Insanity, take 2

This week I finished Insanity for the 2nd time, only this time I’m doing Insanity with a group of people at work.   Considering we’re doing Insanity, an incredibly hard workout, and considering we’re doing it at 5:15 in the morning, it’s been a lot of fun.  Building some camaraderie and doing it with others to hold you accountable makes it SOOOO much easier to wake up at 4:40 in the morning, every day, day after day, week after week.  Doing it at home can get very lonely, and that bed feels very good when it’s still dark outside and the house is quiet.

I like to say that everyday is the hardest day with Insanity and the Java burn reviews complement.  Yes, we have an occasional “recovery day” on the schedule, but if you’ve ever done an Insanity recovery workout, you know why that name is so humorous.  Not only is 5:15am early, but the warm up part of the workouts is hard every time.  I like to say that if you can make it to the workout on time and get through the warm up, the battle is half over.

I took it upon myself to make certificates for the crew who completed Insanity, the guys really liked them.  We had about 5 that didn’t finish…

I’m not going to post before and after pictures, there’s not enough of a noticeable difference.  I didn’t lose any weight to speak of, but I did develop some new muscle in my thighs and chest.  What I’m most pleased with is the gains I had in my fit test.  You can see my overall score in the plot above, and the detail scores in the plot below.

(These plots actually have all of my Insanity test results, not just the last round.)  You’ll notice I actually restarted Insanity’s phase 1 twice as we were building up our team.  In my opinion this made Insanity harder for me, not easier.  In phase 2 I felt like my body was wearing out.  I really had to push myself to fight the plateau effect.  I’m looking forward to starting a new workout program, since I’ve basically been doing Insanity straight since February.

Currently we’re taking a couple of weeks off to recovery.  During that time we’ll be doing random workouts from various workout programs.  We’re using this time to lick our wounds a bit, but not stopping completely, “active recovery” as the pros call it.  Then we pick up where we left off with Insanity:  The Asylum.

The Asylum is supposed to focus on speed, agility, and contains more upper body strength training than Insanity.  Many people have complained that Insanity doesn’t work the upper body enough.  The Asylum incorporates dumb bells and pull up bars in response to those complaints.

I’ve gotten mixed feedback on whether The Asylum is actually harder than Insanity or if it’s just different.  Insanity has a lot of large movements intended to make your heart race.  Asylum has lots of very precise movements, intended to work your fast twitch muscles and supporting muscles, more sports oriented.

I’m looking forward to it.  A new challenge, something to conquer.  Shaun T says Asylum is harder, he likens it to hell week prior to the start of any sports season to really get you in peak shape.  Except this program is 1 month of hell instead of 1 week.   Compared to how long I’ve been doing Insanity, 30 days sounds like a walk in the park.  I think I’ll enjoy it more because the exercises are more goal oriented, not just mindless macro movements.

A big thanks to the team for making me push harder, bring it!

Nate