Insanity Day 9: Pure Cardio (Am I getting better? Yeah, but kill me anyway)

Pure Cardio.  Ouch.


Today was supposed to be a rather productive one, but it really ended up involving a lot of procrastination, church, and Insanity.  With this being the second time I've done this workout, I am now convinced that it officially wins the prize as being the hardest of the first month.  Fortunately, Katie is planning to join back in tomorrow to keep me company :)


As you may recall, unlike the other workouts that have periodic breaks, the intervals portion of Pure Cardio is 15 minutes of 100% intensity.  Granted, I take breaks anyway to keep from being sent unexpectedly to the ER.  


As far as how I've improved, I again did a really solid job with the 11 min warmup, which I feel pretty accomplished about.  However, the workout itself is nigh impossible to do in one go.  Just to give a bit of a taste of it, Katie happened to video a few seconds of the intervals portion (only a few minutes in).  Hopefully this will give you some sense of the masochism I'm subjecting myself to.

Thoughts for the day
Tomorrow I plan to swap out Plyo Cardio Circuit (which I actually just did yesterday too!) with one of the P90X upper body workouts.  Time to balance out things a bit and give some sanctuary from the cardio barrage of Insanity.


As far as the paleo-esque diet, I can tell this is going to be hard.   For some various health reasons I'm cutting out items like wheat, dairy, and even tomatoes.  After going to to lunch today at Foster's after church, finding something that I could actually eat and enjoy outside of a salad was a challenge!  But one that I think I'm up to.  Maybe :)

Insanity Day 8: Power Cardio & Resistance (aka "we've met before, haven't we?")

With Katie's finger still on the mend, today was another foray into the world of Shaun T. on my own.  And although I certainly feel as though I'm improving and can see some aesthetic difference since only a week ago, it's much easier (and much more fun) to push yourself when you have someone working out next to you.  Oh well.


Being Day 8, today called for some more Power Cardio/Resistance, which is definitely one of the hardest workouts in the program.  Oh who am I kidding?  They're all hard!!


Workout (44 min)
The warmup, like with Day 6, was actually very doable this time.  I'm pushing as hard if not harder than the folks on the DVD, and just as a reminder, the warmup isn't like any other you've ever tried before.  It's an all-out sprint for the last 1/3 of it.


Following the stretch I jumped into the actual workout, which, as you'll recall, puts a lot of emphasis on power and resistance moves like squat jacks and plyo jumps for the legs and v pushups and moving pushups for the upper body.  Unfortunately, despite my feelings of accomplishment in the warmup, this part of the video did me in again.  Lungs burning, muscles fatiguing.  During these intervals it's almost impossible to envision myself ever being able to best this workout.  Shaun T, you have made a monster of a program.  This becomes clear enough in this workout in particular when Shaun T asks one of the background exercisers how she feels: "I feel like sh*#."  That pretty much sums it up.


Thoughts for Today
To go along with my hardcore exercise regimen, Katie is going to help me on the diet portion of this as well.  As a matter of fact, I'm going a little extreme with this (might as well since I'm already killing my body exercise-wise) and am going to try my hand at venturing towards the paleo trend some people are moving towards.  The real emphasis here is on whole, raw foods (although I won't be 100% paleo here), and I also plan to cut out dairy and a few other things at least for the next few weeks.  The real trick though is to make sure I'm getting enough calories with the diet.  I sure as heck need them!  Katie and I are already pretty regimented in our intake (green smoothies every morning, etc.), so I feel like this is at least doable.


Will keep everyone updated on how that goes.

Insanity Day 6: Plyo Cardio Circuit (this again??)

Today was a bit unique (and perhaps a bit scary).  Katie and I had planned to do today's workout after I got home from school, but as fate would have it, she sliced her finger really badly while cooking today and one of our close friends had to rush her to the ER!!  She apparently was doing ok, but I received a string of texts and pictures of the wound from our friend to confirm.  Fortunately, Katie got stitched up and should be back up and running in no time, but this meant that today I was on my own for Insanity (Katie instead took a walk with the dogs and some friends this afternoon after a little bit of recovering; I find that pretty impressive since I probably would have been curled up in bed nursing my finger!).
In any case, today's workout was the first repeat we've had so far: Plyo Cardio Circuit, which if you remember, is the first actual workout you do following the initial Fit Test Day.  The first time we did this we almost passed out.  Today, however, I feel like I can definitely say there was some marked improvement, which I am pretty excited about!


Workout
The warm-up, around 11 minutes of non-stop running in place, jumping jacks, heismans, and more, was certainly no walk in the park this time, but I managed to do the entire thing (really pushing myself) without stopping once for a break!  I'll go ahead and give myself a little pat on the back for that one because that was no easy feat.


The stretch section, 8 minutes, was a much needed break, and I felt fresh enough to think that I could go through the whole workout this time without stopping (which would of course be a first).  Well, let's just say my successful warm-up was causing some delusions of grandeur.  This "no stopping" did NOT happen.


The actual workout, as you may recall, consists of suicide drills (aka mini shuttle runs), pushups, mountain climbers, ski jumps, power squats, and a whole lot more...delivered via some intense interval cycles.  The first cycle or two I was fine, feeling good even.  But by the last three, I mentally and physically derailed!  Plenty of breaks, and lungs burning in the most brutal of ways.  And even though I tend to be pretty decent at pushups, I was face-planting during some of the latter sets.


All in all though, I have to say that I am starting to see some real progress.  It's only been a week and Katie and I have both started seeing some noticeable improvement, both physically as well as, well, aesthetically.  And at least as Shaun T puts it: "Why do I work out so hard?  To look good!"  That's a bit of a simplification as far as my reasons go, but it's certainly a nice benefit to hold onto.


Latest Thoughts 
Nothing new to report.  After today, it just more confirms the fact that 5 days of agonizingly brutal cardio a week is probably overkill.  Instead, I think swapping in some upper body resistance (whether it's P90x or something else) once a week will be very beneficial.  As I may have mentioned before, sometimes guys haven't been as ecstatic with their Insanity results because there's such little upper body focus.  I mean, I might come out of this program looking my legs could kick a football across my entire apartment complex, but you need to balance it out!

Insanity Day 5: Pure Cardio (aka "Shaun, what is your freakin' problem!?")

What the heck was that!??


Katie and I just finished today's Insanity workout (had to postpone from this morning due to the week's school schedule)...and it was hard.  VERY hard.


The warm-up for Pure Cardio--about 11 minutes--was the exact same as for Plyometric Cardio Circuit, which as you recall was a killer: jog (aka sprint), jumping jacks, heisman, 123 heismans, butt kicks, and mummy kicks...repeat 3x, getting faster with each cycle.

The warm-up, as pretty much always, was followed by an 7-8 minute stretch sequence.  So, it was during the latter half of this portion of the video that I knew I was in trouble.  Right before the workout begins Shaun comments about he's "nervous" about starting Pure Cardio.  What!?  This is definitely the first time I've ever heard him say anything that showed weakness.  It's like he's deliberately taunting us.  What are we in for!?


Workout (15 min)
Brutal. Brutal. Brutal.  


Unlike previous workouts that involve cycles of different exercises for 30 second stints (with periodic breaks), Pure Cardio was 15 minutes of 100% intensity and NO BREAKS!!  Not a single one.  Background exercisers are dropping like flies in the background, while Katie and I are holding back the urge to vomit (not an exaggeration, and this is the first time we've felt this bad from one of these workouts).  


As a basic summary of the moves, there were a large handful of different jack variations (all of which consisted of some sort of low squat), frog jumps, ski jumps, suicide jumps and runs, as well as some brutal synergistic pushup moves.  Most of them we had seen before, but it did us no good in terms of keeping up.  As a matter of fact, this was probably the worst I've done in the actual workout  as far as taking extra breaks.  Brutal.


Thought for Today
Ok, this workout was a challenge, and I feel pretty accomplished having finished it.  However, when you're talking about what amounts to pretty much a 15 minute "sprint" workout, it's kind of defeating during the workout itself.  You almost want to walk away, and seeing all the folks in the background essentially passing out at varying intervals doesn't instill confidence.  I won't be looking forward to doing this one again!


As a side note, this was by far the best I've done on the actual warm-up so far.  No extra breaks!


Oh, and just FYI, there's one particular girl who's been in a few of the workouts so far who we actually seem to better than.  She looks like she's in great shape, but she is CONSTANTLY taking breaks.  Go us :)

Insanity Day 4: Cardio Recovery (thank the maker!)

Finally!  A break!  Well...kind of.


This morning, bright and early before my first day back at school, Katie and I got up to do Cardio Recovery, a 30 minute relief from the craziness of the first few days.  If you've done P90x or other similar workouts before, this is basically Insanity's version of Yoga X.

However, my enthusiasm for this workout has more to do with the fact that cardio was minimal (sort of automatically making this the easiest of the bunch so far), not because it made me feel like it was helping me actually recover.  As a matter of fact, this workout really did a number on the lower body, and Katie and I still couldn't finish a few of the movements.  Holding an isometric lunge or squat for minutes on end (or at least what seems like minutes) is brutal whether cardio is involved or not!


Also, the little amount of stretching that was done was disproportionately skewed towards the legs.  I'm not sure any upper body stretches were even performed despite the fact that the workout had enough plank position exercises to send your arms and shoulders into shock.


At this point, I have to say I enjoyed the workout, but Katie and I might end up swapping it out with another that would hopefully be a bit more comprehensive.


Latest Thoughts on the Program So Far:
If you aren't in pretty decent shape already, don't start with Insanity.  It's probably even a mistake for me to be doing it.  Also, if you do Insanity and don't end the 60 days in great shape, you must not have been doing it right!  That's pretty much the same assessment I gave for P90x the first time I did it, but at least with P90x I think there's a lot more flexibility in terms of what your starting fitness level should be.  Tony, unlike Shaun T, is constantly pointing out ways to modify exercises based on a) what equipment you have available, and b) what your fitness level is.


See you tomorrow!

Insanity Day 3: Power Cardio & Resistance (aka "death cheated once again")

Today Katie and I were at it again and once more survived the fitness madness that is Insanity...although perhaps not gracefully.  


A few things to note.  Things are still hard (VERY hard), but I think our bodies are at least starting to know what to expect.  And I dare say that today's workout, Power Cardio & Resistance, was even harder than yesterday's if that's even possible!  In all it was about 40+ min long with a bit more focus on resistance-based moves like pushups.


WARM-UP (~10 min)
This essentially was the same as yesterday (3 three-minute cycles of intervals followed by 30 second breaks), although some of the moves were a little different.  

• Jog (running/sprinting in place)
• Power Jacks (a plyo version of a jumping jack; you start off in a deep wide-legged squat before jumping your legs together)
• Log Jumps (these suckers are hard! Jump side to side extremely high like you're jumping over a log)
• 123s (basically, these are heismans with a little bit of pitter-patter footwork in between)
• Butt Kicks (running in place with knees down, kicking your heels to your butt)
• High Knees (running in place while making sure your knees raise up to your waist with each "stride")
• Vertical Jumps (from a moderate squat position, jump as high as you can as if you're shooting a basketball... kills the calves)

Again, at the end of the last cycle was a series of additional moves, that I can't quite remember.  But you finish up hard!

Stretch (10 min)

Today it occurred to me during the stretch sequence that these static stretches go against a lot of what I've heard elsewhere about warming up.  I had been under the impression that any "stretching" after a cardio warm-up should be ballistic stretching (vs static) to keep everything loose for the actual workout.  Especially when the workouts are as plyo crazy as these.  Save the static stuff for post-workout.

Oh well.  We haven't pulled anything yet, but we'll see.  I will say though that having the somewhat subdued stretch break provides a much needed breather!

Workout (~20 min)

• First Interval (3 rounds of following moves)
• Power Jumps (Hard!  Very deep squat into a high jump, tucking your knees in at the top)
• Belt Kicks (basically a squat, come up and kick your leg and then repeat on the other leg)
• Hit the Floor (Don't even know how to describe these, but they sort of resemble a blend between shuttle runs and jumping)
• V push-ups (have your feet up towards your hands as close as possible so that your butt sticks up in the air to make a "v"... have your fingers pointed towards each other, head down, and then perform the pushups so that your shoulders feel the burn!)

The only one of these that didn't seem to be that effective was the belt kicks.  You really need to tighten your core on these to feel them, but I found it too tempting to cheat. 

• Second Interval (3 rounds of the following moves)
• Hurdle Jumps (sprints in place, followed by a mock hurdle jump)
• Globe Jumps (squat jumps: forward, left, back, right..repeat)
• Moving Pushups (with moving push-ups you start in plank, move your right arm and right foot to the right, do a push-up, move to the right again and do another pushup.  Then it’s back to the left twice.  You go back and forth until your minute is up. )
• Floor Sprints (essentially mountain climbers)

Oh yeah, and at the end of this second interval you get to do one last exercise: 8 hop squats/8 pushups...and repeat till your muscles collapse!

Recap

All in all, this workout didn't seem all that different from yesterday, although it was certainly more resistance heavy with all the pushups.  

That said, I do have some early thoughts on the program, and not all of them are positive.  First, unlike P90x, it seems that Shaun T's repertoire of exercise moves is pretty limited.  These workouts are killer AND effective...but they all feel pretty similar, which could make this repetitive and maybe even boring pretty quickly.  Fortunately, Shaun T's a pretty good motivator.  

Second, it's somewhat DE-motivating to see background exercisers  pretty much drop out left and right because the workouts are so stinking hard.  I guess it's comforting to know that I'm not alone in my agony, but it also feels like the bar is almost too high... that this is simply a workout than can never be mastered.  That can be good or bad I suppose.

In any case, another solid/killer workout today.  It will be more of a challenge squeezing these into my schedule going forward since school is starting back up tomorrow, but Katie and are planning to make it happen!  And fortunately, so far, our diets are in tune with all the fitness craziness we're doing.

Shaun T.'s Insanity: Day 2 (Plyometric Cardio Circuit AKA "Kill me Now!")

Ladies and Gents,


Consider this a forewarning that I might not survive through all 60 days.  My trepidations following the beating I took in yesterday's Fit Test apparently had merit.  Day 2 of Insanity is quite possibly the hardest workout on DVD or otherwise that I have ever attempted...and I wouldn't even dare to suggest that Katie or I did a good job keeping up.  In terms of P90x comparisons, it's most akin to the Intervals Plus+, Plyo X, and Core Synergistics workouts. 


That said, we did what we could, which is really what counts in the end.  You have to remember the payoff you're looking for at the end of all this.  Fitness results don't come easy, but they're always well worth it.  And as I said yesterday... you can always push yourself harder than you think you can (that definitely goes for me: this workout, as hard as it was, is definitely the sort that's easy to cheat on).

www.beachbody.com

Cardio Warm-Up (10.5 minutes of intervals)
The warm-up consists of 3 cycles (no rest in between them) of a series of different exercise movements, which each movement lasting 30-60 seconds.  With each cycle, the pace gets faster, and believe me when I say you'll be longing for the workout to be finished by the time you complete the warm-up.  Comparing this warm-up to P90x's is somewhat of a joke (even though I think P90x warm-ups do a good job of accomplishing what they're supposed to).


Warm-Up Cycle Movements:

• Jog (basically running place; sounds easy enough, but Shaun pretty much has everyone sprinting by the third cycle)
• Jumping Jacks (Shaun makes you touch your hands together at the top, which actually isn't that easy for me these days due to flexibility issues)
• Heismans (Very quick heisman movements compared to those in P90x Plyo)
• 123s (basically, these are heismans with a little bit of pitter-patter footwork in between)
• Butt Kicks (running in place with knees down, kicking your heels to your butt)
• High Knees (running in place while making sure your knees raise up to your waist with each "stride")
• Mummy Kicks (bizarre move where you keep your arms and legs extended straight out, doing a sort of run while kicking your feet out in front of you, all while crossing your extended arms back and forth over each other in front of your chest.. you'd have to see it!)

For the last cycle, there were a bunch of added moves I can't remember... basically some crazy footwork drills. Not an easy way to finish!


Stretch (7 minutes)


This portion of the workout is more akin to the the P90x warm-up than the actual "warm-up" is.

The Workout (~20 minutes of crazy interval circuits)

First Circuit (3 cycles: each movement, again, lasts 30-60 seconds):

• Suicide Drills
• These are basically mini shuttle runs in the middle of your living room
• Power Squats
• Squat jumps... start from standing position, go down into a squat, jump as high as you can, repeat
• Mountain Climbers
• I have never seen mountain climbers like these... and they're hard!!  Standing up, you basically start running with high knees in place, while simultaneously reaching your arms up in turn like your trying to scale up a wall.
• Ski Downs
• Squat Jumps essentially, but you jump laterally from side to side like you're skiing

Second Circuit (3 cycles)

• Basketball Drills
• Pretty much squat jumps... you pretend to be shooting a basket during the jump
• Level One Drills
• These are hard!!!  From standing position drop down into plank for 4 pushups, then 4 "normal" mountain climbers in plank position, then stand up to repeat
• Ski Abs
• Even harder!  In plank position, jump your feet up in toward the right side of your rib cage, then back to plank, then to the left side, and repeat.
• In and Outs
• Yep, even harder.  From plank jump your feet right into/under your chest, then back out to plank.  Repeat.  Killer on your arms, abs, legs.

* In the third round, a few extra moves are added.

• Jabs (I found a lot of consolation seeing one of the background exercisers on this move barely able to move her arms... she had a huge smile on her face that pretty much said "are you kidding me, Shaun?")
• Cross jacks (a weird version of a jumping jack that involves criss-crossing your legs)
• Upper Cuts
• Attack (very similar to jabs)

Diagnosis
This is one hard workout, and I took LOTS of breaks.  I've taken breaks during P90x before, but usually that was more on days where I was feeling a little tired already.  In the case of Insanity, the breaks were more to keep me from having to go to the hospital.


To help with the recovery I'm using some Optimum Nutrition Oats & Whey, which was my recovering drink of the moment during my latter hardcore P90x days.  I think I'm going to need as much help as I can get.


REMEMBER:

1. Have water nearby
2. Take breaks as needed
3. Push harder than you think you can (don't take those breaks unless you NEED them)
4. Maintain good form!!!  Again, very easy to cheat on these sorts of exercises.  Do them in front of a mirror if you can, or with a friend who can keep you accountable.  

Good luck! To me since I have to work out gain tomorrow, and to you if you decide to join this fitness massacre :)