“Bringing It!” to Capitol Hill

There is a man that transcends politics. A man that can take Patrick Muprhy (D-PA) and Aaron Schuck (R-IL) and push them to past their limits, a place where each man screams, “No more, no more. Please make me do more.” That man is Tony Horton, late-night pitchman for his P90X fitness training. Horton was recently in DC to do some work outs on Capitol Hill with many of this fans. Horton’s 12 DVD set, that runs for just over $100, is not for the feint of heart — it tells you up front that it is an extreme fitness routine, but it’s a fitness routine that has many converts, more that 2 million copies sold.

As Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) said, “It’s awful. It doesn’t matter how many times you do it, it still makes you cry.”

Admittedly, I am a convert of P90X. I’m on Week 4 of the thirteen week program and I love it. I love the aches and pains, I like trying to push myself along with the videos. In one cardio DVD that focuses on pylometrics, Horton has a man with a prosthetic leg doing the exercises along with him. You think, if he can do it, so can I. I’ve become so hooked on this exercise routine, that for the first time in my life, I checked that the hotel I’m staying at has a gym so I won’t miss a day. I love trying to eat right, feeling fit and losing weight. All you need for P90X is a pull-up bar, some dumbbells, a mat and the willingness to push yourself.

As a professor from George Washington University said about P90X, “… [it] is very high-intensity exercises that you’re doing for an hour a day. That’s a lot of freaking exercise. If you do any high-enough-intensity workout and couple it with a [healthy] diet, you’re probably going to get pretty much the same results.” But as the professor admits, P90X fans are doing it. As Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) joked, “It’s probably the most bipartisan thing we do in this place.”