I had been really looking forward to working out with Tony in person and there was an opportunity to do so this past Saturday. Tony Horton was doing a book signing for his new book “Bring it!” So Joseph, daughter and I drove to Santa Monica for the event. There must have been at least 300 people there (my humble estimate) and we met with our friend and fellow-coach John.
There were people of all ages, shapes, sizes and fitness levels. All of us in this huge room where you could feel the energy and excitement of what was about to transpire. Tony was introduced as a down to earth, humble man… I thought to myself “really?” And then Tony walked on the stage. He did a couple of poses, showed off his abs, all in a playful way all to “oohs” and “aaaahs” from the boys and even more cheers from the girls (alright, I confess… even me). The man is 52 years old and he looks hot, so in my book he is totally and completely entitled to show off 🙂
We then started the warm up, all of us in that room. I was concerned because it was a little tight but we all managed to move around and workout. The workout was amazing. Between jokes, laughs and tons of encouragement he guided the whole room into a workout that left me sore for 3 days (soreness of the good kind of course). The exercises were tougher than the ones on the DVD’s except there were no weights. It was push ups, planks, lunges, ab exercises, jumping jacks, etc., with the advantage that he gave the modifiers some very cool options if certain exercise was too tough for them.
At the end of the workout, he took the time to sign each one of our books and pose for pictures. My camera had accidentally somehow switched to “movie” mode (it’s a new camera) so Tony asked us to wait so we could take the picture again… yes, he waited for us and had the patience to retake the picture how cool is that?
Not only did he wait for us, he tickled Angelina who instead of saying “P90X!” got really shy and was giggling the whole time. Never once did I see him lose his patience, or his graciousness, or his awesomeness. People would approach him and announce: “Tony, I lost X amount of pounds!” and Tony would announce it and celebrate with them; so of course, I wanted to do the same. I said “Tony, I lost 30 Lbs. and I want to thank you.” He looked at me, and said out loud “30 Lbs, right here!” and then patted me on the arm and said: “No, thank you for doing the work.” I wanted to make sure he got acknowledged for putting the program together but instead, I was acknowledged for following it.
What I thought was truly amazing  is that he took the time to encourage us, acknowledge us, regardless of our fitness level and  spend 2 -3 minutes with each one of us, chat and joke around and he had patience with those of us who brought our children along. At the end I realized that this is just who he is… he’s just committed to seeing us succeed in our fitness goals. How awesome is that? A modern Jack LaLanne for sure 🙂