Tips for Success with Any Beachbody program

Got these tips from another Beachbody devotee... enjoy!

1) Get the best exercise shoes (sneakers) you can afford. Take some time and research them, and go to the store and try them on. I use New Balance; the pair I got sold for about $140. I was told to replace them every 6 months. That gets expensive, but the flip side is that after a while they won't provide the cushioning you need for all the jumping we do in Insanity and if you don't replace them you'll start experiencing pain and/or injury.

2) Consider investing in a heart rate monitor. I put it off for close to 2 years but I finally bit the bullet and got a Polar FT4. It does what I want it to do and while it wasn't cheap, it wasn't exorbitantly expensive either. It's a very good thing to be able to monitor your heart rate while you're working out so you can either ratchet up the intensity a little or back off some in order to stay "in the zone".

3) You don't have to go as fast as the people in the video if you don't want to or are unable to. Don't try and match them move-for-move. There's absolutely nothing wrong with going 1/2 as fast or even slower if that's the best you can do. "Do your best and forget the rest." Keep saying that to yourself over and over and over. What's important is to use impeccable form to prevent injury and burn-out. You do have to push yourself - you can't dog it and expect to get results. But if you go too fast your form will suffer, you'll end up getting hurt and then you'll start finding excuses not to work out. Find your own pace.

4) If you need a break, take a break. Sometimes 30 seconds isn't long enough. 45 seconds or 60 seconds might be needed in the beginning in order to bring your heart rate down to a reasonable level. Stopping for longer than 60 seconds probably isn't a good idea as you'll start to cool off too much. If you find you routinely need a longer break, either hit the Pause button or rewind the video.

5) Listen to all the comments and suggestions and tips that are offered by Shaun T, Tony Horton or whoever the leader is on the video you're using. They are VERY important and VERY helpful. After a while you'll begin to memorize the dialogue on the DVD's. You'll start to anticipate the comments and the suggestions they make. That's when you're really starting to internalize them. Try not to think of it as "getting bored with the program", think of it as really starting to know the program.

6) Keep a positive attitude. Remember, your body doesn't want to do this. It will probably fight you every step of the way. I keep hearing / feeling this little voice telling me take it easy, take the day off, shut the DVD down and call it quits, sit down in an easy chair and watch TV. I listened to that voice back in 2002 and took some time off. 10 years later I noticed that I had a gut and couldn't play frisbee with the kids anymore! That's when I decided to get P90X and do something about it.

7) You're going to be sore all the time, hungry all the time and tired all the time. That's normal and that's how you know it's working. Make sure you're eating properly (no more junk food, drink LOTS of water!) and get more rest (sleep) than you're used to. Your muscles don't grow when you're exercising, they grow when you're resting.

8) Work the program (Insanity, P90X, Turbofire, whatever) as written at least once or twice. If you decide afterwards that you want to do a hybrid, WRITE IT OUT so you have a plan and then stick to the plan. That's not something I would recommend until after you've done each program as written at least 2 or maybe even 3 times. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. The few times I decided to "wing it" by doing whatever workout I felt like doing next I found that I was focusing too much on one area; usually chest, shoulders and arms and not enough on the areas I really needed to work on (legs). That's where the Plateau Effect comes in, which is what P90X was designed to avoid in the first place.

9) There will be days when you don't want to work out. If you're sick, you're sick but if you're just feeling lazy then suck it up and go do what you know you need to do. 9 times out of 10 once you get a minute or two into the warm-up you'll start feeling better. I like to think about how I am going to feel 2 hours from now. Would I rather feel pleased that I did what I was supposed to do or ashamed that I allowed myself to get lazy again? Skipping a workout on one day makes it easier to skip it the next day. Before you know it, 2 or 3 days have gone by, then a week or even more.
I consider workouts like making deposits in the bank. I need to keep making deposits in order to keep a healthy balance. If I skip a day that's like making a withdrawal. There are already daily, automatic withdrawals just from too much sitting around but skipping a day makes it worse.

Be the person you want to be by doing the things you know you need to do.

10) Post on the Beach Body message boards or on Facebook as often as possible. Let people know how you're doing. Talk about what's going right and about what's going wrong and in both cases be willing to take suggestions. Sometimes I would do things I thought were really smart (like doing PlyoX 4 days in a row! What was I thinking?) and then found out they weren't so smart after all. I do better when I'm humble enough to take suggestions and listen to people who've done it before and who are doing better at it than I am. A lot of times, maybe more often than not you'll find that something you say helps somebody else and that is a REALLY good feeling. If you post often enough you'll find that you're making friends with the people here. That makes it even easier to write about how you're doing.

10.a) Have fun with it!
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Some maniac who used to go by the name of "KeptMan" once posted these Top 10
1) people who faithfully exercise 6 days a week and mix cardio with strength have better results than people who workout less or in different proportions
2) people who prioritize their nutrition AHEAD of their exercise have better results than people who do the opposite
3) people who make TIME rather than excuses have better results
4) people who modify rather than skip have better results
5) people who PLAN TO DO THIS FOREVER have waaayyyy better results than people who are "completing programs"
6) people who design actual plans have better results than people who "do what they are feeling like"
7) people who workout with other people at least once a week don't quit at the rate that "loners" do
8) people who "switch it up" A LOT burn-out much less frequently - and see better results
9) people who develop/have active hobbies WILL exercise in order to be able to "keep having fun"
10) people who fill their lives with people who share these values . . . Become Lunatics!