The One with Tony Horton (P90X) - I Love Marketing With Joe Polish And Dean Jackson - Episode #84

Hello, this is Joe Polish, president of Piranha Marketing and founder of the Genius Network interview series. And you're about to hear one of my Genius Network interviews. And I just want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this and I hope you find it very useful. If you want to find out more information about some of the interviews and resources that can help you in your business, you can go to www.joepolish.com and we have a Joe Polish Recommends section with all kinds of resources and vendors and services and products that we recommend that could help you in your business. And also for more useful interviews and a whole list of other people that I've interviewed, you can go to www.gieniusnetwork.com. thanks and enjoy the interview.

Hello, this is Joe Polish, Piranha Marketing and founder of the Genius Network. And today I'm going to do a fantastic conversation with a very sharp guy that has motivated literally hundreds of thousands, millions of people to become physically fit and transform their bodies. His name is Tony Horton and he is an amazing fitness program designer that has designed some of the top fitness programs in the world. Tony, how you doing, Joe? I am well.

How are you today?

I am awesome, my friend. Let's get into it. I'm going to first, for people that don't know who you are, if they've.

Never watched, they don't know who I am. Yeah, I mean, I know that's hard.

It's hard to believe. It is hard to believe, but there may be someone that doesn't know who Tony Horton is. Okay, I'm going to just go through the bio. Tony Horton is the master behind P90X, the number one fitness infomercial in America. Over the last 18 years, Tony has shared his fitness expertise with countless individuals across the country from from professional athletes, sports teams, movie stars and recording artists to the everyday person, Tony has helped people turn their lives around with a perfect mix of encouragement, discipline and fun. His expertise includes post rehabilitation training, advanced stretching, yoga, weight resistance training, cardiovascular and aerobic training, boxing and kickboxing, plus circuit, cross and interval training. Tony's been featured in various national publications like Men's Health, Fitness People and Self and has made multiple appearances on national TV including cnn, NBC and C. His training techniques have produced amazing results for celebrities such as Demi Moore and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, Sheryl Crow Without a Trace is Poppy Montgomery Pink, former New York's Giant Carl Banks and current Philadelphia Eagle David Ackers, who credits the P90X Extreme Home Fitness program with helping him set the NFL record for most consecutive postseason field goals. Tony's best selling programs include P90X which sold well over it's in the couple million range. Power 90 which one on one with Tony Horton. Power Half hour Tony and the Kids for kids ages 5 to 12. Tony and the folks for senior citizens and great body guaranteed his time savings. 10 Minute Trainer is a breakthrough program for the busiest people that features 10 minutes workouts that are short on time but long on results. And as Tony says, bring it. So there's your bio. I mean that's the only thing I'm.

Going to do for me. Holy cow. I mean, what else do we have? Busy.

I mean it seems like you should have accomplished more than this. So what are the latest things that you've been doing that I didn't say anything about here?

Well, there are some things in the works. I'm working with Rodale on a book encompassing my philosophies and my hopes and dreams for the country so that they can begin to really get in shape and stay in shape. That's sort of the key, I think. So often we get lost in the weight loss only for a short period of time so that we can look nice and address in front of a bunch of people who don't care because they're too busy caring about themselves. So I'm trying to get away from that in the book. And the book is like a three tiered fitness program. Depending on your level, depending on your lifestyle, depending on your time, depending on your pain threshold, your biorhythms, the barometric pressure in the room. We're really trying to narrow it down for individuals. I think so often you buy a book and it says eat this food and do this thing. So it pigeons people into these philosophies that might not resonate with them. So you know, like I do with my P90X, you do P90X or Power90 and you get three options when you do any particular exercise. You know, there's an extreme version, there's something modified and something in between. And I think that's, that's why P90X is popular. That's why the one on one programs and 10 minute trainer are popular. Because I understand that life is hard and exercise isn't fun and eating healthy food all the time is not necessarily what people want to do. So in the book they're going to be able to pick and choose based on who they are and that'll be different and new. The other thing too, I'm working on a show. It's in the very early stages. And I shouldn't even maybe say anything but you know, we're really optimistic about this sort of health and fitness and wellness variety show picture Kelly and Regis, but for health and fitness, that kind of a thing. And.

Well, no, that'd be really cool.

Really cool. So, you know, we've got a great company that's excited about it and we're still in the early stages of that and I've got my fingers crossed. So that would be another way to sort of break through, you know, I mean the Biggest Loser has its value. You know, it's a very entertaining show and you see these magnificent transformations. I will say that I don't, I don't particularly care for the technique in that show. I mean, I want to do something that's a little bit different. So that's what's happening. Of course the one on one workouts are always going on. We shoot one or two of those a month and you can get those through a subscription through beachbody.com and people seem to really, really love those because it's just me and a cameraman up in my gym and I'm, you know, Hockin lo and going crazy and just being myself because these are my workouts, this is what I do. And basically we just bring a camera in the room and when you get the thing at home, it's a matter of just playing catch up.

Well, I just started working out to the one on one things because I was down@beachbodies.com with Jonathan and Carl and what I will say. So they gave me a set there. I didn't even actually have to purchase these ones. And the cool thing is that when you walk around beach bodies, I've worked in a lot of big companies and a lot of health related stuff and nutrition. And there are a tremendous amount of people in that organization that are in incredible shape because they watch your videos and they work out. And I think it's a testament to the value of what it is that you guys are producing and putting out there. And before we get into it, I'm going to ask you about how people can get in shape. What are the roadblocks with working out and eating right and all of the excuses that people make and how to do it and that sort of stuff. But I will just say that I've worked out with some of the top athletes and fitness people in the world. You know, my clients know that I've done a tremendous amount of stuff with Bill Phillips, author of Body for Life. I've worked out with, you know, crazy football players like Bill Romanowski. You know, I've world record power lifters, famous UFC fighters, top martial artists, yoga masters, professional dancers, rock stars, you know, tons of personal trainers in my career that I've had, you name it, and I've never had better, more consistent workouts than I get with your workouts that are on dvd. So that's why I wanted to interview you.

Thank you, Joe.

Yeah, yeah, I wanted to get it from the horse's mouth because you really. The cool thing about beachbodies and the workouts you put together, they're the very few infomercials that sell exercise related stuff where they actually expect people to do the workouts and use the stuff. And you guys produce things for people that really work out, not someone that's going to hang their clothes on a piece of crappy exercise equipment. So it's good, good stuff. And so I want people listening if they've never done any of these workouts, I'm going to encourage you to go to beachbody.and actually invest in them. But I first want you to hear what Tony has to say because if you currently use his workouts, fantastic, this will be an enhancement. And if not, I wanted to introduce him to my world and people that know me because it will. You know, this is not just about looking better. This will make your life tremendously more valuable. And if you don't take time to work out and take care of your body now, you will take time for it out later with poor health. And so that's why it's so important. How old are you right now, Tony?

51.

51. And you're still in incredibly awesome shape. I mean, do you plan on carrying on the rest of your life like this? I imagine, right.

Well, you know, I, you know, when I was younger, I was kind of thin and out of shape. I couldn't run up and down a basketball court. I couldn't, you know, I couldn't do 15 push ups. But I was thin, you know, I didn't have a weight loss problem, you know, so when I was in college, I took a weightlifting class. I even, I was even on the football team in high school. But I didn't play very much because, you know, I wasn't very skilled, I wasn't very fast, I wasn't very strong, but I just barely made the team. But the one thing I discovered in this weightlifting class at the University of Rhode island where I my alma mater, was that when I lifted weights, because that's all it really Was, you know, I mean, it was the use of dumbbells. And back in those days it was Nautilus was sort of a big machine, it was a brand new machine. You know, I enjoyed the feeling of being strong and I enjoyed the look, you know, and that was basically those were the only two reasons why I exercised back in those days. But as, you know, as my fitness career progressed, and I'll get into that maybe later in the interview of how all that got started, I discovered things about regular exercise that changed everything about other aspects of my life. Mentally, of course, physically, but mentally and emotionally and spiritually, you know, with yoga and some other, and some other things. So, yeah, I just love feeling good. I love looking good, I love feeling good. I love having the ability to do things physically that I couldn't do at 41 or 31 or 21. I mean, at 51 years old, based on the philosophy that I still follow, that is in P90X, I'm as strong as I have ever been. Maybe I might not be as fast running wise. I think if there's one area that I've kind of lost a hitch a little bit is speed. But then again, I did run the bases pretty quick in softball the other day. But you know, overall strength, I mean, I mean I used to do, you know, go to the gym and lift some weights, you know, I do chest for an hour and a half and, you know, with a lot of dead time in between. And maybe I got my chest strong that way. But now I can do, you know, 40 push ups on four medicine balls, which, you know, people look at me think I'm crazy. Is that a workout or is that Cirque du Soleil? What the hell are you doing? You know, and I could do swing handstands on parallel bars at 51 years old, you know, and I could do muscle ups on gymnastics rings, which I couldn't, I couldn't do five years ago. So, you know, the key with me and you'll, you know, of course it's in P90X and one on one is to always stay curious, you know, and focus more on getting better and understanding that some things are very, very difficult at the beginning. But with practice and consistency and patience, it's amazing what the human body can do no matter what age. And if you look at the before and after pictures and the stories that we get in from people around the country, it's mind bending. You know, this One kid lost 190 pounds doing Power 90 and P90X. I mean, he didn't do it in 90 days, but he did it in about a year and a half. You know, somebody who could, who could barely get up a set of stairs and now is in top physical condition. I mean, he looks like a triathlete. Another kid, Sterling Purdy, great name. I love that name.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Sterling Purdy.

Sterling Purdy. You know, he sounds like a movie star, a rock star or a football player. He was only about 45 pounds overweight, but still, that's a lot of weight to lose. So he lost his 45 pounds. He also got off his asthma medication for the first time since he was a kid. He got off his depression medication because he didn't need it anymore because of all the, you know, the shift in brain chemistry as a result of working hard. He's also off of his two high blood pressure medications and his diabetes medications. So, you know, here's a guy taking a handful of pills every day to solve his problems, which were only creating more problems, and he decides to do a fitness program and he doesn't need those pills anymore and he's on top of the world and he started his own health and fitness blog and he's paying it forward and helping other people. I mean, it's amazing.

What do you think that's all about? Let me just kind of ask you that. And again, we're not giving anyone medical advice here to say quit taking your meds. The reality is sometimes the best things that someone could do for depression is maybe not seeing a therapist, is maybe getting yourself into the gym and making your body feel good and creating all the feel good chemicals that happen when you exercise and building confidence that way. But what do you think is happening when someone. Because that does happen, people like you just said, I mean, what took place in that guy's body and in his mind as a result of exercise and what you instruct him to do that created that.

I have this seminar called Purpose and a Plan. And what I'll do is I'll have, you know, I'll have a big board up in the front of the room and then I'll shout out to the group, I'll say, what's your reason why? Why do you exercise? Right? So people start calling out reasons why. And of course now there are two categories. There's a look good or aesthetic or ego based reason for some people. And then there's the, you know, the life changing reasons why. So, you know, typically it's a 50, 50, you know, when you, when you start asking people, why do you exercise? And you know, I want to look better in a dress, I want to lose weight. That would be, that would be the ego based reasons. I want to look good, I want to look good in front of my friends, or you name it, there's all kinds of ego based reasons why. And then the other side is, of course, you know, I want improved cognition, I want better memory, I can, you know, play with my kids. You know, all reasons that really relate to improving the quality of people's lives. And so, you know, if you look into it a little bit, John Ratty's got a great book called Spark. And if you read Spark, you'll discover that, you know, intense, especially cardiovascular exercise, intense exercise, regular exercise, changes your brain chemistry. You know, we talk about runner's high, right? Well, what is that? You know, it's sort of this obscure term that most people can't relate to. But when you read John Ratty's book, you realize that every time you inhale large amounts of oxygen as a result of exerting your body physically, you're releasing norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, and this great thing called bdnf, which is brain derived neurotropic factor. Now there's a little area inside of your temporal lobe called the hippocampus. And inside the hippocampus is something called the dentate gyrus. And every time you work out for 20 minutes or more with any kind of intensity, and that's what P90X is, if you look at even the weight resistance routines, you do your pull ups, you do your push ups, you do your push ups, you do your pull ups. I mean, there's not a whole lot of downtime. You're constantly moving, you're constantly breathing. The pace is much quicker than you would see in a gym with a trainer where you're sitting there and you're, you know, you're working the bench press and then, you know, you go off and smoke a cigarette and then your buddy does his thing, you know, so this is, my programs are very intense and they're very high paced. So as a result, there's high amounts of this norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin and brain derived neurotropic factor that release to the brain. So when that happens, your cognition improves, your learning capacity improves, your memory improves, you're reversing, reversing the aging of both the mind and the body, your mood improves, there's a decrease in anxiety. These are simple things that most Americans suffer from because of lack of movement and eating sugar, fat and salt all the time, right? So Sterling Purdy and my buddy that lost £190 without even having to be told this, just inherently sense it and they feel it. I mean, the bottom line is looking good is great, but that's not about you. That's about what you want other people to think of you. Feeling great is ultimately the reason why I think people use P90X. It's both. I mean, come on, we're in America. It's all about looking good too. But, but I think people stick with it because they like the fact that their lives improve. You know, I mean, physical activity, regular physical activity, at least in my opinion, is truly the foundation for a better life. And, and people get hooked. You know, they get hooked to that. I'd rather have them get hooked to that than than drugs or alcohol or fatty food, you know, or also there's another dirty little secret in our industry. And they clump us all together and we belong on opposite ends of the playing field. There's the weight loss industry and there's the health and fitness industry and they're completely different. I mean, you look at the, look at television and they have these, they have these paid celebrities on there. You know, I'm not going to name any names. It's not maybe proper to do that here. But there are, you know, there are these weight loss pills, potions and processed foods endorsed by celebrities so you can lose weight. Now, you know, losing weight is a piece to the overall health and fitness puzzle. But when you just lose weight, you're still vulnerable to getting hurt. You're still not any stronger, you're not any faster. Your cardiovascular capacity hasn't improved. You know, your flexibility hasn't improved. You're just as vulnerable to getting ill. Maybe there's a few things that you won't get. Maybe your diabetes has improved or your blood pressure has improved over because of weight loss. But the fact of the matter is, weight loss is not the reason to focus. That's not where you should put your focus. Your focus should be, do I want to be a better, more productive, happier human being? And that comes with eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins and healthy fats and finding ways to make those things taste good and regular. Five to six days of exercise, period. That's why P90X, an extreme in home boot camp, sells a million dollars on QVC. Why would P90X sell $10 on QVC? You know, they got Mumu dresses on before I go on and they got dashboard jewelry after I Go on. There's no reason why the demographic of QVC should be buying them, which P90X. It's because it works like gangbusters. And it's because there are people who are watching, who have friends and family who have done P90X and gotten amazing results, who have lost a ton of weight. Yeah, great. But they're also happy and they're strong and they're living the life that they should be as a result of making these choices, you know?

And I will say that when I first bought P90X, I literally, which lots of people do, I didn't jump into it right away. And I'm in a fortunate situation where I have a personal trainer. And I actually utilize my personal trainer very infrequently now because my preferred way of working out is P90X. But for a while, like, first three months, I really didn't even look at it. And once I started, I was like, jesus, these are fantastic workouts. And the funny thing that triggered it for me is I have a. I shouldn't even call him. A massage therapist is a guy that actually works on, like, injuries and stuff when your body's all hosed up and tweaked out. His name's Dave Matthews. He's not the singer, though, but he's amazing.

Yeah, Dave Matthews, who massages. Wow. Yeah. Could you imagine?

And he was working on, like, my shoulders was just, like, really tweaked one day and we were talking and he said, you know, he goes, I have a client that is stayed in pretty killer shape, and this person has just transformed his body literally in the span of four weeks. And I asked him, I was like, what the hell are you doing? And he's like. He said, P90X. And I go, you know, it's funny. I go, dave, I have a set.

I haven't even used it.

And when he said that, though, that's when I actually finally watched the damn videos and started doing the workouts. And at this time, I was going to see my personal trainer three, four times a week. I'm a guy that does yoga, typically two to three days a week. I can put my feet behind my head. I mean, I'm a flexible dude. I lift. I'm not huge, but I lift. And I've always worked out for most of my adult life. When I got into it, I was like, this is one of the most sound amazing workouts ever. The warm ups are fantastic, the stretching is fantastic. It's intense, it's hard, and the results are absolutely incredible. And I'm a guy that has access to a lot of. I'm a member of two gyms. I got a personal gym in my house. And I mean you literally can do this in a small, tiny area in front of a computer screen or a TV with bands and a pull up bar, I mean, if you need to. And it's just a great, great workout. And since I've been doing this for several months now, that of course is what led to me wanting to just do an interview with you and talk to you about it. Because I want to introduce a lot of people that aren't doing this. It is a great workout. But you said a couple of. He said working out six days a week. There is no magic bullet to this sort of thing. I mean, you're going to have to exercise. I love the distinction between the weight loss industry and the health and fitness industry. Because what I think happens at Beachbody is in the marketing business, you sell people what they want, you give them what they need. At least if you're going to treat them with ethics and you're going to create value. There's a lot of weight loss people that sell people what they want, lose weight, but they don't really give them what they need. They don't tell them that if you're going to maintain this and get in hell, it's not about popping a pill. It's not about fantasizing that you're going to instantly sit on your couch and become amazingly healthy. It's a dream world, it's a lie, it's a fantasy. People literally are going to have to put in the work. Whereas you guys, you're very good at compelling people to buy and get in great shape. But the beauty is you actually deliver an amazing, fantastic product. Let's talk about how to this one question and I want to talk to you about your purpose and plan that you have different things that you teach. Is there a good answer to what's the fastest way to get to incredible shape? Because initially people would love to buy into that. The fastest way to get in incredible shape.

You know, the thing to keep in mind when that question is asked is ultimately is that really the question? You know, what is your purpose for wanting to get into shape fast? You know, I mean, everybody's at a different starting point. You know, if you're a 27 year old ex gymnast with 15 pounds to lose, because you know, I haven't worked out in a year and a half, you're in a completely different starting point than somebody who's never who's 50, who's got £100, who's never worked out a day in their life. So these two people, they both ask me that same question. The answer is going to be very different. You know, the person who's out of shape, who's never exercised before a day in their life. My question is it doesn't matter about the speed. What matters is your consistency. You know, I've written these 11 laws of health and fitness, the first being variety, consistency, intensity, but number two is consistency. Your only focus is to show up today because the past is history and the future is a mystery. So all you can do is affect the positive things that can happen to you today as a result of you exercising today. So if you're consistent, you're going to improve your health, you're going to improve your fitness, you're going to improve the quality of your life, you're going to become less vulnerable to illness and injury and you're going to get all five of those really critical, amazing things today. You might not look ripped or be super fast today that's going to happen maybe 60, 90, 100, 20, 500 days from now. I don't know what it is, but why not focus? And that's what I tell people. I say, you know, when it comes to plan on a purpose, you know, we'll get into the plan in a minute, but when it comes to purpose, stop caring about what you think other people think of you and stop thinking about, okay, I have to lose X amount of pounds in this period of time so that I can fit into a dress at a wedding. You know, this stuff doesn't work. It never has. It works temporarily for people with huge egos who, who can be consistent with their fitness purely based on their looks. You know, if you're a model or if those things matter to you and that motivates you, rock on. I say fine, if it's all about ego based purpose and that keeps you by the way, the after effects are all those other amazing things that happen to you. But if you can't be consistent and you find yourself struggling and you find yourself trying to buy into these weight loss only programs so that you can lose weight and look good in a short period of time and you're fighting that horrible battle year after year after year, you lose the weight and you gain it back plus something and you lose it again. Your new purpose should be, if I work out today, my health improves today. If I work out today, my fitness, well, it might not be noticeable, but you're breaking down cells in the muscle, in the connective tissue, and it's going to reform in a slightly stronger way. So you are improving your fitness, you are improving the quality of your life because you're dumping this dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine and brain derived neurotropic factor into your brain every time you exercise, which changes your complete outlook about life. And the other thing too, I'm 51 years old. I work out because people at my age are very vulnerable, especially between, you know, 50 and 75 are very vulnerable to getting injured. You know, people bend over, pick up their cat, they blow out their back, they can't move for six weeks. I'm doing plyometric.

You ever done that with a cat, Tony?

Never done that. I don't have a cat purposely for that reason.

You pull out your back?

Yeah, I pull out my back and I'll sneeze all day long, you know, and the other thing too is I don't want to get sick and hurt. And you know, look at the nightly news. It's all about pharmaceutical advertising because everybody, you know, I sit at home screwed up. It's amazing that some physical activity and some healthy food can turn all that around, you know. And so that's what, that's what I tell people. I said, if you want to get fit fast, you know, P90X is going to work. It's going to work phenomenally well. But what's going to keep you in the game? What's going to happen when day 90 comes and goes, you know, and why are you getting in fit? Why are you getting in shape fast anyway? Like, what's your reason? Is your reason because you want to become a better softball player or a better skier or a better athlete, or, you know, be able to hang with your kids because they're really active? You know, these are reasons why you should be wanting to exercise, not so that you can look a certain way.

Well, you know, I'd like to zone in on that for people that really cannot get clear on their purpose or haven't even really thought about it. How do you guide and direct people in that thinking? Because I know you teach a whole program on that purpose and plan. We talked about that earlier, before we even started the interview. How do you help someone determine what that is? I mean, are some people just hopeless and it just is not going to. They just don't have the juice for this?

I don't know. I mean, I think there's some people that are. Some people just Absolutely hate to sweat. They hate physical activity, they hate feeling uncomfortable because, you know, if it's going to work, it's going to be hard and there's going to be a certain amount of discomfort involved. But it doesn't have to be to the point where it's so excruciating every time that it's just too daunting. You know, like I did a workout at Andrews Air Force base outside of D.C. last week and the whole, and the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, the Marines. I mean, every branch of the military is using P90X. They're using it in, you know, bases all around this country. Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, Japan, Italy.

Wait, wait, wait. Let's say, let's say I want everyone to really hear what you just said. I mean, that's pretty significant. You've got a large portion of the military using your workout program to stay physically fit. I mean, that's pretty important, I would say.

I've been back and forth to Washington three times and I've done three Congressional workouts. We go to the Congressional Gym and members of Congress come in. There's these two guys, Paul Ryan and Heath Shula, one a Democrat, one a Republican. And they've crossed the political barrier there to hang out with each other. And they have this tremendous gym, the Congressional Gym in Washington with all this equipment and all they had, you know, they have karate instructors and everything else. These two guys have started this trend over at the Congressional Gym. They took a pull up bar and they screwed it into the wall in the hallway and they have a little TV set up on a table. So they had this. Now, you know, 30ft behind them there's this tremendous full facility gym. And these guys are doing P90X in the hallway. All right, so other members of Congress are seeing that they're getting results above and beyond anything that they're doing in the gym. So they've started this cult. And the first time I think I was there, there were maybe 14 members of Congress after these. And then they've got bigger and it gets bigger every time. I think the last time there were about 30 people. And so now they're nailing pull up bars all down the hallway. And you know, they're getting up, they're putting up a big screen TV and they're turning the basketball court into a P90X room for congressmen. So, you know, that goes to show you that regardless of who you are, you know, whether you're a congressman or you're Ashton Kutcher or Demi Moore or sheryl Crow or, you know, and the list of professional football, basketball and baseball players is as long as my arm too. I can go down that list. List as well. But you know, I have a cousin, David Cincarelli, he's a health and wellness lobbyist in Washington. And he would email me starting about two years ago, he would say, man, you've got to come out here. Everybody's doing this. I'm getting, you know, I'm getting, I'm meeting people at various events here in D.C. you know, the commander, Colonel Sheppard, who was in Afghanistan and Iraq, made his troops use P90X. They had scheduled P90X workouts on the base. And then he's now he's the commander at Andrews. I mean, he's the guy that makes sure that Air Force One is maintained and Air Force Two and that all the, you know, all these diplomats who are coming in from around the world. Whenever the president or Vice president or Secretary of state or gets on a plane, you know, these guys. This is an extremely secure facility outside of Washington. They invited me to come because they have regular daily P90X group classes the base. And so we worked it out. My cousin David worked it out with them and they had several meetings and you know, you go there and you just. There's 30,000 people on this base, 30,000 airmen and women on this base. They had four tennis courts. They took all the nets down, you know, you know, four tennis courts means there's eight people who are being active, right? So they took them all down. And I did a workout with about 300 airmen and women. And a vast majority of them are using either P90X or pound or one on one. But a lot of them aren't, you know. So the idea was to have me come and sort of introduce. I do a routine when I'm ever on, whenever I'm traveling called ucml, which is an acronym for Upper Cardio, Middle Lower. So it's a routine where you do some kind of push up. You know, I mean there's a wide variety. You do anywhere between three and five rounds. We did five rounds plus a bonus round because they wanted one because, you know they're insane.

Right.

So there's an upper body movement. Of course, there's not 300 pull up bars. So you have to do some kind of push up. And then we do a 60 second cardio move, jumping jacks, jumping rope. You know, there's, if you have P90X, you know, the wide variety of moves. And so I just, you know, I just pick one Out. That's a lot of, lot of fun. And then we do a core or ab move, you know, mace and twist, fight for scissors, whatever it is. And then we do some kind of plyometric or leg or lunge move. So the first move is maximum reps, the push ups, the cardio, 60 seconds. The core is typically 30 reps. I mean, I pick a core move that's 30 reps and then a leg, lunge, squat or plyo move is 30 reps. So they do four exercises, take a short 30 second break four more, break four more. We go to six rounds and you know, all 300 of them were soaking wet. And all we needed was the human body and mother Earth. We didn't need any equipment. And they got a full round, you know, head to toe workout. And that's kind of my specialty. You know, if you have the one on ones, you can see that. And I, you know, this is what I've discovered. I mean, gyms are great. I love having a bench press and a lat pull machine and I use those things if they're available. But it's also, this is an excuse buster. You know, I call it the warrior workout. The excuse buster workout. If there's gravity and you have a body, you can get your butt kicked. You know, maybe if you're on the moon or the space station, these are two areas that might not have enough gravity for you to this workout for the better.

You know, a lot of people. First off, I should have asked you in the very beginning. P90X stands for Power 90 Extreme, correct? Yep. And that originated from, I guess you created power 90 first. And so for people that are P90X is a pretty extreme fitness program. It's usually not something you would start any beginners on. Correct.

That was the original intention. That was the original intention. It was for people who it was for. Originally it was for that category of people that were paying for gym memberships and trainers and not getting results, which is probably 85% of people who go to the gym. Typically, when you have a trainer, most folks don't pay for a trainer five to six days a week. Maybe two, maybe three. I mean, if you're paying for a personal trainer six days a week, I'd be surprised. Unless you hire me to come to your home. You know, I get Ewan McGregor ready for a film. I mean, it's every day. You know, if I get Tom Petty ready for a tour, it's, you know, five days a week. But the average person, the average American can't afford a trainer that many days a week. But you need that level of intensity for you to get results. So that's why P90X works. Because those P90X workouts, as intense as they are, there's a huge segment of the population that has 50, 60, 70 pounds to lose. But they're doing P90X partly because they get caught up in the popularity of it thing. They should have maybe done power 90 first because those workouts are about half as long and they're not nearly as intense and they're purposely tiered. There's a beginner adaptive phase to power 90 and then there's a more advanced one so you can avoid that plateau effect. But with P90X, what we do, and the reason why it's working for people who have got a lot of weight to lose is that they see the modified version on the DVD and just do that. They don't get caught up in the collective energy of what they see on the screen because they can't do 15 pull ups without a chair. But they see that there's a put your foot on a chair and do pull ups option. So they do that, which is amazing. We didn't think we would be selling P90X to people who we originally thought shouldn't be doing it. But they're doing the modified versions of exercises and they're being patient and they're not getting caught up in getting fit fast or looking a certain way fast. They understand that it's a.

It's steps.

It's small steps over the course of a long period of time. And it requires time and patience. And that says something because I think what I'm trying to do. And of course I do one or two radio interviews a week. And this is what I talk about. I say we got to stop getting caught up in the weight loss, only get quick results thing because it's a vicious cycle that doesn't work. Let's all step back, look at the big picture and do the thing that works.

Let me say again for the listeners, is that whatever you have thought about how to exercise or what ways to do it, I mean, it literally is done. It's created. The system really does work. And usually when I do interviews, I would not be as strong of just telling people to go and buy something. I like them coming to their own conclusions if they resonate with the person that I'm talking with. In this particular case, this gets my highest endorsement. It is an awesome, awesome workout. And if you have any confusion on what to do, how to do it. It is completely and totally laid out. And there's different programs from any level of wherever you're at. And I know you've had people that are handicapped that do it, that have challenges that a lot of people just don't have. And so there's programs available for everyone. You can get these at Beachbody. What I want to really do is get into the mindset, to help everyone with their mindset and, and understand what if you're stuck, where do you start that sort of thing? Because I know it's really hard for people to get started. I mean, I always talk about it's a hell of a lot easier to maintain momentum than it is to create momentum. And you have some unique ways of really inspiring and encouraging people. Not only are the workouts sound workouts, you're just a freaking funny, entertaining.

Well, my friend, I don't want to.

And again, that's trying to be nice to you. I mean, it's true. You're a funny dude and you're really good at what you do.

And I think that comes from. Well, first of all, I have to give Beachbody credit partly. You know, I work for the companies and they have a certain. I won't name names, but they have, they have a certain philosophy about how they feel a fitness concept or philosophy should come across. You know, they treat exercise like rocket science. So what they're doing is they're taking something that's really physically difficult and making it boring on top. Holy crap. I mean, that's just the worst formula in the world. Time magazines, I don't know when this came out. About two years ago, maybe even longer now. Five years ago, the 10 most important trends of the millennium. And number nine was infotainment. And that's what I do. I give people information in a way that's entertaining. And I mean, I was a stand up comic for a couple of years. Not very successful. You know, I'm doing Joe's Cafe at 2 o' clock in the morning in Pasadena. But you know, it was an opportunity for me to get up in front of people and just do some jokes and have some fun and do some impressions or whatever. And that gave me. That was part of the formula for what I do now. And I also loved health and fitness. So the two came together. And then I had a TV show on cable for a while where I was a host hosting a show. And so I was able to read, you know, I learned how to read teleprompters. And so everything came together so that I Could I could be this person that I am now, this health and fitness guy that likes to have a good time and tell a couple of jokes and have some fun. Because what I, what I had as a kid didn't work. I had coaches that screamed and yelled at me and made me feel small and didn't show me any modified versions of anything. Either you ran the sprint at a certain period of time or you were a winner or you were a loser. It was all broken up into winners and losers. So you had athletes, right, growing up, and then you had everybody else who watched athletes. And so maybe none of those folks were exercising because you exercised, because you wanted to be on a team so that you could score points so that you could possibly get your picture in the paper. It was a very elite group of people that exercised.

You know, let me mention something. You just said something. When I was growing up, I had a pretty much a sadistic little league coach that would force me to try to hold the baseball bat in a way that I could never hit the ball and he wouldn't do it to anyone else. And I wasn't like a little smart ass kid. I was a skinny, shy, you know, quiet kid when I was growing up. Very introverted. And it ruined my liking of sports. I never got into sports. I mean, it left such a negative impression in my head. Really, it was bad. And so I never got into sports. So I really never started even exercising, at least lifting weights till a little bit last year of high school. But I was also partying and doing pretty bad destructive stuff. And it wasn't until I ended up getting a job when I was going to college in New Mexico State, selling gym memberships that I really got into exercising and working out. So I never had an upbringing doing that sort of stuff. And it, you know, a lot of these things just leave, you know, impressions on how you think about exercise and fitness.

But, you know, much like me, I think you and I have, as a result, done very well in life because of those experiences. I think a lot of kids that, you know, get a lot of smoke blown up their butt early on have a tendency to peak in high school or college maybe, you know, So I think those kind of adversities, situations, I was the same way. My, my high school football coaches were, were not good guys, you know, I mean, they treated the good players like kings and the rest of us were just peons, you know. But then, unfortunately, I had that. I maybe like you, I had an experience in college with a guy that was very patient you know, he explained things very clearly, very concisely. He understood that it required a period of steps. You know what I mean? If you do this and you do that, you're patient, you come back and you write down the. You know, you write down what you've done, you come back and you try to beat that goal. And this is how many repetitions you do. And here's what good form looks like. And that was my first introduction where somebody actually stopped and they said, hey, this is cool. I'm glad you're in my class. This is going to be great, you guys. We're going to show you how to do it, and if you do everything right, you're going to get some results at the end. You know, he had a sense of humor. He was a guy you could hang out with and bullshit with, you know, and that was. And that was new to me. I'm like, wow, I have a coach here that's actually a good dude that.

Doesn'T expect me to, you know, to.

Score any points here. You know, it was really an eye opener for me.

Was that the one specific event that kind of led you into this direction or just so many?

Absolutely, that was it. Because when I showed up in college, I was a skier. I've been a skier since I was five. I've been to 14 extreme ski camps, and I love the steeper, the faster, the deeper. That's what I love. So when I was a kid, I wasn't a very good skier, but I loved it because it was me against the mountain. It wasn't me against anybody else, you know. So then I got introduced to this weightlifting class, and now I was a strong skier. I was doing squats and leg presses and things I had never done before. So it helped me be without having to ski more. Another way you could become a better skier is it's really about mileage. It's about getting as many runs as possible. Now, I had a combination of getting more skiing in while also having a strong physical core and legs to bring to the mountain. That was new and exciting for me. So that. That was a motivator. That was the. That was probably it because, you know, when I first showed up, I was in horrible shape. I was just a skinny kid that ate burgers and drank Dr. Peppers all day long, you know, and just didn't know better.

Well, now that has changed. You know, regarding the people at beach bodies, you know, Jonathan the president, Carl the CEO. If you were to get in a physical fight with those guys, you think you could Take them.

I'd kill them both, like, within seconds. They would never shot.

That's good to know.

But I would never in a million years because they have made my life an absolute dream. Carl Daikeler and John Congdon are so unique in this industry. They really are. They are superstars. And I'm not saying that because they sign my royalty checks. I'm saying it because it's true. You know, they allowed me to do my thing, you know, with Power 90 and P90X. They said, hey, man, whatever you want to do, do it your way. And they told me they have a tendency to tone me down. If you look at the difference between my energy and one on one and P90X, you'll see that, you know, in P90X, I'm having fun, but one on one, I'm, you know, I'm a mental case pretty much, you know, I'm just.

Whatever, baby, you know, because it's just.

Me and the camera and it's really raw, and that's the whole idea. But what's really unique about these two guys is they were willing to roll the dice and take a risk on me and my. Because they knew that what I was doing was working with these celebrities, you know, and I used to work. I work with Bruce Springsteen, I work with Billy Idol. I work with. With, you know, a laundry list of different celebrities. So they say, hey, man, that stuff's working for them. And I think the general public would really like to know what it requires. And let's. Let's see. You know, of course, everybody in the infomercial industry laughed at us. They just, you know, they just snickered and said, good luck, you guys, you know, and we were out to prove everybody wrong. And so, you know, now we're the biggest fitness infomercial company in the world. Nobody can touch us. Everybody else is just playing catch up. They're not even at the starting line, most of them. They can't even begin to duplicate what we've done as a result of just being honest and authentic and realistic about what it requires to get fit and healthy and maintain that health and fitness over the course of a lifetime. That's basically our mantra, you know, so I'm thrilled that I'm part of it.

Yeah, I mean, it says a lot, too. When I've been hired to work for nutrition companies or people that may have supplements and stuff, I've always made it a policy that if you just want marketing advice on how to sell a pill and you're not going to tell People the truth that if you're going to transform or change yourself physically in a better way, you got to exercise. I mean, you've got to eat, right? There's no such thing as pop a pill. Supplements are tiny, tiny, marginal at best if you do not. And even if you are exercising, they're not the panacea. And so what is great about Beachbody is that there are so many people that have helped grow the following that you have not because they watch the infomercial, but simply because of word of mouth. And word of mouth does not exist if you don't have a great product. I can't ever remember hearing any other fitness related thing that sold on an infomercial or anyone ever said anything positive about. But I hear people all the time. I mean I was doing a conference recently with 600 of my clients and a whole boatload of them in the group used P90X and a couple of them on stage talked about, was a conference about marketing. So the point is you're really out there and it's really good stuff. And John and Carl have done a fantastic job. People can go to the website and actually watch little clips of the making of P90X and they're the CEO and the President doing the workouts, going through the fit tests, doing all of that stuff. So they practice what they preach. And that's why I think you guys have such a fantastic product and a fantastic following because you are telling people the truth. And that is really rare in probably the weight loss industry to use the terms used weight loss industry and health and fitness. There's the vast majority of stuff small, sold, I think at health food stores that even call themselves health food stores. A lot of it's just total garbage. Having me said that how with all of the fads, all the fitness trends, all the information out there, how do you know who to trust? What do you say to your clients when they're asking you questions about what about this, what about that? Do you have a criteria of how you trust what advice that's out there?

I just tell people, you know, think as an individual, don't get caught up in the, in the collective energy of a trend. You know, I mean you look at, oh boy. I mean, I don't know what I can say here. But you look at like you look at the Monavie craze, right? Here's this. It's basically, basically acai, a berry and some other ingredients and it's supposed to basically cure cancer according to, you know, you talk to people who Rep the stuff, you know, I mean, you look at herbalife. Herbalife is supplements. And there's. There's probably some great ingredients in there as well. But you cannot solve your problems purely by the things that you put in your mouth. I mean, if you were somebody that was eating fast food all the time, and then you went to a vegan diet, trust me, man, there'd be a tremendous change in your body chemistry. But what I tell people is, maybe I'll even go over my 11 laws right now. But one of my 11 laws is loving it, right? So number nine is loving it.

Well, you know, go through the 11 laws, too. I mean, so say what you're going to say and then take us through them.

Well, for example, we're trying to get people results, right? We're trying to give them. We're trying to give them lifelong results. We're trying to get them. We're trying to get them to be consistent. You know, we're trying to help them become enthusiastic about this process. And so, typically, the reasons why people fail is because they're focused on the wrong things. So the 11 laws are basically the things that they can focus on, the things that are important. This will be in the book, of course, when it comes out. You know, I mean, look, the ten commandments, they came up with these really cool commandments that, you know, changed a lot of ways, A lot of the way people function in the world. The 12 Steps for Alcoholics are another. You know, they're just simple rules to follow so that you have something to cling onto, something to get excited about, Something that will help you focus, Something that'll keep you on track. And that's what these. The 11 laws of health and fitness are the 11 key things for you to think about to help you understand how important health and fitness is and how to stay on track. So, number one, variety. You know, you look at P90X or power 90 or 10 minute trainer, you know, we have muscle confusion, super stacking, sectional progression. You know, they're basically terms in each one of these programs that explains that that variety is the spice of fitness. Because, you know, you can just do yoga, and yoga is awesome, but you're going to have a yoga body and you're going to have, you know, I mean, if you do yoga five to six days a week, oh, my God, it's infinitely better than doing nothing. But there's going to be certain limitations. You know, you're not going to be able to run faster, you're not going to be able to Lift a certain amount of weight, you know, you're going to be more flexible, you're going to, you'll probably be more patient. There's amazing things about yoga, spinning another one, love it. But people, what happens to people is they become, you know, I look, people go to spinning class and they all have kind of the same body, but there's certain limitations in what they can physically do because they're only doing one thing. So the reason why P90X and power 90 and 10 minute trainer work so well for so many people is because they're more than one thing. P90X has 12 DVDs, Power90 has, you know, multiple circuit training routines. Some cardiovascular in nature and some resistance in nature with yoga in there as well. And that's the reason why people get strong and fit and their symmetry is really great because of the variety aspects of it. So, you know, number one, variety. Mix it up. You're not going up and down a ladder. Most programs look like you're going up, you know, in a straight line. P90X or 10 minute trainer or one on one or other. It's more like a rock wall, you know what I mean? You're going up. But man, it's a computer, you know, it's like physical. Chess is probably a great way to describe it. And the reason why that works is because you avoid boredom. I'm a runner. I've been running three miles three times a week for the last 30 years. Oh God, you look like you need to be thrown into a yoga class because you're such a bent over mess and your knees are such a wreck. So you're trying to avoid boredom, you're trying to avoid injuries and you're trying to avoid plateaus. And if you have variety in your fitness, those things don't happen. And you continue at 51 years old to get stronger and more flexible as you get older. Variety.

Let me ask you a question because I love the term physical chest. I think that's great. When you look at all the different programs you've created, which one most closely resembles your daily activity? I mean, is it P90X or is it something else? I mean, how do you, what does Tony Horton actually do? What does your workouts look like?

It depends on the day, depends on the week, depends on how much recovery I need, depends on whether I'm traveling, depends on, depends on how much sleep I've had. So honestly, 10 minute trainer, P90X, power 91 on one. They all represent sort of a myriad of how I exercise. For example, I have a chest and back routine today. As I sit here, I have no idea what I'm going to do. None. I mean, it strikes me the second I walk into the room. That's how I exercise. It's like going for a run in a place you've never been before. That's how every one of my workouts. For example, last night I walked in and we're doing cardio circuits. You know, I'm at that point in my fitness career where I can this way, it's a challenge every time. It's certainly not boring because I don't know what the heck I'm doing. But last night was a cardio routine. And so I have a. I have a Versaclimber, a stationary bike, a treadmill, a ski machine, a slide board, you know, a lateral skating board, a heavy bag, and a platform outside where I jump rope. So I looked at my buddy and I said, too cold to jump rope outside. So let's skip that. I don't feel like hitting the heavy bag because that's also outside. So let's do five minute intervals, 50 minutes on the ski machine, the slide board, the Versa climber, the stationary bike, and the treadmill. And he looked at me and went, okay, boss, here we go. That's exactly what we did. Five machines, five minutes each. And then we repeated it and we took maybe, I don't know, maybe 15 to 30 seconds in between each one. And I just pulled that out of my butt right there the minute I did it. And my only focus was, am I working out hard enough so that my heart rate is in my right place while I'm doing each one of these machines? Today, for example, is chest and back. You know, I did chest and back last week. It was all dumbbells. All dumbbells and cable machines, because it was all that last week. Today's going to be probably a lot of stability ball stuff, a lot of BOSU ball stuff, a lot of medicine ball stuff where you're doing, you know. One of my favorite moves is plyometric medicine ball push ups where you line four medicine balls up in a row and you plyometrically jump with your arms from, you know, first two balls to the middle two balls to the last two balls, and you go back and forth. I mean. Or we'll stack two Bosu balls, you know, round side up on one, round side down on top of the other one, and then put your feet on a stability ball. It's like doing push ups in an earthquake. It's awesome. You Know, because then you get on the deck, you know, two months later you can, you can, you can do 60 regular push ups because it's just 10 times easier, you know, so we're always upping the ante. We're always changing it up. There's always, there's variety in my workouts every time. You know, sometimes I'll just put the headphones on and go, you know what? I'm going to go run. How far am I going to run? I don't know, at least for 20 minutes. And when the 20 minutes come and go, you know, sometimes I'll run eight miles. I don't know. It all depends on, you know, my back feels weird, my knee feels weird, my hamstring feels weird. People get in these ruts of, they think, okay, well, I'm doing exercise. So the fact that I'm doing it is okay. Yeah, sort of. But the reason why you're injured and you're bored and you're not seeing any new results is because you keep doing the same stuff over and over and over again. And that's disconcerting for people. They go, well, man, look at me, I'm setting up the time. I've got a plan, I'm committing to something. And now you're telling me that I have to do 10 different things. Well, if you want better results and you want to not get hurt, not get bored, not plateau. Yeah, that's why Sheryl Crowe does it. And Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore and Emmett Smith and Ewan McGregor and Usher and David Akers and Brian Westbrook and Kelly Slater, six time, you know, world champion surfer in pink. And you know, John Cement, John Sally, former Detroit Pittston Laker. He's got like, I don't know how many rings for, you know, world champion basketball stud that he is, you know, Jen Brown, I don't know if you know, Jen Brown. ESPN News correspondent Kenny G is using P90X. I mean, it's, the list is crazy. Yeah, you know, it's got everyone doing. Because it's got variety, you know, and that's just the first. If you just got through the first law of the 11 laws, you'd have tremendous success. But there, you know, there are other factors that matter too.

Okay, so variety, you got a ton of variety. And how often are you doing any sort of stretching in yoga? You personally, like, per week?

I do yoga once a week because that's, you know, I only have seven days in a week. Like, my schedule is Sunday. I do a three hour gymnastics routine at the beach, you know, it's not constant, you know, with gymnastics, you know, you kind of do something and you feel like you're going to hurl and then you wait, you know, three minutes and you do another thing. But we're down there for three hours doing a gymnastic workout. Monday nights is plyometrics, because I'm a skier, so I do a 55 to an hour minute leg and plyometric routine. Tuesdays in this particular sequence this month has been shoulders and arms. So I'll do handstand push ups and upright rows and you know, I'll attack my shoulders and I'll do my biceps and triceps. Wednesday night, which was last night, which is that cardio routine, and then Thursday today I've got, as soon as our interview is over, we're going to go upstairs with a couple of buddies and do our crazy, yet to be discovered chest and back routine. And then typically Friday is another cardio day. I'll usually go for a run or it's maybe sometimes my day off. Saturday is yoga. I do an hour and a half yoga routine at 4:00 or 9:30 in the morning, depending on my schedule, and then whoops, all of a sudden it's Sunday again. So that's it. I wish I did yoga more often, but I'm a pretty flexible guy anyway. And when I first started doing yoga, I was doing it two to three days a week because I was so bad at it, but I wanted to get good at it. So the beautiful thing about flexibility in yoga is once you get to a certain place, you don't need to do it as much. At least that's my experience.

Well, no, once you get through, you get yourself flexible, then again it goes back to. It's a lot easier to maintain the momentum than it is to create it. And if you can go through the initial stages and get yourself to an area, boom, you're golden. And that's what's cool. And what's really cool about Beachbody products is that as soon as you think you've actually hit a really incredible intense level, guess what? They have it. Even a more intense one for you. So depending on how fanatical or how mild someone wants to be, there's something for pretty much everyone. Okay, so in terms of the laws, You got variety.

Variety number one, Consistency number two, it's got to be five to six days a week, and seven if you want to, you know, stretch in one day. That's how you get, you know, it's like everything Else you sleep every night, you eat every day, you know, you brush your teeth. What happens when you skip a couple nights of sleep or you don't brush your teeth for a week? You know there's going to be problems. We just, most of us haven't been raised to think that we have to have physical activity in our life almost every day. But to truly be on top of your game, to see tremendous results in a much shorter period of time, to feel good every day, to be less vulnerable to illness and injury every day, to focus on your health and fitness, every day requires for you to work out practically every day. And that's the reason why we created a 10 minute trainer. Because some folks just say, not going to do it. If that's the formula, if I have to exercise that often, screw it, I'd rather do nothing because I can't get my arms around that. So 10 minute trainer is really more, at least from my experience, when you talk to people, it's more about getting people in the game who otherwise would never be in the game. They have the time, they just don't really like to exercise very much, but they understand the concept of 10 minute chunks. I have some family members that had the excuse of not time constraints, but really just not into going to the gym, not into doing 35 minute, two hour chunks of exercise. But they could wrap their arms around 10 minute chunks and consistency is everything. And that's really, you know, if you want results, if you want to feel good all the time and you want to see dramatic change, it's got to be five to six days a week, you know, four days a week, three days a week, just throw yourself down a set of stairs, you'll be really sore, but you won't see much change. You know, that's great.

Let me ask you about the 10 minute trainer thing too. I mean, I imagine that would, from a psychology standpoint, if you can just get someone working out consistently for 10 minutes, then they'll start moving it up, they'll ratchet it up and eventually they'll, they'll get to a great point. I mean, to what degree can someone stay in shape with a shorter workout? Meaning what can you really do with only 10 minutes and 30 minute workouts versus 6 days of 45 minutes to an hour workouts?

Well, you're trying to cater to different personalities on the planet, right? So some folks, like I said a little bit earlier, just don't have it in them to do the longer workouts. So what you try to do is provide them with something that gets them off the couch and gets them moving. Now, just because it's 10 minutes doesn't make it doesn't mean it's easy. The 10 minute ab routine is probably the most difficult ab routine I've ever created. A lot of people who buy the 10 Minute Trainer and look at the ab routine, you know, come to me and say, are you freaking kidding me? I can't do half of this stuff. I said, that's the idea. A lot of my stuff is skill based. It's not dancing and jumping and kicking and punching, you know, which, which is great. You get up and you move and you know, it's really energetic and everything else. But my stuff. You're learning how to do things. Your body and your mind are learning how to do things. And it takes the requires steps. So, you know, for example, we talk about synergistic. One of the routines in P90X is Core Synergistics. You're lunging and curling and squatting all within one move in the course of one minute in those 10 minutes. And we string a bunch of those workouts. That's what we call it super stacking. We stack different layers of different kinds of exercises on top of each other in the course of one minute chunks, with the whole thing being in 10 minutes. And that's why it works. Now we also tell folks 10 minutes is not really going to be enough in a day. If you're going to do 10 minutes a day, six days a week, you're going to see mild change slowly. That is if you really clean up your diet. Ideally, you need to do two or three of these things a day. So you can stack them up one on top of each other, 1, 2, 3 or 1, 2. Or you can separate them throughout the day based on your schedule. And you know, we explained that pretty clearly to you. I mean, I know folks that have done two a day, 10 in the morning, 10 in the afternoon, changed their diet and lost a bunch of weight and got super fit and really changed their lives.

Yeah, and it is a great way for people to get started. I mean, with consistency. Why do you think it's so hard for people to either get started or stick with a program? I mean, in your experience, you've encountered.

Every excuse, no plan and a crappy purpose.

We'll get to that later after you go through the 11 laws. I definitely want to talk about purpose and plan because I think that is just so critical and this is fantastic stuff that you're sharing. So yeah, keep hitting me with It.

Well, number three, intensity. Number three is intensity. I think, you know, I expect people to find the fire, where's the fire? And when it comes to intensity, to also understand. And this is the reasons why people come to my fitness camps because they learn all this information in the course of four workouts and four seminars in two days. So, you know, they show up with a bunch of questions on Friday and come Sunday afternoon, and they know everything I know, and it's up to them to do it or not. So, you know, when I, people say, I don't know, am I overtraining, am I under training? Or how do I know what intensity is? Well, first of all, if you're doing a cardiovascular or interval esque routine, buy a heart monitor. You know, they're 40 bucks, wrap the thing around your waist, put it on your wrist and find out what your training zone is and try to get in it. You know, I mean, that's information that you don't have that you will get if you buy a heart monitor and if you don't have a heart monitor. On the 1 to 10 scale of intensity, a 10 meaning, you know, I'm being chased down the alley by guys with knives who are sure to kill me. That's intense. One is, hey, I love smoking out of this crack pipe on my couch while I'm watching American Idol. You know, you don't want to be a 1, you don't want to be a 10. You want to be somewhere between a 6, 7, and 8. And you have to understand that an 8 would represent, let's say you're in the middle of doing plyometrics or you're doing a chest and back routine. And an 8 on a level of intensity would be, this is really hard. I'm working almost as hard as I can, but I can hang in there. It's not so hard that I, I feel like I have to pause or I have to stop or I have to hurl. A seven is slightly less than that and a six would be, you know what? This is all I can handle today. I didn't get great sleep last night. Maybe I didn't eat really well, but I'm in the room and I'm not maybe as strong as I was last time or working as hard as I could be, but based on the conditions that I'm under, a six is what I can pull off. So that's how I operate. You know, I mean, I have workouts at the beach on Sundays where I'm a five, five plus max. And other Days I feel like I can do an eight plus, you know, so it's understanding that intensity changes from day to day based on weather, based on. I mean, you know, look at Lance Armstrong. He says that at 72 degrees, I can ride my bike like a madman. At 65, it's harder. At 85, it's harder. So, you know, the temperature in the room has a lot to do with your level of intensity, you know, and that's sort of important to know. But people forget that. Like, I went skiing last week, it was 20 below. I couldn't ski very well. I wonder why. Because it was 20 below. Same thing with lack of sleep. Or maybe you got a bad piece of chicken the night before. There are variables here that sometimes are out of your control, but your job is to show up no matter what. I have an expression. Do your best and forget the rest. And do your best doesn't necessarily mean you have to be better than last time. You just have to show up. That's all that matters.

Let me ask you, you always say bring it. Okay. What do you mean by bring it? I mean, I kind of get what you mean, but I'm more like, I'd love to hear your perspective on this.

Bring it basically means turn off the noise and get to work. You know, Turn off the fear and don't be afraid of what you can physically do. You know, get in there and fight the fight, you know, Take that wall, soldier. That's what. That's what bring it means. You know, I mean, the problem with two words is, you know, look at Nike. Nike's thing. Just do it. You know, it's just a little phrase to help people kind of get excited. It's a rallying cry, really, is what it is. You know, I mean, I think do your best and forget the rest is a slightly more wordier version of bring it, you know, and then this conversation is a. Is, you know, obviously a lot more words that help people get. You know, it's a way to motivate people, a way to inspire people. Well, way to get them off the couch and just freaking do it, you know.

Okay, well, so intensity. So, you know, if someone changes nothing else, and they have their workouts and they have their food and they have their sleep and rest and relaxation and recovery and all that. If they just increase their intensity, they will increase their results, is what you're saying. To a point. But if you surpass certain intensity, then you might be doing maybe too much.

Yeah, I mean, with intensity, can you maintain your form? You know, If I. If you come to one of my seminars, I say intensity is great, but if your form is going whack you toward the end of a particular exercise, well, then you're not listening to the 1 to 10 scale. You know, you're in the 9 to 10 range, and you're vulnerable to getting hurt. So turn off your ego. Stop trying to compete with what you see on the screen or somebody else in the room, and focus on good form, you know, working out as hard as you can based on where you are today. And that's enough, because you know there's always going to be tomorrow and the next day and the next day. You know, it's about looking at the big picture. People say, P90X, what do I do at the end of the 90 days? Then I say, well, what have you learned in 90 days? What do you love? What do you like? I know a guy who did power 90 and P90X. He had a heart attack. He saw the infomercial, bought the product, went through both programs and discovered he loved yoga. And now he runs a yoga studio. Here's a guy who was as big as a house, had a heart attack, and now he's lean and ripped. And when he started P90X, yoga was the worst thing for him. It was the hardest program for him, and he despised it. He said, seriously? Yoga? Are you kidding me? But he went from his nemesis turned into his genesis. Oh, you can quote me on that one, baby. Which is true, that is.

Yeah, we should. So you're the originator of saying that.

That'S it, your nemesis. Well, I wrote a blog about it years ago. Your nemesis is your genesis. Yeah. So it's true, though.

You think they'll ever make, like, superhero characters out of you, like they do with movies and stuff? We only hope.

That would be kind of cool if.

You had, like a Tony Horton bobblehead that actually, like, yelped out. Bring it or something like that. You're going to wear a pothol.

Bring it, bring it. Like a parrot, you know. So there you have intensity. At number four is purpose. You know, of the 11 laws, there's a separate seminar for purpose and plan. It elaborates it more. But purpose is, you know, what is your reason why? What motivates you? Is it vanity, ego, weight loss, or is it fitness, health, quality of life, and feeling good? I will take fitness, health, quality of life, and feeling good way over. Vanity, ego, and weight loss. And that's the shift. That's the light that goes over people's heads. I said, the reason why you haven't maintained your health and fitness is because you're too focused on the first, on the vanity, ego, the weight loss. If you just, you know, and what those things are. I look at weight loss and looking better in clothes as really nice after effects. They shouldn't be your number one reason why, because that doesn't sustain most people. You know, if your fitness, your health, the quality of your life and feeling good matter to you, and you can get those today, you don't have to wait 30, 60, 90 days, 120 days for those. When I go upstairs after the interview and I do my routine, I'm going to automatically feel better after. I'm going to have a sense of accomplishment. I'm going to be able to, you know, here I've done this amazing thing for my body and my brain and that's the ultimate motivator. Every time I do not exercise, every day that I miss, I don't get those things. I don't improve my health. I do nothing. I don't improve my health there. I mean, maybe I will a little bit because I've eaten well. I certainly haven't improved my fitness. You know, I haven't been able to release norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin and brain derived neurotropic factor into my brain because I didn't do anything. You know, so I didn't get that from not exercising. And now I am. My body's going to start to age again. You know, you stop exercising after about day five or six, the aging process just kicks in, right? The muscles start to atrophy. The organization, the brain and the organs and your body don't manufacture new fresh cells because you haven't broken them down and created new ones through movement. I miss three days of workout. I want to freaking kill people. I know the person I am with it and I know the person I am without it.

So in your particular case, it's more for the safety of everyone around you that you maintain consistent workout.

I mean, Beachbody calls me and say, hey, we need a shirtless shoot for you tomorrow. Or like in three days. You know, it's partly about that for me too. I mean, you know, I don't know how many other fitness gurus that are out there that have a program out there where they're, you know, running around with their shirt off all the time. You know, I don't see that. I mean, I'm not going to name any names, but I know a lot of people who have programs in this country, I would want to see their shirtless body, I'll tell you that much.

Oh, yeah. And a lot of people that I know, I mean, whenever, you know, they're getting ready for a photo shoot, I mean, they're planning a month or two in advance because they have to diet down and everything and give the impression that they look that way all the time.

Yeah, absolutely. They have to go through some kind. Yeah, exactly. They have to hire trainers and food people so that they can look a certain way. I mean, I am always fit. I am always strong. I am always flexible. I am always ripped. If my knee hurts, I work my upper body to death. If I screwed up my elbow, I'm working my lower body. You know what I mean? You could have a bad knee and bad elbow and still work your core. So there's never any excuse not to do anything, regardless of your. I mean, I have Eric Stohanski in the plyometric DVD for P90X, has a prosthetic leg. You know what I mean? The guy's jumping around. He's in the plyo workout with a prosthetic leg. He's not in a chest and back routine, you know, so, you know, people just. You look at our ancestors, you know, you look at the folks that built this country, right? They were just. They worked so hard, they did so much. They created such a, you know, really convenient, lovely lifestyle for our generation. But we've gotten fat, lazy, and depressed. And, you know, we blame the government, we blame the Democrats, the Republicans, the healthcare industry, the pharmaceutical industry for our healthcare problem. We are the reasons why the healthcare issue problem is so damn bad. I mean, most hospitals would be something completely different, you know, if we all took care of ourselves.

Oh, yeah, completely. I mean, the biggest issue with healthcare is, like, look at the crap that, you know, people shove down their throats. The lack of working out, the. The numerous amount of companies out there that are calling what they. The chemicals that they distribute and package as, quote, unquote, food, and in some cases calling it healthy food. I mean, it's a total joke. But ultimately, you're responsible for your life.

Yeah. So purpose, your reasons why have everything to do with your level of success. And if what you're doing isn't working, then pick something different. Number five, reality. Reality is that thing that's actually happening to you now as opposed to that fantasy version of what you wish was happening to you right now. A lot of people, A, suffer from there's reality part A and part B. Reality part A is if you're 55 years old and you've never had an athletic day in your life, and you've been overweight your whole life. You're not going to be a rock star supermodel in 90 days. It's not going to happen. And if you're an ectomorph or an endomorph or a mesomorph, different body types, you can't turn an endomorph into an exomorph. It's just physically impossible. Your parents had you, and they are of a certain body type. So as a result, you're going to be, you know, there's only going to be certain. There's going to be certain limitations on what you can physically do. I have small calves and big packs. I hate it. You know, I mean, I do half a push up and I look like. I look like a Playboy model. You know, I don't. It's just genetically my pecs grow, but my calves don't. I wish it was the other way around, but that's just who I am. You know what I mean? So that's the reality, is this is who I am based on two people who had sex. You know what I mean? What I'm going to do is make.

Whose fault is it for the cavs, your mother or your father?

I'm going to blame my father on this, on this, on the calves, but I'm not going to my mother's. The reason why I have very, very strong and powerful quads. So, you know, a lot of athletes.

Are built that way.

They don't have, you know, tremendously shapely calves. But then, you know, here we are getting into the ego again. We're getting into the way I want things to look, but they function great. I mean, you know, as far as being athletic, everything works really well. So the idea here is, you know, understand that you are who you are based on, you know, your DNA and your genetics and just go get fit and healthy. Reality part two is stop lying to yourself and to everybody else about what's going on. You know, this fantasy version of who we want to be. You know, we're always talking a good game, but the reality is we're not really actually saying and doing the things that we say we are. You know, I have people who come to me, say, I've done. Done your proper, your program. I've done it for eight months. I mean, for eight weeks, and nothing's happening, but I'm doing everything right. You're full of all right. You are not telling me the truth. And people, you know, let's. You know, it's kind of a weird area because. Because what I'm basically doing here is blaming people for lying about what they're really doing. People do not reveal their statistics honestly because they don't want to look bad. People are not truthful.

No, they're not.

They really aren't. They think they are, but they really are living a fantasy version of what's actually happening. And this is the reason why people are depressed and frustrated because they're not asking for what they need. They're not being okay with reality. They're too attached to the outcome. So they have a tendency to be a little bit dishonest or fib a little bit or exaggerate the truth, but it's a reality. But you're playing this constant catch up with what's actually happening and then your version of it, and then there's that big mess in between. So if you're vulnerable and you're open and you're honest and you're authentic and you're okay with the fact that things aren't going perfectly and you understand that that's a good thing and that falling down and failure is part of the learning process, but you come back anyway because you know that consistency is a piece of the puzzle. You know, these are simple things that people just don't know. But when you know them and you learn them and you're okay with that, I'd much rather hear somebody say, you know what, man, I didn't eat well. I haven't eaten well in a week. I'm drinking too much coffee. I got drunk twice this week. I don't know what I'm screwing up left and right. I've only done three workouts as opposed to, yeah, everything's great. Really good, Tony. I'm on top of it, buddy.

You know what I mean?

They go to bed at night and cry, you know what I'm saying? Because they couldn't be honest with themselves or with anybody in their life.

I have a good friend named Dan Sullivan who created a company called Strategic Coach. And he coaches the top entrepreneurs in the world, like really successful people. Fantastic company. And he has a great line where he says, all progress starts by telling the truth.

I love that. That's it right there.

And in the 12 step community, they have great sayings in 12 step, you know, progress, not perfection. And, oh, boy, I mean, there's so many that actually could be applied to fitness. But your best thinking got you to where you're at so if you think you're clever and everything and you're lying to yourself and you're living in a delusion, then stop that. Change it. Be honest. Yeah. They're as good as your secrets.

The truth will set you free. It will set you free. If you trust the process and enjoy the journey along the way and make that be a priority as opposed to, you know, masking what's actually happening, then you'll have great success. There'll be much less stress in your life. You'll sleep a whole lot better and a lot. Because people know. People know that you're jerking them around. You know what I mean? They won't say anything because they feel bad for you. They don't want to. Who wants to confront somebody who's full of crap? You know, it's just, you know, unless it gets to the point where it's interrupting a relationship or really affecting somebody in a way where you can see their life kind of coming apart, you know, I mean, I'm. I'm not here to do interventions for people, but I am. I am here to say that looking at your life, actually understanding what's really happening and being authentic and true and honest is the start of progress in your life. But. And so, you know, typically when I do this piece, the seminar, any questions? And then everybody's, like, looking at the floor, you know, yeah, we get it.

We're cool.

All right, no problem. Next. You know.

Okay, so for everyone listening, you know, the takeaway here is, you know, look at really, what sort of level of delusion are you operating from, and are you in reality or not? Because if you really want to get results and progress, not just in this particular area, but anything in life, the truth will set you free. Just like you said. It's cliche, but there's wisdom in that.

Absolutely. Who you are right now is perfect. Now get busy.

That's great. Yeah. Yeah. One more thing. It's like, quote session here.

That one's mine, I think. I don't know if I.

Well, you can take credit for it. Yeah. You'll always accomplish more through movement than you ever will through meditation. And sometimes meditation is fantastic, though. However, a lot of people spend their entire lives thinking about that wonderful day when they're going to start exercising or eating right or whatever. And as it goes, life is not a dress rehearsal. Get off your ass and do something about it.

Well, yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with prayer, and there's nothing wrong with wishful thinking, and. But when I get on my soapbox I'll say depression comes from lack of action. It really does. So even if you do it poorly, you're doing something. At least you're experiencing something. At least you'll have a story to tell. Because, oh, I prayed and I meditated and I rubbed my crystals today and I looked at my tarot cards and I went to my spiritual therapist. And you know, either you're doing or you're having something done to you. So typically when you're doing, you're gonna have, you're gonna have results when something's being done to you. You know, that's what I think a lot of times. Number six is sport. Sport or play. You know, because some people don't like sports. They don't want to be on a softball team or they don't want to wind surf or they think, you know, ping pong isn't a sport. Tell me, man, when I play ping pong, it's a sport. You know, the reason why I think that's really important is it helps accelerate your overall coordination, balance, endurance, stamina. You know, these are things that you don't necessarily always get through an exercise program. I mean, with P90X, you probably will. But if you want to overall enhance a overall enhance your results, then you find a sport or a hobby. What's really great about that is you're around like minded people. Like, I have my Sunday gymnastics workout and I'm around some of the coolest people I've ever met in my life. We have this common bond. We just, you know, we're all out there sort of supporting each other. It's a beautiful, you know, usually it's a beautiful day, we're outside and we're doing something that's skill based, difficult, but really fun. And the other thing too is, you know, the stuff that you do, the training that you do enhances your ability to be a better athlete. And when you're working on your athleticism, it also, you know, it works in the opposite direction. It helps you progress faster in your fitness. So, you know, you join a team, you meet other people and there's a fun factor to it, you know, and it also, if you like, you know, a competitive atmosphere, that's great. Personally, I'm not a fan of it. Like I substitute on a softball team, you know, and these guys look at the softball like it's life and death. You know what I mean? To me, it's just, hey, we hit the ball, we run around, we catch the ball. You know, whether we win or lose, I don't you know, when I was a kid, winning and losing was everything and it made me miserable. And now, now that it's not everything, I don't. I'm not as miserable, you know, so if you like misery, because it's going to happen at least half the time when you lose. Right on. You know what I mean? Personally, I just like to, you know, I like sports like skiing and gymnastics, which aren't competitive in nature. They're just really helping with balance and endurance and stamina and flexibility and things like that. Those are the kind of sports that I like, but everybody's different, right? So if that doesn't always interest some people, they go, I'm just not athletic. I don't want to join a team. I just want to do the workouts. Awesome. Maybe this particular law doesn't resonate with you, but if you're curious about it and you want those things that you get from it, then give it a try because you're going to meet with the softball team. I've met all these great guys. I never would have known otherwise. And it's like this conversation with you. You meet new people and all these new doors open up. And so that's the beautiful thing about sport.

Yeah, absolutely. There's the competitiveness and there's a community aspect. And let me mention one thing about P90X also because I think this is one part of it that is really well done that I don't know if gets much mention in people's minds or they even think about it, but when you're doing the workouts, you've got other people with you in the room. So you, even as best as you guys are able to deliver on a video, you create a sense of community. Then you have the boards where people, the forums where people can go and talk. So you're not just selling a product with P90X, you're actually selling access to an ongoing community. And yeah, there's other things that Beachbody sells. People can buy everything needed from bands to pull up bars to supplements to various things that are actually sold. However, you really get a sense of you're not alone when I do those workouts. And like I said, I've worked out with a ton of different personal trainers. The most interesting thing is because of the warm ups and the way that you set it up, I have never had an injury ever doing P90X and I've worked out with many incredibly skilled trainers and I tweaked a shoulder. They're just so well scientifically put together. They're not just motivating workouts, but they're well put together, and there's a real good community aspect. So I think people, they're like, oh, I have to have a partner in order to work out. I just won't be able to motivate myself. I think some of the magic that you have, Tony, is the fact that you've done so much of this, that you know how to motivate people, even from a dvd, and make them feel like, hey, man, I'm right here with you, even when you push through. And that's what I think people are going to really love experiencing with P90X. And I think it will help you that go out and develop sports and go out and develop a community to add that to your health and fitness regimen. So those are my thoughts.

Well, you know, when it comes back to sport, you know, my dear friend Ann Furze, who I went to high school with, I made her do power 90. I mean, I forced her pretty much because, you know, she was overweight and struggling. She was a size 14. Now she's down to about a size 6, which is quite miraculous, really. But she told me the story about when her and her husband had done it. You know, the guy, they started and he started, I'm not quite sure, but it was before the summer. I think it was sometime before he plays golf is what I'm trying to say. And so he had a big old belly on him. You looked at him from behind, he looked fairly normal. But when he turned, he had this big old belly. But he loved golf. And so he did power 90. Then he did some P90X, hadn't played golf for months, went out on the golf course on a course that he had never played before, and had one of his best rounds of his life because he didn't have the stomach in front of him anymore when he was. And he said, I couldn't believe that I. You know, here I was, I thought I was going to be on. I thought I was going to shoot, you know, 20 over par, and. And I was hitting the ball like. Like I had never hit him before, obviously, because he's stronger, he's more flexible. And, you know, another example of a friend of mine, like, look at David Akers, right? The guy was nearly going to be kicked off the Philadelphia Eagles. He buys P90X in the off season. You know, he talks to Rick Burkholter, who's the conditioning coach for the Eagles, and he says, what do you think of this P90X? And and, you know, Rick has a tremendous knowledge of exercise and fitness. And he said, I think it's a pretty sound program. So Akers uses the thing and he comes back, he starts kicking 55 yard field goals. And of course, like you mentioned earlier, he broke the NFL record for most consecutive field goals in the post season. So, you know, it's. And one thing that Rick says as well, he says whenever any of our guys are hurt, it was an excuse for them to do nothing. Right? You know, so if they were on injured reserve, you know, they would just do basic rehab exercises with one of the trainers. And now, you know, he says, I love your expression. When the top is broken, work the bottom. And the bottom's broken, you work the top.

So these guys, you know, they got.

Dislocated shoulders and they're doing plyometrics. And the beautiful thing is, is that all the players say that what they have is onset muscle soreness. But no, but no connective tissue or joint pain. And, you know, the reason why is because the program was developed by me while I was in my 40s, you know, so it wasn't designed by some kid in their twenties who assumes that anybody who does the thing is going to be fine. Because, you know, I'm 51 now, and because of all the flexibility stuff and because of all the stretching that we do in the program, you know, I don't want to get cards and letters and emails from people who say, oh, you know, your program hurt me. I want to make sure that people. Because that's one of the big issues with folks. They overtrain, they get injured, and then they don't come back after the injuries heals. They just, you know, they lose all that momentum and they don't come back for two and three years at a time. So the idea is to create something, a sequence, and that a lot of it has to do with the muscle confusion and the variety. See, because, you know, you're not hammering the same body parts three days a week. You know, people would say, how's this thing going to work? There's too much variety. Well, you know, you're moving. It doesn't matter. It's physical chess, baby. And that's the reason why it works. Then, of course, you know, the next one is stress and sleep number eight. You know, if you're. The funny thing is that one has to do with the other. You know, quite often. I mean, I've read study after study of people who are on all this depression medication, and then after a while they figure out oh, you're just not getting enough sleep, you know, because you know what I call sleep? I like to change the name to sleep. Sleep is, is not a motivating thing. I want to call sleep healing, because that's great. When you sleep is when you heal, especially if you're exercising six days a week. I mean, think about it. Here you are, you're tormenting your body in a way that you never have before, and then you're trying to come back the next day after five and a half or six hours of sleep. Your immune system is vulnerable, your joints are vulnerable, your muscles haven't healed because they haven't had enough downtime. You know, I mean, you need balance. I mean, that's what Yin and Yang is all about. You know, we live in a Yang society. It's, it's go, go, go, win, win, win, fight, fight, fight. You know, make money. You were in front of laptops and computer screens and iPhones and televisions eight hours a day. There's nothing yin like about it, you know, and so the only place that we get our yin energy, we say yin and Yang, but it's really yin and Yang. The only time we get that is when we sleep. I mean, I would love people to meditate. I would love people to sit quietly and read. You know, I would love people to just do some deep breathing exercises or do some Kundalini yoga or something. But as a society, we don't. So the one area that we need, that downtime, we don't get enough of. And then typically what happens is, because we live in a land of chaos, our five and a half hours and six hours of sleep are filled with torment. You know, I can't sleep. And so then we start taking pills to help us get enough sleep. So there's that vicious cycle, right? So sleep is huge. I mean, honestly, I tell folks, try to get your seven and a half to eight hours of sleep if you can. Now, some folks can't operate on five and six hours. I don't know who they are. They're superhuman. They're aliens. I don't know what they're doing, but good for them. But that's not me. I mean, when I do a 28 sets of shoulders and arms, I need to get my eight hours the next night or if I come, because when I come back for the next one, I'm not going to be ready.

Do you recommend not working out if you've simply not gotten enough sleep?

It depends on the person. Some folks, I tell them, look, if you Feel like crap, you know, and you feel like you're on the edge of getting sick or you haven't had enough sleep or you feel really achy and sore. If you're really achy and sore, the chances are you have to either A, do nothing, modify by crazy by decreasing your repetitions and your overall resistance by, you know, anywhere from 20 to 50%, or just take the day off and be okay with that. You know, it really depends. So, you know, I asked, I say, don't be afraid to ask yourself that those three questions. All right, what am I today, my modification day? Am I, you know, am I change my routine day? You know, maybe that's something I can do, you know, just turn it into a stretch. Or is it just this I just need to do nothing. I need to just take that day off. And there are certain days where I don't have the energy, I don't have the enthusiasm based on whatever, you know, especially when I travel. I mean, I had a trip where I was in Rhode Island, D.C. and in Philly, you know, going back and forth and new hotels and, you know, a lot, a lot on my mind. And I just went to the gym and I just walked up a hill on the treadmill. I mean, I had a chaps and back day scheduled, but I said I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to walk on the treadmill just to get the blood flowing. And that was. It's okay to change things. It's important.

Yeah. Well, when I actually travel with my laptop, I'll take the stretching workout, the yoga workout, the parametrics workout from P90X with me because they're just great workouts. And I mean, even in the one on one with Tony, you have one of the workouts which is just a band and you can, you know.

Oh, I love that one. Yeah.

Do you travel with like a band or anything along those lines?

No, I bring my jump rope. Gotcha. I bring my jump rope.

And one last question on this and then we'll go back to. Because I don't want to derail you here too much as things come up when you're talking.

I have a tendency to of kind go off there.

Yes, well, yeah, we're both that way. I think it's my ADD ADHD sort of brain.

Yeah, me too.

Which let me mention something because you've mentioned the book Spark a couple times by John Ratty Ratey. I never pronounce his name.

Is it Ratty or Rady? It's R A T E, Y, but I'm not sure the pronunciation.

Well, I'm going to make sure he gets a copy of this interview because my good friend Dr. Edward Hollowell, who's the top ADD ADHD psychiatrist and the world actually gave me a copy of that book. I just have not read it yet. And what's great, when you're talking about brain chemistry and stuff, that's very much what Ned talks about in a lot of his books, of what happens and he's such a big proponent of physical exercise and proper rest and all the distractibility exists in modern life. And so I think John will get a kick out of hearing what you've said, and so would Ned. And they'll probably want to share this interview with a bunch of people. Best time to work out. I mean, you mentioned that sometimes you'll, you know, maybe 9:30, 4:30, depending on the day. Is there. Are you much of a stickler about when you work out? Is it better in the morning, evening? I know you'll probably say it depends on the person, but is there any scientific reason to work out?

I love this question. I love this question because people ask me that question and I think, do you have a choice?

What lifestyle do you have? Do you have a choice?

You know what I mean? Hi, I'm a mom. I got three kids. I got to get them off to school.

School.

I'm a working mother. You know, for some folks, the option's 4am you know what I mean? Based on their lifestyle. You know, if you have all the money in the world and you don't have a real job and you want, you know, the ideal time is you get your eight, eight and a half hours of sleep. You know what I mean? You do have your trainer come in and they give you a little stretch and then you go down, you go down to breakfast and have the perfect organic breakfast. And then you wait an hour and around 10:30, nobody has that life. The best time is when you can. And we're back to reality again. The reality is you're stuck. Here's your window. Use it well.

You didn't have to be so hurtful about it.

I know I was mean to you. Was I mean to you, Joe? No. But ideally, the morning is typically better because it kicks in the metabolism and you burn more calories. You burn calories better because you get the norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin. You get all these really great things. This is how you want to go into your day. Ideally, morning is optimal over any other time. I think.

But the bottom line is when you can. And obviously I'm asking questions because my whole outcome that I want here is everyone that's listening to just be working out and taking care of themselves because they're going to be happier, healthier, more productive people, and that'll make the planet a better place.

But you know what, though? That's a brilliant question, and I'm glad you asked it, because a lot of people, that question comes up all the time. So I hope I didn't appear to chastise you as a result of asking.

Oh, no, no, I'm totally joking. I mean, I was just doing a jerky boys thing on. But.

No, it's a brilliant question. And a lot of people ask. And so they, you know, when, after they ask it, I say, well, when can you? And I go, well, I only can do it at night. I said, well, there you go. That's. That's when. That's the best time for you, you know, with me, I mean, look at my schedule. Sunday mornings, Monday nights, Tuesday mornings, Wednesday nights, Thursday mornings, Saturday afternoon. That's my pattern because of my schedule. So.

And you schedule it out a month in advance, like you said.

A month in advance. Yeah. Here we are. Toward the end of December, I'm going to be pulling that January calendar out here, and I'll be writing them down. And, you know, it doesn't change much for me. I mean, that pattern's been the same for years for me. But then I look at my, my travel schedule. January, I'm either traveling or speaking or working or shooting. 18 days, the month of January. So, you know, I talk to my, my people and I say, hey, look, if I'm flying to Philly, get me on a flight that's early enough so that I can get in the gym before it closes. That's how I operate.

That's great. I love that commitment. That's awesome.

Stress and sleep, we've covered sleep. Sleeping is healing, plain and simple. If you sleep enough, you will heal enough, because you need to do that if you want to come back another day to exercise. And then, of course, lack of sleep causes stress. But even with good sleep, you're still suffering. A lot of folks have really stressful lives. I don't want to get too esoteric here, but. But there are things that you can do to combat your stress. One of them is the reality thing. A lot of folks are living that fantasy version of life, so they have more stress because they're playing catch up all the time with this version of life that's not actually happening. So just be honest and be authentic and be okay with the outcome and don't be attached to the outcome. Do your best and forget the rest. If you do your best and forget the rest, because the rest is the problem here you are doing your best, but you're thinking too much about the rest that's causing you stress. So, you know, put a little patience in, be a little bit more thoughtful if you can. Maybe try to be a better listener, you know, and there's, you know, we can do an hour on each one of those things.

Well, you really, you really couldn't. I don't know if there's an easy way to answer this one.

You don't know. There really isn't. But if you find that you have stress issues, one answer could be get more sleep. And the other one would be, you know, start looking at regular fitness as a way to sort of monitor your stress. I mean, I know a lot of folks that their stress just melts away because they're exercising six days a week. Some people need more than that, you know what I mean? And if you do, don't be afraid to go talk to a therapist, you know, and understand why you're so freaked out all the time. But I can tell you I've talked to hundreds of people who have simply added an extra 45 minutes to an hour of sleep every night, exercised regularly and their stress has gone away. Gone.

Yeah, it's the whole same little hinges, swing, big doors. And in a lot of cases.

That'S.

Really what it's all about.

That's really what it's all about. Absolutely. Number nine, loving it. Love it or leave it. If you're not excited and enthusiastic towards your fitness, then you're not going to do it. If P90X isn't your thing, do insanity. If you don't like insanity, go rowing. If you don't like to row, then take a spinning class. If you're a yoga only person, then do that. You know, fortunately for me, a lot of people love P90X and they love Power90 and they love 10 Minute Trainer and they love One on One because they like my personality and that I, that I give them options and that I, we have a lot of fun and the thing works and you know, it's no brainer with a trainer, you know, so. And that's what I, that's what I am for some people.

But what about the people that don't like you? You have to occasionally get hate mail with the vast Millions of people that have.

You know where I get hate mail from? Jealous trainers that wish they had my gig. That's my. That's who I get hate mail from. There's a guy on Facebook going, P90X doesn't work. You know, so then there'll be 150 people will come in and say, get off this page because you're an idiot. You know, I'm standing proof. I've lost £50. I'm off these medications. You know, people love their, their dogma and they love their technique and they. And the fact that somebody else came in and thought of something before they did or and has been successful with it, that's what upsets some people.

You know, what I love about P90X is it's one of these workout programs that when you bring it up to people that are extremely knowledgeable about working out in muscles and growth and just physique and structure and everything in general, they really don't ever say bad things about P90X if they've seen it or know anything about it, because they can't because it's a really sound, awesome program. You would only hear that crap from people that really know nothing about it or like you said, are jealous, you know, because my friend Tim Ferriss, who wrote a book called the Four Hour Workweek, he has this great thing about critics.

Love that book.

Oh yeah, I just interviewed him.

I want to be his best friend. I love that.

You'll have to listen. We will have to meet him there. He'll love to meet you. He's totally big on fitness and working out and basically he says that, you know, criticism for most people is the self hatred turned outward and where people try to just, you know, and it's kind of a good way to look at critics at times. So anyway, I'm sorry to derail you on that.

So.

Love it or leave it.

You know, when the head conditioning coach for the Philadelphia Eagles got half the team using P90X or when, you know, the head medical advisor for. Is it Nellis or Dulles Air Force Base in Nevada?

I wish I knew. Actually, I would give the right, but I don't.

Yeah, you know, he wrote a little, a little piece that he felt that P90X should be the, you know, should be standard issue for the entire Air Force, you know, so. And that's what we're working on. I mean, I'm in D.C. working on that very thing. The government works like a snail through mud, you know, but, you know, through mud we're planting our Seeds. So the amazing thing is, you know, you've got Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy, professional football players, conditioning coaches. Jeff Fisher, the coach for Tennessee Titans, uses P90X. You know, it's just amazing. Members of the Jackville Jaguars, Montreal Canadiens. I was having dinner with a conditioning coach for the Eagles in a restaurant in Philadelphia, and the Canadians were playing the team in Philly, and they came up to us and said, hey, I'm the conditioning coach for the Montreal Canadiens. You know, so the two conditioning coaches were standing right there, you know, at this restaurant, both talking about their use of P90X with their players and staff. It's really hard to punch holes in this thing because it's just, you know, it's common sense. I mean, Jack lalanne was doing versions of this stuff years ago, but I've sort of modernized a lot of the things that he was doing. You know, Charles Atlas is another one. I mean, there's, you know, but what I've done is I've added multidimensional fitness where it didn't really exist before. You know, before it was, you know, you have these yoga guru types and they have their philosophy and they're really great, but there's just, you know, they're just doing this thing about yoga. And of course, of lot, there's a bodybuilders that have had books out for years, but it's purely about bodybuilding. And the idea is to try to avoid the plateau, boredom and injuries so that we can expand health and fitness to more people. And that. And that's what we've done. And so, you know, when it comes to loving it, figure out the thing that you love to do. And that's, that's what's going to get you excited, that's what's going to keep you motivated, and that's really important. You know, so many times you pick up a book and it says, I think I mentioned this early in the interview. Do this workout and eat this food. Well, I don't like those workouts and that food is not my thing. So, you know, here you are trying to force me to do something I don't want to do. What I'm trying to say is, who are you? What do you like? Get busy and do something that resonates with you. So that's important. Number 10, flexibility. It's probably the only law in the Entire series at 11 where, you know, there isn't a law for resistance exercise, there isn't a law for cardiovascular strength. But flexibility truly is the fountain of youth. Yoga is the fountain of youth. Because with good flexibility, and you've said this in the interview too, you know, I spent a lot of time on stretching and warming up in those DVDs, much longer than other programs. Because you've got to get the body ready for what you're about to do. You know, if you want healthy joints and tendons and ligaments and connective tissue, then you've got to treat them right prior and after exercise. That's the reason why I love yoga. I mean, yoga is everything. If I had a choice and somebody said to me, Tony, you could only pick one kind of fitness, I know you love variety, I know that's important to you, but if you had to pick one, it would be yoga. Because yoga is everything. Yoga is balance, yoga is strength, yoga is flexibility, yoga is endurance, yoga is breath, yoga is patience. I mean, that's why it's so important. And that's the reason why yoga and flexibility have their own category. It improves all other aspects of fitness.

I totally agree. I mean, I completely agree. And I think a lot of people with the warm ups and even the yoga see, if they were to go to a gym and do that, they would not even many people wouldn't feel comfortable doing it in front of other people. And that's the beauty of P90X is it just covers pretty much everything in your own home or wherever you're at. As long as you have a little bit of space, you don't even need a lot. You can do it in a very tiny area. As long as you have a screen, there you go.

Well, P90X works on your weaknesses and your strengths, not just your strengths. A lot of people gravitate to a program that they can do. They can maybe not do it perfectly well, but they can do most of it. With P90X, a lot of folks can't do half of it. You know what I mean? So that's the reason why it works. If it worked, if it was easy, it wouldn't work. The fact that it's hard is the reason why it works. The fact that there are things in there, you know, stretches and flexibility issues and all the different kinds of workouts. I mean, some people will be great at 50% and horrible at others, but if you do it all the way it's set up, your results are off the chain.

So going back to flexibility, I mean, for me, I just feel fantastic when I do yoga. And if I don't do it for a period of time, and there have been times where I've and It was before I was doing P98. Now, following the program, you just do it. It's part of the program. I just feel infinitely better when I'm stretched and I'm flexible. My body feels better, I have less aches. It just works. I mean, it's just to not be flexible is to live in a very stiff, in my opinion, not a very healthy sort of body.

Well, flexibility truly is the key to progress, you know, because when you're a runner or you're just a weightlifter, you're going to see there's going to be fits and starts and injuries. And so if you add the flexibility piece to the puzzle, you will constantly see progress over the course of time as you get older, which is, for some reason, I hear, pretty new or pretty profound. Amongst the, you know, amongst a lot of people who, who've been working on this stuff and looking at this stuff and, and in the fitness industry for a long time, it used to be segregated. There were the yoga people and the flexibility people, and they were over there, and then there were the rest of us who were lifting weights and running or getting on a bike or something. And so what I've tried to do is integrate all of it together because all of it works better than different pieces. When you put all the pieces together, that's why it works. When you pull the pieces apart, what do you have? You just to have a lot of issues with, like I said earlier, plateaus and injuries and people being frustrated because they're not getting results. So that's why flexibility is everything. It's the reason why at 51, I'm able to do what I can do. It's the reason why I can do swing handstands on parallel bars at my age.

You say that in the program. You mentioned that the reason I can do that is because I stretch, because I'm flexible, because I do yoga. And that, that should be a testament right there. I mean, if people have never seen you physically go to beachbody.com there's some videos they can watch of you. When they get P90X, they'll see, I mean, when they get the one on one with you, you're in incredibly great shape and you're in a small percentile of the typical American. So just follow what you're doing. And guess what? They'll probably get pretty similar results.

Yeah, those numbers are growing. Those numbers are growing. There are people in this country that have never been in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and even 60s who have never been in the kind of shape they are now. And that says something. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I'm 42 years old right now and for the most part, compared to most people my age, I'm in pretty darn good shape.

Yeah. And your life's going to be infinitely filled with more energy and enthusiasm to try hard things than folks who don't take care of themselves and don't eat right.

Yeah, absolutely.

Number 11, food and supplementation. You are what you eat and drink. If you want high performance, if you want to see improvement over time, if you want to be less vulnerable to fatigue and injuries and everything else, it really starts with what you put in your mouth. So, you know, when it comes to food, it's fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and healthy fats. Now, I've never counted a calorie in my life. I don't know how many grams of protein I consume every day. I don't keep track of that. I eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and healthy fats. So, you know, if it's 40, 30, 30. Is it 50, 30, 12. I don't know. How many calories? I don't know. I don't know. It's fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and healthy fats. I break up these foods in five small meals a day as often as I can. And that's what I focus on. I met a girl, Julie, a couple years ago. When I met her, she was ripped and lean and fit and could do like 12 pull ups. Before she started Power 90, she's 5 foot 3, she weighed 235 pounds and she couldn't do a single push up on her knees. And I met her at a shoot for an infomercial. So I thought she was one of the hot shots that we, that we hired for the shoot. You know, occasionally you'll mix in people who have actually done the program with a couple of fitness models. I thought she was one of the fitness models. No, she was the girl who lost 110 pounds doing power 90 and P90X. Now she did power 90 three times in a row, you know, so three months, three times in a row. And then she did P90X so she couldn't do a single push up on her knees. And then I watched her do 10 pull ups. So she's only, I don't know, about 100 times stronger. She's lost 110 pounds. And I said, what did you do? I mean, when it came to your food, what did you do? She said, I just did what you said. And then I said, what did I Say, and she says, I just ate fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and healthy fats. Did you count calories?

No.

I mean, I knew that I shouldn't overeat. You know, I knew that spreading out the meals throughout the course of the day would automatically regulate how many calories I felt like eating when I sat down to a meal. She said, I also learned from you that when I ate foods that were high in fiber, high in nutrition, low in fat, sugar and salt, that I wouldn't, I would naturally not overeat. I cut out, you know, most dairy. I cut out all the soda pop I was drinking. I never ate a fast food again. I never ate out of a vending machine again. I stopped eating manufactured food like you said, and everything just sort of regulated itself without having to count a calorie and how many grams of protein I ate or anything else. I said I ate like my great grandparents ate, like you told me to. They didn't eat manufactured food. They went to the market and they bought fresh vegetables and they, you know, they might have some red meat or not. I mean, she said, I decided not to eat red meat because you didn't eat red meat. So, you know, I stuck to the fish and chicken and I prepared food in such a way that it wasn't, you know, there was no fat or sugar and salt in it, you know. And so she lost all that weight. She got super fit. She looked really ripped and she looked like one of the fitness models on the shoot. So people want the food equation to be really complicated. They want some formula. They write entire books about it and there's hundreds of them, but they don't friggin work. May I say this? They work while you do them. Weight Watchers works while you do it. Nutrisystem works while you do it. But how come every time I see somebody in a nutrisystem commercial and then they're off the commercial because five months later when I see them on tv, they're fat again because they used manufactured food in a box to lose weight temporarily so they could get paid to endorse a product. Ooh, fabulous. Thank you for lying to us so you could make some money so you could buy a condo in Aspen, you punk. You know, I hear you totally. So eat real food. Eat whole food. Don't overeat, don't eat, you know, 10 minutes before you go to bed. Honestly, I have other food philosophies. I mean, if you're eating junk food all day, all the time. I'm on a 9010 plan for myself. 90% of the meals that I eat are super healthy. 10%. I have fun. I like chocolate chip cookies, I like cheesecake. I like key lime pie. Sugar is my nemesis, you know what I mean? So I eat it once in a while, but I don't have cake after lunch. I make sure that I have my little rewards every once in a while so I don't go crazy. Other people. My friend Mark Briggs, he learned what fuel does for his body, good, healthy food, and he also learned what not healthy food does to his body. So he doesn't eat it. He doesn't eat unhealthy food anymore, period. He loves the fact that every time he puts whole, healthy, high fiber, whole grain, super nutritious food in his mouth that his life is going to be better, his energy is, be going to, to improve. He's going to sleep like a rock. Those facts matter to him. So he, you know, to put a cookie in his mouth, you might as well, you know, take off his knee. He would, he wouldn't do it, you know, and other people like to say you need to get on the 50, 50 plan if you're eating crap all the time. All right, clean up half your meals, clean up half. You can go to McDonald's at night if you want. You can have, you know, Kentucky Fried Chicken if that's what you need to do. But at least eat something healthy 50% of the time, and chances are you'll reap the benefits of that. You'll feel better afterward. You won't be sluggish and tired and, and, and bloated and, you know, the usual issues that you have. And then maybe over the course of time, you'll go from 50, 50 to 75, 25. And then maybe eventually you'll end up where I am at 90, 10. I don't know. I mean, you know, Rome wasn't built, you know, in a day. Do what works, what resonates for you and your personality at this stage of your life. You know what I mean? It's all good as long as you're moving in the right direction.

And here's the thing, too. A lot of people confuse hard with impossible. They say, well, I'm too busy, or I can't do this, I can't do that. If they really sit down and think about some of the things they say they can't do or that they can't take on because it's scary or whatever, it may be hard, but rarely is it impossible.

And I really think people should take.

Everything you've talked about today, which is fantastic, and really listen to it and integrate it. One of the last things I want you to share and then we'll wrap up is purpose. As far as a plan, I'm just going to encourage people to get P90X. I'd love to have you give out some contact info of places that they should visit, anything to read, how to track you down, get on your Facebook if they want, follow you on Twitter, whatever, read your blog. What about people out there that I think even listening to as much as.

We'Ve talked about on this today, that.

It will really help them with their purpose. Just more that you can elaborate on than that. If someone's sitting there just like going, how do I find my purpose? How do I really identify what matters so I can start doing this? No one would have listened to this if they weren't on some level mildly interested or really interested in improving their health and improving their life. I mean, people that need this the most don't listen to it. So what do you say to the people out there that, that are just still feeling kind of stuck?

If you're listening to this interview and you find it very difficult to be consistent with your exercise, it's probably because maybe you don't have enough knowledge as to why exercise can open up your life and make it filled with, you know, because for me, I like having energy and enthusiasm every day, you know, and I don't get it any other way other than exercising regularly and eating healthy food. We cheat, beg, borrow and steal through alcohol, drugs and unhealthy food. You know, so we get these short term pleasures that lead to long term problems. So if you're able to understand that brief bouts with a certain amount of discomfort based on a level that you can deal with, you know, like you were saying earlier, something that hard doesn't mean impossible. But if you're willing to earn this feeling of energy and enthusiasm and find a program that works for you. P90X him and a trainer. I don't care what it is, you know, a spinning class, yoga, I don't know if you're willing to make that, make that leap. Everything about who you are in your life will change. I mean, I've seen it hundreds and thousands of times. I mean, I go to a fitness camp or a seminar, people come up to me and say, never in my life did I know that physical activity and eating right was going to change it, open up everything in my life. And so the thing is, when it comes to purpose, stop thinking about what other people think of you. Stop caring about how you look. Don't let the numbers on the scale be so, so important. You know, dress sizes and waist lines, these are measurement. These are measurements that maybe will help you keep track of your progress. But whenever I tell people that my purpose for exercising regularly is. And I, you know, of course I said this earlier in the interview and I'll say it again, and it's still true. If I work out today, my fitness improves today. And I want my fitness to improve today. And all I have to do is maybe 20 minutes or more. Okay, improve fitness, check. I want that. And I don't have to wait 30 days, 60 days, 90 days for that. I get it today. If I do cardiovascular exercise, like when I did cardio last night for 50 minutes, my brain chemistry shifted. Like when I'm running on the treadmill or I'm on a bike or I'm on a slide board or whatever I'm doing, I know that while I'm breathing hard and I'm in my range of 6, 7, and 8, based on how I feel that day, my brain chemistry is changing. My hippocampus, brain derived neurotropic factor is flying around. Molecules and proteins are finding each other inside of my brain, coming together and creating this amazing thing. You know, I mean, right? To me, maybe that doesn't motivate people. But when I know that I am changing my came my brain chemistry based on moving. Oh my God. I mean, that's so much better than a scotch on the rocks to me.

No, I mean, I think out of all the different things that people do, escapism. I heard this one author say, Pope Bronson, when I went and saw him, he said that out of all the things that people I've interviewed and everything, what people want out of life is more woo and less.

Ah.

He's like, everything we do, when you boil it down, it's just more woo and less.

Ah.

And you know what? This is what you're talking about, Tony, is just proven ways to have enormous amounts of more woo in your life. I live a life of woo, baby. No. To reject that is just to accept suffering. And it's not necessary.

No, it isn't. It isn't. So like I said earlier, it's about improving my health. It's about improving the quality of my life because of all the beautiful things that happen inside of my brain that affects my entire body. And the other thing too is I just look at my parents, I look at my grandparents, you know, my parents Are both. They both have certain health issues. My grandparents certainly did not. The last 15 years of their life weren't any fun. I mean, it was a real struggle, and they were very unhappy. And I want to be very happy for as long as I can. And I. And I understand that regular exercise and healthy eating, you know, who knows? I don't know about longevity. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow, I don't know. But I do know that tonight I'm 24 sets of chest and back and feel like a hero afterward. So I'm going to feel really good afterward. I'm going to have a, you know, a lot of energy as a result. So, you know, it's health, fitness, quality of life, feeling good, looking good, being less vulnerable to illness and injury. I know that when I exercise today, all of those things are in process. And if I don't get attached to the outcome, you know, I mean, I'm not. I'm just expecting to do my best and forget the rest, and it just takes the burden off, you know, and it creates this amazing physiological, mental and emotional change. And I can get that in 20 minutes to an hour. If that's not motivating enough for people, then I don't know how to help them. I'm not their guy, you know, but it seems to be working for millions of people, and the evidence is everywhere. And I would also tell folks just to finish up, you know, come to my Facebook page. It's Tony Horton. It's easy to find. And I'm always writing in there and blogging in there and. And you can go to Blogger and find my blog as well. Of course, if you come to the beachbody website, we'd love to have you come in there. Because I'm always disseminating some kind of information, and there's a lot of humor in what I do. And people seem to enjoy it, and they seem to get the information, the motivation and the inspiration they need to stick with it, because it's a lifetime thing, it's a lifelong thing. And I like feeling good. I like looking good. And it requires consistency, variety, intensity, and all the other things in those 11 laws.

In Dalai Lama's book the Art of Happiness, he actually talked about how happiness is a skill that can be learned. And there's a lot of skills that one can learn, and this is one of the most important skills that someone can learn, and they can get it all through your programs and the things that Beachbody puts out. And I love to hear about when your book comes out if you're up for it, we can do an interview on that if you'd like.

Love to do it, Joe.

Yeah, so if people want to get a copy of P90X is the best place. Just go to beachbody.com.

That'S the way to go. Simple and easy. Or you can go to p90x.com and then there you'll be and 420 bucks. That's a hell of a thing, you know, because what I charge clients just for one workout. I mean I charge as much as $2,000 a workout. So. And up. But I can't reveal that. But yeah, you know, yeah, because you.

Might change it to 5,000 tomorrow. So, you know.

Well, you know, but I have a client that I charge $10,000 for two days and he's willing to pay it because, you know, it's one on one with me and I. And he gets everything. I know and he's had tremendous, obviously tremendous results. And I to fly all around the world to train them. But even one on one here at my house is 750 bucks. So for 120 bucks you get 90 days of almost everything. I know that's a hell of a deal. I don't know why people wouldn't do it.

Real quickly. Just what because I think it'd be. People may have this question, what kind of equipment would someone need in order to do P90X?

You need a mat. You need a space that's big enough to put a mat down on the floor. You need some dumbbells or bands. You can use one or the other. I'm a fan of dumbbells. You know, most women probably only need. And I like, you know, they're the interchangeable ones that have little dials or whatever. Those are great, but just a set of dumbbells. You know, women, most women need threes, fives, eights, tens, twelves, fifteens, maybe twenties, maybe not, depending on the person that takes up, you know, just a few feet in the floor. And for men, you know, I would say you probably need eights, eights, tens, 15, 20, 25, 30s, 35s maybe is all you really need. And that really doesn't take up much more room than that. And a pull up bar, you know, a pull up bar is the equation. It's kind of tough for certain people, but you can go on, you know, beachbody.com and buy our pull up bar. Also we sell my power stands, which is a patented product that I created because of most push up stands are just rickety and terrible and they Dig into your hands and they don't have a good balance point. So I created something that's rock solid on the floor, increases your range of motion, doesn't hurt your hands, and you know, just sort of enhance the experience a little bit. So that's it. You know, power stands, you don't need them. I mean, it'd be great. I make a royalty check on that if, you know, if you want to get them, people love them. But really the pull up bar, the dumbbells and the floor and a mat, that's what you need.

Yeah. And people can get in incredible physical shape. I already know the answer to this and so do you. I just want to say listeners that are not yet introduced to this, people can get in incredible physical shape without having to be a member of a gym.

Oh my lord. I mean, professional football players, hockey players, Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, they're knocking down tennis courts to build workout areas for the, you know, the air Force men and women at Andrews Air Force Base. There's no equipment, you know, I mean, half of the workouts at P90X, there's zero equipment. You know, I like to have as much variety as possible. That's why I added the little bit of equipment that you need. You know, the dumbbells and the pull up bar and the mat, you don't even need a mat. You just need a towel, a couple towels on the floor, you know, just to kind of protect your butt when you're doing certain ab and core exercises. But no, you know, the human body and gravity, that's really what you need. Okay, very cool.

So famous last words. I mean, someone, first off, thank you, Tony. This was great. I would encourage everyone that has listened to this to not only get it in gear and do it, share this with anyone in your life, this interview, because it will help them. And this truly is something that can and will transform your life. I mean, it's one thing to say, yeah, you're going to have a few benefits and stuff. It'll be beyond that. If you actually do P90X for 90 days, I can assure you you will be a different person. You will be a different person physically, mentally. And if someone does do this, Tony, and you've talked about a lot of it, I mean, what can they expect? I mean, if someone really does take this on and let's say they just do it for 90 days, we only make that commitment. Although I know it will lead to a lifestyle and a lifelong of probably rituals and habits that they'll adopt. But really, what is the big win if somebody takes on and follows what you've talked about on this interview today?

Well, you know, I've touched upon it a little bit here in the interview, but what I will say is, because you know, there's so many things, but if you had to really kind of narrow it down to just one or two, that if you, if you start moving physically five to six days a week and you eat right, you'll have the energy and enthusiasm to live the life you've always wanted. And that's what happened to me. That's what's happened to hundreds of thousands of people, you know, who are using P90X or any program really for that matter. As long as they're, they're doing it and they're consistent and they love what they're doing and that's everything. Because a lot of people in this country are struggling financially and physically and emotionally. I mean, I can guarantee that your life will improve in so many ways other than just your looks, other than just physically. Regular exercise and healthy eating is the foundation to all things that can improve your life. And that's the truth. I wish I could be more profound than that, Joe. But when you hear stories about somebody who couldn't do a push up and lost 110 pounds, lost 190 pounds, that is monumental, that is life altering. And all you have to do is make a plan and show up and it's astounding what can happen. I'm proof of that. You spoke a little bit early on. I think before we started the recording. You were kind of shy and introverted. I was the same way when my first workout guys walked in the door. You know, when I started out I was, I had a speech impediment. I was a C minus student at best. I used to say my middle initial is S and I used to say that standard for scared because I was scared of everything. You know, I had a lot of issues in my life before I started exercising. And when I exercised an 8 right, they all melted away. And that says something.

Well, same here. A lot of similarities and you know, if people, some of my clients know my background, I don't. Very bad drug problem. At the end of my high school year, I was pretty much smoking coke for about a three month period. I weighed 105 pounds at my worst state. Wow, 18 years old. Thank God I discovered exercising, taking care of myself because I nearly died. Lots of things can happen and you can transform yourself. You are doing tremendous work. And I will say to everyone out there. Get P90X. Yes, Tony will make a royalty off of it if you buy it. However, it's well deserved and it's a great product and I can assure you when it comes to working out, if you ever hire trainers, join gyms, this will be the best money you will ever spend on direction and an exact specific plan on how to work out. And it will last for the rest of your life and it will turn into many, many good things. And so thank you, Tony. I learned a ton of stuff today. It was great doing this interview with you. I want everyone to go to beachbody.com and get a copy of P90X if you already have it. There's follow ups, there's one on one with Tony. Everything that I've ever bought and used from Beachbodies is a fantastic product and I'm glad we were able to do a genius network interview and I look forward to everyone's comments and anything else.

You want to say.

Tony, I know your workout guys are waiting for you there to go, to go. Hit it so well.

No, Joe, I just wanted to thank you. Really appreciate what you're doing and the fact that you're willing to go out and find folks that are at the top of their game and be able to share that with people across this country. You know, you're an important piece to the puzzle when it comes to, you know, people just improving their lives and living large and learning and about what it takes to really be successful. And I thank you and I you thank, thank your listeners for listening in and hopefully we've covered some areas here that can really get people excited and get a few lights to go on over people's heads to go, hey, wow, this helped and that helped and these things are important for me to focus on and if we've done that today, then I'm thrilled and that's why I'm in this business. It's nice to be successful. But when you see people who have actually taken what you've done and changed their lives, that's the best feeling in the world.

Yep, totally. Can you just say bring it? I mean, as goofy as that sounds, just maybe like bring it in some sort of seductive voice perhaps.

I want you people, you lovers of Joe to bring it, do your best and forget the rest. Because if you don't, life will be a bleak and horrible place.

But if you do, you'll have the.

Life you have always wanted. So like I said, bring it. Awesome.

Thank you, Matt. I appreciate it.

You're very welcome, Joe. All the best my friend.

Hello, this is Joe Polish. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this interview. I hope you found it very useful. Please give me your feedback on all of the interviews that you listen to. I'd love to hear your feedback so we can always deliver a great program for you. Our website is www.joepolish.com and we also have a Joe Polish Recommends section. So you can take a lot of the ideas and concepts that you hear on my Genius Network interview series and apply them to your business and find vendors and resources. You can go to joepolish.com to find that information and click on the Joe Polish Recommends section. And also if you would like to find out about more interviews and invest in more useful Genius Network series interviews, go to www.gieniusnetwork.com. thanks and eat your competition.

Alright Sam.