Fitness

This page used to have a bunch of pictures which illustrated a chubby me replaced by a not-so-chubby-me after discovering that exercise is important.  It occurred to me that this came across as a little creepy.

I started documenting my progress from 2007 and I’ve become a little nutty about my amateur “quantified self” status.

In the years that have followed my “discovery” of fitness, I’ve spent a lot of time, money and energy to realize that mobility and basic human movement using proper form, eating well, and lifting heavy things keeps one young — or at least feeling less old.

I will credit my level of base fitness to serendipity and an infomercial; I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2007 and returned to realize just how unfit, unwell and out of shape I was.

This was the same year I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  That only made my realization more humbling.

One evening after receiving P90X as a “gift” in return for mocking it on Twitter, I tried one of the routines while I was monitoring a conference call I was on.  That was a hard 60 minutes.

I kept going. I did five, 90 day cycles of P90X and went on to try other workout routines from the same company.

As I started to tweak my diet and gain more knowledge about what I was doing, how to work around horrible injuries and what I wanted to accomplish, I really discovered that “fitness” was really about living life with a purpose — and with four kids, it was necessary 😉

At this point, I’ve invested in building what would be the equivalent of a Crossfit box.  I don’t “do” Crossfit.  I’ve never gone through a WoD, but thanks to Rogue Fitness, I can functionally align my goals — strength, power. agility, mobility, flexibility, and endurance — and pretty much craft any workout I desire in a safe and effective manner.

I’ve helped many people to get started in understanding their goals and how to achieve them with respect to “fitness.”  If I can help you, let me know.

/Hoff

  1. Petr R.
    June 17th, 2009 at 07:28 | #1

    Have you tried CrossFit yet 🙂 ?

    Petr

  2. June 18th, 2009 at 01:51 | #2

    @Petr R.

    Can't do CrossFit in a hotel room. 😉

    /Hoff

  3. John
    July 28th, 2009 at 00:44 | #3

    Great blog, it's not often I see infosec, bjj and crossfit-style workouts in one place.

    It seems as though P90X and CF have essentially the same basic tenets: intensity; varied work patterns; lots of body weight exercises.

    As to not being able to do crossfit in a hotel room, not so. I have a list of "no equipment required" workouts that I use in hotel rooms, next to hotel pools or at local parks. I think p90x is more accessible (once you buy-in). The CF business model tends to want you to go to cf facility and pay cf fees to learn, pay for cf certification and so on.

    Thanks for the blog and your well-considered posts.

    best,

    John

  4. Chino
    August 4th, 2009 at 04:29 | #4

    Hey Hoff,

    Great insight, On the extreme home fitness workout. I have been thinking about it for a while, could you answer a couple of quick questions?

    How long does each work out session take?

    Did you get your best results with a strict diet in conjunction with the program?

    Can I get away with just a set of dumbells?

    Thanks again! Great sleeve by the way.

    Chino

  5. August 4th, 2009 at 04:52 | #5

    @Chino

    Each workout takes about an hour.

    I didn't keep a 'strict' diet, but I watched what I ate and kept fat low. High protein, balanced carbs, lots of water. I don't eat a ton of sugar and since I'm allergic to wheat/gluten, I don't eat a lot of refined foods anyway.

    You need a way to do pullups, but bands and/or a set of dumbbells work great.

  6. Dale Kennedy
    October 5th, 2009 at 07:19 | #6

    Hey Chris,

    Came to your blog to read your thoughts about cloud computing. Good to see you at cloud camp. (My Mom's not on facebook) I started the p90x program last fall. It's the best thing I've done for myself in a long time.

  7. October 7th, 2009 at 10:36 | #7

    Let us know what you think of Insanity. That looks fairly promising, as it's all body-resistance type stuff, which is easier to manipulate than dumbells…well, at least for a portion of the populous.

  8. Eric
    October 23rd, 2009 at 14:53 | #8

    This is an awesome site that for running it.

    Also wanted to know if you have tried Kettlebell training?

    It works great for my Judo cross training.

  9. Petr R.
    December 3rd, 2009 at 03:56 | #9

    @beaker

    Sure you can 🙂 I do it all the time (not deadlift, clean and bench combo though 🙂

    KB, CF of this PX-thing – it's all about the intensity

  10. January 7th, 2010 at 20:40 | #10

    Thank you. I was just planning to buy some weights, but I'd rather have something more practical. Buying weights would be like going back to vinyl when I take DJ'ing back up. 🙂

  11. philA
    April 23rd, 2010 at 13:33 | #11

    Awesome post.

    I threw my back out 2 months ago training with Tony Horton at a leadership offsite. P90X rocks. Crossfit rocks. BJJ with MT, subwrestling, and MMA rocks. Good to see others on the journey.

    I've learned to not want more that what I've been given, so I have the mass you want (and the V-shape), but prefer to be thin like you. Want to switch?

  12. Candace
    August 30th, 2010 at 16:54 | #12

    Bulk up? Just eat 12 hardboiled eggs every day. Mentor: Dr. Robert Rey………Dr. 90210.

    Smokin' :')

    You asked.

  13. October 26th, 2010 at 08:20 | #13

    Hey Hoff

    Awesome results man!

    How have you incorporated P90X and Insanity with your Jiu Jitsu? Do you doubole up on BJJ days or substitute BJJ for Kenpo or another workout?

    Good luck with your coaching.

    Kevin

  14. joe
    December 28th, 2010 at 13:05 | #14

    I'm just starting the p90x workout and im concerned about the workouts while im on the road. i travel every week for work and spend half my life in hotel rooms. can you elaborate on your hotel workouts and what equipment is necessary for each. thanks, joe

  15. July 5th, 2011 at 18:36 | #15

    Nice results bro! I started P90X about a year ago and got great results as well. Added Insanity into the mix to keep things interesting. At 42 I'm in the best shape of my life.

  16. Stefan Fouant
    January 5th, 2012 at 10:10 | #16

    Awesome post, thanks for sharing Hoff. I might try to incorporate some P90x into my routine.

    Looks like the chest got shaved around Day 52 ;-b

  1. June 29th, 2010 at 22:04 | #1