I did my last post (about my fitness story revisited) so I could do this one.

Some of the repeated attempts of getting back into shape from ages 30-37 were focused on lifting, much like my workouts were in my 20′s. I bought a Bow-flex machine and worked with that in a more traditional lifting program that I’d do for sometimes months at a time… but then would lose motivation or interest in and would fade away from. It didn’t ‘stick’ with me because I was no longer motivated to do the workouts.

When I had my fitness epiphany at age 37 (described in detail below, essentially when I did not recognize myself in a photo in the pool) I knew I had to find something that I would a) enjoy; b) be able to do for the rest of my life. I did not want to lose weight, get in shape and then fall back into bad old habits. I wanted to make a permanent change I could sustain for the remainder of my days.

I knew nothing about bodyweight exercise at the time. The very notion that you could workout with just movements, gravity and the floor seemed silly to me. I had no clue.

Here’s something to consider about bodyweight exercises. Other than humans, no other animal in the entire animal kingdom goes to the gym, lifts weights, does workouts. All other animals are playing or play-acting functional movements that are relevant to their specific existence. Ponder that a moment. Then look at boxers, wrestlers and MMA folks. Look at gymnasts. Look at sprinters (not marathoners; that’s a different universe of fitness than what I am talking about). All might also use weights, but do not focus their workouts around them. They focus on doing movements – with their bodyweight – that are relevant to their specific existence. See the corollary?

I knew that my ankles had issues and I still had shoulder issues too from years of lifting. I stumbled upon “Combat Conditioning” by Matt Furey, which is a good ‘starter’ program but far from a complete fitness regime like Furey likes to purport it is. I do recommend checking it out and/or doing it, but will also caution that Furey is a marketing tour de force that will try to upsell/oversell/push his other products on you like mad. You can do simple Google searches to seek out what the “Royal Court” consists of. YouTube can also be very helpful too.  What his program DID teach me though is that you can be pretty intense, if you choose to be, with just moving your body with gravity. I did do the 500 rep Hindu Squat challenge; and it was serious to do.  I also incorporated other moves, including his now titled “Gymnastic Abs” (when I did it, it was called “Combat Abs” or something like that).

I started to play soccer again about 4 months after I had my epiphany. I was worried – a lot – about my ankles and those doctor’s warnings from way back when. So I decided to try indoor soccer played on turf grass; which is very consistent and very ‘cushioned’ if you will. I wore some of the now available ankle braces, far more advanced than what they had available when I was in my 20′s.

Playing soccer – competitively – motivated me to ratchet up my fitness levels so I could compete. I was in my upper 30′s at that point, coming off of a long period of sedentary living, rebuilding my body and had to adjust to the game speed and my (somewhat faded) physical skills against guys up to 8 years younger than I.

That’s how I stumbled into P90X; not so much from the infamous infomercials, but from a post on The Gear Page.  Upon checking out workouts that involved Pylometrics – jump training – I found P90X.

I bought it and that journey is detailed on many posts elsewhere on this blog. By doing that – primarily focused on bodyweight exercises – I have strengthened my joints and ligaments in my ankles to the point where I no longer wear any ankle braces or supports. I attribute that mainly to the Yoga component of P90X, but the entire program works together on all levels of fitness – strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness.

In the last 6 months, needing a change after 3 years based on the P90X workouts, I discovered though my wife’s cousin the TRX Suspension Trainer; which again is detailed on this Blog. That has again raised the bar by not only using bodyweight and gravity (flexibility and core are in most every move), you take that functional movement with resistance through planes of movement not possible unless you ‘get your feet’ (or hands) off the ground. It is truly simple, amazing, effective, fast, efficient, fun, creative and interesting. You can craft your own programs based off established workouts you can buy;  AND you can also supplement them with your own variations, changing things up on the fly. YouTube, the TRX site and Google are again your friend here.

See my other posts here for more detail and I can assure you, I’ll be adding more and more content related to the TRX as I go.

There are some phenomial resources available on the web doing Google searches on “Bodyweight Workouts” and the like. One such place is the BodyWeight Culture Forum.