P90X Workout Review

Upon arriving in Los Angeles from Detroit we decided to take advantage of the corporate office tour Beachbody was giving. We picked up our rental car and made the 18 mile trip to Santa Monica from LAX. Had my first experience driving in LA and must say that it was very depressing. It was noon and my average speed was 22 mph.

As soon as we arrived to the 3rd floor of the building I was immediately impressed. The Beachbody corporate office is very ergo friendly. Everything looks clean and neat. It has a very wide open feel as it looks like it used to be a warehouse because of the open ceiling layout.

We showed up a little late and had to jump in with a tour already in progress. They showed us where they come up with a lot of the ideas for upcoming workout programs and products. I kept looking at all of the cool computers they had. It seemed like every employee has a iMac. Must of been the creative department that we kept walking around. It did not surprise me to see a gym inside the place and some of their employees doing P90X together. They even had a locker room with showers making it easy to get a quick workout in during lunch or after work. Instead of me rambling on about how cool the place is I'll let you look at the pictures instead.

When the tour was over we headed to the hotel where the Coach Summit was going on. We had to check in and upon doing so we received a goodie bag full of cool stuff including a P90X hat that says Diamond Coach on it. They had a room full of shirts, workout gear, and basically everything that Beachbody sells in there for purchase. Most of it was picked through by the time we got there. I did manage to find a P90X workout shirt and bought that.

After making our purchases we headed up to our room to get changed up for the group workout. It was going to be a hour of working out with Debbie Siebers (Slim in 6), Brett Hobel (RevAbs), Leandro Carvalho (Brazilian Butt Lift), Chalene Johnson, Shaun T, and Tony Horton. Upon arriving to the room where it was going to be held it was evident that it was going to be packed. There must of been 600 people in this room trying to workout. Each trainer did about 10 minutes of workouts with a little bit of motivational speaking. Doing Insanity was tricky because of how crowded it was. It was fun, even with all of the sweat being thrown around the place. Here are some photos from it.

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From there we had a couple hours of down time until the Diamond Coach "Shine Party" that night at the "X Bar" (really, that's what its called) inside the hotel. Only Diamond Coaches were invited to it. With Andrea and I both being Diamond Coaches we were able to bring my friend Gianni as our guest. I was really excited to see him come out to LA with us so he can see what I've had a taste of with the Top Coach trip in Hawaii. Beachbody had a red (blue) carpet entrance to it where they were interviewing and taking photos of the people walking in. It was fun. The night included saying hi to Tony Horton, Carl Daikeler, Jon Congdon, catching up with coaches we met on the trip, and meeting new ones. I even met fitness icon Debbie Siebers. She's been in the fitness business for over 20 years creating popular workout programs like Slim in 6. We partied for as long as we could until the time change started to take over on our bodies. Day 2 of the Coach Summit was going to be action packed including a 7 am Insanity workout with Shaun T. Here are some photos of the night.

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Well, Tony was right. My legs and butt were sore from yesterday's Plyo legs workout. Should have listened to him and not pushed it so hard. Andrea was so sore that she did not want to go to the workout. I told her there were probably going to be consequences for skipping it. I headed down for the workout while she stayed in bed. Beachbody moved the workout inside and Tony was going to be leading us in his Cardio Interval workout from his 1 on 1 series. Tony made the end of the workout a little bit harder with one of his ab workouts. This one was new to me so I struggled through it. Everybody was drenched in sweat at the end. Here is a video that fellow coach Jeff Armbruster took of us working out. I'm to the left of the guy wearing the grey shirt. (Did you notice how Tony is up on his toes in this picture to make it look like he's as tall as me.)

After the workout was over I went up to Tony and asked to have my photo taken with him. After the photo was over he asked me where Andrea was. I told him that she was not able to make it to the workout as she was too sore from yesterday's workout knowing that this was not what he wanted to hear. He responds with "She needs to be here working out so she can work through the lactic acid that's been built up." He continued with more fancy science terms before I stopped him and told him he was talking to the wrong person and that Andrea would be at breakfast in 10 minutes.

I headed over to the restaurant and met up with Andrea. I sat down and started eating while she went up to the omelet line. While she was waiting in line Tony made a bee-line right to her. "Why were you not at the workout this morning," says Tony. "I'm sore," Andrea replies. "Are you injured? No. Give me your plate, then drop down and give me 10 push ups." Everybody standing in line turns and gave that your in trouble look to her. Tony did not make her do push ups but told her the science behind why its important to workout even where your sore. I think Tony was instilling the "Do your best and forget the rest" mindset that he teaches with P90X.

When breakfast was done we headed back up to our rooms and started getting ready for the daily. Andrea decided to do a spa day (not awesome) and I went for surfing lessons (awesome). Our group was taken over to the beach where we met our three instructors. They gave us about 15 minutes of instructions on the beach and then we headed out to the ocean. The waves were anywhere from 2 - 5 feet tall. I was able to get up on the board on my second try. Besides the whole push feeling from the waves it was not that much different than snowboarding. We were out there for about 4 hours and I came in one time to take a couple pictures. It took me about an hour to catch a wave that took me all the way to the beach. My shoulders and lower back were getting sore near the end of it but I kept on pushing as I don't know when I'll get a chance to surf again. Carl Daikeler paddled on over from his beach house (must be nice) and surfed with us for a couple hours. He does the stand up paddling which our instructors (who said they do the P90X workout also) say is not cool. One of the coolest things we saw was two whales jumping out of the water about 300 yards away from us.

It had already been an action packed day already but there was one more thing to do. Beachbody was putting on a luau that night to end the trip. It was a awesome evening and was another chance to meet other Coaches. They had hula and fire dancers performing in the tent. I along with Tony Horton got pulled up on stage to do a Hula Dance.

The food was great and everybody partied it up. I probably told Carl and Jon thanks a hundred times for making the Beachbody Coach opportunity available. Otherwise I would not be able to have afford a trip to Hawaii like this. They told me thanks for putting in the effort with the biz and the workouts as I'm a good representation of the products. Its been awhile since I've received a compliment from a boss type figure. Being able to talk with them on a one on one basis was really cool as I had a chance to see how they think about things and what drives them. The biggest one is they truly care about getting people in shape and ending the trend on obesity in the country.

The luau was a great way to end the week. It was my first real take on how the "other half" lives. What I mean by that is people who do something they really enjoy and to have the freedom to do what they want and when they want. Almost all of the other Coaches I met had a similar story to mine. They used P90X or another workout to get into shape and continued to use the Beachbody products. The biz part just came along with it. The whole trip re-assured me that what I am doing is making a difference not only in my own life but also with the people I share my story with. Thanks Beachbody.