The Test Group

Doing these videos again has reminded me of our test group. No matter how fit you are, 90x will find your weakness and exploit it. We auditioned pretty much every hot shot fitness person and trainer in LA and ended up casting either Tony's friends (who train with him regularly) or members of our test group who up until that time had little fitness training. It was a great testament to how the X works. Tony and I were talking about this as one "famous" trainer and another was getting out performed by some regular Joe whose only advantage was that they'd just finished three months of the program they were auditioning for, "It takes you out of your wheelhouse and exploits your weaknesses, no matter who you are," he said.

I should add that I auditioned too and was one of the latter, which I only did because Tony asked me to. But when my time came around I was in the midst of week 2 and so sore that I could barely wash my hair, much less ace a fit test. I was in such a state of breakdown that I had no clue how long it would last. I was fit; having just finished a full bike racing/multi-sport season. But fit meant nothing. I was out of my wheelhouse and so sore that I could barely walk. "You gonna be ready in a few weeks?" Tony asked. "I have no idea," was my reply. "We should just cast test group people."

I did get better. A couple of months later I did one of my hardest birthday challenges that combined my usual endurance activity with heaps of pull-ups, push-ups, and other assorted anaerobic stuff. The X was perfect training for it.

Our little test group is filled with athletes. It's going to be fun to see how we come out of it. Marc and Suzanne are climbers (though Marc claims he's finished with it; Suzanne is still climbing very hard) and Marc is a cyclist. Reed is one of my closest friends, an ex-climber who pretty much now just rides his bike. Sk-hawt is an ex-national level cyclist. Romney is going to join in at some point in some way, most likely with a combination of X and Gym Jones. Another Jonesian, Erica, just broke her leg skiing and may join us during her rehab phase. Lisa's friends Dan and Elizabeth may also join the thread. On my suggestion they started a month ago, are now in tip top form, and "Tony Horton fanatics". Dan is another ex-climber who is talking about starting again and Elizabeth "can see back muscle for the first time in my life."

I was going to post fit tests today but will do it later so this doesn't run too long. Plyo today; fun, fun, fun....

above pic: on my way to 430 pull-ups at Gold's Gym in Venice, just a sliver of the agenda of Challenge 03.