him keyed up and ready to go. So since I'm not one for pussified sentiments on how to get into shape, I'll use the immortal words of one Sean Connery from The Rock (one of my all-time favorites by the way):

"Losers always whine about their best.
Winners go home and fuck the prom queen."

Ahhh... I feel the testosterone flowing. I think it's time to go eat some nails... or fight a grizzly bear. add to del.icio.us saved by 0 users