By Layne Ogle
Staff Writer
Tony Horton, creator of the revolutionary exercise regimen P90X, is coming to Bakersfield for one day only. On Saturday, May 17, at California State University, Bakersfield, Horton will be speaking about his “11 Laws of Fitness” book that was published in February as well as sharing other active lifestyle tips.
“I really honestly believe that these 11 things, that if you apply them to your life, it doesn’t only improve you physically but also mentally and emotionally,” Horton said.
This event is also going to host Senior VP of Global Sales from Team Beachbody, Jeff Hill, who is going to speak along with several other guest speakers and top coaches. The afternoon portion of the event will end with a live work out with Tony Horton himself.
After a phone interview with Horton about his upcoming event, he said, “I’m really looking forward to it; we’re going to have some fun. It’s going to be really cool.”
Horton is very excited to share what he knows about fitness with other interested people.
L: I was just hoping to talk to you a little bit about your event coming up next weekend here.
T: Yeah, absolutely.
L: Well, we’re really excited about you coming. What made you choose Bakersfield as a destination?
T: Well I’m familiar with some of the folks that are running the event, and I’m kind of a fan of what they’re doing. There’s some Beachbody coaches that are there and they’re doing a good job and helping a lot of folks, and I also understand that there’s been a lot of interest in the area. So, It’s not that far for me to come; I’m down here in L.A. so it just kind of made perfect sense for me to come up and kind of share what I know with people.
L: Yeah absolutely. Now I know that you started the Power 90 Series in the early 2000s so I was just curious how you think each new program has improved over the years?
T: Well, you know Power 90 was our first attempt to getting people to move six days a week in eating better. I’ve felt that a program like that had more value than expecting that you’re going to get really great results than just doing one thing or maybe just an elliptical machine, or just running, or just weight lifting there’s a lot of variety in it. I think that variety is the key to staying interested over the course of 90 days, preventing injuries, and making sure that you see results, the kind of results that you would expect from that kind of variety six days a week.
The programs, I don’t know if we can say they’ve improved one to the next, I mean I’ve certainly learned more. You know, Power 90 was the beginning, and then P90X we turned up the volume a little bit made the work outs a little bit longer, gave people even more variety. And then P90X2 is when we get into some more athletic training, at that point, really taking people and getting into the appropriate steps of fitness, and strengthening all the connective tissues and really making sure everything in your body could move more athletically.
And P90X3, I think that the evolution there was you could still get phenomenal full body workouts, but you don’t necessarily need the full hour, if you have the full hour, you’ve got P90X, but if time is your excuse, X3 is an excuse killer because they’re only half an hour.
L: What would you say has been your biggest asset that has contributed to how successful these programs have been?
T: Well I would say that, the variety is probably one of the key aspects. It really is, and I think the way I deliver it helps. I think anybody gravitates to if you’ve got different coaches, mentors and teachers, right? In school, for example, you’ve got some classes that you’re really fired up to go to because you really like the instructor.
Other classes are just a drag because the instructor is just kind of a ‘wet rag.’ And what I try to do is add the fun factor; I really try to add the humor and the fun. And I think, thirdly, I’m a big believer in modified forms of the exercise. So if there’s a very clear path between beginner, intermediate, and advanced during the course of the work out there’s a greater likelihood that you’ll get excited about it and not beat yourself up if you can’t do the extreme version perfectly, and I think that’s really important.
L: What would you say has been your biggest challenge so far throughout the career of the series?
T: Always coming up with something fresh and new. There’s a lot of trainers out there that kind of stick with what they know. Maybe they’re purely Pilates, or yoga, or mixed martial arts, or weight lifting, or core and functional fitness, and I try to work really hard at becoming familiar with as many types of routines as possible; which means that even at this stage in the game I have to continue to expand my fitness repertoire, and always search for newer better cooler more interesting ways to train.
L: Now, when you get results back from people who have done your program for 90 days, how does that make you feel, personally, to see how you’ve changed their lives?
T: Well it’s a confirmation that you’re doing the right thing. The last thing you want to hear is negative feedback in how your stuff doesn’t work, and I’ve been really fortunate that I haven’t had really much feedback like that. I mean one size does not fit all, so I can’t assume that everyone is going to like everything I do. We’ve sold millions and millions of copies of my programs, so it’s just a verification that six days a week is important, making sure that you’re working out at least five or six days a week, and that you’re working on your weaknesses as much as your strengths.
People always say, ‘I couldn’t even do half of these moves when I started, but with some time and effort I was able to transform my body, not because I was doing the things I was already pretty good at, but because I was working on exercises that were brand new to me.’ And that’s impressive when people want to take that challenge, most people don’t. They like to stick with what they know. So you’re getting weight lifters to do Pilates and yoga, and you’re getting women who like cardio to start lifting weights, that’s the neat part about what I’ve done so far.
L: What’s your favorite workout?
T: I love anything that involves pull ups and push-ups. That’s where I live; cardio is not my favorite thing in the world. It takes me a good 10 minutes into the workout where I feel like I can hang. I’m a fast-twitch athlete; which means I like short little bursts of exercise not long-term duration exercises. Like running or 45 minutes on the elliptical I’m like ‘God I want to kill myself.’ I just do something really, really hard and then I take a break and then I do something really, really hard; and a lot of those studies are showing that that is less taxing on your body and can create better results in a shorter period of time than long-term cardiovascular exercises. And that is not to say that long-term cardio isn’t good for you, it is. It’s all heart, lungs, and legs; those are three areas that certainly need to be addressed when it comes to physical activity.
L: I know that a lot of people, myself included, struggle with maintaining a well-balanced diet while busy in school and trying to keep working out so what would you suggest to people like me?
T: I think the problem with food is if everybody had the facts on the effects of certain kinds of foods and how detrimental they are, I mean the kind of long term illness, poor brain function, liver and pancreas damage, the trials and tribulations of high glycogen numbers. If people really knew how bad fast food was, and factory food, and manufactured food, and processed food, then they would make an effort to eat better, they would figure it out. There’s a lot of people who know that smoking is bad for you, I mean the memo is out, and people avoid smoking cigarettes because the dangers are so high.
If you knew the dangers of too much saturated fat, and hydrogenated oils, and high fructose corn syrup, and other kinds of processed sugars, and the chemicals that are in so many of these processed foods, you wouldn’t even think twice, even if it was difficult; and I think that most people just aren’t aware. I mean there it is, it’s convenient, it’s cheap, it tastes really, really good, so people fall prey to a bad diet and hope that down the road they’ll change it or maybe they’ll use exercise as an excuse to continue to eat that way. Every single mean is either going to increase your ageing process or slow it down.
It’s really a matter of choosing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats or everything else that we’re addicted to. And that’s not to say you can’t enjoy life and have a chocolate chip cookie or a couple of French fries once in a while, or a coke, but in reality, that’s the stuff that is damaging the internal organs that keep us alive. A lot of people need to take a nutrition course; a lot of people who take a nutrition course change their diet dramatically because they understand how bad so much stuff out there is.
L: I know that you have two fitness books out already, one that was published this last February, I believe.
T: That’s right ‘The Big Picture,’ and the one before that was actually an E-book that was kind of fun, it was a bunch of videos, it was called ‘Crush It.’ The first one was ‘Bring It,’ the second one was ‘Crush It,’ and now the third one is ‘The Big Picture.’
L: Do you approach nutrition at all in any of those?
T: Always, because they go hand in hand. You can’t exercise with the hope you can eat whatever you want. Now, I’m not a nutritionist, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what’s good for you and what’s bad for you. So there’s menus in there and there’s a general philosophy on the effects of healthy food as opposed to the effects of unhealthy food. Most adults know the difference; it’s just finding the formula, or the plan, that will allow you to eat healthier foods more often than not.
L: How do you think your books differ from what you accomplish during a workout video?
T: Well a workout video is a workout. You sit there and you jump around and hopefully you enjoy it and you come back again; whereas a book is just information that you need so that you can maintain and sustain that philosophy. People always say ‘why 11 laws?’ And my joke is always ‘the 10 commandments were taken,’ or ‘the 12 steps were taken,’ so I found a nice number in the middle. I really honestly believe that these 11 things, that if you apply them to your life, it doesn’t only improve you physically but also mentally and emotionally.
We forget that the physical is connected to the mental and emotional; they’re not separate entities. So when you move physically, you have a mental and emotional lift; when you don’t move physically, you have a mental and emotional stagnation, or downtime. So if you look at food and exercise as a means to build a foundation to the other aspects of your life, then you’re going to be a happy and productive human being, you’re going to be a happy and productive, authentic, adventurous individual. If you eat garbage, and you don’t exercise, you’re not building the foundation to be the best person that you need to be. I think that’s really important, and ‘The Big Picture’ is really helping people connect the physical, emotional, and mental.
L: I know that you had a couple programs, a few years back, called ‘Tony and the Kids’ and ‘Tony and the Folks.’
T: Yes, classics.
L: Do you have any plans in the future to go back to doing something with kids or back to doing something with seniors?
T: You know, that’s a great question, and unfortunately I don’t control the direction in which Beachbody wants to go when it comes to developing programs. I wish I did, I just don’t. So I’m always begging them to do something for them. Especially now that the Baby Boomers are getting up into their late 50s, 60s, and 70s it’s really important, I think, to be able to help those folks come up with some stuff. And a lot of them do P90X or Power 90. Especially for kids; but the one thing about kids that we’re discovering is that young kids don’t have the attention span to sit in front of their televisions and exercise. They should be outside on the swing-set, they should be on their bikes, they should be playing, they should be outdoors playing. So, it really comes down to what the corporate entity of Beachbody wants to invest their money in. If it were up to me, I would make a video for kids on a rainy day, so that way if was raining outside there’s something for them to do indoors. I think it’s long overdue, I’d love to do another one.
L: What are your plans to further expand the P90 series, or do you not have control over that as well?
T: Well, there’s two new projects coming out, we’ve just shot them. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what they are yet, they’re top secret because they have special launch dates. I can tell you that one will be out in June and the other one will be out in September. So it’s really exciting. They’re similar philosophy, making sure people work out on a regular basis, but all new moves and all new sequences; so two more coming out in June and September. But outside of Beachbody we’re working on a clothing line. Tony Horton Fitness or Tony Horton Apparel, so that’s really exciting.
And the other thing too, which is kind of fun, is Tony Horton Kitchen. So, if people went to TonyHortonKitchen.com, they could have fresh, organic food delivered to the door. The meals are about $9 to $14 each, so if you’re doing the paleo or flexitarian ones, you get beef, buffalo, bison, chicken and that one’s more expensive; the Vegan one is a little bit cheaper because it’s vegetables, rice and beans. But you could do it for a week; and let’s say, for example, you’re getting ready for an event, and the whole food thing is just hard to figure out. You can order it for a couple three weeks, loose a bunch of weight and cancel it anytime. But a lot of people have been on it for over a year. They just love the food, it comes on a regular basis, keeps them happy, keeps them thin, they don’t have to think about it.
Our motto is ‘heat it up, eat it up,’ and throw away the recycle containers; it’s that simple.
L: I also know that you represent a lot of brands like Shakeology; what do you see in the future for a program like that?
T: Well Shakeology is a meal replacement shake. What it does is it’s another excuse killer. A lot of people say ‘oh I don’t have access to healthy food.’ Well you can have access to water, ice cubes, and a blender I hope, and if you do you can have a really yummy, super, nutrient dense meal replacement. Now if you want to add a banana, or cashews, or berries, or something else you have that option too if you want more calories. But it’s just a really simple, easy way to eat, to have a healthy meal. It’s a plan to help you lose some weight and have some energy for the workouts; and there’s 72 ingredients from around the world, I mean, you kind of can’t go wrong.
L: Well on a different note, I’ve heard from around town that people have called you ‘Uncle Tony;” have there been any other nicknames that you’ve acquired over the years?
T: I get ‘Tony Horton Head,’ that’s one I’ve heard, ‘The Prince of Fitness,’ I’ve heard that one, I like that one. And the other ones are probably too rude to talk about.
L: Well we’re really excited to have you here, next weekend.
T: I’m really looking forward to it; we’re going to have some fun. It’s going to be really cool.
L: I appreciate you taking the time and talking to me.
T: Oh my pleasure, any way we can help spread the word is a good thing. So, I’m glad we had a chance to talk.
Event Info:
Saturday May 17
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In the CSUB SRC Gymnasium (not the Icardo Center)
Tickets available through www.eventzilla.net
General Admission: $37.50
Student Admission (must present student ID): $5.00
Online Sale ends May 14
Tickets will be $50 at the door
