WWW: It's Insane, But I'm Smiling Because I love It.

For any of you Insanity lovers out there, this should sound familiar to you because this is Shaun T’s favorite saying, other than “keep your core tight” or “contract your core” or “look at Tania.” After returning from my honeymoon, I decided to embark on this 60 day challenge excited to see what it had to offer. First of all, it’s 55 workouts, not 60. And I saw so many insane results from not only the people on the internet and TV but actual people I knew that I was excited to start and see all the extra honeymoon weight I had gained disappear.

I started it and wow, was it hard. Granted, I hadn’t worked out in a week or so and was excited to start. The fit test was pretty hard and some of the moves were a little new, so I struggled. The warm up also got pretty redundant and was tiring. The workouts start slow and give you one rest day a week with one recovery day, and a week in the middle of core and cardio balance day (which is a recovery day). These workouts range from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. If you hate working out in your home, hate staying up late or waking up early, and don’t like pushing beyond your limits, you will hate this workout. I did this in my living room, so finding a time where I was alone was difficult and ranged from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. to noon.

I started on December 30, 2013 and ended March 1, 2014. During this time, I had the flu, Valentine’s day, many snow days, church events, and D-now (a church youth retreat). Nevertheless, my sleep and diet fluctuated and may have attributed to my results. I also started training a friend and doing her workouts with her about halfway through so I was doubling up on workouts.

When I started, I got 116 switch kicks. Unfortunately, during the first month I started developing trouble with my hip flexors and just kept fighting through. I improved by 1. The examples for the boy (Chris) and the girl (Tania) got 100 and 110. These switch kicks were exactly how they sound. Kick with one leg and stay in the air and jump while switching legs. Also, Shaun T says that 2 kicks equals a rep but that is not how it is counted on this or in the workouts.

For power jacks (squat meets jumping jack) I improved from 30 to 57 and Tania got 65.

Power knees (knee meets hands at belly button while balancing on other leg) I used my left leg and went from 63 to 103; Chris got 81 and Tania got 125.

Power jumps (hands meet knees in air as you squat jump) I improved from 19 to 45 while Chris got 42 and Tania 50.

Globe jumps (moving squat jumps to form a square: right, back, left, front, repeat) where 4 jumps equals 1 rep, I improved from 7 to 11.75 (I was one jump short of 12); Tania and Chris both got 11.

Suicide jumps (speed burpees but slower with better form) I improved from 10 to 16 while Tania got 23 and Chris 22. I was hesitant on these since I had hurt my hip before doing speed burpees.

Push-up jacks (push up meets jumping jacks) I improved from 10 to 21 while Tania got 32 and Chris got 42.

Lastly, low plank oblique (low plank with individual knees coming to meet bicep) improved from 26 to 58 while Chris got 49 and Tania 70.

I was curious about my cardio endurance and went for a run to see how far I could go and to just get out of the house. I decided to go for a leisure run and ended up running 8 miles. I feel like I could’ve gone longer if it wasn’t under freezing and I felt like I was in the first stages of frostbite!

I lost in measurements a little but not weight. I won’t bore you with the numbers so I’ll tell you the differences. I lost 3 inches in my chest, 2 inches in each bicep, 2.25 inches in my waist, 3.25 in my hips, 2 inches in each of my thighs, .5 inches in each of my calves, and .2 pounds overall.

Overall, I would recommend insanity for the average joe wanting to get in shape. If you’re already hardcore you need something else to push you. I believe this is the reason I didn’t lose more. I would also recommend this for people wanting better endurance since it’s all about cardio and endurance.  Or for the person that doesn’t like gyms and wants to workout in their home. You’ll get real familiar with your carpet over the next 55 days.

This routine helped my upper body and abs get stronger but when I got back to lifting weights I was surprised I wasn’t stronger. I gave it a try, but I probably won’t be doing it again. It’s insane but the workouts Drew gives me are just as insane if not more. Plus, I like working out at home sometimes but not every day of the week. Sometimes, I just wanted to get out. However, for the winter, it wasn’t too bad. 

Also, sorry Shaun T, but 1 years results in 60 days? I don’t think so.