My brother is playing the drums in this video.

My brother pointed me to this video saying only that he was in it. He had me watch it while on the phone with him. I first noticed him on the couch, (surrounded by a bunch of kids at least 15 years younger than he), and said, “There you are. Cool.”

A little later, there he was playing the drums. I said in surprise, “Oh, you’re playing the drums.”

“Naw,” he mocked, “you thought I’d be playing the guitar?”

I rolled my eyes, (not that he could see them over the phone). “I didn’t know you’d be playing anything, smartass. I didn’t know you played with this band.” I know and like his band, Paperstreet, but he never told me about Erath.

So, brogrit, tell me how you ended up playing in this video.

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