The Rock n Roll Lifestyle Nearly Did James In

In James' own words:

"All I ever wanted to be was a Rock Star. So after high school, I hit the road to make my dream come true. The ups: meeting people, traveling, and performing. The downs: terrible eating habits, dollar menus, and massive amounts of booze. But then I gave it all up when my daughter was born. What I didn’t give up were my bad eating habits. And since I was no longer jumping around a stage like a madman every night, I quickly ballooned up to 240 pounds! Not only was disgusted with myself, I was exhausted all the time and couldn’t keep up with my kid—so I turned to P90X.

Sure, P90X was hard. But what was even harder was giving up the donuts and cheeseburgers. Pathetic, right? Because I didn’t change my diet at first, I barely saw any results. Of course I blamed it on the workouts. Then I found my Beachbody Coach, the P90X nutrition guide, and the Beachbody message boards—and those three things are what got me in line. After plowing through P90X and getting in shape, I had no choice but to do the sequel.

I thought I got great results with P90X, but after doing P90X2, I was blown away. P90X2 was great because it really strengthen my core, which was my weak link (which isn't so weak anymore). My abs are now so much more defined and my stability has greatly improved.

Throughout my transformation I used three Beachbody supplements. Energy &Endurance Pre-Workout Formula®—which gave me a good kick in the pants early each morning. It lit my fire and helped me focus on the task at hand. I also took Results and Recovery Formula®. Man, this stuff is DELICIOUS—and effective! I remember trying to do a Chest and Back workout without it and it was brutal. Then there’s Shakeology®. If I had to choose one supplement to use for the remainder of my journey, Shakeology would be it. After just the first week, I’d wake up in a better mood and full of energy. Finally, my body felt fueled. Now I'm more upbeat and much happier. I can't imagine a day without it.

Thanks to Beachbody, I'm no longer the person I used to be. Gone is that guy who used to walk into a convenience store and head straight for the hotdog rack. Now I'm a product of the product. Friends and family have noticed my change and want to know how I did it, so I tell them. I've developed a passion—no, an obsession for this lifestyle and for helping others. I know I’m setting a great example for my daughter, my friends, and my family—and it feels amazing. Every day I look in the mirror and marvel at my progress, which makes me push even harder. I’m so excited to see where I can take this body of mine. Thanks Beachbody. And my daughter thanks you too!"

We have a P90X and Shakeology Challenge Group starting June 17. Let me know if you'd like to join us for this virtual workout group. For info on the combined P90X Challenge Pack, CLICK HERE.

How Much? How Hard? How Often?

Exercise frequency, intensity, and duration are concepts everyone really should consider. While I'm not a big fan of the word "should", preferring to use "could" instead because it implies choice and personal power, when it comes to exercise, like eating and sleeping, you should know enough about the principles of frequency, intensity, and duration that you can reap maximum benefits of exercise while protecting yourself against injury.

To continue the comparison with eating, most people know we should eat every day (frequency), that it's better to eat the proper amounts of the right kinds of food (duration), and also that it's best to have several (3-5) small meals during the day rather than one huge meal (intensity). The difference between intensity and duration may be a bit fuzzy with the food comparison, so let's switch right off to exercise.

Frequency - How often you exercise is the most important of the three factors. Bottom line, you should exercise every day. You don't need to do every type of exercise every day, but every day you really should have a plan to include some form of exercise. Certainly cardiovascular exercise and stretching are good every day. Strength-building with the same muscle groups isn't a good idea because doesn't allow time for muscles to rest, recover, and grow. If you exercise every day, no matter how long or how hard, that's the first and most important step.

Duration - Once you're in the life habit of working out every day, even if that means a 20 minute brisk walk on some days, duration is the second most important principle. How long you work out depends on many factors, certainly including other things in your life like work, family, social obligations, and rest, but for many it's too easy to skimp. Certainly 5 minutes of cardio every day is better than nothing every day, but after a short while the benefit is minimal.

So figure out how long you need to exercise and make it a priority. Unless you're a competitive athlete, whose long, frequent, hard workouts are the rule rather than the exception, you'll likely find that as you get older,  the optimum recommended amount of daily exercise increases. When I was in my 30s and 40s, an hour workout a day seemed sufficient. Now that I'm older, two hours a day just seems right for me, split into one long workout and one or two shorter sessions (remembering that as I'm defining it, a workout can be a brisk walk, not always something intense like Insanity or P90X).



Intensity - The third and certainly not the least principle in exercise planning is intensity. To continue to get benefit from exercise, as you get stronger and more fit, you have to increase the intensity, otherwise you will start to backslide - no joke, that's just the way it is. As your bodies accommodates new levels of intensity, the benefits diminish.

You also need to be moderate with increases in intensity, however, because increasing too much can be harmful. Weekend warrior-type injuries and both soft tissue (muscles, tendons, and ligaments) and hard tissue (bone) injuries can results from doing too much too soon, especially if intensity increases aren't accompanied by increase in frequency and duration.


The Sensible Combination - So the smartest, healthiest, and best combination of these three exercise principles for long term health and fitness is firrst to schedule work outs every day, next to increase the duration, and finally to gradually increase intensity. Simple, right?

Getting Ready for P90X2

I'm in my fourth week of P90X. I took two weeks off after finishing the first cycle of P90X at the end of July and now I'm back at it.


I found that I started this second round a bit slowly, but now I'm fully back into it (for example, I can feel yesterday's workout a bit in my shoulders, lol).

There are many reasons I'm working P90X hard, but one of them is I want to give myself a good chance to be ready for P90X2 when it comes out later this fall.

I pre-ordered P90X2 the first day it was available (September 1st) so hopefully I'll be among the first to receive it. I know the demand is high and people who delay in pre-ordering P90X2 may need to wait till 2012 to receive it.

The other good things about pre-ordering P90X2 are:

• free shipping (saves about $40)
• your credit card isn't charged till the order ships
• as with every Beachbody product, you can return it in 30 days if it's not right for you and get your money back (except for any shipping charges)
• two extra workouts are included in pre-order versions
• weekly sweepstakes drawings from among the people who preorder - the earlier you order, the more often you're in the sweepstakes (works for me).

So now I'm off to workout again, enjoying the workout, enjoying the day, and getting ready for P90X2!

If you want  to pre-order P90X2, please feel free to visit my website, www.BrucetheCoach.com to get your order in early!