Round 6: Day 30: Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Ouch. I thought that my left calf had sufficient healed from last week's running mishap, but apparently, it has not. I'm walking without any tightness or pain, which led me to think that a little Insanity this morning would be just fine, but within a few minutes of the warmup, I felt pain in my left calf, and decided to call it quits for today. I don't want to risk serious injury, so I'll back off from the cardio workouts for awhile, or at least the Insanity workouts. I'm going to monitor how I feel over the next few days, and will likely substitute a One on One workout this Friday for Insanity. In other words: modify.

I'm still feeling well enough to ride my bicycle to the office, so I think that my calf strain is rather minor, and I don't think that I'll have to suspend cardio workouts entirely. Just easing back a little bit on the foot pounding is all that's needed, so I'll look for some workouts which will accommodate that requirement. I have Plyo Legs available, or Cardio Intervals, or Super Cardio, or even Kenpo or Kenpo Cardio Plus. There are options which allow me to continue, rather than suspend. Fortunately, my leg isn't too badly off.

So, I'm experiencing a minor disappointment on Day 30, one-third of my way through the Round. I'm not going to completely restart this week, as I've only missed one day. Learning to deal with minor setbacks is an important lesson in your fitness journey. As long as you realize that this is just a blip in a lifetime of workouts, you'll be OK. It's important not to get off-track and give up on working out. If you take too much time away from your workouts, you may very lose motivation. I'm not going to let that happen. I'll just dial back the intensity a little bit, but carry on.

Bring It!

Round 6: Day 13: Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Breakthrough day! For the first time, I managed to force my body to endure the entire Plyometric Cardio Circuit workout without pausing the DVD. The second series of circuits had been dogging me since I first started the Insanity workouts, at the start of Round 5. It took me this long to finally prevail. This is the same feeling I had when I was first able to complete the P90X Plyometrics workout without having to pause the DVD. There's a tremendous sense of satisfaction in knowing that you've made improvements in strength and endurance.

Having said that, I'm not ready to move on to the Max Plyometric DVD. I'm still struggling with the pushup / ski abs / in-out sequence. When I can do those competently for three circuits, then I'll be ready to move on. Alternatively, if I can grab the stone from the master's hand...(Kung Fu reference, for those too young to recall).

It's been a really tough week. It felt unrelenting every day, with the possible exception of yoga, which was welcome relief thrown into the middle. I'm really looking forward to taking a day off, then hitting Chest and Back hard, which is one of my favourite workouts.

Bring on Week 3!

Round 6: Day 2: Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

As with yesterday's workout, I felt slightly out of shape and a little out of breath during today's workout. It wasn't like the first time I did Insanity; I haven't regressed too much. I'm still struggling during Ski Abs and In and Outs, but I'd say that overall, it was a reasonably successful workout. I'm looking forward to making improvements in the Insanity workouts this Round, but will likely use Week 1 to work out the cobwebs from my system and prepare my body for the weeks to come.

Round 5: Day 72: Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Today was the last time for this workout during this Round, and I desperately wanted to complete it without pausing the DVD. This has become an ongoing theme for Insanity workouts for me and, although I don't apply this metric to other (non-Insanity workouts), for some reason, I hold myself to a higher (or different) standard for Insanity. These workouts present a certain type of challenge to me, in that I deem myself successful if I can persevere without pausing. I used to feel the same way about Plyometrics and Core Synergistics and felt that once I could do the entire workout without pausing, I had achieved some sort of milestone.

Unfortunately, I didn't achieve that milestone with today's workout, so I am forced to look for other signs of success. Those would be: completing the warmup without being completely exhausted; making it through the first round of circuit training with my lungs intact; almost making it through the second round of circuit training, but still getting hung up on the ski abs and in-and-outs; increased lung capacity; increased leg power; increased awareness of what my body is capable of doing and achieving; increased understanding of where my threshold tolerance lies; increased mental toughness. Success has definitely been incremental with this workout program. Perhaps if I had been doing it on a daily basis (heaven forbid!) I would have seen more tangible improvements. On the other hand, since these workouts have kicked my butt, I'm going to keep them around for the next Round. I'm not giving up on the workouts or on myself; I'm going to keep at it until I can make it through a workout without pausing. That may even take several rounds, but I'm not going to roll over and quit.

I like Shaun T. He doesn't come across on the DVD as personably as Tony Horton does, but his workouts are much tougher than P90X cardio workouts. He just has a different style. Personally, I prefer Tony's style. Tony seems more forgiving and understanding of your weaknesses and failures, whereas Shaun T screams at you to push through your pain. I think I'm more responsive to Tony' sympathetic approach than Shaun T's tough-love approach, but different strokes for different folks. It's all good if a workout encourages muscle confusion and assists in changing your body.

Round 5: Day 62: Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

There's a story that women forget the pain of giving birth. That enables them to have more than one child. Not that I'm comparing Insanity to giving birth (insert eye roll here), but since more than a week passes between repeating an Insanity workout, I tend to forget the workout's various exercises and then eagerly look forward to doing the workout again when it next comes up in the cycle.

Eventually, I remembered what was in this workout. My nemesis, the abdominal series consisting of Level 1 Drills, followed by side to side ski crunches, followed by in and outs. I'm not even sure that I've been making modest improvements in this sequence as time has worn on. I still take mini-breaks when necessary, subscribing to the "Do your best and forget the rest" philosophy. I just wish that my best were a little bit better. Ever the optimist, I'm searching for a reason to celebrate my achievements. I have noticed that the Insanity warmup has become much more manageable, and the first section of circuit training is similarly tolerable. I need to develop a little more endurance, since I'm still pausing the video during the second round of circuit training. That's at least a small improvement in itself, as I used to pause the video twice. That's a 50% improvement! I'll take anything I can get.

Week 9 ends with another humbling experience. Come to think of it, most weeks end with a humbling experience, as Insanity is the last workout of the week. I've got three more weeks to really Bring It.

Round 5: Day 44: Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

I ate poorly last night. I've been carefully watching what I've been eating for the past 6 months or so, and in the last few months especially, I've been severely cutting down on my grain consumption with the ultimate goal of eliminating grains entirely. This is due to my recent adherence to the tenets of The Primal Blueprint, by Mark Sisson. I'd recommend to all that you look at his website, marksdailyapple.com, where you can find a litany of information about healthy eating and healthy living. He makes a cogent argument for eliminating grains from the diet; hence, my attempt to do so.

Anyhow, I gave into my cravings for pancakes. I had three pancakes with some sort of sugary syrup on top. Loved it at the time, and regretted it later in the evening and into this morning. My stomach really felt out of sorts when I woke up, and it still feels a bit off as I write this now. I should have known better. I don't react particularly well to wheat products and, having basically eliminated that from my diet for quite awhile now, the introduction of wheat products was probably seen by my body as some sort of invasion. It's no wonder that my body reacted the way it did. Lesson learned: don't do that again.

So when I woke up this morning, I wasn't particularly in the mood for Insanity. As a result, I didn't have the greatest workout. I managed to scrape through it, not with any sort of grace, paused the DVD twice to catch my breath, and struggled through some of the moves, per usual. I still managed to get a decent calorie burn and worked up a tremendous sweat, but in no way did I come close to conquering the workout. On the other hand, I'm no longer huffing and puffing through the warmup routine, so I am starting to get used to the regimen. I'm going to have to be stricter about my nutrition and I'm going to have to make a mental adjustment to get more out of my Insanity workouts.

Round 5: Day 34: Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Small improvements are coming in this workout, but they're painfully small and, being extremely competitive with myself, I really want to push, push, push to make it through this monster non-stop. The improvements are that although I'm still pausing the tape twice, I'm extending myself longer into the workout before taking those pauses. I'm optimistic that soon I'll be able to eliminate first one pause, then the second.

There's a series of exercises during the circuit that have a body-numbing cumulative effect on me: the core exercises consisting of Level 1 drills (pushups, plank run, stand up, repeat), side to side ski jumping whilst in plank position, followed by in-and-out in plank position. Any single exercise is manageable; the totality is really difficult for me. Level 1 drills are never a problem. Towards the 2/3 mark of the side to side moves, I'm feeling it. Following up with in-and-outs is just cruel. Then, do that at a medium intensity. Then, do that at high intensity. Then, shavasana (corpse pose).

Much of this is actually physical. My body just feels too tired to complete the full range of exercises without stopping. Most of the kids in the video stop periodically, so I don't feel too bad about my own limited abilities, but I don't really care about the kids in the video; I care about my own progress. Some of this is mental. If I can get a little tougher mentally, I can probably push through to eliminate one pause in the DVD. That's the approach I'm going to adopt next time.

This, and all Insanity workouts, have been really challenging to date. I'm glad that I took the leap and included them in this Round.

Thankfully, this is the end of Week 5. It's been a pretty tough, yet rewarding week. I'm looking forward to training with greater intensity next week.

Round 5: Day 16: Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

I was hoping for an improvement in cardio durability today, but was disappointed to find that this workout beat me again. I did manage to extend my workout time, prior to pausing the DVD; however, the pause did eventually arrive. The workout went a little better for me, having done it once before, so I was somewhat ready for the various moves. Knowledge, however, does not equal ability. I started to flag on the ski-jump ab move (or whatever it's called). That, followed by the in-and-out ab move is really challenging for me. At least I recognize my weaknesses. Now, I'll have to take steps to address the weakness in order to show some improvement.

I'm enjoying the Insanity workouts. At this rate, I figure it will take me about 6 months to feel really comfortable with the intensity. Actually, I don't know that I'll ever really feel comfortable with the intensity. I suspect that as I improve, I'll be able to work harder and faster, which will make me more fatigued. It's a never-ending vicious cycle of pain and endurance.

I picked up a heart rate monitor recently. The Insanity routines typically push my heart rate into the 90% plus zone, which is a little uncomfortable for me. I'm more uncomfortable with that mentally, rather than physically, but it's nice to have the information. The monitor also has a calorie burning counter on it, the accuracy of which is really unknown, but it's telling me that I'm burning around 630 calories per Insanity workout. I saw on the informercial that if you really push yourself, you can burn up to 1000 calories. That may apply to the longer, Phase 2 workouts, or to people who are capable of doing the workouts without pausing the DVD. At present, I clearly don't fall into that category. On the other hand, I don't really care how much others are burning. I'm only competing with myself and, as an Insane beginner, I'm reasonably content with my progress so far. I will endeavour to push harder next time.

I'm enjoying Shaun T's instruction and I like his approach and personality. It's significantly different from Tony Horton, but I'm enjoying the variety this workout schedule offers.

So far, a great start to Week 3.

Round 5: Day 6: Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

It took me about 6 times through P90X's Plyometrics before I was able to do the entire workout without pausing the tape. Today, engaging in Insanity's Plyometric Cardio Circuit, I had a P90X mindset: do your best and forget the rest.

This is a 42 minute workout. I got through about 30 minutes before I had to pause. I paused again during the final sequence. This is a strenuous workout, but I'll be able to complete it without pausing before long.

Individually, the moves in this workout aren't particularly difficult. Several of the exercises are reminiscent of those found in P90X Plyometrics. There are three levels of intensity: low, medium and high. When the moves are strung back-to-back-to-back without pause, the workout becomes challenging. Where the real challenge lies is in maintaining form and pace during the high intensity sequences. During the high intensity sequence, Shaun T. also throws in a bonus move or two, to see what you're really made of.

The most difficult moves for me involved the core. I don't exactly remember the names, but one exercise was to be in plank position with your legs extended (like the "up" position when doing standard pushups), then leap forward with your legs together towards the left, then back to plank, then bent legs towards the right, then centre, then repeat for a minute. Following that, there's a similar plank exercise, but with legs just going in, then out, in a straight line. My core was really stressed during these two exercises. Clearly, there are improvements to be made.

This was a terrific substitute for the P90X or One on One cardio routines I've been doing over the past few rounds. I have no doubt that I'll improve as time goes on, and I'm looking forward to seeing the resultant changes in my stamina, strength and physique.

It's been a difficult first week. I didn't seem to have the full lung capacity I normally enjoy, but I'm working my way back into things. I'm really looking forward to Bringing It during Week 2.