TV Workout Pumps Up Hill
By Andie Coller

 

It was Paul Ryan’s abs that sold Kevin Brady.
 
“When I saw Paul Ryan — man, he’s gotten in great shape. He doesn’t have a six-pack; he’s got, like, a 12-pack,” Brady, a Texas Republican, says of his fellow GOP-er, who hails from Wisconsin.
 
“And Heath Shuler said he was in the best shape he’d been since his football days,” Brady adds, referring to the North Carolina Democrat’s stretch as a quarterback in the National Football League, “and I was really impressed with that.”
 
Inspired by Ryan’s rock-hard core and Shuler’s gridiron-ready condition, Brady has joined the growing legion of legislators who have shelled out three easy payments of $39.95 (plus shipping and handling) for the privilege of pushing their limits with the P90X workout, a 12-disc home boot camp routine that has become something of a craze on Capitol Hill.
 
Lawmakers have been carving out early-morning hours and stretching the limits of closing time at the House gym to squeeze in the hour-or-longer workouts — sold via infomercial and on the company’s website, beachbody.com — which promise to “transform your body from regular to ripped in just 90 days,” and which challenge participants to “bring it!” in one of a dozen different routines, six days a week.
 
“I’ve been doing these workouts since January in earnest,” says Ryan. “I got [California Republican Rep. Kevin] McCarthy and [Virginia Republican whip Eric] Cantor and a few guys into it. And then I talked about it in the gym, and Heath started doing it, too.”
 
“Heath and I have been doing it together for six months. And since Tony has been coming to do it, more have joined, and now there’s about a dozen that do it, a morning and evening crowd,” he says.
 
The Tony to whom he refers is Tony Horton, the celebrity trainer and creator of P90X, who has made two personal appearances on the Hill to lead sessions in the House gym for members of Congress.
 
“I’ve been there twice now, and we’ve got about 28 congressmen and congresswomen who have worked out with me,” says Horton, who calls Ryan and Shuler “walking billboards” for the program.
Perhaps, but how did the rest of the legislators stack up to other groups he’s led?
 
“The great thing about the congressmen was that they trained at just the right level for them,” he said. “So nobody had to go off in the corner and get sick or anything.”

Ryan is a bit less generous: When asked how the group compared with the military pals who turned him on to the program in the first place, he says, “Let’s just say the word ‘compare’ doesn’t belong in the sentence.”
 
Indeed, the program is designed for people who are already in pretty good shape. Aspiring P90X-ers are instructed to take a 40-minute fit test before they begin the program. And if, for example, a man can’t do 15 push-ups or a woman doesn’t have a vertical leap of at least 3 inches, he or she is advised to set his or her sights on something a little less X-treme.
 
That doesn’t stop everyone: One member mentions a workout partner who’s got “a keg” where his six-pack should be; another observer recalls an East Coast lawmaker who seemed to be having trouble with the yoga during one of the sessions with Horton, suggesting that he might want to “loosen up a bit.” Other members start off slowly but make quick strides: Horton cites Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Bill Shuster, who he says was “struggling a bit” at first but was “a brute” at his last workout.
 
The greatest success story so far? Ryan names Shuler, who he says has “gotten great results.”
 
And who among the latest crop of entrants would be voted most likely to succeed?
 
“I think the person who seems dedicated to it, who’s going to produce, is Bart Stupak,” Ryan says.
 
Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who started the routine recently, restarted it last week so that Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) could join him.
 
“I messed around with it in September,” he says, “and I got serious right now.”
 
He agrees with Ryan’s assessment of his chances for success: “I’m one of these determined individuals. I’m gonna do it — I’ll get it done,” he says.
 
All the bipartisan biceps curls have helped to create some camaraderie within the legislative body, notes Ryan. “I worked out with three Democrats this morning. So now it’s becoming somewhat of a bonding thing,” he says.
 
Indeed, those who’ve been sleeping in or training for the Marine Corps marathon instead are not only missing out on the chance to do plyometrics — an “explosive jumping cardio” routine — and extreme yoga with their colleagues; they are also passing up an opportunity to build relationships that go beyond grabbing a glass of recovery drink together.
 
“You get to see a different side of people in the gym,” Stupak says.
 
“If I need a vote on a difficult issue, if I want to talk to them about an issue — a bill I’m running; I want them to co-sponsor some legislation — it’s so much easier to approach them, because I already know them,” he says.
 
And how does trainer Horton feel, knowing that his program’s not just building bodies but building the relationships that guide the fate of the nation?
 
“I have goose bumps,” he says. “That question gave me goose bumps.”
Source: Politico