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

My birthday present to myself this year was to be a set of six-pack abs. After finishing P90X, back in May, I had lost 18 pounds of middle-age padding, and had toned up my muscles to a level they hadn’t been in for many a year. But I still had a layer of padding that hid the muscle tone of my midsection. It wasn’t a pooch or spare tire — my stomach is flat, now — it was just a layer.

I went into maintain-mode with P90X for four weeks. Instead of 6 heavy workouts a week, I dropped to 3-4 a week. During those maintenance weeks, I lost another 5 pounds of padding, (for a total of 23 pounds lost). These numbers astonished me — I would never have thought I had 23 pounds of fat to loose. I didn’t feel really fat. I just felt middle-aged.

But after those 4 weeks of maintenance, I could see a bare hint, a shadow of where my six-pack abs would be. In the right pose, I could imagine those muscles showing through the last little layer of padding. I was so, so close.

I decided to pick up the regular routine of P90X workouts again. I had the proper diet worked out, and had been following it during the maintenance weeks, so surely the last thin layer would burn off quickly with the full-on workouts.

I lost another pound in the first week of the second round, (for a total of 24 pounds), but then for the last three weeks, no weight loss; no visible difference that I can see in my midsection. Frustrating!

Three weeks of working damn hard physically, keeping to a proper diet, (with only very rare misteps), and no fat loss to see. One theory is maybe that my muscle increase and fat loss ratio has reached an equilibrium — I’m gaining muscle weight at the same rate I’m loosing fat weight, so the scale doesn’t change. But if this were the answer, surely my ab muscles would be showing clearly by now?

Is my problem the curse of an over-40 body? What the hell!?

Bullgrit

I finished my P90X regimen last weekend. Even though I had to push out other things from my life, (like blogging and gaming), to make time for the workouts, I did thoroughly enjoy the whole effort. And boy, was it effort.

P90X is tough, it is intense, and it requires a real adjustment in daily life. Especially eating habits. Working out was the easier part of the whole thing, because it just required physical exertion for 1-1.5 hours each day. The diet took attention every hour of the day.

I’d do well on my diet for 3 or 4 days, but then I’d screw up and eat something I shouldn’t, or eat more than I should. My boys’ favorite restaurants are CiCi’s pizza buffet, Golden Corral buffet, and Moe’s Mexican food. We’d go to one of them at least once a week, and I’d blow my diet right out.

Plus, I like going out to a restaurant for lunch once or twice a week, and sitting down for someone else to cook, serve, and clean up while I just read a good book and eat the food. I continued to do this during P90X, but I’d have a salad or something that seemed low calorie and low fat. It wasn’t till the last few weeks that I really started checking food nutrition information carefully.

I went online to the sites for my favorite lunch-time restaurants, and I got a shock. What I thought had been good choices when eating out, was actually just as bad as any of the obviously bad choices. One salad that I had been eating once every week or two actually has over 1,000 calories and 60 grams of fat! I shit you not. My base diet was 2,000 calories and 40 grams of fat per day. So even when I thought I had been doing well, I was totally screwing it up.

But, despite the epic failure at following the P90X diet, I did manage to loose 18 unneeded pounds of padding. My muscles are firmer, and I feel absolutely great. I’m fit and solid.

I’m no underwear model, but clothes fit better, (I’ve had to buy new, smaller jeans). I have more energy, and playing with my boys is easier, with less exhaustion afterward. And apparently, judging from the pictures, my posture has improved.

Don’t laugh at my farmer’s tan.

No, I don’t have a six-pack. Although, I bet if I had managed my diet better, I would have the ripped abs. But, I’m still working on everything.

I’m moving from working out every day to working out 3-4 times a week. I’ve got a better understanding and grip on my diet now, so I think I may still slim down a bit more. Maybe the abs will start showing through soon.

Bullgrit