Darren is an active duty Marine, so he knows a lot about mental toughness and commitment. What he hadn’t gotten a good grip on was how to take his fitness to a new level. It hadn’t been a priority to him. He did what he needed to to be a Marine, but hadn’t gone for RIPPED! Then he got turned onto P90X by his brother-in-law and the rest is history. He took his Marine intensity to his 90 days of the X and got some awesome results! Congrats Darren!
Darren’s Story in his own words:
My name is Darren Alvarez, and before P90X, I had always been a bit on the heavy side. It’s something I have struggled with my whole life. This was somewhat of an issue since I am an active duty Marine and have been for 16 years. I have tried many options, from crash and fad diets, to using an elliptical for two hours at a time. My weight was never my strongest point, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. I had practically thrown in the towel on managing my weight when I heard about P90X.
I first heard about P90X from my brother-in-law (shout-out to you, Laurent!). He told me that he and his wife liked it, but that it was a real butt-kicker! I started to do some research and found that people, normal people, were getting amazing results! Now, I’m not talking about athletes like professional football or baseball players, but normal, regular people. The results were amazing and I wanted to know more! There were dudes my age and older with ripped abs when they had been chunkier than “all get out” 90 days before. “That’s what I want,” I said. “That’s the body I’ve always wanted!”
So this was it! I had tried my way. It was time to try something else… Enter P90X. I committed and I dove in to the P90X workouts with everything that I had! I never missed a workout and continued to BRING IT for every workout. I never stopped “pushing play” no matter what was going on. If I had a rough day at work, I BROUGHT IT. Didn’t get much sleep that night, I BROUGHT IT. Not feeling great, I BROUGHT IT! I continued to push harder every chance I could! It became a game to see how high I could get my heart rate up to for each workout.
As for the nutrition, I followed the P90X nutrition plan. I stuck with the P90X Fat Shredder diet for my 1st phase and the pounds started to melt off. I’ve eaten clean since I started. I stay away from soda and junk food (and there’s a lot out there). I eat right and take the right supplements (Shakeology and P90X Results and Recovery Drink) to make sure I’m getting everything I need to stay healthy. No cheat meals for 90 days. I didn’t need them! With Shakeology (which I started drinking my first month), it was like having a guilt-free chocolate ice cream shake (yum) whenever I wanted it!
With P90X and a whole lot of hard work, I got the body I wanted! I have achieved AMAZING results! Through my first round of P90X, I dropped 23 lbs and went from 23% Body Fat to 7.5%. Now, those are EXTREME results! And I’m still going strong! My pull-ups have gone through the roof! When I did the P90X fit test at the beginning of the program, I only pulled out 13. During week 7 I pulled 23 wide-grip pull-ups and then went on to do over 100 pull/chin-ups throughout that entire workout! At the end of my first round, I was able to do 28 wide-grip pull-ups. I was amazed! P90X WORKS!
And for those military members out there, P90X is the way to stay in INCREDIBLE shape! I’ve never liked running. I don’t like the monotony and I get bored. But after 90 days of P90X and ZERO running for 6
months, I was able to crush my USMC Physical Fitness Test (PFT)! On my 39th birthday I pulled 28 pull-ups, did 123 crunches in 2 minutes and ran 3 miles in 20 minutes, 30 seconds, for a total score of 285 out of 300! My run time was 3 whole minutes faster than what I ran 6 months before. The last time I did that well was in basic training when I was 21!!!
There is no doubt that P90X will take you where you want to go. If you COMMIT, you will SUCCEED! The P90X nutrition guide will tell you how, and I can help fill in the blanks. For the workouts, you need to “Put Out!” Dig deep and put it all out there! There’s no need to hold anything back! There’ll be time enough to sleep in the grave! And that, my friend, is NOT today! So IF you’re ready to BRING IT and make a change you’ll never regret, let’s get started!
— Darren Alvarez
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
