P90X Week 11 Review

Okay, I'm not going to sugar coat this. There isn't any other way to say it. Somewhere between day 65 and day 80 there is a crevice the size of the Grand Canyon that is very, very hard to bridge. This is probably the most dangerous part of P90X. This last third of the program is where the fatigue, both physical and mental come into play. So on one level you are sort of worn out. On another level you see all the gains you've made so far which at this point to say the least are pretty significant. Your body probably looks nothing like it did on day one. And you probably didn't expect the program to work nearly this well. I'm here to tell you it works pretty well even if you don't follow the diet specifically. (Though, that being said, following the diet and doing the workouts with as few interruptions as possible will always yield the most positive results). If you don't believe me take a look at Nick's page and check out his photos.

But as I was saying this is the most dangerous part of the program. Because you aren't in that place you were in when you started, you look great, you feel even better, and more importantly you feel even better about yourself. No matter how you slice it, this is essentially what you wanted in the first place. You wanted to feel good about yourself again. You had to or you never would have been so captivated by the infomercial in the first place. So at about 2/3 of the way through, if you've been doing the program properly you should have gotten your money's worth already. People who know you tell you how good you look. Heck, maybe even people who don't know you are beginning to tell you this. But the thing is by this time you are also tired. The program takes a lot of mental and physical energy, your calories are fluctuating from one phase to the next, and the time commitment is starting to loom larger and larger. At the same time the end starts to feel further and further away.

This is about the time I remembered something that was in quite a few blogs that I'd initially ignored. I remember seeing more than one blog where the person stopped doing P90X right about here. So coming into week 11 I felt it both mentally and physically. I felt the weight of the program on my shoulders. I felt the knowledge that while I had seen some tremendous gains and changes in my body, I also felt like I hadn't reached the promised land and saw no safe harbor on the horizon. Every workout this week was tough. I felt as though I had just started the program. I took more breaks than I was used to, I was sore and I was frustrated. Even yoga was hard.

And that brings another thing to mind. Tony Horton doesn't know my yoga teacher, Keith. And Keith doesn't know Tony Horton. The two really should meet so that when I'm doing both of their programs in the same day, or even the same week, I don't wind up truly hating my life. Anyway, the take away from week 11 is that once you get to this point in the program, you really are almost done. Be careful here. It is really easy to stop. To quit. To walk away. But don't. Try to just settle into the workouts and not over do it if you are fatigued or burned out. Take more breaks. Look at working on your form as opposed to beating previous highs in weights or reps. Just keep pushing play because no matter how satisfied you may be with the results you have created so far, the best you is just around the corner.