My Personal Bio:

I am almost 60 years old - yes, that bell-water mark that can summon a lot of experience together with questions and aspirations for how I want to live the rest of my life - and I live in western Mass. and I have been a contractor most of my life. Coming across P90X through a friend has really helped me focus on what I still want to achieve and the necessity for continually raising the bar in terms of physical fitness and frankly being ready at any age to fully participate. For me I know it's a viseral impetous which reacts and screams out loudly when I look around and see the large scale deterioration of physical beauty and stature in this country. And I know I could go that route in the blink of an eye, given how much affirmation there is to just let it all hang out. Doing the P90X program has been like an oasis of self-help. It pushes the edge in a way that says there is no excuse not to be in the best form and fitness I have ever been in, and does it with down home positivity and purpose. I am excited to become a coach and continue to work with myself and others towards an ever-increasing capacity to fulfill our dreams and to literally put our best foot forward. I hope you will join me. Rod

My Transformation Story:

I have been prompted by a friend to begin describing something that, for me, on the surface, doesn’t really seem all that significant, given , given some of the bigger issues looming before us - global warming, the state of the economy, the fact that I am finding it ever more difficult to drum up work (I am a carpenter / general contractor), the war in Iraq, the erosion of traditional values and ethics, even the good ones, and other such critically global and personal crossroads. But what came out of our discussion was that by doing a physical workout program that really works, we are getting in touch with and experiencing a kind of liberation that is defying a sometimes subtle, other times gross affliction to the process of aging and the ways we / I interpret what’s possible and what my mind and societal environment interpret as inevitable. In my own case, what came out of our talk was I rattled off a couple physical issues that years ago I thought would be chronic and systemic for the rest of my life: a knee meniscus that was always going to flare up under pressure and exertion, and sciatica from a previously ruptured lower disc. I figured, for quite a while, that I was just going to have to live with the intermittent pain, discomfort and limitations and I found that what I was doing was constructing a path to compensate and move within these limitations. “That was the way it was going to be, and besides, you are getting old so naturally you are going to have to adjust.” The adjustments, even though subtle and justifiable, were forming structural pathways to view and experience my life. It’s more obvious now when I look back that there is a lot more going on then just my physical prowess or the inevitable sunset of the body. I was giving in, or up. And that was helping to define who I was, what I was capable of, and what to expect. In a couple weeks I will be 60. In some ways it’s a pivotal benchmark. A lot of people at this age are seriously planning for and talking about retirement. I can’t really relate. It’s partly denial, no doubt, but the healthy side of a nagging conscience that wonders at the world says that you can always be prepared to be part of it. I think this is what stirred me, through my friend and coach Laurie Carroll, to find out about Beachbody, P90X, and what Tony Horton has put together in order to begin conquering the subtler and grosser aspects of what could be called “the ageless inertia”.
I have been doing P90X and related workouts for about 5 months now, and the results are not always those that would be so demonstrable or explicit. Yes, I’ve lost a few pounds (I have never had a weight problem), there is a perceptible shape and contour to the more overt muscles, and my abs are showing some development. But what came out of our conversation I realized, was in a way, much more significant. The chronic aliments that I had been negotiating and beginning to accommodate had receded so much into the background that they were no longer an inhibiting factor, in my work, in my play or in my workout routines. The further I pushed myself – and these workouts can take you from A to Z every time in terms of where you are at and where you can go – the less I experienced the threshold of any previous injury. And the more I just ignored the excuses, the less I experienced my mind working its incessant mechanisms for inherent and habitual limitation. Lately I have begun riding my bike. This is something that has been in the closet forever. I have never been an avid rider, but I joined a friend to ride a 100 mile race in early October to help raise money for an important and inspired magazine publication. We have done several long rides, the last one 113 miles through the hills of western Massachusetts and Connecticut. My goal is to do this race off the coast of Maine in 6 ½ hours. I don’t know that all this is strictly a result of P90X. And when I hear what other people are doing and the remarkable feats of endurance and strength, especially in old age, I am humbled. There is so much opportunity out there, and in here, for growth and goals at any age. What I appreciate about Beachbody and P90X is it’s simple, it’s powerful, and, in pushing “play”, it takes you through barriers and dimensions of yourself that, in some ways, move you to a physical well-being and joyous rejuvenation that leaves you wondering how that might have happened.