When Nick Miller and I first started talking about the direction we wanted Pipe School to go at its new home on Quality Briar, one of the things we discussed was occasionally having pieces not related to pipes. While we all do love pipes and tobacco and everything remotely related, we also have other interests and those interests should not be neglected.

One passion of mine is exercise. I’m big on eating healthily and staying in shape as much as I can. I know that a lot of people out there in the pipe world are equally interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle but often consider themselves too busy to do so, and it is for this reason that I share my story.

When I was thirteen, I started working out with a personal trainer so that I could learn how to safely and efficiently exercise. When the later half of high-school and the first part of college rolled around, however, I found myself unable to keep that up. I stopped working out almost entirely. While this did not have a huge negative effect on me in any visible way, I felt it: I missed working out and the energy and sense of well-being that it brought.

Then, in the Summer of 2011, I wrote my old personal trainer to ask him to help me put together a workout program for myself. In response, he suggested that I check out something called P90X. He expected that I had probably seen infomercials about it — I had not — but suggested that I check it out and give it some serious thought.

Within a week, I purchased the program and started testing it out. Read more