Today's Workout Description: Fit Test
Tomorrow's Workout: Insanity Plyo Circuit
Date of workout: Friday, July 10, 2009
Duration: About 30 minutes
Type: Cardio

Review:

Well, kids, I've been waiting on this fitness program for two agonizing months, so imagine when it came out--I did two day shipping and frenetically checked the UPS website daily to see when the date of shipping was. It got here at 2 p.m. today; I was working out by 2:10 p.m.

"Insanity" is an all new 60-day total body conditioning program put together by reknowned fitness trainer Shaun T (responsible for Hip Hop Abs). This is about as far from Hip Hop Abs that you can possibly get. For those of you who thought you were going to dance, leave your dancing shoes behind! This workout program is for the faint of heart or the unfit! In fact, he says, "I'm going to keep it real, this workout is not for everybody!" He wasn't lying.

Before today, I thought I was in pretty good shape--I've done P90X, P90X Plus, ChaLEAN Extreme, One on One with Tony Horton, and to prepare for the intense cardio focus of Insanity, a bit of Turbo Jam, all Beachbody workouts. This was not your mama's fitness test. This was intense hard work and by the end of the workout, I was in a complete flop sweat!

The fit test looks innocent enough--8 simple little moves and that's fine--except it's MAX INTERVAL TRAINING! What does that mean? It means instead of skyrocketing your heart rate and taking time to bring it back down then doing the same in succession for about 30 minutes, it's turned on it's head. Longer spurts of intense working out and shorter rests.

In this first workout, there is a lot of plyometric (read: jumping) training. He does a lot of targeting of specific body parts, and even as I type this, I can feel my obliques, hamstrings, and even triceps and delts a bit. If the rest of the workout is as intense as just this fit test, I can see why there's no need for weights--you're moving so quickly and so intensely that weights would just compound things and honestly get in the way.

Stats & Data From the Fit Test:

1. Move: Switch Kicks
> My rep count: 120

2. Move: Power Jacks
> My rep count: 50

3. Move: Power Knees
> My rep count: 95

4. Move: Power Jumps (these have always been my weakness)
> My rep count: 30

5. Move: Globe Jumps
> My rep count: 9

6. Move: Suicide Jumps (I was suicidial after these, LOL)
> My rep count: 12

7. Move: Pushup Jacks
> My rep count: 33

8. Move: Low-Plank Obliques
> My rep count: 45

So you've always wanted to know what happens when you go insane, huh? Well, you sweat a lot, your breathing becomes labored, the walls start closing in on...wait. Scratch that last part!

After much prodding from my guy Dave, I embarked on what is probably one of the most challenging cardio workouts that I've EVER done--PERIOD. Shaun T's Insanity Plyo Circuit was a monster from the start. I'm so used to warming up and stretching first before going right into the workout, but Shaun T was about to show me why he calls it Insanity.

Generally, when a workout DVD starts playing for me, I groove to the music a little bit to just get myself mentally prepared to do the workout. I grooved a few seconds too long because when Shaun was ready to GO he was MOVING and I got left behind. But I kept pushing. Keep moving. Kept UP with Shaun T and the folks.

Kids, I didn't know my legs could move that fast. Honestly, there were times that my arms and legs were moving so fast that I was sure that I'd been possessed by some powerful masochist workout demon spirit! I won't lie--there were times that I had to push pause and let my heart rate come down to a safer range. There were times that I said, "Oh my God, I HATE YOU SHAUN T!" There were times when a few four letter words flew Shaun T's direction--heck, MORE than a few times!

I wanted to give up SO many times after starting this workout. 20 minutes in, I was ready to say, "Screw it! I'm done!" But some sick, twisted part of me enjoyed basking in the throws of pleasurable pain. Something inside said, "Larry, PUSH!!!! PUSH!!! DON'T SIT DOWN!!! YOU WANT A MORE TONED BODY? YOU WANT A BODY LIKE SHAUN'S?!!! YOU AIN'T GONNA GET IT BY SITTING DOWN ON THE BED AND RESTING!!!! GET UP AND MOVE YOUR AZZ!!!!!" Talk about encouraging yourself and being your own personal trainer, huh?

By far, the most challenging moves were the Level 1 Drills and the Ski abs. For level one, he takes you to plank, down for 4 fast push-ups, back to plank for some core work, then up like your coming out of a burpee, then back down again and again and again...I'm sure I'm probably still doing them right now! That's how many there are! Yes, I collapsed on the floor! But I yelled at myself, "Get your weak azz up and GO, GO, GO!!!!!!!" And strangely enough, that WORKED! Self-motivation is KEY!

All in all, Insanity gave me possibly the best cardio workout I've had in a long time, and that's saying a lot because I've been on some pretty extreme programs here for a long time. I'm a guy who hates cardio, but I actually enjoyed this because you didn't have TIME to worry about how many minutes of the workout you had left...you just had time to GO and breathe! Insanity--it's definitely not for everyone, but I know I'll be one of the first in line to add what's sure to be an AWESOME workout regimen to my library come July! ...That's what happens when you go insane...