After some extensive parkour training in climb, vault and jump, I decided to allow my knees some recovery time and 'take it easy' by doing P90X instead of Insanity for a few days. And in this, my last (prolonged) week of Insanity, I am becoming more and more aware of some issues as this program comes to fruition.
All of these workouts (Insanity, P90X, 10 Minute Trainer) are designed to get you in a certain shape within a set time frame. Stick with the nutrition and training and you will achieve remarkable results, but they are not designed to keep you fit forever - they are made with a start and an end, to reach specific goals. They are a the vehicles to a destination, they are not the journey.
What do you do after your one two or three months are up?
Repeat the program, or switch to another? Our bodies aren't made to withstand the constant high intensity indefinitely. Given enough time and repetition, each program will cause you to plateau at some point, and in some cases eventually regress.
Forget Carnival / Summer / vacation / whatever the short term goal may be. What are you going to do to stay fit for life?
Think about it now so that you aren't lost... and more importantly, so you don't lose all that you have so deservedly gained. But then, now that I am in the shape I want and need to be in to have the fun I want to.. what next?
After discovering that he helped develop P90X with Tony Horton, I've been following Mark's Daily Apple for a while for guidance and tips in real-life nutrition and fitness. Enter the Primal Blueprint and MovNat. Their approaches to life, health, diet, well being, fitness, mentality, just about everything, are so close to what I have previously idealised as my own, that I feel like the new guy in the cult. My parkour training, my homespun diet, my view on social interaction, my (the list goes on) all suddenly seem to fit into a larger picture of thinking that isn't so radical... but more natural than ever before.
Time to go out and explore...
Just me musing on 'what next'.
Until such time, keep pressing play :)
