INSANITY is in the House!

So I don't really like to talk about specific programs. Everyone's workouts are very personal and there are tons out there that work, tons that don't, and admittedly tons out there just like this one.

I have done my online Jillian Michael's workouts for the past few years. They are great. I have raved about them here before. I still love them and definitely get a great workout from them. While there is always room to mix it up with more reps, or heavier weights....after almost 2 years on level 3 w/no new moves...it can get a bit stale. I still love it, and it will still be a part of my routine, but I am very happy to add Insanity to my workouts!

I mentioned it last month. I saw it on TV, wanted it, refused to spend the money. Thankfully, a sis in our hall who is a fitness machine had the disks. I started last week and have done 4 of the 10 workouts so far. I have to say I was surprised at the intensity. I have not sweat so hard so fast in a long time. The moves are not complicated moves, or moves that take insane strength, but it is intense, non stop, back to back exercises. On most of the Plyometric moves it does help to have some ab strength already to stay controlled and really keep them engaged...things like high knee jumps. There are quite a few cardio moves that definitely require strength. Yesterdays workout had a session of drills...think old school football drills. Today's had a circuit of jumping squats that went straight down into push ups, then jumping right back into jumping squats, dropping right into push ups...over and over and over again. Good, old school stuff that gets the job done.

It is structured, as the video explains, the opposite of Jillian's workouts. Jillian's workouts usually consist of 5 circuits made up of 5 exercises each. 3 exercises are strength, 2 are cardio. Insanity is heavy cardio. Even the more strength based exercises are done working from a slow, controlled state, slowly increasing the pace to as quickly as possible w/o sacrificing form. So everything moves very quickly. After each circuit is complete, there is a 30 second water break. There are also stretching sessions in the workouts, which is new for me. They are shorter workouts than what I am used to, around 40 minutes on average. Jillian's take me about 1hr 20 minutes to do....so 40 minutes seemed really short, but I can tell I am getting a good workout in during that 40 minutes.

I am not doing 60 back to back days with a goal of dropping body fat, or getting ripped, or leaning out, like the people in the video say. I will do these workouts as a normal part of my routine, along with my Jillian workouts, just to kick things up a notch. I have some fun things coming up, and I would like to just amp things up, pick up the pace a bit as far as my fitness is concerned.