Posts Tagged ‘sports’

How to Improve at Sports without Playing Sports

Monday, July 6th, 2009

A couple of months ago I played basketball and made the observation that it went pretty well considering I hadn’t played basketball in years. Well, the other day I decided to pump up a deflated ball gathering dust and mold in our garage and put my post-P90X physique to the test just casually shooting around at our condo’s tennis court / basketball court.  Even though this wasn’t overly intense activity, my experience was surprising!

If you’ve ever played sports and felt “connected” to what you’re doing, maybe even in the zone, you’ll know the difference between that and coming back to a sport you haven’t played in years. In general, when you feel in the zone with something, you feel like you have something to offer that activity, and that activity has something to offer you. In contrast, when you’re coming back to an activity you haven’t engaged in for years — particularly a more strenuous activity — you feel more like you should be slumping in defeat in the mere presence of that activity and that activity wants nothing in return but your demise and exile from the land of the living.

The past couple of days with basketball have been pretty encouraging. I felt completely coordinated, and my shot was weirdly accurate considering it had no good reason to be. Generally it’s been my experience that it takes several days, even several weeks to get a basketball shot reasonably back after being dormant for even a few months. For me it has been maybe 80% of the way (or even better) there already, which is way different from my previous history of chucking air balls and bricks when first coming back to basketball after long hiatuses. In general my shots felt strong and crisp, dribbling was easy, and I felt agile. Added bonus? I was able to dunk again for the first time in about a decade. Granted, it was no LeBron James backboard destroyer or anything, but it was an honest-to-god hand-touching-ball-while-simultaneously-touching-rim-while-also-penetrating-basket combo;  enough even to remind me of one of the few areas p90X does absolutely nothing for — hand sensitivity! You may not believe it, but ANY form of dunking hurts for the uninitiated. This is an under-discussed aspect about dunking (where are all the confused, frustrated, outraged sensitive-hand-dunker-bloggers?) This means my guitar playing would be fraught with similar under-callousing / under-conditioning issues I’d need to address independently from P90X, but these are minor quibbles at best.

In a future blog post I’ll try to highlight more where I think P90X really excels, where it falls a bit flat, and who would most benefit from the program. I’ve kind of touched on these issues in the past, but I haven’t really dug deep into them, and I think it’s worth exploring. I say that because my wife, with her newfound bounty of time from finishing grad school, has decided to not start back on P90X (so much for the web address’s premise!) but has instead started another interesting Beachbody program called Chalean Extreme.  She hasn’t gotten too far into the program, so the jury is out on how good of a fit it is for her, but I can certainly see some advantages with that program for her specific wants and needs over P90X. Maybe she’ll be so good to grace us with her presence for a moment to discuss the program when she gets a chance.

But who is P90X most ideally suited for? Any type of athlete? Certain types of athletes? Someone who wants to lose weight? Couch potatos who want to repent? Gym rats who need a change?  Someone who wants to bulk up? This is what I’ll take a stab at answering soon.

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P90X and Basketball

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

So I used a rest day to apply my newfangled P90X conditioning to an honest-to-god physical pursuit outside of the confines of our living room. I know, it’s crazy. But I decided to play basketball with several coworkers at the local elementary school.

Now, first of all, let me say that’s it’s strange to play basketball at an elementary school. Aside from feeling like giants trouncing upon the land of The Lilliputians, we all had to restrain ourselves from showering curse words and unholy invectives in the heat of battle, lest we corrupt the little ones or invite the ire of their ever watchful guardians. Hardly ideal, but at the same time a good check on the social graces.

And how did my basketball fare now that I’m almost done with 5 weeks of P90x?

To be fair, we have to evaluate the full context of the situation. I haven’t shot a basketball in at least two years, and I haven’t been in excellent cardiovascular shape for at least eight years. So for me to expect to go out for the first time in ages and become the resident LeBron James is obvious the sheerest sort of delusion.

With that said, though, I have to say I kept up reasonably well given that we were playing full (albeit Lilliputian style) court and almost everyone there had been playing for the past several weeks and months. I was perhaps the lone newb, but I managed to keep up with everyone most of the time. I also, perhaps sadistically, began spotting weaknesses in my newfound adversaries. “That one heaves after a dead sprint! That one lacks any vertical leap. That one clearly can’t handle sudden side-to-side gyrations!” And so forth.  The funny thing is, I was doing this even though I was breathing hard and sucking wind in-between trips up and down the court. P90X is funny in that in inspires that sort of strategic competitive vision.

My shot was abysmal and my passing skills were a shade better than horrible, but overall I felt the promise of tapping into the sport like never before. I knew that my present cardiovascular weakness could be shaken out in a few weeks of basketball on my rest days and that all my other growing strengths would eventually reinforce natural progressions in the game. I am developing a foundation for sports again, but more than that, I’m developing better self-awareness for my physical strengths and weaknesses. All the Plyometrics, Legs and Back routines, Yoga and Abripper really provide a formidable foundation for pursuing damn near any physical activity.

And here’s an important thing some people might not realize. P90X is really a strength-conditioning program with some cardio incorporated. It is NOT cardio focused. However, it’s a well-rounded conditioning program that will improve everything for someone who isn’t accustomed to a well-rounded regimen.

So if P90X isn’t cardio-focused, what can I do to amp up my cardio fitness?

Is Insanity Next?

As it turns out, Beachbody seems to have done its homework and has realized there’s a fitness niche it hasn’t yet fully exploited. There are various and sundry strength conditioning workouts (Think P90X and P90X Plus and Chalean Extreme) and light aerobic workouts (Think Hip Hop Abs), but there aren’t any workouts that do for cardiovascular training what P90X does for strength training.

Until this summer.

Apparently a 10-13 disk, 60 day program called Insanity is going to be released in the Juneish time frame if all goes well. And, well, it looks insane.

To get an idea of what the program is like, check out the video:

I don’t know for certain whether I will attempt this program. Hell, I only have five weeks of P90X under my belt and still eight more weeks to go. But here’s what I do know — I love the feeling of progress and improvement. I also know I haven’t really tapped into my cardio potential for nearly a decade and that even the mighty P90X isn’t designed for that.

So I’m eying Insanity with a cautious but respectful glint of intrigue. It seems to possess something I’m still missing. Something that would make full-court basketball seem like a relaxing break. Something that might crush my ego and rebuild me anew right when I’m starting to feel smug.

We’ll see.

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