Diagnosis: I am Insane!

While you might come to this conclusion in a number of different ways, I am referring to my recent completion of the Insanity workout DVD series.  For the most part I loved it!

After having done both, here’s my conclusion.  Insanity is primarily a cardio workout.  If you want to perform as an athlete, Insanity is a great all-around conditioning workout.  It is short and to the point, no fluff, just work hard and let the sweat flow.  My heart rate monitor was telling me I sometimes burned 1000 calories, before breakfast.  That kicks in your metabolism all day.

P90X is more of a look good workout, lots of upper body strength training.  Pull ups and bicep curls will help you look good, but aren’t particularly useful in most sports.  However I do like the variety that P90X provides, Insanity doesn’t have anything like the stretching, yoga, or kempo DVDs which are just different, and sometimes that change is very nice.  I also think the Ab Ripper DVD in P90X gives you a better ab work out than Insanity, but I like that most of the time Insanity incorporates it’s ab workouts into the normal cardio routine.

I’m sure my pull-ups suffered a little bit during Insanity, not working pull-ups as I was with P90X, but otherwise I’d say I still got a reasonable upper body conditioning, even though Insanity is primarily a cardio/legs workout. I will not list all the cardio exercises I do for my workouts as it will take a lot of time, instead you can learn more from here. Insanity has a few floor and push up routines that do a great job of working the chest, shoulders, and triceps, so even though you aren’t spending as much time on them as P90X, it still gives you a good rip.

Here’s some before and after pictures that cover my journey over the last 2 years.  Hard to believe I’ve been doing this consistently for that long already!!!  Insanity added some minute definition.  Even though I’m not dieting, it trimmed a little fat.  However I’m surprised that I didn’t lose weight during Insanity.  I really thought I’d lose another 5 lbs on Insanity, but my weight remained stable so I didn’t include an updated weight chart.

When I first started Insanity I was constantly hungry.  And my body was sufficiently sore from one day to the next, making it kind of difficult to keep up with the workout schedule.  So, for the first time ever, I decided to look into protein powder drinks.  I can definitely tell that when I drink a recovery drink after a workout, two things happen.  First, I’m not starving by mid-morning as I was before, and second, I was able to come back to the next day’s workout without as much soreness, which allows me to push myself a little bit harder.  So, I still feel a little uneasy using recovery drinks with crazy chemical names, but it seems like it has helped my ability to concentrate at work, and my ability to hit the next day’s workout harder.   I wonder if I would have lost more weight if I hadn’t been using a protein shake, but I have to remind myself that I’m really not interested in losing weight, I’m interested in being in good shape.

Believe it or not, a few people have actually been requesting updated before and after photos, since my last set was from nearly a year ago.  I’m flattered that some people are so interested in my progress.  So without further ado:

Finally, one thing that I like about Insanity is that you take a fitness test every 2 weeks to track your progress.  P90X has worksheets used to track progress too, but it was kind of fun that these were like milestone days in the Insanity program.  I will continue to update these stats as I repeat the Insanity program.

As you can see, even though my body didn’t appear to change drastically from P90X to Insanity, my fitness tests clearly shows that I had significant improvement in conditioning.  It’s important to note that the fitness test isn’t just about maxing out your repetitions, it’s about doing it in a regimented period of time.  For each test, you have 1 minute to complete as many reps as possible, then you have 1 minute to rest.  After the first few tests you’re winded, but the tests keep coming.  So it really is just as much (or more) an endurance test as it  is a strength test, and you can clearly see my endurance improved over time.  That’s what I like about Insanity.  It gives me increased confidence that I can out perform the average Joe, and very likely I’m more agile than he is due to the types of exercises Insanity uses.

I’m going to repeat Insanity, but this time try harder to get dips and pull-ups in while I’m at work.  I think the combination of the two will be pretty tight.  I started out doing this in Phase 1 of Insanity, but when Phase 2 started it kicked my butt so hard that I didn’t have the strength or motivation to continue doing pull-ups during the day.  Now that I’ve been through Phase 2 once, I really don’t have any excuse anymore.  Once I’ve completed Insanity the 2nd time with ancillary exercises, I intend to repeat Insanity a 3rd time, but then I will incorporate the extra DVDs I received in the deluxe kit, which includes an upper body workout routine and a more intense ab workout.  So I still have plenty of room to grow with this workout series.   After that, I have a schedule that mixes P90 and Insanity to get the best of both worlds.  I’m looking forward to it.  After that I might need to purchase P90X-2, or whatever the latest and greatest is.

Dig deep,
Nate