I think if I were single and childless, I would rarely exercise. That sort of attitude, based on what I’ve seen in research, is probably pretty common among men; researchers have found that unmarried men are less healthy than married ones.
Now that I'm 36, I get it; my wife and my son inspire me to take care of myself. Without them, the enormous amount of motivation it takes to work out regularly would be gone.
But now that I’m married with one son and our second child due any day now, I have the incentive I need to live to a ripe old age.
But do I have the time? For the last four years, I’ve pretty much convinced myself that I don’t.
It is incredibly easy to come up with excuses to not work out. After all, what is more important: spending time with your child or going to the gym or isolating yourself in the basement to get a good workout done?
Fortunately, the folks at Beach Body, led by the incomparable Tony Horton, have “officially retired” that excuse. They’ve done it with the brand new P90X3.
When I heard about P90X3, I was immediately interested in it because of the very simple and compelling premise that each workout in the 90-day regimen is only 30 minutes long. They call it “muscle acceleration.”
My wife and I completed the original P90X program right after our first son was born in January of 2010. We LOVED it, and we both got amazing results. I lost 13 pounds and got much stronger and more defined. But the workouts were long; about an hour each, some of them even longer.
We were able to do it because infants take lots of naps. But toddlers don’t. So, once our son grew up and became a child who always wants mommy’s and daddy’s attention, I pulled the old “I don’t have time to work out” excuse off the shelf.
So, for the last three-plus years, my only work outs have been 15-minute ones, twice a week, where I’d do some squats, pull ups, bench press, and a few other things here and there just to make sure I don’t get completely out of shape. But, as you can guess, it isn’t really working…
Enter P90X3.
The good people at Beach Body – the makers of P90X – have generously donated two copies of the program to the two dad bloggers here at NFI – myself and Ryan Sanders. Ryan and I have just begun the program, and we will document our journey right here on The Father Factor. Two other blogs also received copies of the program – Life of Dad and Dads Matter. Their bloggers will be sharing in this journey, too.
We are all doing this because we want to be involved, active fathers in the lives of our children and wives for a long, long time. I am doing this because it is inexcusable for me to say, “I can’t spare 30 minutes for 90 days to change my life and change the legacy I leave for my children.”
I am pumped, no pun intended. As I write this, I have just completed the first week of the program. It absolutely kicked my butt in the best possible way. My chest is still sore from The Challenger work out I did on Sunday. But I haven’t felt this good or this confident in years.
We want you to get that same feeling. That’s why we are giving away two free copies of P90X3!
Again, the generous folks at Beach Body have given us two additional copies to give out as prizes. We want to use these as motivation for you to start your own exercise routine, and to tell us about it (on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or the blog comments) using the hashtag #P90X3Dads.
In about a week, we will pick someone at random to win the first free copy, so that he/she can join us as we complete the program. Then, we will do the same at the end of the 90 days for another lucky winner.
As for me and Ryan, every few weeks we will provide updates here on The Father Factor about how things are going. It is going to get interesting for me. Our second child will be born when I am about a month into the program. The 30-minutes per day philosophy will really be put to the test then. Will I be able to stick with it and still care for my wife, newborn, and pre-schooler? We shall see…
For now, here are my Day 1 photos. I am hoping that on Day 90 I have a smaller stomach, more muscle, and better cardiovascular health.
Note: No dad was paid for this post. We were, however, given a base kit and two kits to giveaway because the Beach Body folks are so awesome. Tell us: who do you exercise for?
