RippedNRich.oRg

This entry makes me smile…

July 18, 2007

 My First Glimpse of the MDB Coaching Program

 I can’t believe how much time I am spending writing about my experience with Million Dollar Body in these journal entries.  This journal was intended to be about working out with P90X… and it is.  Only, I have discovered that working out with P90X does not merely involve “pushing play”, as Tony is always encouraging you to do.  Rather, if you want it too, working out with P90X involves a whole community, which I had not anticipated, as well as additional financial opportunities, which I certainly had not anticipated.

 I discovered and wrote about the Million Dollar Body Game a couple weeks ago.  I discovered and wrote about the Million Dollar Body Success Story Contest yesterday.  Well, I did a little more digging last night after I had completed my journal entry, wondering what else I may still be missing, and I cannot believe what I found out about the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program.

 Obviously, I knew about the MDB Coaching Program before.  I’ve written about my wonderful experience with my MDB Coach, Coach McD, already.  However, until last night, I did not have the slightest inkling as to what the MDB Coaching Program truly was.

 Shortly after my initial interaction with Coach McD, I checked out his MDB website.  I thought it was cool that MDB provides every MDB Coach with a webpage.  I also noticed that he mentioned something about his appreciation for the MDB Coaching Program and “the opportunities it offers, both professionally and physically” and an “improved quality of life both financially and through better health,” but this was not what I was focusing on.  If I did give it a second thought, I’m sure I figured that MDB was offering a small stipend to its coaches or something.  (In fact, when I just went back to find these quotes, it took me awhile to locate them, they were so buried within his bio and given so little importance.)

 However, last night, I took a closer look at the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program and quickly fired off an email to Coach McD… to say the least, I am intrigued!…

 As you know if you have been reading this blog, I am now an MDB Coach.  As if a gift from God, the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program came at the time that I needed it most!

 But there will be more on this in upcoming journal entries…

This series of three emails ended my initial correspondence with Coach McD. They were written on the 11^th, so my neck had yet to stiffen up, which is why there is no mention of it. I thought about writing Coach McD to ask him about it, but it didn’t take long before it started feeling better, so I never did.

July 12, 2007

“Unfun Memories” with Coach McD

After Coach McD’s prompt and detailed response to my question about my shoulders and pull-ups, I wanted to write to thank him and respond to his advice.

Here’s what I wrote:

Hi Coach McD,

Thanks for your quick reply.

The problem is free weights are difficult for me right now, as I am traveling/moving around a lot. I suppose the bands, like the nautilus machine, don’t provide the same kind of effect as the free weights… but P90X with the B-lines Bands should get me on the path that you are talking about just by making me stronger, no?

I used the chair with the pull ups today rather than using the bands per your recommendation and it was easier than I thought it would be.

Thanks for the help.

-James

P.S. The tightness behind my shoulder blade isn’t there so much at the moment.

I didn’t say much, and wasn’t necessarily expecting a response this time, but I got one:

Jim,

Sorry -forgot that you mentioned using the bands. I would guess that they offer very similar results as the weights actually. A nautilus machine typically has only one movement, or track. You can push sideways on a device that only moves up and down, but it won’t budge to the side, meaning that you don’t have to use any other muscles to keep it from moving to the side. The machine does that for you. Only the very narrow range of muscle responsible for the up and down movement will have to engage.

However, I betcha the bands will perform very much like weights. There is no track that you are locked into when exercising with them, which means that you have to incorporate all of the little, stabilizer muscles as well, just like weights. Besides, they are a great way to add strength, as you say.

Glad the pullup tip helped. You brought back some unfun memories with that

Mark

So, I responded back:

Hi Mark,

Sorry to bring back the “unfun memories”.

Looks like I was placed with the right coach. I look forward to conversing with you and sharing my shoulder woes. (But hopefully there won’t be many.)

Thanks, James

Which is precisely how I feel. It’s cool that Million Dollar Body provides you with a coach in the first place. It is even cooler that mine responds. Yet even cooler that mine responds with so much detail. And it’s the coolest that mine has shoulder issues just like me. The folks at Million Dollar Body must be psychic or something!

I wonder if Coach McD has neck issues…

While this may have ended my initial correspondence with Coach McD, this certainly did not end my correspondence with him. In fact, we have been corresponding with some frequency. For, the next time I contacted him, it was to ask him about the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program…

After receiving Coach McD’s response I was pumped to pump out some pull-ups.

July 11, 2007

Day 8: Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X

Well, I took Coach McD’s advice and used the chair during the pull-ups today. It was actually easier than I thought it was going to be. It worked out quite well and I felt like I got a much better burn going during the pull-ups this week than last week.

Here’s my Chest & Back Stats:

• Standard Push-Ups: 12, 8; 15, 10
• Wide Front Pull-Ups: 5, 3; 12, 14
• Military Push-Ups: 10, 6; 12, 8
• Reverse Grip Chin-Ups: 5, 3; 12, 10
• Wide Fly Push-Ups: 10, 10; 12, 12
• Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups: 3, 2; 12, 12
• Decline Push-Ups: 8, 5; 8, 3
• Heavy Pants: 10, 10 orange; 15, 10 orange
• Diamond Push-Ups: 10, 3; 8, 6
• Lawnmowers: 12, 15 orange; 15, 15 orange
• Dive-Bomber Push-Ups: 10, 5; 8, 8
• Back Flys: 10, 10 orange; 15, 15 orange

Just a short journal entry today, as I want to drop Coach McD another email to tell him the spot under my right shoulder blade feels better today, thank him for his prompt and detailed response, inform him that I am following his advice about the pull-ups, and ask him how his advice regarding free weights applies to doing P90X with the B-lines Bands.

My next letter to my MDB Coach, Coach McD, and his response will be coming shortly…

As I said at the end of my last post, I sure did receive a response from Coach McD.

Here’s my journal entry:

July 11, 2007

Coach McD’s Response

When I woke up this morning the soreness behind my right shoulder blade had significantly lessoned.

When I checked my email, I was happy to see that Coach McD had responded to my letter and I was most impressed with his lengthy response.

Here it is:

Hi James,

Funny you should mention the loose shoulder…

I played on a Jr. Olympic volleyball team in high school, back in the late ’80’s, and then on a serious USVBA club team later in college. I’m 6′04, and my position was strong-side hitter. I actually hit with both arms, depending on the called play, or the quickset (one). We used to warm-up by standing near a wall, and spiking the ball down onto the floor so that it would bounce up, into the wall, and move upward and back, toward the hitter, so that you could continue striking the ball over and over again without having to catch it. We did this thousands of times, over the years, to get loose.

I was also the middle blocker. To block in volleyball, I would take a step or two to the spot where I needed to set the defense. The side blockers would then set up next to me on either side, and we would jump together against the offensive strike. The blocking motion goes from arms down, to arms straight up -while jumping. This occurred every time the other team was in the offensive play. My shoulders got pretty loose as well. One or the other would pop out, just for a moment, as you described, usually when landing. I had many spells with a sling, two or three weeks at a time.

I also played baseball, one year of football, two years of basketball, and golf. There was a while there, when my left shoulder would pop so loudly during my backswing that my buddies would say something like “Oh my god man, doesn’t that hurt when it does that?” I only heard it when I practiced. I was so into the shot when on a course that I never even heard it there. The point is that I know exactly what you are talking about, and here’s what has helped me:

Free weights.

Lifting weights over the years has minimized nearly every sports related injury I’ve ever had to the point that I do not feel at this time that I have any real or impairing sports injuries from my youth that have followed or lingered along with me to the present day. In my non-medical opinion, great athletes play their game loose, and relaxed. Muscular tension slows and restricts the range of motion. You can watch the biggest, most muscle-bound boxer fight, and I guarantee you that he is at his best when his arms are relaxed, and he is loose. I feel that most injuries occur when a guy tenses or tightens up. My earlier experience as a police officer demonstrated the same principle on accident scenes where alcohol was a factor. The people who were really loaded, or even passed out at the time suffered far fewer injuries as a result of being in a serious state of relaxation. The person who saw it coming almost always tensed up, and generally suffered greater physical injuries as a result.

This type of shoulder injury occurs, in my humble, non-professional opinion, when the connective tissues are stretched repeatedly due to the lack of muscular support -when the muscles are relaxed during strenuous activity. It isn’t really an injury per se, as much as it is simply the fact that all of the tendons and ligaments are longer than they should be, which allows the limb to slip out of the socket. Again, this is based completely on personal experience, and some thought.

The good news is, that several doctors have told me that connective tissue does shrink back a bit on its own, over time. That implies that sitting around on your can is the best strategy. I can’t sit still long enough, nor am I willing to suffer the atrophy which would result from that implication.

I have found that weight lifting speeds up the process, in part because lifting automatically strengthens the muscles surrounding the connective tissues which lends support to the joint, and partly because the actual act of lifting weights also works directly on the connectors themselves. When you tax the muscle with free weights, as opposed to nautilus type machines, you must employ all of the stabilizing muscles and ligaments just to keep the movement in good form. Muscle tissue is torn down, and rebuilds itself with more fibers, adding strength, bone density increases, and the joint seems to suck itself back into place. You can’t quote me on this because people would laugh at your unqualified source. You can take this for what it’s worth, from one separating-shoulder(s)-having-guy to the next; it really worked for me. My shoulder hasn’t popped in ages. It hasn’t popped out in years, and thanks to creatine, I have never been stronger in my life.

As the pull-ups go, I would set a chair just below, and just away from the bar. Hang from the bar, bend and cross your legs, and put your lowest tow on the seat of the chair. You can assist your pull-up by simply pushing your toe against the seat of the chair. Use a lot of assist in the beginning, and gradually get yourself to the point that the chair is unnecessary. You may not want to hang all of the way down in the first several weeks. Don’t let your arms straighten completely out, as that would start to pull the arm out of the socket. As your shoulders get stronger, and tighter, you can gradually begin to straighten them out a bit more each week.

At USAIRBORNE school down at Ft. Benning, they made us do pull-ups before every meal. I got to where I could do about 20 or so after three weeks of that. The first week, many of us needed another dirty rotten leg (the instructor’s pet names for the trainees) to hold our feet, in the same crossed and bent form I just mentioned, so that we could push off of their hands while we got used to doing the pull-ups. By the third week, we were all knocking them out pretty easily but without help.

I would think seriously about hitting the weights. Don’t kill yourself in the beginning. Light to medium weight, 10-12 reps, and go from there. It just might work for your shoulders like it did mine.

Hope this gives you something to try. Keep me posted on your progress.

Mark

CoachMcD

Wow! I was hoping for some sort of a response, but I certainly was not anticipating something so lengthy, especially given that he got back to me the next day. These Million Dollar Body Coaches obviously take their coaching seriously… or at least Coach McD does… and a fellow shoulder-dislocator to boot… how about that!

With support like this, I’m sure to make it through the 90 days of P90X!

This was not the last time I would correspond with Coach McD. Click on his name to read more about him and his experience with Million Dollar Body and the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program.

As I said at the end of my last post, I’m actually glad that I experienced that bad soreness beneath my right shoulder blade, because it led to my contacting my MDB Coach, which led to my becoming an MDB Coach, which led to this blog.

Here’s my journal entry about the letter I wrote my MDB Coach, Coach McD:

July 10, 2007

My Letter to Coach McD

When you sign up with Million Dollar Body, you get assigned a coach. Given the bad soreness behind my right shoulder blade, I decided this would be a good time to introduce myself to my coach, Coach McD, and pick his brain a bit.

Here’s what I wrote:

Hi Coach McD,

I just completed my first week of P90X, and I really enjoyed it!

I wanted to write to introduce myself to you and ask a question.

I haven’t been too sore this week and the soreness I have had has been good soreness with one exception. There is an area underneath my right shoulder blade that is feeling quite tight. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t too bad. (I think it came mostly from punching a bit too hard yesterday with Kenpo X.)

However, this is an area that I need to be careful about as it is always tight because my shoulders are too loose and I am prone to shoulder dislocations. I was a three sport athlete in high school, and my already loose shoulders where further loosened by multiple dislocations playing football, basketball, and, to some extent, baseball… and when I say multiple I’m talking like 25 times each. My shoulder would pop out and pop back in… It would hurt… Numbness would set in… I’d slowly regain feeling… and I was ready to go. I elected to go to a great books college (St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM) rather than pursue any athletic ambitions and I haven’t flexed my muscles much, other than my brain muscles, over the past 9 years (I’m 27). (Although my nutritional health has improved greatly over this time period, so I’m in decent shape… 5’9”, 153, 11%.) Now, for many reasons, I have decided that it is time for me to start working out again.

Anyway, other than any general advice you may have for taking care of my loose shoulders while doing P90X, I was wondering the following in particular: I’m trying to figure out what to do about pull ups… You see, it’s really not good for me to hang loose from a bar and I think pull ups are my weak spot. In the test I maxed out to failure at 6, and am capable of doing no more than 3-5 per set. I feel like this is not enough reps to really be effective. (I want to be able to do at least 8 right?) So, I was thinking about trying out the bands this week and perhaps trying using a chair with the pull up bar in the third week (although this is kind of difficult as my doorway pull up bar is already fairly close to the ground… it might be better just to do them with my feet on the floor).

Any thoughts?

Much Thanks, James

Hopefully, I will get a response from Coach McD soon. It would be really cool if this turned out to be a helpful/supportive aspect of my P90X experience.

Well, I sure did receive a response from Coach McD! Stay tuned…

Hello All and Welcome to RippedNRich.oRg!!!

It was a month ago today, July 4^th, 2007, that I announced my Personal Declaration of Independence from a sedentary lifestyle and the resulting feeling of physical weakness, and I began the P90X Extreme Home Fitness Program.

My experience with P90X began well before I actually began the program, as there was a fair amount of preparation involved. However, despite all the preparation, I never anticipated that, a month into the P90X program, it would become the focus of my life.

The P90X program itself is fantastic. I am impressed with each and every workout that I complete. I have already experienced great gains physically, mentally, and emotionally as a result of P90X. However, I was anticipating this.

What I was not anticipating was the community associated with P90X, of which I am now a part, and the financial opportunity associated with P90X, which I am now pursuing. The community of which I speak is the Million Dollar Body Community. The financial opportunity of which I speak is the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program.

This website and blog are a testament to the impact that P90X and the Million Dollar Body Community and Coaching Program has already had on my life.

I have been keeping a journal of my P90X experience and, as it turns out, Million Dollar Body experience. With my excitement for P90X and Million Dollar Body growing every day, I have decided to make my journal public by means of this blog so that others can learn from my experience and decide whether they too want to “Bring It!” with P90X and/or Million Dollar Body.

I will begin this blog by editing my previous journal entries and posting those at the rate of a couple per day. Once I get caught up to the present day, I will continue posting in “real time”, so to speak.

The P90X program is broken up into three phases and runs for a total of 90 days (hence the 90 in P90X). I just completed the first phase and intend to be caught up with the posts at the end of the 90 days.

I have big plans for this website and blog. For starters, I will soon set up a mailing list that will deliver my posts directly to your inbox. Until then, be sure to bookmark the blog, subscribe to the RSS feed, and visit often.

My next few posts will detail my experience with the P90X Prep and Fit Test.

Bring It!

-Coach James