"What's Left to Say...Except that Chemicals Really Stink!" Insanity: Days 48-50 of 60

First thing left to say is that there is only 10 days left.  Just like P90X, this program went fast.  It really flew.  Of course, it’s 30 days shorter than P90X…and the routines are shorter for the most part until the second phase.  It more than makes up for shorter routines with routines that just don’t stop for 45 to 58 minutes, depending on the day.

The program is definitely working.  I have seen great improvement in my FitTest performance.  I have also experienced more endurance through the various circuits.  That’s pretty cool.  I would love to be more excited except, I expected it!  This is, after all, Beachbody.  The products are pretty tested at this point.

I have stopped my criticism of the people on the DVD’s, especially Akeel and Frankie.  Akeel seems to have gotten a little more energy and Frankie got a better haircut so they are easier to take in Phase II.  Still is tough watching Shaun T’s fascination with pulling up shirts and touching people’s abs though.

I also have actually figured out the form (which could have used much better explanation somewhere in the program) for many exercises.  Like, when you do the squats, make sure you concentrate on keeping your heels on the floor.  It ensures that your knees don’t swing out over your toes.  The squatting form came in the first couple of weeks but it took a lot of weeks to figure out some of them.  I will give you some examples.

The High Knees.  Anna is a great example of how to do them.  The key is, make sure your chest is up and your chin is high.  Why?  It elongates your abs and makes the exercise more comfortable.  She hops right into that exercise for a reason…she is one of the few doing it right.  Her form looks awkward…but try it.   

You’ll see.

 The 1-2-3 Heisman.  I learned how to do these in P90X.  In Insanity, they’re not the same.  If you try to do them the P90X way, you are way off step and there is NO WAY you are going to do them at a high speed.  It took me a while to get the steps down…I kept falling back on my P90X which I could do in my sleep.

Some of the things I still don’t like is that I don’t know if one person can do the circuits all the way through.  Shaun T doesn’t, because he stops to instruct.  Everyone in the DVD, when the camera is off of them, seems to be taking shortcuts.  Just some examples on this.

The Suicide Squats.  There is a leap in the middle of it.  A LEAP!  Look at the DVD…too funny.  NO ONE in the back is doing them the right way.  The Jump-Punch and Squat, some are squatting and some have lightly bent knees.  The Jab and Squat?  I laugh every time I do it.  No one does it the same way.  It looks like an exercise you make up for kindergarten kids.

The last thing I will say about form is that I wish there was more emphasis on this during the exercises and less on the speed.  Everyone is so focused on the rhythm and tempo that the form on most of them is really terrible.  I wouldn’t care except that I watch the people on the DVD so that I can have proper form…and their form isn’t right.  Oh, and we haven’t been completely told the proper form either.  So that makes it tough.

This weekend was fine.  I had to exercise on my off day…Friday.  I had to go at night and then do Saturday at noontime (only about 15 hrs later).  So…I did AbRipperX and Insanity Fast and Furious on Friday night.  Then I did Max Interval Plyo on Saturday, followed by Max Interval Circuit last night.  I tossed in 25 minutes on the treadmill for kicks.

CHEMICALS REALLY STINK.  I got nabbed once again by the food industry when I assumed a company like Gatorade actually cared about my health.  I have been drinking these G2 Low Calorie drinks with my Protein and Creatine now for a couple of weeks.  I noticed that my fat loss around my mid-section had slowed down.  Fat is processed in the liver and when you are taking in the chemical additives, your body spends a lot of time breaking that down…and less time on fat.  So just for yucks, I looked at the label. There it was, Sucralose!!  Crap.  You know, G2 has only 40 calories in a 20 ounce bottle.  So, to make it taste like the other G2 and still be low-cal, they crapped it up with chemicals.  Thanks a lot.  Now I have a case of it in my fridge that I won’t be drinking.

You know, if it had NO sweet taste, I would drink it.  I just want to drink what’s good for me.  Is that asking too much?

See you tomorrow.

“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!