“Holiday Speed Bumps and Getting Back on Track” Insanity: Days 46-47 of 60

It happened in P90X, it just makes sense that it happened in Insanity.  I missed one day of my workout schedule in P90X.  Okay, I didn’t really miss it…something came up that day so I moved it.  I used my off day and moved the workout.  So I still did it.  Same here in Insanity.  I had some personal stuff to do yesterday.  I got caught up in a few things and blew by the workout.  Now I have to pay the piper and do the workout on my Friday ‘off day.’

I love my Friday off day.  If you are going to have an off day during a workout, Friday is the best.  You take it off, sleep in on Saturday and then get a good breakfast in on Saturday and get right back to the grind.

Using the Friday off day to work out means I have to pay for the day I took off.  It’s real too…having to pay for that day.  First, I work out on Saturday about 11AM.  If I do a Friday night workout, that Saturday routine will be about 15 hours after the first one.  That’s not a hell of a lot of time to recover.  Let’s be honest, it’s practically NO time to recover.  Second, Insanity pounds the hell out of your body.  Working out on Friday means I have to do four days in a row.  That hurts folks.  Tuesday recovery day just can’t come fast enough.

Could I skip it.  Yes.  Will I?  No.  I will find some way to get this workout in.

Can it get worse.  Oh yeah.  You know which one I missed?  Max Interval Circuit.  The longest one.  58 minutes of grinding work.

All of this is because Fourth of July happened mid-week and I had a day off to do some things that needed to get done.  I know, “priorities.”  Well, I took care of personal business and now have to take care of my physical business.  The bumps will happen to everyone.  The question is, “How do you make sure you get back on track?”  The other question is, “Will you?”

One place I really need to catch up is my Body Beast 9000 commitment…that really got messed up.  I still owe 300 pushups for yesterday.  In case you are wondering, the Body Beast 9000 is 30 days of 300 pushups per day.  I count the pushups I do in Insanity too.

Oh yeah, you may have noticed the blog got messed up too.  I combined two days into one for this.  Ahhh, holidays.  Gotta love them.

Okay, today is a normal work day Friday.  It will NOT be my day off.  It will be a catch-up day for almost everything.

How will your day be?

“Haunted By Beachbody Body Beasts” Insanity: Day 45 of 60

Today is supposed to be my recovery day for Insanity…not my off day, my recovery day.  It is July 3^rd, the day before the holiday and, unfortunately, a Tuesday.  Having a major holiday at midweek of a workout program can really mess things up.

So Tuesday is my normal recovery day.  I was challenged today to do Bodybeast 9000 by the Facebook crew I do my workouts with.  It actually started Monday but they pushed me into this.  It didn’t take much.  I did about 140 pushups to catch up for Monday and then did my 300 for Tuesday.  It’s not hard, just something you continuously keep your eye on.  It’s a 30 day commitment on top of my Insanity stuff.  Should be fun.

I did not even do the Recovery workout today and here is why.  Wednesday is the 4^th of July.  I will do my AbRipper X, a normal Insanity workout and then go to a family picnic where I will be running around playing for a lot of the day.  I will more than make up for Tuesday.  The Bodybeast also had me burning more than my share of calories on Tuesday.

Okay, once again, a short blog.  It’s a really busy week but I want to keep the old blog commitment.

Watchword for Day 45…just keep going.  You will need breaks.  We are all human.  Being super-human also means being smart.  Take care of your body.

Also, eat a lot of fruit and salad on 4^th of July.  High nutrient density, low calorie density and good fiber as my grandfather used to say.

Happy Fourth of July!! 

“Pounding the Body” Insanity: Day 44 of 60

I did my Day 44 workout, which was Max Plyometrics.  I am doing better each time, which is really the goal.  I have noticed, however, that Insanity is pounding my body.  I finished the routine and sat in my recliner with my recovery drink, mixed nuts and a mango.  I fell asleep.  When I woke up a couple hours later, I was stiff.  Real stiff.  I have been taking my protein in food and powder form.  Also creatine.  And Glucosomine and MSM.  I am still hurting after every routine.

When I start into the next night’s workout warmups, I always feel like I am banging off the rust from the previous night.  I don’t have the bounce in my step that I had in P90X…that is a little depressing.  I am looking forward to finishing this and then observing the after effects.

I’m sure some of it is due to my age.  Beating the crap out of a fifty year old body is not exactly the brightest thing to be doing.  Oh well, I said I was driven, not a genius.  That’s sarcasm.  I’m smiling here.  The part of this that keeps me optimistic is that, after my Off Day, Friday, my Saturday workouts seem to really kick butt.

The good news is that once I get warmed up, everything seems to snap right into shape.  That’s the good news.

I have a heavy workweek in front of me (my real job).  Lots of work and only three days to do it…so my blogs will be short this week.

The watchword for Day 44 is that, “If you hurt, you are not alone.”

"July Workouts in New England" Insanity: Day 42-43 of 60

I started my P90X program this past February and finished early in May.  Then I went right into Insanity.  In my neck of the woods, in Southeastern Massachusetts, we have a very dry climate from the Mid-September/October range to  about late May.  Right around the end of May there is a dramatic shift in climate where it gets exceptionally humid.  You go from needing a humidifier to needing a de-humidifier practically overnight.

Home workout programs, like we have in Beachbody, are very convenient.  That said, you really have to do them for a whole year in Massachusetts to see what kind of lifestyle the ‘home workout’ will really require.

I was doing well in Insanity those first two to three weeks, the air was still dry and exercise was pretty good from the environmental perspective.  About the first week in June, we went to high humidity.  I will tell you that my workouts are now hell.  In addition to moving to the next level of Insanity, which is a feat unto itself, I now have to find a way to deal with more sweat than I thought a human could ever shed from a body.  There is zero evaporation in my basement at this point and puddles form from just having deep thoughts.

This past weekend was just unbelievable.  As I pushed through a third round of Max Interval Circuit last night, I was drenched.  When I did the last circuit and had to do the high kicks from floor position, I left a puddle under my butt on the mat.  When I was doing the Leap Frog Squats, every time I flung my hands up to leap, droplets of water would fly across the room.  I have a mat that is about 6 feet by 8 feet.  I use it to cushion the jumps and to catch the water.  I spend more time wiping the puddles than I do getting a drink.

I really can’t wait for this to be done and I have to think about what the next level is.  I am considering going back to running at the air-conditioned gym for mid-July and August and compliment it every other day with some Insanity/P90X hybrid.  I do know that I have to get out of the basement and into A/C for the summer or I am going to die of heat stroke.

Okay, short blog today.  Time to start thinking about the NEXT thing! 

“What’s Up With All The Contractions?” Insanity: Day 41 of 60

Okay.  Stand with your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart. Bend at the knees and rest your hands on your knees.  Now go into a squat.  Now, contract your core and round your back up.  Now release.  Keep doing it.

I don’t get it.


Contracted hip raises.  What's up with these stupid things?

I AM doing Insanity right?  What the heck is this exercise supposed to accomplish?  I’m not even sure if I am contracting right.  I have listened to Shaun T more than a dozen times and have done this exercise more than twenty times.  I keep doing it because somebody somewhere put this in the routine and it must be doing something, right?  I am doing this completely on faith.  It doesn’t feel like this is accomplishing anything at all.  Every other exercise feels like you are exerting yourself in some way, shape, or form.

Not this one.

Up.  Down.  Up.  Down.  Yawn.  Breathe.  Yawn.  Breathe.

Maybe I’m just not doing it right.  Maybe it’s just filler so everyone can rest…but we’re only stretching here!  I mean, yes, I’m sweating.  But, that’s because the warm-up really revs your metabolism.

There was a movie in the 80’s called Perfect.  It starred Jaime Lee Curtis and John Travolta and was based on a Rolling Stone article that talked about gyms being the disco bars of the 80’s.  it was crap.  The one thing I do remember is a very young, hot, and in shape Jaime Lee Curtis as the fitness instructor who used to be a gymnast.  When I watch Shaun T do these damn exercises, that’s what I think about.  She did them a little differently.  With her, it looked like work.  It also looked like training for some other profession…which was kind of the point of the movie.  Anyway…I am either doing them wrong or they are filler.  Either way…I like to work out.  I want sweat and I want to keep moving.  I want exertion.

I’m just not feeling it with these exercises.

Okay, I took a video of me doing the Ab Ripper  X.  This is for all you late-forty and early-fifty folk who think it’s too late to get in shape.  It’s also for you twenty and thirty-something folk who think it’s too hard a workout.

Why is this in here?  In my Insanity blog?  Because this is how I spend my off-days of Insanity!  I do this.

So this is an Insanity off day!