The Year Without P90X

2012 should have been my fifth consecutive year completing the P90X program. It has become my Winter routine that always gets me excited about the New Year. I usually dive right in and within a month I feel great. I'm whipped into shape, I'm strong, and I'm "ready to go" as Tony Horton likes to say. But unfortunately, this will be the year without P90X and I wasn't sure how to cope. The terrible neck injury that caused me to lose an entire year of biking, lifting, and yoga is continuing to plaque me. I still can't do any real push-ups (my all-time favorite exercise) and there's simply no way I could get through a single P90X work-out in this pathetic condition.

I moped around and sulked for a good 5 months. I got weaker and weaker and more and more depressed until I thought I would lose my mind. What's a yogi to do? Even meditating over this dilemma proved difficult due to the uncomfortable sitting position. Finally my doc said that I can start doing some cardio - still no lifting or yoga, but I got the green light for cardio. Now I just needed to figure out where to start.

Enter Beach Body . . . yes, the same folks that offer P90X. This is a little bit embarrassing, but I got sucked into the infomercial advertising the "Brazilian Butt Lift." I can't believe I just admitted that. Normally I would fly by any such silly infomercial, but it was a weak moment and it looked like fun.

I was so excited to start it that I didn't wait for New Years. I'm 4 days into the program and so far I love it. As with P90X it encourages you to take Before and After photo, along with measurements, but I never bother. My before and afters are never very impressive because not much changes. I really don't know how I manage to 'look' like I'm in shape when I'm clearly not. Hey, I'm not complaining, but all my changes are in how my body feels not how it looks. I just want to get back to having nice hard muscles. The most important test they recommend you take is the "pencil test." My husband thought I needed to see if I could break the pencil with my butt cheeks, but fortunately all you need to do is place the pencil under one cheek and see if the pencil stays or falls down. If your rear end is too big there is likely a crease between the buttocks and the top of the leg in which the pencil would stay. The goal of the program is to get to the point where the pencil falls. I passed the test and my pencil did indeed fall. I'm getting off to a good start.

And for the first time in my life, I'm starting off at baseline. This is such a new experience for me. I am so accustomed to breezing through most fitness videos. I just never had a concept of how hard it can be to get into shape, when you're not already in shape. Does that make any sense? It reminds me of a personal trainer that allowed himself to go from totally ripped to 150 pounds overweight just so he could put himself into the shoes of his clients. He always heard, "You don't understand how hard it is to lose weight. You've never been fat. How could you relate?" Those are valid points and I too had no idea how challenging some simple workouts can be. When I used to teach my beginners yoga class I made the easiest classes I could dream up, but still they were too challenging for the class. How could I know what folks could or couldn't do if it all felt too easy for me? Well, now I know! My super simple yoga routines would just about kill me know. I'm weeping as I type . . .

So I'll be reviewing these Brazilian Butt Lifts videos from an entirely new perspective. I am now representing the average woman. I am sadly no longer the super fit guru that I once was. I'm not entirely giving up hope on getting back there some day and I gotta start somewhere, so let's see how my butt progresses. Please stay tuned to some reviews of this program.