Pumped Up

Last night I revisited my on-again, off-again relationship with Tony Horton, founder of the P90X “extreme” fitness program.

I say on-again, off-again, because unlike my friends who have tried to “bring it” and keep up with Tony (and ended up unable to tie a tie the next morning), I pride myself in listening to my body and resting when necessary.

Heck, sometimes (OK, more than sometimes) I even skip a workout.

My wife calls it lazy.

In any event, I skipped the early-morning workout slot with my wife, which meant I was on my own for the Core Synergistics routine. Core Synergistics is really just a fancy way of saying, “You’re going to work your butt off for an hour, focusing solely on your core muscles and making it mildly uncomfortable to sit up for a few days.”

It’s a lot of fun. (Not really.)

Luckily, my nine-year-old daughter and her mini-me’s (my three-year-old twin girls) decided to throw me a bone and work out with me.

The four of us rolled out our exercise mats in the family room and got to work. It quickly became evident that all my daughters are in great shape.

They quite literally kicked my butt. Really, I was struggling to move from the superman position to the banana position and somebody would kick me in the butt.

Or, my nine-year-old would easily contort her body into some unnatural position (at least for a 39-year-old), complete a push-up and keep up a running commentary – usually saying really helpful things like, “This is so easy.” Or, “This is a lot of fun. I don’t see why you complain about it.”

In the end, it actually was a lot of fun. And, I got a great workout because, let’s be honest, nobody wants to get shown up by a nine-year-old. (I’m pretty sure I kicked the twins’ butts because all they really did was jump around and do the downward dog--which wasn’t even in this video).

I didn’t realize it at the time, but a lot of the principles in my inter-generational home workout are exactly the same as those utilized by instructors of Cardio Tennis (see “Are Your Tennis Courts Getting A Workout?” starting on page 104). I won’t give away all the goodies, but suffice it to say, cardio tennis is aptly named and, perhaps more importantly, can be done by folks of all ages at the same time.

And the best part? It’s fun. Really.

And so is the rest of our biggest, baddest issue of the year. All the usual suspects are present: Randy Gaddo (“Surviving and Thriving,” pg. 122), Ron Ciancutti (“Over The Moon,” pg. 124), and Fred Engh (“Sore Losers,” page 130) as well as some new voices providing unique insight into everything from creating programming for teenagers to stirring up emotion in parks and recreation professionals to holding a pool-party for dogs.

Quite frankly, it’s awesome--the combination of wide-ranging stories and the industry’s best Buyer’s Guide paired with a new interactive tool (www.parkbids.com) makes it a keeper.

I hope you agree.

Either way, feel free to send me a note and let me know what you think. I’m always open to suggestions.

Till next month…

Rodney J. Auth

Publisher

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