Project Exercise

I made it to my last day of Insanity!  Man, it was a wild ride.  Today I had to do my final fit test.  Here are the numbers…

Not much of an improvement from my last fit test.  In fact, I was only able to do 14 Globe Jumps.  That was the same number as the last test.  Globe Jumps are the most difficult for me.  It looks deceivingly simple.  Trust me, they are a lot harder than they look.

After work I did my P90X workout.  Legs, back and Ab Ripper X was on the schedule.  The workout went well.  After completing a couple rounds, the workouts get much easier and, in fact, I find that I need to extend each exercise while Tony is talking so that I can bring up the intensity.  I will admit, however, that wall squats on one leg are still tough.  Btw, I now do them with an exercise ball between my back and the wall.  After the legs and back workout I did ARX.  As before I added overhead cable crunches.

I will give you folks my thoughts about Insanity on Sunday, my rest day.

Here is a good alternative to dumbbell flyes…

I did my fourth Insanity fit test today.  Again, it was intense.  If you have done Insanity, I am sure you will agree that the fit test is every bit as intense as doing any of the Insanity workouts.  The thing that makes it so difficult is that you have to go max overload on every test.  After all, you are quantifying your result and pushing to do better than the last fit test.  While I am quite please that I made improvements, you can see that my numbers are not that much higher than the last test.  I gave it all I had.

After doing nearly half an hour of Fit Test I had to do Max Interval Circuit.  This workout is an hour of pure torture.  Even though I am on week 8 (out of 9) of Insanity, these Max works still kick my rear end.   I don’t know if they will ever get easy.  Although I do better each time I do a Max workout, I don’t think it will ever get “easy”.   There is a routine in the workout called, “Ski Abs/Push up Jacks/In and Out Abs/Oblique Push up” where you do all 4 movements back to back with no rest.  A cycle of 4 counts as one rep.

I also did P90X Cheat and Back today.  Like last week, I did the body weight push-ups instead of doing dumbbell bench presses like I did during previous rounds of P90X.  I waited several hours after doing my Insanity workouts to do the P90X workout.  The pace of the P90X seems a bit slow in comparison to Insanity.  However, the strength training component of P90X beats the panties off of the Insanity plank drills.

After all the workouts I really did not feel like doing Ab Ripper X, but I did it anyway.  I was pretty wasted so I did the minimum number of reps for each exercise (25).

I will be glad when Insanity is done.  I have less than 2 weeks left.  Doubling up on the P90X and Insanity is nuts.  However, I made a personal commitment to do it so I will try to keep it up.  Once I am done with Insanity, I will still incorporate the workouts as a hybrid component to P90X.  For instance, I will probably sub in Insanity Max workouts for plyometrics and Kenpo X.

Here is great advice for fueling during exercise.  It mostly applies to endurance sports like triathlons and marathons.  Check out Boomer’s video pick of the day…

So it’s fit test day.  I did alright, however, the improvements are not huge.  The fit test is crazy hard because you are just going 100% for a minute straight.  That might not seem long, but just try jumping from a full squat position and lifting your knees as high as possible on each jump for 1 minute straight.  For those of you who have done Tabata, HIIT or even Interval X Plus will have an appreciation for what I am talking about.  The fit test is no joke.  The whole fit test including warm up and cool down is 25 minutes long.  I actually made myself lightheaded during the test.  I just maxed out trying to beat my last numbers.  Honestly, I am not sure I can beat those numbers on the next test.  I was sucking big wind today!

I was thinking about starting a new round of P90X today and run it along with my last month of Insanity.  However, while I was at work my wife called me and told me that some very good friends had called to spend time with us so I opted out of the second workout.  This also made me think that this was a bad week to start P90X with Christmas and everything coming up.  I also have to see how hard these next set of Insanity workouts are going to be before starting P90X.

With Insanity you will do a total of 5 fit tests by the end of the program.  Today I did my second fit test.  Obviously, this test is an indicator of one’s progress.  The fit test itself is a kick butt workout.  Why?  Well, because you are trying to improve your numbers from the last fit test so you are pushing at 100% and just busting a gut.  During the “globe jumps” I got pretty lighthead and actually staggered a bit.  After the “power jumps” I was pretty wasted, but I had to suck it up and go balls to the walls for next test exercise.  I think I was wheezing at some point.  In a lot of ways, I think the fit test is as hard, if not harder, than the other Insanity workouts.  I put everything I had into it.  I am happy that I improved from the last fit test, but I don’t know how I can further improve.  I mean I ran myself into th ground.  I can’t imagine getting bigger numbers on my next test.

Well, since I am no longer actively training for a marathon, I decided to try a new workout system.  I could have done another round of P90X, however, this time I decided to give Insanity a try.  On day one we do a fit test.  The fit test is intense because you have to go full blast.  So no matter how conditioned you are, you will be pushed to the limit.

Insanity is sort of like putting plyometrics on steroids.  I used to think P90X+ Interval X Plus was tough, well, this Insanity stuff makes that look easy.  This is HIIT (high intensity interval trainng) squared.  Two thirds into the fit test I was getting light headed.  It has been 4 months since I have done P90X.  I have been doing marathon training and some strength training.

Insanity is a good choice for me because my fast twitch muscles are weak.  Long distance endurance training works slow twitch muscles.  During my last physical therapy session, the therapist could tell that my fast twitch muscle were weak.  Hopefully, Insanity will strengthen those muscles.

While doing Insanity, I will be strength training.  Insanity is overwhelmingly cardio and plyo so I feel compelled to supplement the program with some strength workouts.  After a couple weeks I will probably bring in some triathlon training (swimming, biking, running).

I woke up early to do my Insanity workout.  I went to the gym later in the day to do my chest and shoulders.

Ok, so day 1 is fit test day.  We do 5 fit tests during the next 60 days to gauge our progress.  I do the next one after week 2.  When performing the fit test, you do as many reps of each exercise for a full minute.  You need to go as fast as you can and put everything into it.  Here are the results of my fit test…

1. Switch Kicks – 117
2. Power Jacks – 53
3. Power Knees – 94
4. Power Jumps – 35
5. Globe Jumps – 9
6. Suicide Jumps – 15
7. Push-Up Jacks – 32
8. Low Plank Obliques – 48