My Insanity Work Review
And let me say I am not even very strict with my diet. I pretty much eat reasonably but I in no way follow the diet plan. The fact that I can be so pleased with the results of a workout plan but have not really changed my lifestyle is phenomenal. I eat how I ate before. I actually spend less time working out than I did before. A trip to the gym use to be about 2hours and occurred 4-5 days a week for me. Insanity is an hour and is 5-6 days a week for me. The Insanity workout is so efficient that you don’t need to be in the gym two hours. In fact, the 59 minute Interval and 55 minute Plyo workouts in month two are pretty much the limit of “normal” non-Olympic athlete capabilities for a human in my opinion. Anything longer and a heart attack would be almost certain.
Some people have complained about the length of the warm-up and stretching sessions in the workouts but I think they are totally necessary. For me, there is no way my knees and back could take that pounding without proper priming. I think Insanity is a lifetime type fitness program and not something faddish. If you are or were an athlete you have to appreciate the purity and simplicity of the movements in this program. You can tailor the workout routine to fit around weight lifting, running or athletic events. I have incorporated upper body weight lifting a couple of days a week recently because I will admit the program mostly focuses on legs, chest and shoulders. Pull ups, curls, dips and other upper body weight workouts are good supplements. One other note: The Cardio Abs routine is great! However, a friend let me borrow the Ab Ripper X DVD from P90X and I find that ab routine a little more challenging. There is a greater diversity of movements in the Ab Ripper routine and no down time. You get about 3 breaks in the Insanity ab routine. Both the Insanity and P90X ab DVD’s are a little over 16 minutes and very effective. I would give the Insanity version 4.5 stars to P90X’s 5 stars. But I absolutely LOVE this Insanity program and will continue it in some form or fashion as long as my body allows!
“Insanity” is the perfect name for this DVD program. Why? Because you have to be at least a little bit insane to jump into a program such as this one. The program is split up into two months of intense cardio and plyometrics with a bit of strength training thrown in (you use your body, not weights). There is also a recovery week in which you’ll find yourself doing a lot of stretching, a couple of yoga moves, and plenty of balancing moves. Each DVD includes at least one workout on it (a couple feature two). One DVD focuses strictly on the abs, although the abs get a great workout no matter which DVD you are on. Also included is a workout calendar that lists which DVD to do on each day of the week. Sundays are reserved for resting. The DVD set I purchased also came with a recipe book and a meal plan. All of these items were simple to use.
The first month is very intense, with each workout ranging from thirty five to forty five minutes on average. The second month is brutal, pure and simple. The workout length extends to fifty five minutes on some of the DVDs during the second month.
