I’m two weeks into my Insanity regimen, and last night’s workout had me really wondering if I can actually make it through all 9 weeks of this thing. The second month, (weeks 6 through 9), takes the whole thing up another level into the “Max” workouts. I’m still in the beginning Insanity workouts.

The freakin’ warm up exercises are hard. I’m panting and sweating after the first 20 minutes, and then, (after the stretch time), the real workout begins. So far I’ve been able to do every exercise without skipping, but I haven’t been able to completely keep up with hot shots in the video class. Sure, many of them take short breaks like me during the work outs, and they’re wiped out like me at the end of the program. But they’re all in their 20s.

I don’t have the high after the workouts like I got after the P90X workouts. I don’t feel “good” after all that work, I feel like I just had my ass kicked.

And I’m not seeing any change in my body yet. Granted, I’m just two weeks done, and I was already leaned down from the P90X work, but something has to start showing soon. It’s hard to keep up this pounding without something visual to show for it.

Insanity is hard. Really hard. I mean, “Oh my God!”, hard. P90X was hard, especially in the beginning weeks. But I never doubted my ability to keep it up. Now, though, I’ve had my first doubts about my ability to keep at it.

With P90X, you can see the level of the regimen in the first couple weeks. If you can get through the first couple weeks, you know you can perform everything through out all 13 weeks. You just have to keep pressing play, every day.

But Insanity cranks it up a level in the sixth week. If you’re struggling in the first four weeks, what’s going to happen in the last four? I haven’t looked at the videos for the second month, yet. I’m kind of scared to. At this point, when I’m struggling through the beginning workouts, should I take a peek at the next level? I don’t know. I don’t want to break my will by seeing something that might overwhelm me. I don’t want to kill my spirit so soon.

I’m going to continue, for now. I’m not going to quit during the beginning stage. Although they totally kick my ass and leave me a worn out puddle of sweat and fatigue, I at least know I can get through these first month routines. But dear God, what will the next phase be like?

Bullgrit

Thirteen weeks of P90X got me here. I was as fit or more than I had ever been in my life. Several more weeks of the regimen got me here. Though I was in the best fitness and shape of my life, I wanted more. I had worked hard enough, for long enough, that I felt I deserved that damn six-pack ab section. I wasn’t satisfied with just “wow, what a transformation” and “better than ever.” I wanted to take my body all the way to “hot damn!”

But I’ve apparently been on a plateau with P90X, for several weeks, now. So I started giving consideration to another Beachbody workout regimen called Insanity. Several aspects of this regimen sell it to me:

• No equipment — no more pulling out and putting away my weights and pull-up bar nearly every night.
• 30-60 minute workouts — quicker than the 60-90 minutes of P90X.
• Sixty days — even faster than P90X.
• “The hardest workout ever put on DVD” — after taking on and beating the P90X challenge, I want to test myself on this, too.

From all I’ve read about this workout set, it’s not really a next level up from P90X, it’s just different — and just as extreme. P90X has a lot of weight training and muscling up; Insanity is all cardio and leaning down. After my rounds of P90X, I’m muscled up as well as I want, (I was never going for the Schwarzenegger look). Now I just want to lean down a little bit more.

Before I started P90X, I never would have thought I would reach 170 pounds and think, “I need to loose another couple pounds.”

So, I ordered and received my set of Insanity DVDs. I went through the first fit test and found the effort exhilerating. Here’s a Youtube video of the fit test exercises, (this is not me; this is Brad Gibala —  http://workoutjourney.com/):

The info in the Insanity set doesn’t give a goal for the fit test, but here’s what I “scored”:

Number of reps in 60 seconds, for each exercise

• Switch Kicks: 58 (two kicks = one rep)
• Power Jacks: 40
• Power Knees: 72
• Power Jumps: 25
• Globe Jumps: 7 (series of four jumps = one rep)
• Suicide Jumps: 9
• Push-up Jacks: 20
• Low Plank Oblique: 28 (two knee ups = one rep)

Most of those exercises I’ve never seen, much less performed. That beginning test was last Sunday. I’ve now completed my first week of Insanity, and I can say, “Wow! Holy &%^#^*&!” The workouts are incredible. Harder than P90X? I’d say, “Yes, but not because the individual exercises are harder.” The main difference is the intensity and pacing.

I couldn’t conceive of a more intense or faster paced workout than P90X before I started Insanity. But DAMN! Even the cast in the Insanity videos have to stop from time to time and take a breather in the middle of some exercises. It actually helps me get through when I take a break, hands on my knees, sweat dripping from my chin, lungs pumping like bellows, to look at the screen and see that a couple of the twelve or so cast members are also taking a pause. After a few seconds, I get back into the workout, so do the resting cast members — but then another one or two break down for a few seconds.

Whatever my results after this 60-day regimen of Insanity, I’ll be done with the daily workouts. Whether I get that set of washboard abs or not, I’ll just drop back to, and keep up, a good, solid maintenance workout schedule — 3 days a week. This is my promise to myself and my family. If I can’t get that ultra lean, totally ripped body with all this, then it’s just not going to happen for me, now, over 40 years old. I can accept that, but only after I’ve tried to get it.

Bullgrit