Insanity/P90X/Beachbody Workouts

[mcfizzle]

I started Beachbody's Insanity DVD program yesterday and decided I wanted to document my time through the program. Each day I want to leave a post of what my workout felt like, how my body is feeling, my motivation levels, changes I'm seeing, etc.. For those of you that don't know, Insanity is a 12(?) DVD program that you do for 6 days a week for 60 days. It is extreme, not for beginners, and probably one of the toughest workouts you can do.



The past year I have tried to transform my fitness. I've always been a lean person, a cross country/track runner in high school and never had much muscle mass. The problem was the past few years I worked out less and ate more, and at times extremely poor. I started to put weight on, mainly in the stomach, face, and legs. I felt lethargic and generally bad. I hit rock bottom when I was at my brother's rehersal dinner and my belly was stretching out a dress shirt I had bought only 1 year before. In fact, when I bought it it was a little tight but I told myself it was motivation to lose weight. My brothers and father pointed out that it was the biggest I had ever been and that was embarassing. Worst of all I work in the health care industry and I know better.

Things didn't change immediately. It wasn't until a week or two later that my wife wanted to buy P90X for herself. I tried to talk her out of it since I knew it was difficult and she has a history of knee problems. She won out and that's when I decided I would give it a shot too.



The DVD's and equipment arrived, I watched a lot of transformation videos on youtube, started to get excited, started the program the next Sunday. I was hooked on P90x. I was feeling better and seeing small results within weeks and I could tell this was going to turn me around. I followed the program religiously, 93 straight says or whatever it ends up being, without missing a workout or pushing it off for a day or two. During that time I was also running on the strength training days, a modification of their double program. In the end I lost 15 pounds and I put on a lot of muscle mass. The wife has since moved onto Brazilian Butt Lift, or Booty Blaster as I call it. Gentlemen, that thing works wonders and you should look into it for your ladies.

I should also explain why I do these DVD's and don't go to the gym. For me the hardest part of working out is getting to the gym. Getting in the car and driving there can seem like an impossible task at times, especially if I don't have a workout partner. The DVD's are there all the time and I don't have to leave my living room. On top of the minimal space and equipment is needed. Best of all, I've gotten far better results than I ever have from going to a gym.

Sorry for the wall of text. I want to use this for motivation. Sometimes it's hard to start a workout and reading other peoples comments can help get me through it. I also usually check GTPlanet right before I start my workouts so I hope people will post about their workouts or experiences with these DVD's. Also, I'm not a Team Beachbody coach or affiliated with them in any way. But I do love their products.

Updates of my first two days will be posted later. I have to mow the lawn quickly.

 

[mcfizzle]

Day 1 of Insanity:

I've always started my workouts on a Sunday. First I pick a Sunday on the calendar as my start date. It makes it easier for me to give myself a week or two before I start the program and have it in my head that it starts on a certain date. I also pick Sunday's because it's a day off from work and then it always matches up with Beachbody programs that Saturday will be a day of rest. Insanity is also so tough I did a soft start up a week ago where I did 3 workouts over the course of one week to get some of the extreme soreness out of the way and have a general idea of what to expect. I'm coming into this after 3 weeks of not working out due to work scheduling and before that 5 months of a P90X/X2 hybrid workout. All in all coming in in good shape although I had a bad couple weeks of poor eating leading up to this.

First workout was Plyometric Cardio Circuit(40 mins). First thoughts, this is why they call it Insanity. It is tough, even the warmup is challenging to get through. You go through a series of exercises and then repeat them at higher intensity 2 more times. The stretch period came as a relief because my legs were exhausted and the heart rate was definitely up high. The good thing is after the stretch there was only about 20 mins left and that definitely sounds a lot more manageable than 40. The actual workout was tough, even being in good shape. You do a modified burpees type exercise with pushups and running in a plank position and it definitely took all I had to get through it. I completed the entire workout with a break here or there but I am really satisfied with how I did. Definitely better than my soft launch last Sunday.

Workout 2 Cardio Power & Resistance (40 mins).

Really mild soreness, better described as tired, in the legs and arms heading into today's workout. I was not motivated to start though. I probably wasted an hour on the internet before actually putting the dvd in and then another 30 before I pressed play. Couldn't really say why, probably because my work schedule lightened up starting today so I just want to be lazy.

Anyways, this is a tough workout. The power jumps, a modified tuck jump with legs spread apart rather than knees and feet close, are killer. I could do them but not at the pace Shaun T does them if I wanted to make it through the entire thing. It ends with walking push ups and running in plank position and it was a struggle to keep going. My shoulders felt like they couldn't support my body weight anymore but I was able to get through it. I thought I was done, felt relieved, then Shaun T says one more exercise, even though he said that earlier. I struggled through it, 8 pulse squats plus 8 pushups repeated for 1 minute but I made it through it. I don't like the stretch for Insanity as much as P90X's stretch, but I do enjoy it as a cool down stretch so it felt nice to do it. I do think I will be more sore and walking stiff tomorrow.

Also, if people request it I can post before and after photos along with the photo of myself in the stretched dress shirt.

Good luck to anyone still to workout today, keep the motivation high and push yourself. Feel free to post your thoughts, tips, feelings on P90X and Insanity positive or negative. Talk about your workout if you would like.

Edit: I forgot to weigh myself before yesterday and today's workout. Currently 69.7kg/153.3lbs although after eating lunch.

 

[mohitraina91]

Looking good Scott 👍.

I see you've posted your weight, but don't see your height anywhere. For all I know you could be 5 feet tall .

I've tried P90X, but as a skinny guy it's not ideal. My goal was to bulk up, and it just didn't feel right. But if you've got a gut, P90x is great.

I've never tried insanity, but I've a buddy who swears by it, and the results show too. Hopefully you get amazing results too.

I prefer free weights for all my workouts. My motivation is high at the moment, but there are some days I just feel lazy and don't feel like going. It's days like those I look at quick two minute videos or some pics that motivate me to go.

Something like this:

​

Good luck with your program 👍. I'll check in regularly to see how you're progressing .

 

[mcfizzle]

Thanks Mohit. I'm 5'9". I put on some bulk with P90X but I'm a naturally skinny guy. There is a limit to what my type of frame will carry. What I was doing before Insanity was a mix of P90X and P90X2. I worked out 5 days a week and made sure at least once a week the strength training was from X2 so I also did a different ab workout also. I eventually want to do a hybrid P90X/X2/Insanity plan where I am mixing them and consistently changing out what I'm doing. Good luck with getting to the gym each day. A workout can be the last thing you want to do someways but afterwards it is such a satisfying feeling. One of my favorite things that Tony Horton says is something like "there is no saying I can't, only I presently struggle with." I try to remember that when motivation is down or things are going good. The other one is "you can do anything for 30 seconds."

I didn't have time to post yesterday so here is my update:

Day 3 Cardio Recovery (30 mins)
A needed nice and easy day. It is more about stretching and some strength training exercise but through a short range of motion, pulses as they called it in the DVD. Intensity is way down but at the same time it's extremely challenging to do it all. An example would be performing slow squats, then hold a squat for about 30 seconds and then squat pulses. Again motivation was low going into it but I got through it. The bigger problem was the Dairy Queen later that night.

Day 4 Pure Cardio(length unsure)

I ran into a problem today, the DVD doesn't work. It runs until the Warning screen and just stops. Amazon wants me to return it and reorder. Not really an option in my opinion. Beachbody claimed that was my only option also. I made it clear to them that I wasn't thrilled to start a 60 day program on a schedule and now have to stop and wait for new dvd's. All I wanted was for them to mail me a new DVD. After a little bit of time they agreed so I will start back up tomorrow. I'm not doing the by weekly fit test so that frees up a day and I can resume tomorrow.

Great video Mohit.👍 Feel free to post how your workouts are going.

 

[GTMail]

Cool thread. I have a question about Insanity. How is it on the knees? I've sustained two knee injuries playing highschool football(one required surgary) but they haven't been feeling so hot lately. Would Insanity be tough on rough knees?

 

[mcfizzle]

Cool thread. I have a question about Insanity. How is it on the knees? I've sustained two knee injuries playing highschool football(one required surgary) but they haven't been feeling so hot lately. Would Insanity be tough on rough knees?

Yeah, Inanity would be really tough on your knees. You are constantly moving on your feet. There are a lot of foot contacts during every workout and every time you have one your knees will be absorbing some of that impact.

If you want to try a Beachbody workout I would recommend starting with P90X. It is easier on the knees, still going to be hard on them though, but they show modifications for every exercise. Plus there are days off between leg workouts where Inanity never gives legs time off.

 

[nk4e]

I looked at the Insanity workout and isn't there a schedule you follow? I thought bout of taking a few videos and just working with those.

 

[mcfizzle]

I looked at the Insanity workout and isn't there a schedule you follow? I thought bout of taking a few videos and just working with those.

There is a schedule but you certainly don't have to follow it. There are 10 DVDs and you could mix and match however you wish. Thats what I do with P90X when I use it.

I will update about todays workout later. It was a killer.

Edit:

Day 5 Max Cardio Conditioning (45mins)
This workout killed me. I had to choose a DVD to switch in since Pure Cardio doesn't work and I chose this. The problem is it is part of the Month 2 plan so it was made in mind for people who have already gone through 30 days of Insanity. It was super tough and I really had to control my intensity. If I went all out there was no way I could make it through the entire workout. My legs felt good and it was motivating to make it through the workout knowing that I will be able to handle the workouts that come up later on. It was hard to get motivated for this one because I worked a split shift, 7-11 and 4:30-8:30, and had to fit my workout in between. All I wanted to do was sleep and relax.

Day 6 Plyometric Cardio Circuit ( 40 mins)
Not really sure why they call this Plyometric because there are very few plyos exercises(loading a muscle and then powerful contraction, think pressing a down a spring and then releasing) but it doesn't change the fact that it's hard. I don't have as much soreness as I thought I would be my legs do feel tired. I had to stop during basketball squat shots to stretch out a tight right quad. The last thing I want to do is pull a muscle and have to stop completely. This workout ends with level 1's(standing to plank to 4 pushups to 8 running planks to stand and repeat for 1-2 minutes. Very exhausting. Then in and outs from a plank positions and it tests the limits of what you can handle.

Weighed 68.3Kg/150.26lbs.