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…

I did the X Stretch again at the end of the second week and I recall that it felt quite good.

However, when I sat down to write my journal entry that night, my mind was focused on something else…

July 17, 2007

Day 14: X Stretch

Million Dollar Body Success Story Contest

Well, I completed week two today. The stretching felt really good. I will write more about this routine in the future, but… I’m a little excited about something else at the moment.

I periodically get behind on my emails and end up spending an afternoon or more going through them and clearing out my inbox. Today I was doing just that when I opened up an email from Million Dollar Body entitled: “Check Out the Latest Winners of the Million Dollar Body Game!”

I wrote about the Million Dollar Body Game a couple weeks ago. To review (from my previous entry):

In order to play the Million Dollar Body Game you log in to MillionDollarBody.com, go to WOWY (Work Out With You… more on this later), click on “Start Your Workout Now”, select your exercise routine, and click “Continue.” At this point, you can post a message for your fellow WOWY gym rats to see (like I said, more on this later), or just click “Enter WOWY Now!” and start working out.

At this point, you have entered the Million Dollar Body Game and are eligible to win the daily prize. It looks like about 1000 people enter every day. Six days a week, the winner gets $300 or a physical prize like an iPod. Once a week, on the WOWY Mystery Day, the winner gets $1,000!

You can enter once per day and winners are chosen at random and notified by email when they are selected. Theoretically, you could win the daily prize every day. Highly unlikely…but possible. No purchase is required. You just have to have registered with WOWY and uploaded your picture to your profile.

So, when I opened up the aforementioned email this evening, I was expecting to see the winners of the aforementioned contest… Instead I saw the profiles of two people who had won $10,000 and five others who had won $1000 all under the title: “Check out the June Winners of the Million Dollar Body Game.” The winners were broken down by gender and age.

I was a little confused for a moment, before I remembered that I had seen something about a monthly “success story contest” as well. Now, I hadn’t paid any attention to this before. However, this email revealed something interesting to me…

As I said previously, there were two $10,000 winners pictured and five $1000 winners, but there should have been six. The sixth winner was missing because there were “no entries for Men age 20-29”… that’s me! This means that Million Dollar Body wanted to give away a grand to a male age 20-29 who had achieved success with the Million Dollar Body Products, and no one had shown up to claim it.

Sounds like an easy grand to me! I’m doing P90X anyway. I’m two weeks in and loving it. And, obviously, I’m doing this because I want results… without really being conscious of it, I already wanted to be a success story! Now, I’ve got at least a grand waiting for me as a little extra motivation… very cool.

Upon further research, I found out that the way it works it thus:

To enter the Million Dollar Body Success Story Contest, you need to be a member of the Million Dollar Body Club. I have known about the Club since I first registered with MDB, but I hadn’t really looked into it. I’ll look into the Club in more detain later, but it costs $3 a week and comes with lots of benefits.

Once you are a Club member, you just upload your “before” and “after” pictures to your Success Story page (which you get when you first register with MDB for free), add your stats (weight, body fat, etc.), and write a relatively brief transformation story. It takes MDB a day or two to approve your pictures, but once they have, you are ready to enter. You just log in to MDB and click “Enter the Success Story Contest.” You’ll be sent to your “profile page”, where you click “Submit my Success Story for the transformation contest!” That’s it!

There are eight winners every month, four men and four women. They are selected from four different age groups: 18-29, 30-39, 40-49, and 50+. The best male and female entries each month win $10,000 and the six other contestants win $1,000. Plus, all the monthly winners can compete in the annual contest, where six $50,000 prizes are awarded and the best male and female entries win the $250,000 Grand Prize!

I’m sure I will write more about this in the future and get into more detail… but this is great! I now understand why they call it “Million Dollar Body!”

I chuckle to myself now when I read that last sentence because, although I thought I knew why “they call it ‘Million Dollar Body’”, I only knew half of it. At the time, I was still unaware of the full benefits of the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program.

By the way, I’ll be finishing Phase II of P90X tomorrow and taking my pics and measurements, and I’d say my “Million Dollar Body Success Story” is coming along quite well!…

This was exciting…

July 16, 2007

Live Chat with Tony Horton

I just got out of a live chat with Tony Horton, and it was awesome!

When you register with Million Dollar Body, you receive a free newsletter in your inbox that, among other things, provides tips on getting in shape and information about their various products. While I was checking out the most recent newsletter, I noticed that Tony Horton had a “live chat” scheduled for this evening at 8 o’clock eastern time. I did not know exactly what this meant, but I thought I would check it out.

So, I logged into the Million Dollar Body chat room shortly after 8 and was met with a flurry of text messages streaming before me. Tony wasn’t even their yet. Nevertheless, everybody was already having a great time texting back and forth, joking around, and talking about fitness. I noticed right away that many of these people knew each other.

Quite a few of them were talking about “camp” and how awesome it was. Later, after Tony had made his entrance, I realized that he had recently conducted a fitness camp which many of these folks had attended and obviously loved. I can only assume that many of them knew each other before this most recent camp as well.

When Tony logged in just a few minutes after 8, it got even cooler. At first he was just chatting with everybody, saying hello, and goofing around. I was impressed that he knew many of them by their real names (as opposed to their screen names). It had the tenor of a “groupie fest”, and I don’t say that derogatorily… I’m quickly becoming a Tony Horton groupie myself.

After a little while, Tony asked how many of the folks on the chat were here for the first time. After witnessing the flurry of activity for the past 10 minutes and not adding to the discussion at all, I typed in, “my first time” (it felt good to add something, even if it was just “my first time”). Then Tony announced that he was about to start “pontificating”, which drew a flurry of hoots and jeers. I didn’t know what was about to happen, but those that did were awfully excited about it.

Tony then launched into a speech that was truly inspirational. There is no way I’m going to be able to do it justice here. However, I can give the highlights.

He began by saying that he and his products (Power 90, P90X, etc.) are not just about transforming your body… if that was all they were about, he wouldn’t be here. Rather, he makes these videos and comes to these chats and does these camps because he is in the business of transforming your whole person. He wants to influence you in such a way that you transform your lifestyle, which transforms not only your body, but your mind and soul as well.

It was really a powerful speech. He got really scientific for spells too, which I really like. He was talking about certain parts of your brain and the chemicals they release and how they make you feel good and at peace. Yeah, it was really a powerful speech. He went on for about 45 minutes and I really did feel inspired at the end.

One of the things that made it so inspirational was that, as Tony was talking, other folks in the chat room were typing in how he was right… how it had worked for them… how he had helped them do just what he was talking about.

It was really something else. The next chat is scheduled for the 30th and, even thought this one just ended, I can’t wait.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to make another one of Tony’s chats yet, but I will the next chance I get.

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…

This journal entry relates my first interaction with Million Dollar Body. This was the first day I made two separate journal entries. I had not been intending to write this entry, but I was excited about the coming day and by my discovery of the Million Dollar Body Game.

July 3, 2007

The Million Dollar Body Game

Well, I’m pumped! Tomorrow is the day… Independence Day! Yes, tomorrow is the day I honor the U.S.A.’s founders and founding ideals by declaring my own Independence from my recent sedentary lifestyle and the resulting feeling of physical weakness!

To get myself psyched up for my self-declared Independence Day, I decided to poke around on MillionDollarBody.com. I had already perused (which means to look through something thoroughly) P90X.com when I was deciding to purchase the program, and Beachbody.com when I was purchasing equipment and supplements. However, while I registered with MillionDollarBody.com a couple weeks ago, I had yet to explore the website, as recommended by the P90X Fitness Guide before you begin the program, until this evening. So, I checked it out tonight and was quite impressed.

There is much I could say about MillionDollarBody.com (it is very easy to register), and in no way did I explore all there was to explore in the hour or so that I spent poking around, but I want to highlight the Million Dollar Body Game in this journal entry.

In order to play the Million Dollar Body Game you log in to MillionDollarBody.com, go to WOWY (”Work Out With You”… more on this later), click on “Start Your Workout Now”, select your exercise routine, and click “Continue.” At this point, you can post a message for your fellow WOWY gym rats to see, or just click “Enter WOWY Now!” and start working out.

At this point, you have entered the Million Dollar Body Game and are eligible to win the daily prize. It looks like about 1000 people enter every day. Six days a week, the winner gets $300 or a physical prize like an iPod. Once a week, on the WOWY Mystery Day, the winner gets $1,000!

You can enter once per day and winners are chosen at random and notified by email when they are selected. Theoretically, you could win the daily prize every day. (Highly unlikely…but possible.) No purchase is required. You just have to have registered with WOWY and uploaded your picture to your profile.

I’ll definitely be getting in on this tomorrow…

“Bring It!”

At the time, although I was excited about the Million Dollar Body Game, I had no idea how important Million Dollar Body was going to become to me. My relationship with Million Dollar Body has presently culminated with the financial opportunity that is the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program.

However, this journal entry was about the Million Dollar Body Game. Even if you are not interested in the MDB Coaching Program right now, you can still win some cash by playing the Million Dollar Body Game. You have approximately a 1 in 1000 chance of winning $300 or $1000 every day for free!

Plus, if you sign up through this link right now, I will be your personal coach. It will be like having your own personal trainer. You can ask me any question you want at any time and I will get you the answer you need.

Once again, if you want to have a chance to win as much as $1000 a day just for working out and have me as your personal coach, sign up for the MDB Game here: MDB Game.

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