Musings 6 - Plan and Turn off Your Brain

P90X has three key things going for it:
1. It is a canned program that you do not have to think about or plan for.
2. It is a relatively short period of time - 90 days is a reasonable period to get your head around.
3. The workouts have room to allow you to start slower and build up to higher intensity as you get leaner and stronger.

Of these three things, having the whole thing already figured out and planned was the most important for me. I was able to just turn off my brain and bring it every day. I never worried about doing the right thing at the right intensity.

Many mornings if I did not have that structure, I would have just gone on a low intensity jog or not worked out at all. With P90X I just put in the DVD and turned off my brain.

It would take a much more disciplined person than me to plan the variety of quality workouts without a program like this. I feel like now I could use the P90X and P90X+ workouts to build my own schedule, but I am sure I would do some stupid stuff like too much resistance together, or not enough rest or something bad like that.

Also, the 90 day goal period is perfect for me. A longer period would be overwhelming and a shorter period would not allow me to set goals for material results. I plan to continue to work in 90 day cycles whether I am doing P90X or not. I think you can set a goal like shave 20 seconds off your mile or gain an inch in your chest or get spartan abs for summer and attain that goal in 90 days.

By doing workouts that allow you to see material progress in your strength and capacity, you get a lot of interim motivation. Through this first 90 days, I have been able to basically go from zero performance in the following areas to being able to do what they do on the videos:
1. Crane
2. Wheel
3. Double Time Knee up Jumps
4. Pull Ups
5. Ab Ripper heels to the heavens
6. Warrior 3
7 Dips

Whatever workout I do going forward, I will set clear goals for 90 day success, wrap it in a 90 cycle, and will make sure the workouts have room for improvement.

Once I have my 90 day goals and plan set, I will just turn off my brain and bring it!