When Nick Miller and I first started talking about the direction we wanted Pipe School to go at its new home on Quality Briar, one of the things we discussed was occasionally having pieces not related to pipes. While we all do love pipes and tobacco and everything remotely related, we also have other interests and those interests should not be neglected.

One passion of mine is exercise. I’m big on eating healthily and staying in shape as much as I can. I know that a lot of people out there in the pipe world are equally interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle but often consider themselves too busy to do so, and it is for this reason that I share my story.

When I was thirteen, I started working out with a personal trainer so that I could learn how to safely and efficiently exercise. When the later half of high-school and the first part of college rolled around, however, I found myself unable to keep that up. I stopped working out almost entirely. While this did not have a huge negative effect on me in any visible way, I felt it: I missed working out and the energy and sense of well-being that it brought.

Then, in the Summer of 2011, I wrote my old personal trainer to ask him to help me put together a workout program for myself. In response, he suggested that I check out something called P90X. He expected that I had probably seen infomercials about it — I had not — but suggested that I check it out and give it some serious thought.

Within a week, I purchased the program and started testing it out.

Before I go any further, allow me to say that I am not affiliated with the P90X company, Beachbody, in any way and I am not receiving any form of compensation. Blah, blah, blah, legal stuff.

Now, for those of you who are not familiar, P90X is short for Power 90 Extreme, which is a 90-day, home-fitness program. It has three phases and relies on something known as muscle confusion. While there is debate as to the validity of the concept of muscle confusion, what it practically means in the P90X program is that the three phases target your muscles in different ways, something which is nearly universally agreed upon to be a good thing. Changing your program every week: bad. Changing it every now and then: good.

One of the major advantages of the program is that it does not require you to go to the gym. The minimum required equipment is exercise bands, about a forty dollar expenditure. I use a lot more equipment than this (weights, medicine balls, stability ball, etc.), but that is the minimum required.

It also doesn’t take a lot of time. The routines average about an hour a day, six days a week. Now, that might sound like a long time with such a busy schedule, but when you consider the amount of time you normally spend getting to the gym, changing, waiting for machines to becomes available, etc., you end up saving a lot of time. You also speed up your progress by reducing your waiting time, both as a result of doing it at home and having the guide on the DVD. Most people take very long breaks between exercises at the gym, while P90X keeps you on track.

It isn’t all weightlifting, either. Three days a week, you do resistance exercises, while the other three involve kenpo (karate), yoga, and plyometrics (jumping exercises). These three will help get you into shape in different ways, by burning calories and stretching and strengthening the muscles. Just as a point of reference, I burn over 700 calories in the forty minutes of active working out during the Plyometrics program.

One of the other advantages is that every single move has a “modification” for those who are either exhausted or have previous injuries. In leg exercises, for example, there is also showing you how to remove the impact from your knee, so you can still get a good workout despite any injuries.

I’m not going to lie, this program is extreme. I have finished my first round of P90X and am currently on the last month of P90X2. If you work at it, though, this program is very successful. I have gained strength (going from 25lbs to 52lbs on some of my back exercises), regained my energy, and feel a lot better. Don’t worry, I’m not going to show before and after pictures!

I cannot recommend this program highly enough. Beachbody, the company behind P90X, does make other programs that are slightly less intense and, I have heard, are still very successful.

If anyone out there has tried this program or any other similar ones (I am starting Insanity within a month), please share your story.

Be well and pipe-related writing will return in a couple of days!