Could P32F be the newest million-DVD-selling fitness craze!?

TRAINING REPORT:

Saturday or Sunday is my planned off day from exercise.  This weekend, Saturday is my "off" day and Sunday will be my long run.  The "off day" is important to give you mind and body a bit of a rest and re-energize for the coming week.  So it was with a certain amount of dread that I drove home from work on Friday night after having received call that the upstairs ceiling was wet in at least two places.  

Wet ceiling means leaky roof (yes, the roof that was just completely replaced 2 winters ago; Twin City Roofing: not recommended for what is now an increasing number of reasons!).  Leaky roof means the only way to stop the leaking in the short term is to remove the source of water.  In this case, the water came from a ton (probably more) of snow on our relatively-flat-pitched roof.  Short of arson, there was only one way that snow was coming off the roof. 

Since it would have been a real pain to do the whole "accidental fire" thing (and somewhat suspicious to the fire investigators when I miraculously managed to "save" every bottle in the wine cellar before the house went up), I shoved a path to our storage shed which contained the little 16' extension ladder that allows me to get to the garage roof.  After shoving a path through about 24" of snow on the garage roof, I dragged it up behind me and ascended to the main roof.

The next two and half hours made me grateful that I took it upon myself last February to leave my life of sloth behind.  This winter moreso than most, just about anyone in America can identify with shoveling snow.  However, most of them aren't removing 24+" of compressed snow from an 1100 sq ft 2nd story roof in the middle of February (and chipping drain channels in 8 - 10" deep ice dams on the edges).  And that's when the eureka moment happened.  

More on that in my Musings, below, but first, a bit of background.  I'm a fan of functional fitness vs. physical fitness.  I was disappointed when the term "functional fitness"popped into my head last February when I was trying to figure out what my core fitness goals were and I googled it. The gist of functional fitness is that having a "gym body" is completely useless if you aren't able to do anything meaningful with it (like shovel a big-ass roof or pull-start the electric-start snowblower when the power goes out in a blizzard).  It was pretty clear that I couldn't take credit for the catchy name, but it at least proved that once in a while I have good ideas.  

2011-FEB-12 Diet Log -- Note, I typically don't track "cheat days," mostly because I tend to pick & snack, get take-out or go out and basically just let it all hang out, but I'm going to give it a whirl this weekend just to see where I end up. 

MUSINGS:

So I'm up on the roof, bitching about spending my "off day" burning somewhere between 1200 & 1500 Kcal to deal with something I shouldn't have deal with ("I'm not even supposed to BE here today!"). I first get the bright idea to call up my Kettlebell instructor (Mike Blount, Synergy Fitness) and offer him the "opportunity" get a great plyometric, stability/balance focused workout for free!  My mind fast-forwarded and I could hear him laughing, then that laughter fading as the phone was pulled away from his ear to find the "end call" button on his new Verizon iPhone.

And then came the moment of genius: BeachBody: North.  An entire DVD series dedicated to functional fitness through means of typical activities unwillingly engaged in by those of us living in non-beach-like climates.  There's wood chopping, wood hauling, sidewalk/driveway shoveling, and the mack-daddy of them all, ROOF SHOVELING -- a long, sustained full-body plyometric (you need powerful, explosive moves to hoist snow from the peak over the edge) workout performed while wearing 10 pounds of bulky foul-weather gear that simultaneously works on core stability as you navigate a slippery sloped surface. 

Tony Horton, gimime me a call, let's talk!  I've even got the name picked out for you; P32F (get it??!)  

(Just in case Mr. P90X passes up this opprortunity, Tony Little, I'll give you a crack at it, too!  Can you modify that Gazelle thing to work with snowshoes?)