Kyle Kingsbury Podcast - #114 Tony Horton

Episode Date: October 7, 2019

Anthony Sawyer Horton Jr., known professionally as Tony Horton, is an American personal trainer, author, and former actor. He is best known as the creator of the commercial home exercise regimen P90X. In this episode we travel to his home and get his back story on personal training, creating the world famous P90X system and what he has in store for the masses next.    Connect with Tony| Website: https://www.tonyhortonlife.com/welcome Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TonySHorton/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tony_Horton Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyshorton/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClND7cYdU-SCDj-1gFL6lQQ   Show Sponsors|   Indochino Visit www.indochino.com Use codeword Kyle at checkout for 30%off your total purchase of $399 or more plus free shipping    Felix Gray Blue Blocker Sunglasses (Free Shipping/ 30 days risk-free, returns and exchanges) felixgrayglasses.com/kyle  https://bit.ly/2J0BhJA   Butcher Box www.butcherbox.com/kyle $20 off your first box (Limited Time offer) Plus two pounds of grass fed beef for the life of your subscription    Waayb CBD www.waayb.com (Get 10% off using code word Kyle at checkout)   Onnit  Get 10% off all foods and supplements at Onnit by going to https://www.onnit.com/kyle/   Connect with Kyle Kingsbury on: Twitter | https://bit.ly/2DrhtKn Instagram | https://bit.ly/2DxeDrk    Subscribe to the Kyle Kingsbury Podcast Itunes | https://apple.co/2P0GEJu Stitcher | https://bit.ly/2DzUSyp Spotify | https://spoti.fi/2ybfVTY IHeartRadio | https://ihr.fm/2Ib3HCg Google Play Music | https://bit.ly/2HPdhKY

Hello, friends. Today's guest is the guy that I was told is the guy to have on. I recognize him from way back in the day, staying up late watching infomercials. His name is Tony Horton, and he's the inventor of P90X. And he invited us to his home to discuss all the things that are good. And I was blown away. Truly one of the coolest people I've ever met, a genuine rags to riches story. And this guy is so much more than fitness. I know you guys are going to dig this podcast. Truly one of the coolest people I've ever met A genuine rags to riches story And this guy is so much more than fitness I know you guys are going to dig this podcast I certainly am a huge fan of Tony's now

And we dive into all sorts of topics That go well beyond What we do with our physical bodies And another way you can help support the show Is to leave us a 5 star rating Leave us a rating And tell me 1 to 2 ways that the show has helped you out in life. This is something that I find is important. If you personalize this and talk about the things

that you've learned that have changed your life, that's going to put you into the running for having your review read out loud on Halloween. And if you're the person I read, you're going to get a free 30-minute Zoom call, Q&A with me one-on-one and we'll dive into anything you want to know. I'll speak and try to answer as many of your questions as possible in that 30-minute span. That's the grand prize.

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We all want more recovery. And it starts with Total Mitochondria. Get it at onit.com slash Kyle. Thank you guys so much for tuning into today's show. Without further ado, here's my man, Tony Horton. So here we are. We're talking about Mike. That's right. Just the mic distance. Just to be clear. In one of four spaces in your house where you work out, is that right? This is one of them. Yeah. This is the indoor gym. You know, it's been pretty hot lately. It's been in the nineties and whatnot. So, you know, we spend more time in here.

We do a lot of cardiovascular stuff in here, but you can, I don't know if you can see with the cameras, there's a pegboard and the I-beam and that's a monster. There's a big old bunch of dumbbells over there and stuff. So, and I have this tonal, which is a really fun piece of equipment that I just got that i'm really having some fun with and we store the plyo boxes in you know for example this afternoon after you guys leave we'll go from the bike to the versa climber to the treadmill we'll hit that heavy bag we'll go to the rower uh the skier and

then there's a jump rope that we'll do over there and it's just five minutes each and we do go for about an hour and there's four of us four four today anyway, just to break a sweat. You know, I used to get on the VersaClimber and treadmill for an hour. Like, you know, bang. That's brutal. Not so interested in that anymore. But the variety, you know, that way I'm, you know, I'm like, that variety is great.

Heart rate's still up. And that's what this room is for. And then there's three other spaces. There's one where we have a high bar and a set of rings and parallel bar and a little section we do sort of gymnastic type things over there and then down behind the house there's two areas one's a ninja course a covered ninja course which you know if you know what ninja is you just you know it's all going from you know obstacle to obstacle with your hands with rings and craziness you know and then there's another area where there's a pegboard a pull-up bar

and a big high beam 17 foot beam and a 17 foot rope to the beam and that's kind of our sunday four-hour ninja thing it sounds like a damn grind it's yeah it is but it's fun it's fun and you know there's a little bit of competitiveness between me and the boys. And I'm the oldest guy there, man. So it's nice that if I can kind of beat guys half my age once in a while. And you're how old now? I'll be 61 in a couple of weeks. Damn, you look good, man.

Yeah, dude. I mean, I avoid the sun. I don't drink alcohol. It's mostly vegetables, hydration, low stress, which is hard for me because I'm genetically built to be really stressed out. But yeah, I mean, just following the rules and being consistent with it. Very good. Well, I want to get some backstory on you. What was life like growing up? When did

you really start to find fitness as a niche and something that you were interested in? I wasn't an athletic kid. I was a two left feet left feet kind of kid, you know, and, uh, um, I wanted to be an athlete. I love tennis. I love golf. I love skiing. I love, you know, like pickup basketball. I was on the football team in high school, but I was really more of a tackling dummy during the week than a player. I didn't really play much. We had a, we had a phenomenal team. We had great athletes, you know, I mean, I think if I was in any other town, I might've played more, but we just had such a great team that i grew up here i grew up in connecticut okay yeah my father was uh was in the military early on i was uh i was an army brat so

we moved six times before fifth grade you know we moved from rhode island to kentucky fort knox kentucky which was tank school for my dad and then to uh Schofield Barracks in Hawaii and then Row 8 in Connecticut um and then and then uh Cumberland Rhode Island Syracuse New York and then finally in Trumbull Connecticut and I was there from fifth grade to 12th grade um and you know that's really where I say I'm from I say I'm from Trumbull but I was born in Westerly Rhode Island so I have kind of two hometowns but the entire time you know I didn't have an athletic bone in my body, really. And I had a speech impediment called cluttering, which was a real pain in the butt. I haven't heard of cluttering.

What is that? Cluttering is really somebody who, I think it's based in insecurity. I should probably look more into it. But it's just the inability to be able to slow down and say what you want to say. And the words have a tendency to sort of pile up on top of each other. And it's kind of like fast talking. Okay. You know what I mean?

And when you're talking that fast, there's an occasional stutter or stammer along the way, which made it really hard for me to communicate, obviously. I mean, I wasn't, I was afraid to just open up my mouth and say anything to anybody. And then I, you know, of course, typically, because kids are kids, I became a target. Yeah. You know, and beat up at the bus stop, shoved in the locker and lunch money then i you know of course typically because kids are kids i became a target yeah you know and beat up at the bus stop shoved in the locker at lunch money stolen you know just kind of you know beat up and pushed around for no reason because i was a small kid

and i was an insecure kid and i was a shy kid and i had the stuttering thing and because i moved so much i didn't really grow up with the same set of kids my whole life i had like you know oh i mean in one town i think it was cumberland north island we lived there nine months i mean we didn't even live there an entire year so it's always having to you know readapt to new new new towns and new schools and new friends and stuff but um uh yeah so even though i was on i was on the football team in high school you know i wouldn't say i was very fit i didn't know how to train I didn't know how to train. I didn't know how to, you know, I didn't know the regimen of training of chest and back and shoulders and arms and doing cardio and yoga and all the things that I know now. I mean,

it didn't exist. And the only place that you would find a gym was on the college campus or at your high school. They weren't on every corner like they are out here in California. You know, then I moved out here and, you know, I discovered World Gym and Goals Gym and I discovered, you know, a lot of aerobics gyms, which was pretty much all women and yoga classes, which was all women. And I went, well, you know, hey, can dudes go in there? And yeah, that's where I'm going. You know, I was a young man and I wanted to meet a gal and I didn't meet. I met some.

I don't think I dated too many. Turns out you needed an income and you needed a personality. And I was working on those two things. Work in progress. progress yeah i was a work in progress for sure man and so yeah those were the early days you know and that was all back in 1980 when i came across the continent with 400 bucks i mean 400 i couldn't even get to i don't know i couldn't even get to pennsylvania with 400 for gas money these days but uh but it was a wild ride and it was, you know, it's changed my life. I mean, getting that phone call

from my buddy from high school, he said, what are you gonna do for the summer? This is, you know, the summer of 1980. And I was still six credits short at the University of Rhode Island and I was gonna go to Boston and wait tables. That was my big plan. But, you know, you wanna go to California for the summer?

Yes. I mean, it was literally no hesitation. I got in the car, $400, ran out of money in Boulder, Colorado, out. know you want to go to california for the summer yes i mean it was literally no hesitation i got in the car four hundred dollars ran out of money in boulder colorado out right so i was a trained panamime long story um because i i wanted to be a performer but because i had the speech thing you know still not so much in college i had kind of conquered that to some degree but i just thought panamime was a fun way and i was super animated and I did a lot of really kind of, you know,

NC 17 mime. I'll put it at that, you know, some really irreverent stuff, you know, just with my hands, whatever I was doing, you know?

And I, you know, I pulled out my hat, my mind makeup, and I made $125 in a day and a half in Boulder. And that got me back to California. And it's been a ride ever since. That's incredible. That's definitely not your atypical story. Yeah. I don't know which camera to, you know, Kyle's got like 18 cameras here.

Is that my a camera? No. Okay. Although I just fell in love. You can focus right here. Nice to see you, Matt. I love it. So you get here and your idea is you're going to spend a summer here. But obviously, that all changes. Did you stay here that entire time from then on? I did, man. I did, you know, and there was always my parents like you got to come home and you got to finish those credits and you got to graduate school and you got to grow up and you got to have a regular normal life.

But, you know, and at that time, I was a carpenter. I was a painter. I was a plumber. I was a painter, I was a plumber, I was a handyman. I was doing mime at the Hermosa Pier or Huntington Pier or in Westwood, whatever it took. You know, I mean, at times when I ran out of money and I ran out of money and I had asked my parents for money, you know, I go, I need $87 and 37 cents so I can buy a belt sander so I can build some furniture to sell at the Pier One, you know, whatever. And they would reluctantly write me these checks. But after a while, they just said, you know, we're done

writing checks. Get your butt in a car and come home or we'll pay for the flight and send you home. But I refused. You know, I would, you know, I would bear down and I, you know, in the middle of summer or whatever it was when I was out of bread. And I would put on that, you know, my little out, the black pants, the black vest, the white shirt, the top hat, the, you know, the mind makeup. And I go down to either Westwood or Santa Monica pier when I was here in LA. And I would put that hat down and I'd look down at that hat and go, I think that looks like 25 bucks. I'm done. And then I'd go to the corner liquor store where I lived. I lived at 220 Bay street in Santa Monica, not far from the beach. And I'd go in there and I'd buy yogurt the happy hour. And that's how I ate. I'd buy one beer and I'd go to the happy hour.

And there was always a buffet. And that's how I ate my meals. And I would stick shrimp in my pocket or whatever. You know what I mean? I'd like, you know. Line them up. We're in Cali, man. We're having fun.

Who cares? We're broke. You know what I mean? And that whole summer, I was living on the floor of my buddy's living room, on the floor in a sleeping bag um and then i entered a i entered a talent show down in oc down in orange county and the first prize was 500 bucks 500 bucks i came across the country with a hundred with 400 had to do mine to get an extra 25 to get there 125 to get there and i won i won the talent show because i would crank up old Beatles music and like some acid jazz

and some ELO just cranked up the music and I'd get up there and do my crazy mime stuff and I won 500 bucks and at the bar that night I was talking to the guy who who won second place his prize was 250 bucks and he was some big real estate mogul who just did it for kicks and he heard my sob story and he gave me his prize money damn he gave me his prize so all of a sudden i had 750 dollars so i said tony you know santa monica is the place you ought to be so i loaded up the car and i moved there and uh i was able to put down a first month's deposit and a first month's rent with me and two other buddies in a two bedroom apartment in Hermosa Beach. Zero furniture, zero.

No beds, no tables, no chairs, no dining, no silverware, no cups, no saucers, no plates. So we would just go to garage sales and we would rummage through alleys. My bed that I slept on for the first nine months in California was a box spring that I found in an alley. Damn. Yeah, man. And the sheets, the sheets, we would go to like, I don't know, TJ Maxx or something and get the sheets. Those were the days, man. It was just hand to mouth, literally surviving. And then of course, that summer came and went and there was a fall and there was a winter and there was the following year. And, you know, all my, my family's like, come home, come home. And, you know, I just never did. I was on a vacation and I kind of still am. You're doing well in this vacation.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, there was some, there was some serendipity and some kismet and whatever that happened, you know know when i started going to these gyms and i got this cool job uh working over at 20th century fox um for a woman by the name of julia phillips her and her partner at that time this guy harlan goodman were over at fox trying to make movies i mean her claim to fame with her husband at that time was they just did three movies in a row um some i'm sure some folks have heard of The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind with Richard Dreyfuss, and then Taxi Driver with De Niro.

Like, boom, boom, boom. So she had created sort of a name for herself. And I just happened to, you know, a friend of mine had a job as their runner, as their PA or production assistant. And he got another job as a writer for Dolly Parton because we're in Hollywood and that's the kind of stuff that happens you know what i mean oh i was working

for julia phillips who made all these movies but now i have a job writing for dolly parton you know what i mean oh there's an opening what are you gonna do okay i don't have to be a mime at the pier anymore and uh you know at this time i'm working out and uh taking care of myself and i was starting to work for them and i'm driving all over town you know from culver city to la to north hollywood to hollywood to the to the lot and everything else delivering scripts and putting in light bulbs and making coffee and feeding the cats i mean you know whatever a pa's job was and then my boss one of the bosses harlan you know and i was getting i was getting kind of yoked i was a skinny scrawny kid when he met me and i had a little bit of a

pudge you know because i was i wasn't working out at all. I was in survival mode, right, purely. And he noticed that I was changing because I was going to World Gym and I was just eyeballing Schwarzenegger and Ferrigno. Like, what are they doing? Oh, my God, 40 sets of chest. Okay, screw it. Like, no, you know, every possible angle, flies, incline, decline, flat dumbbell, strip sets, you know, all right, whatever.

You know what I mean? It's like, oh, biceps for like a day and a half. All right. You know what I mean? That's how, oh, biceps for like a day and a half. All right. You know what I mean? That's how I was training. And I got Harlan in great shape. I was training now in his old employee in my buddy Jonathan's garage. You know, now that he was working for Dolly, he was making big bucks.

So he converted his garage to a gym. And I got him in great shape. And then, you know, shortly after that, he was walking down the hall of this management company called East End Management on Sunset Boulevard. And Harlan was looking all fit, about 40 pounds down. And the other way was Tom Petty. Tom Petty looked at Harlan. He said, hey, Harlan, oh, my God, what happened to you you look fantastic because Harlan's from Gainesville Florida this is the best I can do I'm sorry and he says I'm fat and I'm my wife is fat and I got to get in shape for my tour in four months so literally the next day Tom Petty calls my house and my roommate picks up and the phone rings hi it's Tom Petty I'm looking for Tony Horton my roommate goes he looks at me I was on the couch watching football or something dude some guy I think it's Perpich downstairs says it's Tom Petty and I'm gonna dude hang up the phone it's not Tom Petty click so my phone ring hi it's Tom Petty I

think we got disconnected and Bob goes dude I think I think it's i think it's tom petty bro hello it's tom petty harlan goodman told me to call you and so i went to tom's house he lived in woodland hills this incredible amazing pad all gold and platinum records on the wall he was smoking a cigarette hey i probably shouldn't smoke with the cigarettes but and anyway i had four months with a guy and he was you know he was grossly out of shape you know what i mean i had a life cycle i had to put the thing on on zero tension so he could do it which was trippy and i had to hand up i handed him some 12 pound dumbbells for bench press and his arms went whoa you know i thought oh my god i'm gonna kill tom petty but for four months later he was benching 45 sets of 12 level six on that life cycle i I bought him a heavy bag, and he was beating the snot out of that heavy bag.

I mean, it was impressive. He was a quick study. He understood how important it was. He understood how out of shape he was. And then after that, all of a sudden, I had a career keeping rock and rollers alive. I mean, I had Billy Idol after that and Bruce Springsteen. Oh, shit. Yeah, man.

Roy, mate. Roy L., mate. What did you Oh, shit. Yeah, man. Roy, mate. Roy L, mate. What did you do to Tom Petty, man? He looks fantastic. Can you come to my house and get me in shape? And then he swore a lot, too, but he was Tom. He was Billy Idol. So Billy lived up off of Mulholland.

I can't say exactly where. I think he still lives there. But, yeah, I saw Billy every day, Monday through Friday for five years. And I got him jacked. I mean, almost to the point where people like, dude, you're looking too much like Springsteen. Remember when Springsteen was looking really pretty buff? And then Patty Scalfa.

And I started training Patty Scalfa, Bruce's wife, first when they came into town because they were all over the world. You know what I mean? And Patty was an amazing lady, really fun to train. And then one night, Bruce was at the staples center here in la when the lakers used to play there and uh i'd show up at the house to train patty because you know i mean i had really had no two words with bruce none really hey bruce hey tony how you doing you know bruce like that and i've you really hadn't

said much to him and then one day i see patty in street clothes and like oh crap you know i came all this way and she said hey do you mind um you mind if you train bruce today you know and i've been training annie lennox from the arithmic steven stills from crosby stills in that in national young tom petty billy idol sean connery you know shrub marines don't react well to bullets that That's my Sean Connery. You know, so, oh my God, I'm going to train the boss today. The most, I mean, you can see why he's successful, because he's the hardest working, nicest, most authentic human being you've ever met in your life. I mean, he really is, he's nicer than you would imagine him to be.

Just really, really thoughtful. And he just, he cared about me as much as me, you know, he was like asking me questions about my life. Like, what? You know, it's pretty impressive. pretty impressive so yeah that was a hell of a run man you know at the whole time i was going to scene study class i was going to improv class i was with second city la doing you know improvisational stuff and i had i gave stand-up comedy a little a little try we all know how that turned out don't we but uh but it thickens your skin you know what i mean you get really comfortable in situations like this yeah in front of an audience in front of

a camera that's you know that's i'm more comfortable than i am you know talking to my own wife i'm kidding don't let shauna see that um but yeah i mean it's just uh the more you do the better you get and same thing with fitness you know i mean i was i wasn't really going to aerobics classes anymore but i was you know doing some different I was, I wasn't really going to aerobics classes anymore, but I was, you know, doing some different kind of cardio stuff, going on runs, going to the track, doing, you know, hundreds, 200s, 400s, half mile run, really working on that kind of a thing

and doing a lot of plyometrics at that time and kind of unbeknownst to me, building the foundation of what was soon to be Power 90 and P90X. Yeah. All right, guys, we just heard Tony Horton talk about the birth of P90X. Yeah. All right, guys, we just heard Tony Horton talk about the birth of P90X, which I think all of us have seen. We're going to jump back into the episode real quick, but I want to

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building and building and building among celebrities out here and largely musicians and you're finding your niche and at the same time you're still working with fox 20th century no man no i didn't have to do that anymore because you know at some point yeah at some point i realized okay well i was training harlan and i started training these celebrities and i was training other like you know doctors and lawyers and people that could afford my my rate which wasn't even that high at that time and um uh and yeah so that became my sole business and i would still wait tables occasionally if there was a side thing on a weekend or if i would if they needed somebody to attend bar i would still do stuff like that and you know whatever i just needed income no matter

what it was uh but i still had roommates and i was still living in a two-bedroom apartment with a view of a convalescent home you know where my car got broken into every other thursday you know what i mean it was it still wasn't you know I lived in the same apartment for 21 and a half years, you know, I mean, I just had, and at that time I was doing a ton of personal development, you know, I was reading every book from Deepak Chopra to Andrew Weil to, to Gary Zukav, to Tony Robbins, you know, I mean, I was really into the personal development thing because there were certain aspects of my life that I had not, you know, everybody's got their kind of life pie, right? You got your finance slice, you got your relationship slice,

you've got your purpose slice, you got all these different slices. And some of them were being fulfilled where other ones were completely void. Like I just, you know, I just couldn't find a relationship that I could stay in for more than 10 minutes. And that had to do with a lot to do with me, you know, and who I was and how I was in those relationships. So I just would go to these seminars on the weekends, you know, down at the airport, always at the airport. I don't know. I think the gurus are ready to escape in case there's some kind of revolt or something, but, but yeah. And I mean, my, if you go look at

my library in my office, half of the books are, are, are personal development books, you know, just things I needed to learn about myself to be a better human being. And so, you know, in conjunction with doing that and doing the standup comedy and doing the scene study and, uh, and all that, you know, I remember one of the, one of the chapters of the, one of the books, uh, at the end of the chapter, there's always a lesson in like, you know, God, you know, go do this or go do that, or, you know, write this down or how do you feel? What do you, how do you feel about that? Like if you died today like if you died today you know if and you had to write your own obituary what would it say about you that kind of kind of like oh well you're a loser you haven't accomplished much of anything you've trained some celebrities big deal dead you know what i mean you know and that that

really affected me and one of them was you know i can't even tell you the book of the author but go out of your way and do something extraordinary for somebody that you don't like or somebody that you're in conflict with like do like just blow their mind and don't be attached to an outcome because you might not like it all right you know and so i used to play basketball on saturdays with these attorneys and they were all buddies and i was and i was kind of an outsider and one guy in particular i didn't really get along with very well and i don't think he liked me either um and i remember him between games complaining about his weight. And then I thought, go out of your way and do something.

So I figured, what the hell? I'll ask this guy if he wants to work out. Because I had a new slot that opened up at 8 o'clock Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You know, who knows? And he said, yeah. And he said, don't you train like Petty and Idol and all these different guys? I didn't even know he knew that, you know? And the following Monday, I trained him.

And we got along really well because we found out we were a lot alike what a shock right and then uh a year later he introduced me to uh the now ceo of beach body and we did our first project together um called great body guaranteed and um it did well and when it comes to infomercials not an easy thing to do because there's so many people that want to make money like that. At least back in those days, it's even harder now. And the thing blew up and then we did power 90, then we did P90X and then forget about it, man. You know what I mean? The rest is history. The rest is history. Yeah. Yeah. How long do you think you were working out developing your skillset to bring to that? And how much influence did you take along the way from other people?

I mean, obviously, we're always learning from other people. Let me rephrase that. As you started to put this programming together, which really revolutionized fitness in a lot of ways. In some respects, a lot of people think so. Yeah, I mean, think about it. I was in my 40s when we shot that. I was 46 when we did P90X.

I was 43 when we did power 90 you know i mean think about that a lot of people have success much younger in life and mine came much later in life and i started training when i got out here shortly after i was between i'd say between the age of 23 and 43 okay so you know 20 years yeah of just you know doing the doing the grind and learning and training folks and seeing what techniques worked. You know, one of the things I learned early on, it was partly based on who I was as a person. I had a very short attention span, right? So, you know, I was like, I had ADD, ADHD, LMNOP, NYPD Blue. I had them all.

I had all the acronyms known to man. You know what I mean? I couldn't even sit still in church. I was just like, all the acronyms known to man. You know what I mean? I couldn't even sit still in church. I was just like, geez, I was always fidgeting. You know what I mean? I don't know what it was, too much sugar. But so, you know, I get bored really easily. So, you know, and then I began to realize that that happens to most people. Like the reason why most people don't get fit and stay that way is because of three things. They get bored, they get injured, or they stop seeing results or plateau or whatever you want to whatever you want to call it and so i didn't i didn't i knew that as

a fact so i said okay what if i just kind of learn about everything i'll take some martial arts classes i'll learn about that you know what i mean i took i took some i did kempo for about a year okay um you know it's my that's the extent of it i mean i can throw a punch but i'll probably you know i know like within about 14 seconds you destroy destroy me. Um, but, uh, yeah, so I knew the basics and I knew the basics about resistance and, and, uh, and hypertrophy types of exercises and weightlifting. I mean, I was at world gym for, for a decade, just, you know, spying on, on, you know, world-class body, the very best of all time, you know? And, um, and, you know, so, you know, world-class body, the very best of all time, you know? And, and, you know, so, you know, whatever areas I was lacking in, I thought, I'm going to go, I want to go investigate that and

see how that changes me. What happens to a lot of people, they get in this rut of cardio and resistance, right? You know what I mean? The industry is still stuck in those two, as far as I'm concerned. And as you're, as a 61 year old, I know the importance of speed, balance, and range of motion and variety. And that's basically what P90X is. I mean, there's 12 discs and no two are alike, and they're forcing you to work on your weaknesses as much as your strengths. I mean, I want to provide certain types of exercises that are within people's wheelhouse. So you got your cardio junkies and your yoga junkies. It's like, oh yeah, thank God he's got that in there. And then for those people, oh,

there's all this resistance, this chest and back and shoulders and arms and back and legs and stuff. So we're forcing those people to do things they're not used to doing. But I know, you know, just from the basic research, you know, from exercise science that, you know, the more variety you add to your stuff, you're going to avoid the boredom injuries and plateaus, right? And then you've got your weightlifting guys and your big dudes that are big right but they're not really lean you know i mean the body fat is their subcutaneous body fat is way up there so they're probably just as vulnerable to heart attack strokes and and heart disease and hypertension as anybody who doesn't exercise because they've got you know so much extra fat so we're going to make we're going to put those guys you know make them

sweat and throw punches and get down and do some yoga an hour and a half hot the flow yoga class and so that's the reason why we sold you know millions and millions of copies and billions and billions of dollars not billions and billions but like i don't know what the number is 1.4567 billion in sales because the thing worked you know based on what i was doing with those celebrities you know i mean because they Because their management was eyeballing me like, hey, man, you know, this guy's going on tour. This person's going to be in a film. You know what I mean? You can't screw this thing up, you know?

And I made it fun. I made it fun. I told jokes and I was a human instead of being a drill sergeant or somebody's therapist. Yeah, it's funny because I think before the podcast, we were talking about how your fan base is still largely in the younger category, you know, 25 to 45. And younger category, you know, 25 to

45. And I have, you know, coworkers when I was fighting in the UFC, I had guys that I bounced with and bartended with all along the time. I was still fighting, still trying to just make money and pay rent. And a lot of them that were younger than me were like, Hey, I'm going to do this beach body thing. I'm going to do this P90X thing. And I would, I scoffed at it at first. Then I looked it up and I was like, Oh no, that's actually perfect for you because i saw that it was complimentary you know a lot of the time it would be somebody who just you know they can crank out some weight but they probably can't last long they've probably never thrown a punch they've probably for sure never done yoga you know and then seeing that it would fill in the gaps right right you know like that's

what leads to injury is the is the repetitive stress of doing the same thing over and over Right, yeah. Absolutely, man. That's exactly what that program was. So obviously you talked about a lot of the books in your library being so influential on your own personal development. What got you into becoming an author and wanting to share what you share now? Well, you know, early on when I became known, I call myself a C-min minus celebrity, give or take, you know what I mean? Where, where, you know, a lot of people will see you and they'll go,

yeah, no, anyway, I don't know who that guy is. And there's a lot of that, you know, like Brad Pitt, everybody knows Brad Pitt, right? So I'm one of those guys that's quasi recognizable. And so what happens is a publisher came to me and said, you know, to, you to, we'd love you to, you know, write a book for us. And the first book was, was, you know, bring it, which was, uh, not much different than anything else you'd see from a guy like me. You know what I mean? Like, you know, here's some basic tips. Here's how you should train via a book as opposed to DVDs or any other means. And here's what you should eat, which is, you know, not the book that I wanted to write, but that's the first one they let me write. And then, you know, then I wrote my second book,

which was really a video book, which was really popular back in the day where, you know, there's a video and then there's some text and you can get it on your tablet and read it that way. That book was called Crush It. So bring it, crush it. And then I thought, you know,

then I go, why don't we do one called Annihilate It? Or destroy it or beat the living crap out of it and i went no let's get away from the it's and can i please write the book i want to write so you got this one right here you can probably see it the big picture because i am where i am as a result of personal development and i wanted to write a personal development like book uh uh based on helping people figure out the formula so that exercise and eating right became as natural as waking up in the morning and driving to work you know what i mean a lot of people don't have a purpose plan or accountability i mean those are some of the laws all right like figure out why you're doing this thing and if you're doing it before for an after

picture or you're doing it because you don't want to look good in a wedding dress i mean that's all nice but the reality here is you, you might want to look at other things that have more value for you and for your community and for this planet. You know what I mean? So let's look at the big picture as to who you are as an individual and your effect on other people around you, because that's ultimately who you are. I mean, that is your, that is going to be your legacy. And is your legacy going to be somebody who is fat, lazy, angry, and dead before your time? Yeah, no. You know, so I wanted to write a book to say, you know, here are the 11 things that I do on a regular basis that, that help me just be a better

human being in general. And the foundation of that is making, you know, decent food choices and moving five to seven days a week, and maybe taking some supplements that can help the healing process and whatnot. You know what I mean? And so like, if you look at purpose, my purpose is partly is to help other people find theirs, but mine is to just have more energy today and sleep better tonight and be more upbeat and optimistic about who I am and the things and the tasks that I have to get through throughout the day. I mean, as soon as we're done, I'm going do an hour long cardio and I'm gonna be miserable for most of it, but I'm gonna feel awesome afterward. Especially because you guys can see me fidgeting.

My left knee here is a little bit funky, but I'm gonna wrap it up and put some bomb on there and suck it up and do it. You know what I mean? But that's just it. I mean, because I exercise because every time we raise our heart rate, we get our legs and lungs involved norepinephrine dopamine serotonin something called brain derived neurotropic factor occurs inside of our temporal lobe and you even

look a lot a lot of uh football players that are dealing with cte or uh hello uh football players working with cte and um and guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan that have, you know, post-traumatic stress. They're discovering that just oxygenated blood inside of your brain from cardiovascular exercise keeps the devil away, you know, a little bit. Yeah. And that's, it's curious. I've never even thought of it for that. You know, I've played football since I was 10 years old, finished at Arizona State and was a professional fighter.

So I've taken my lumps for sure. And I've worked with a lot of military guys as well. But that is a very unique way of looking at that, you know, brain trauma and how you fix that. Because obviously it makes perfect sense. You know, there's a great book by my friend, Dr. Dan Engel, called The Concussion Repair Manual. Oh, wow. And he talks a lot about the science behind hyperbaric oxygen therapy right and the brain which pretty much saved joe namath i mean joe namath i don't know how many

sessions in a row 125 i mean the guy just keeps going i mean he was going through alcoholism and all kinds of different things and he could really find he could he was saying that how difficult it was for him to put a sentence together and some of the issues that he was dealing with and like you know i'm curious more what else did you yeah but i was just going to say that that that of course you know like you do um any type of aerobic exercise you're going to increase bdnf and that of course can help put at bay a lot of the things that we're seeing now with dementia and all the side effects that happen from that right that's that's, that's, that's really incredible to look at fitness as a means for cognitive function

and longevity. Oh my, like, you know, some people think that it's, you know, it's all connected. I learned from John Rady, you know, he's a Harvard professor. He wrote a book called Spark, you know, the effects of physical fitness on the brain and how we look at the world, you know, cognition, memory, attitude, sex drive. I mean, there's so much that goes on. And he's at Harvard. He's a Harvard guy. Okay. We'll link to that book in the show notes. And of course your books as well. Yeah. Great. Cool. Sorry. Keep going. I didn't mean to cut you off.

No, I don't know. Where was I? Who knows? Maybe I need to do some jumping jacks. Remember who, what the hell, what the hell I was talking about. Yeah, but Rady's book, Spark, was really it for me because I was not a cardio guy. I didn't really like cardio. Like going for a run was like eating chards of glass. You know, I just was not into it. And I'm still not. You know, that's the reason why

there's so many machines in here is because at least it keeps me curious throughout the process of the workout. But I do know who I am as a result of it and who I am as you know i'm just an ornery guy if i don't you know i like pushing and pulling man i love moving weight and i love climbing things and uh and doing you know crazy push-ups on med balls and things that i love those kind of you know proprioceptive challenges um things that people might half my age can't even

physically do i love to be able to do those kind of things but again like, things that people half my age can't even physically do. I love to be able to do those kinds of things. But again, like I write in the book and like I talk about, like I was in P90X or a lot of the new workouts I'm doing with Gaim, the next level workouts are the same thing. They're just exercises that force people to work on everything.

And when you do that and you're working your heart, lungs, legs and your entire body and you're working on your flexibility and your balance, because balance is going to go too. It goes because we don't work on it, right? And so, because balance requires patience, you know, but patience is a virtue. And if you want to be virtuous, then freaking stand on one leg for a little while and line while you're at the bank or whatever it takes, you know what I mean?

I have to go to yoga class for that, but I have a slack line out in the backyard and i do a lot of you know it's called proprioceptive fitness which is like just your body adapting to an unstable surface or situation you know and so um it just keeps you young i mean that's the fountain of youth um because there's a lot of people who are just doing cardio they can't you know go uh-oh you know i'm not going to be able to pull myself up over that thing if i need to or you know uh you know the elevator the escalator goes out at the airport and you got two heavy bags oops you know you just want to be life ready yeah you want to be life ready and things are going to change on a dime and so when you train that way then nothing there aren't obstacles just become kind of a fun little thing to deal with yeah you don't want to be a liability in life

yeah shit hits the fan in any given situation yeah exactly so we up you're extremely successful we're here in your home right now it's absolutely gorgeous you accomplish everything from maybe not nothing but very little and here you are now what what do you do now you talked about a little bit about starting a supplement company or working with one like where do you go when you've done what you have done? What's important to you these days? I just like staying busy. You know what I mean? I like being lazy.

I'm a fan. I'm a fan of doing nothing. And any chance I get, like today, for example, I'm not going to lie to you because why do I care? I didn't have anything scheduled till noon today. So I didn't set the alarm. And I lay there till I didn't want to get up noon today so i didn't i didn't set the alarm and i lay there till i didn't want to get up which was 9 30 9 30 and i went to bed at midnight because i went on night and i'm just gonna you know i mean i woke up at my usual you know 6 45 or 7 dang and you

know my my knees jacked up right now i was super sore because when i shot this thing yesterday we're down at the beach and i'm climbing you know 25 foot ropes and you know demonstrating all these exercises trying to make everything look all pretty can you do it again can you do it again can you do one more take can we get this angle you know and then here you are on camera somehow i managed to perform on camera better than any other time oddly enough and i'm just jacked from all that so i thought you know i'm gonna just need more downtime and if you look a lot of professional athletes, they get their 10 hours in, man, you know? So I thought, all right, that's 10 hours tonight.

And I feel great today, except for my knee, but that's life. But the cool thing is, you know, my relationship with Beachbody has shifted. I'm more of an ambassador for the company now than i was before their philosophy about what they want to do is changing um and it's not it's changing in a direction that that doesn't involve me okay this much you know what i mean and that's perfectly fine they get to do what they want to do the way they want to do it it's an amazing organization they've done so much for so many people and look at the millions of lives that they've affected. But the cool thing about, about Golden Hippo, which is a supplement company, or they're the company that's going to distribute the supplements. They're allowing me to build my own brand for supplements, which I never got to do with Beachbody, which is,

which is really amazing. You know, like, what do you want in there? What do you want to do? Who do you want to, what do you want the color to be? What do you want the fonts to be? Like I'm part of the creative process where before I was just a guy that would show up and hit my mark i had some say like what came to p90x and how many workouts and what it should be but they let me do that they were very you know they were very generous with how i should do that because i you know knew what i was doing but um and same thing with the new workouts with with guyam you know yoga uh yoga and fit tv how long do you want your warm-ups whatever what do you want to call them whatever how long you want your cool downs great what kind

of programs you want to do what do you want to call them i want to call one workout my three sons fine you know what i mean like it's really nice to have a lot of say and they really trust me and uh by the time this airs i think more and more people have access to the to the to the called next level to workouts. We've shot eight. As of this moment, eight are in the can, eight are available. If you have Comcast, Cox, or Vios Verizon, you can get them. But not everybody has that way of accessing the workouts, but I can't even say it because I don't even know, but I'm pretty sure by the time this airs, they'll be streaming, they'll be on Spectrum, they'll be on DirecTV. So everybody will be

able to have them. Secondly, I'm working with my friend Chris Fisher at Outfit, and we're going to be slapping my Tony Horton fitness logo on about 10 pieces of fitness equipment. Bench presses bench presses slam balls med balls stability balls jump ropes uh a pull-up tower a really nice cool stable pull-up tower you can have in your home um you know because uh it's kind of time you know i'm not going to be a bricks and mortar guy i'm not going to open up gyms it's just too much of a pain in the butt man i just i'm not i don't have that in me you know what i I mean? It's, you know, signing checks and managing and, you know, checking the season. It's not necessary these days.

Not necessary. I mean, you don't need it. You can do the stuff in your home, right? So, and then I'm still doing a lot of, I'm doing some really great work with John Maxwell. You know, he's written over a hundred books. He's one of the top personal development coaches in the world. And he and my friend Tracy Morrow and I are working on sort of a health and wellness program for his organization, which is really exciting because

they've been focusing on being successful, but a lot of the folks within the organization aren't as fit and healthy and eating as well as they should be. So we're going to do that for them. And also working for Kroger grocery stores to do basically the same thing. I mean, they've got 500,000 employees and they just, what's really amazing is like the grocery chain as massive as that is really wanting to look out for their, for their, for not only for their employees, but also their customers. So they're hoping that trickles down to everybody, which is outstanding. You know what I mean? So I'm busy. Good busy. Good busy though. Doing stuff I love.

I really appreciate you carving out a lot of time of your day for us to come in here and interview you come on excellent excellent my pleasure man where can people find you online and where can people uh purchase some of your products well you know if you go to tony horton life.com everything's there it'll tell you what my instagram is my facebook my twitter all those different things uh and you know last but not least uh important let everybody know that um you know i've got these paragon vents right here in my home so you'll be in this garage uh garage it used to be a garage now it's an actual gym but you'll be in this space working

out with me and you'll be at one of the three other spots working out with me and we had our first ever paragon experience here at my home, 24 people from around the world, a couple from Kuwait showed up. Uh, it's a very intimate thing. You know what I mean? And so we have a lot of, a lot of speakers, including myself. Uh, we do yoga, we do stuff in the pool, we do obstacle courses, ninja courses, we go trail running, and then we do these fun little outings. Uh, we were able to go to the Soho house and see, uh, uh and see this movie Maru with Jimmy Chin. And so, yeah, it's just a really unique experience. And that was March.

August is already sold out, but this will probably air after August. So the next one's November. Okay. So if you air this before November, there might be a few slots left. And then we're going to do three more next year, too, in 2020. Very cool. The Paragon Experience. All of that at TonyHortonLife.com. Amazing, brother. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome,

dude. Hell yeah. Thank you guys for listening to today's show with Tony Horton. Remember, leave us a review. Tell me what you learned and I might pick you for a free 30-minute Zoom call to have all your questions answered. Other than that, onnit.com slash Kyle. Check out Total Mitochondria for 10% off and any other supplement or food product that you want. You'll get the discount. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. I love you all. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you