Applying the 80/20 principle to a slammin beach body (plus update to my 45 day P90X progress)

Winter is approaching in North America which means summer is on its way for the New Jet Set. With our muses locked and loaded, virtual assistants and outsources on auto pilot- it’s time to party! Most of my peeps head south of the Equator this time of year to enjoy long summer days. While our muses are ticking away in all their outsourced glory we’re keeping the sun shining. Last year it was Punta- this year it’s Buenos Aires, then on to Rio for the New Year’s parties. Wintering like old money!

Anyone who has ever seen these South American beauties up close understands when I say avoid standing next to them on the beach if you can help it (see above photo). Their bodies are slammin’! This year, in an effort towards leveling the playing field, I took a totally different approach to getting the cream cheese off me. I decided to apply the 80/20 principle to create the beach body I wanted. I had to face the fact that my high school bench pressing strategy was making me look more like Fabio than Beckham.

The 80/20 principle (or rule as it is often referred to) was developed by Richard Koch and made even more famous by Tim Ferriss of the Four Hour Work Week fame. What it says in a nutshell is that 4/5 of what you do to achieve something is largely irrelevant.  A small number of your inputs or efforts usually leads to a majority of your results. 80% of what we achieve on our jobs comes from 20% of our efforts. You can take this principle to the extreme. 20% of the clothes you wear will be worn 80% of the time. 20% of your carpet will wear out more than the other 80%. You get the idea. The fact is it’s hard to STOP doing 4/5 of what you are doing. My regime of back and biceps on Monday and chest and triceps on Tuesday etc- was largely irrelevant to creating what I was after.

After a bunch of micro testing (including training and running a full marathon) I think I have the 20% of actions (as it relates to my body) that I need to do to keep me in the game. Here’s my list- I thought you might find it helpful.

1. Do P90X 6 days per week.

2. Perform each workout at a perceived intensity level of 7 or higher.

3. Do it in the morning when you’re fresh. You’ll need the energy. Really.

4. Eliminate white flour (including bread) between Mon and Sat.

5. Eat ANYTHING you want ALL DAY on Sunday. Really!

*Cheat Day Rule – You’re only eligible to participate in the Roman all day eat-a-thon festivities if you did the scheduled P90X workouts the previous 6 consecutive days and ate a clean diet.

45 Day P90X Update:

I’m half way (45 days) into my 90 day P90X experiment. Here are the photo’s.

This photo was taken at Day 0 (I call this one Blob-O)

This photo was taken at Day 45 (half way mark)

Ok. Not exactly David Beckham, but definitely better than the blob-o (above photo). In 45 days and only doing the 20% that made a difference, I was able to achieve way more than I ever had when I was spending countless days at the gym like Rambo or running like Forest Gump.

45 Days left and counting…to be continued…

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