Playing Mix-and-Match With Muscle Moves

By KEVIN HELLIKER

In the fitness studio behind his home, Tony Horton grabbed a chin-up bar and lifted himself, attempting to execute a routine called the gyrating lever. The first part—the lever—came easily enough, his legs rising until his body formed a tight line parallel to the ground.

But when he tried gyrating—twisting side to side—nothing happened. He dropped to his feet and grimaced. "I didn't get it," he said, rubbing his hands. "Not even close."

Alyson Aliano for The Wall Street Journal

Tony Horton on rings at his home in Santa Monica, Calif.

As the star of P90X, a top-selling series of fitness DVDs, Mr. Horton is known as a muscle man who can do 35 pull-ups, knock out 100 push-ups, then climb a rope upside down. But what makes his workouts stand out from the pack may be his commitment to facing his own limitations and struggles.

In a recent interview, Mr. Horton talked freely about his lack of athleticism as an adolescent, about the speech impediment that he overcame in early adulthood, about the modest earnings that confined him to a one-bedroom rental until he was well into his 40s. And, yes, about his inability to execute a gyrating lever, a move so difficult that even Olympics-bound gymnasts find it difficult.

Yet throughout this narrative, the 53-year-old Mr. Horton never stopped effusing determination and hope. "Presently I'm struggling with it," he said of the gyrating lever. "But I'll get it. I'll knock it out."

Beachbody.com, which teamed up with Mr. Horton to devise and lead the workouts, said it has sold more than 3.5 million copies of P90X since its 2005 launch, with Mr. Horton's proceeds large enough for him to buy and renovate a villa in the hills of Santa Monica, Calif. Initially marketed only on radio, Internet and television infomercial, P90X quickly became a word-of-mouth phenomenon. It costs about $140.

In a market teeming with exercise DVDs, P90X stands out both for its degree of difficulty and its honesty about it. Other fitness programs promise dramatic results overnight and with minimal effort, while Mr. Horton warned from the outset that his 12-DVD program wasn't designed for people without a base level of conditioning. At the time a trainer to the stars in Los Angeles, he created a program that required a brutal commitment of time: about 60 to 90 minutes a day, six days a week for 90 days.

In the first P90X workout, viewers endure 12 chest-and-back exercises—mostly pull-ups and push-ups—then hear from Mr. Horton that they'll do all 12 again. The next day's DVD features fast-action aerobics, while day three is devoted to shoulder-and-arm exercises, day four to yoga and so on.

To develop P90X, Mr. Horton became a general practitioner in disciplines ranging from martial arts and strength training to aerobics and yoga. The resulting diversity of his workouts is what gives the X after P90 legitimacy as a symbol for "extreme." Confronting the body with consistently different challenges is a recipe for consistent pain. But the result is a reduced risk of injury and boredom and an increased rate of muscle growth and calorie burning.

Gradually, P90X developed a cult following among bodybuilders, triathletes, professional athletes and anyone else wanting to cultivate a "ripped" figure and a reputation for extreme fitness. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives took to doing P90X workouts as a group.

Bust a Move

Jason Lee

A corncob chin-up requires an exerciser at the top of a pull-up to shift his body right, then left.

ADD DEGREES OF DIFFICULTY: Once a student of Tony Horton develops the ability to do a basic pull-up, Mr. Horton tweaks the exercise with new difficulties. The corncob chin-up, at right, requires an exerciser at the top of a pull-up to shift his body right, then left, as if the pole were a cob off which he is eating corn. Then it's time to drop below the bar and pull himself up for another. Many people can't do this routine at first, so with Mr. Horton's blessing they place one foot on the back of a chair for support.

Yet it also became a surprise hit among the obese. Or, in the case of those who sent Beachbody their before-and-after-P90X photos, the formerly obese. How this accidental market came to feel comfortable and confident with an exercise program touted as extreme has everything to do with Mr. Horton's memory of himself as the kid who got beat up at the bus stop.

In an age when other fitness trainers depict themselves as drill sergeants, their workouts as boot camps and their overweight clients as losers, Mr. Horton reserves his displays of toughness for his own stints on exercise mats and pull-up bars. He never berates, ridicules or incites competition among the three people exercising beside him in each video.

In fact, he does just the opposite: He shows them ways to cheat, such as doing push-ups on one's knees, planting one leg on a chair while doing pull-ups and using exercise bands in place of chin-up bars. When one of his exercisers completed a pull-up goal by placing his foot on a chair, Mr. Horton said, "See that—Bobby doesn't let his ego get in the way of his success."

Late last year Beachbody, with no marketing campaign, released P90X2, a five-day-a-week sequel featuring routines, poses and exercises that Mr. Horton learned or created after the launch of the original series. A personal trainer forever in search of new training, Mr. Horton is a magnet for other athletes and fitness fanatics from whom he often learns new poses and routines. On Sunday mornings, Mr. Horton hosts a gathering of athletes on the beach in Santa Monica, many of them younger and more naturally gifted than he is.

Sometimes he modifies or merges existing routines, as when he combines an aerobic move called mountain climber with a yoga pose called Chaturanga. Other times he displays the ingenuity of a kid playing outdoors and just wondering whether a thing can be done. One set on P90X2 calls for balancing on medicine balls—one under each hand and foot—while doing push-ups, a feat that builds strength from the arms and shoulders through the thighs. Beachbody says P90X2 is off to a better start than the first series of videos.

Meanwhile, Mr. Horton is searching for new challenges to offer on future DVDs. As the ultimate exercise in cross training—a strategy proven to reduce injury—P90X has gained a large following among professional and Olympic athletes.

Mr. Horton says that his initial inability to perform such moves is what forces him to learn ways of breaking them down for himself and others. Don't be surprised if, years hence, a late-night infomercial features Mr. Horton performing the gyrating lever, explaining how once he couldn't do it and assuring viewers that he could teach them to do it, if they bought his new DVD.

Write to Kevin Helliker at kevin.helliker@wsj.com