Insanity!

I had done a few rounds of P90X and X+, okay, 6 in total, and I'm thinking I'm in the best shape of my life and this Insanity thing is just going to be some easy workout that's meant for those that aren't really in that great of shape......wrong!!

Guess again! Completing a 67 day Round of INSANITY is very humbling experience. It is by far the toughest workout system ever put to DVD. A gift of extreme fitness.

I just completed my first Round of INSANITY a week ago Sunday (September 20, 2009). It was by far the toughest workout program that I have done and produced literally buckets of sweat throughout. I originally received the trial Plyo workout with my order of Tony Horton's One on One Diamond Delts. The trial itself was enough to get me to order the program, figuring it was the hardest workout in the program and targeted towards us hardcore fitness types. Seriously, the warm-up alone was too extreme for me the first time.

It got better when INSANITY arrived at my door. The packaging was AWESOME! Beachbody really outdid themselves with this program. Absolutely 1st class all the way! Its as gorgeous to look at as it is difficult to complete!

Shaun T accomplished something truely special in creating INSANITY. It is as much of a mental challenge as it is a physical one. INSANITY is VERY HARD. You cannot have an "Off day" and skate through the workouts. It doesn't work that way. It is so difficult that I think it makes some people shy away from it. This is EXACTLY what attracted me to it!

Some people started INSANITY when it first came out and then switched back to P90X or ChaLEAN Extreme. That is perfectly OK. INSANITY is not for everyone. The beauty of Beachbody is that there is a workout system for everyone. The people in the workout program itself, mostly 20 somethings, are usually stopping on and off thoroughout the routines to catch their breath, and there's no shame in that!

I fell in love with INSANITY from the first Fit Test. It was HARD, it hurt, and it set the stage for the next 66 days. My body started to adapt to the new exercises and routines and I fell into a groove pretty quickly. Which after 20 months of pushing myself, I found hard to believe, was it really possible to push this old body farther, and would it hold up?

The better you get at INSANITY the harder you can work. The body is an amazing thing. One of the first things I noticed was that I was SORE all over. I am talking all over fatigue. EVERYTHING from my toes to my eyebrows got sore, bringing me back to why P90X worked for me in the first place. Surprisingly your back will get very sore from all the Plank work. There was such a sense of accomplishment with each workout completed. Why? Because you had to give 100% effort and focus to every exercise and rep. It demands allot but the rewards are SO AWESOME!

Here is what you get from working HARD at INSANITY for 67 days:
- Adamant Mental Toughness (You push harder than you ever though possible and then go beyond!)
- Incredible Muscular Endurance
- Out of this world Cardio
- Body fat is SHREDDED from your frame
- "Real World" functional Fitness (No fluff exercises that look good but don't translate to real life)

You become the Athlete that you never thought you could become. Because of INSANITY, I am in the absolute best shape of my life. I am stronger, faster, in better cardio shape, and have more muscular endurance than I have ever had at any stage of my life. My body fat is roughly 9% right now at 205 pounds. All at nearly 45 years old.

For those of you out there that think INSANITY is only a cardio program, nothing could be further from the truth. Its total body blasting with the best cardio routines ever put together in one workout System.

If you work hard your physical progression is incredible. I expected to lose some strength, thinking this was just some ShaunT aerobic dancing program. There's no weights involved, no pull ups, but an incredible amount of push ups. A week after the program, and following a week of my old serious circuit weight training I'm very happy to report major increases in all of my weight lifting - which seems almost impossible to believe after two months away from the weights and kettle bells. The only downside is that I lost the calluses on my hands. I'm not claiming an increase in strength or muscle, but I am stating that my muscle endurance increased drastically. My old sets of kettle bell swings or dumb bell curls got so much easier. At the end of the set with the same weight that I was struggling to lift at rep 8 is so easy now. Plain and simple the muscles just aren't fatigued!!

If you are planning on doing INSANITY here are some tips:

1.) Wear some decent cross trainer shoes (Essential as 90% of your work is on your feet)
2.) Workout in an area that can handle getting wet from your sweat (You will SWEAT during INSANITY like never in your life!). As a side note, I did yell at our new puppy one day after working out, only to discover it was really a puddle caused by my sweat dripping off the the shirt that was hanging on the chair.
3.) Workout on a surface that is non slip and forgiving on your joints.
4.) Get enough Beachbody Results & Recovery Formula to have a post workout drink 6 days a week)
5.) Wear something on your head that wil keep the sweat out of your eyes (Bandana, headband, hat)
6.) Get a Heart Rate Monitor (Best is a wrist watch type that calculates calories burned)
7.) Follow the INSANITY ELite Nutrition Guide (Shaun says to subtract 300-400 extra cals to lose weight)
8.) Drink ALLOT of water. (You will sweat so much you MUST keep well hydrated to recover)
9.) Get enough Sleep (Again Recovery is most important)
10.) Realize that you will "suffer" and struggle during all of the 67 days of INSANITY. That is GOOD!
11.) Harden yourself mentally to the workouts as quickly as possible. Your mind fails first.
12.) NEVER lose focus on your goals. INSANITY will help you achieve them.

I dropped 10 pounds during the 67 days of my 1st Round of INSANITY. I went from 215 pounds at 10% BF to 205 pounds at sub 9% BF. I didn't lose an ounce of visible muscle. I leaned out like crazy.

So there it is my friends. Think you want to take on INSANITY? Be prepared to work harder than you ever have in your life. When you find yourself standing tall and proud on Day 67, in the absolute shape of your life, you can call yourself an "Insanity Graduate", and that is somehting you can be VERY proud of!