This Is Insanity... Game Day

Max Interval Sports Training

Well this is one hell of a work out!!

55 minutes of high intensity sport including Boxing, Football, Basketball, Gymnastics and Track & Field.

As Usual we start of with a warm up, but today the warm up made me feel like a 6 year old girl!! it was constant skipping rope exercises, and i HATE skipping with a passion. But once all that is out of the way and the important stretches are done, We start off with Boxing, and i must say this is my favourite part of the DVD! Its a shame its right at the beginning as it is quite fun and not too hard on the cardio side, and maybe would have made a nice 'rest' about half way through the DVD.

When we get onto the Football side of the routine, things go up a gear and alot more cardio is involved!

Football wide sprints, Drop push ups and Plank Push ups to name a few.

I found this quite challenging, but the way the DVD is set up, you get so much encouredgement  from all of the people on the DVD and also Shaun T gives little motivational quotes every now and again.

At one point i stopped for a quick drink and the next thing i heard was Shaun T shout

"What the hell you doing? you dont need a break! Get back over here"

And i instantly put down my water and got back to it, just like he was in the room prodding me with a stick to get that extra 10%                                                                    out of me.

Basketball... I Love Playing the sport, but i hated it in this DVD but i have a reason!

As i am 6'3 and the room i am doing insanity in, cant be more than 8 foot high.

So when i jump, i have to be alert to not headbutt the ceiling, which isnt ideal, but thats what ive got to work with so its tough.

Gymnastics is a write off for me, im about as flexible as a 2 pence piece!!

i was crying out in pain whilst doing the ab exercises, and felt like my arms were going to snap when doing the complicated stretches and planks, but i held in there and managed to keep my arms in tack long enough to get to the Track & Field section.

Now Track & Field is getting into Shaun T's stomping ground, so no surprise really that he pushes you to your limits with ladder runs, which is basically sprint for 15 seconds, rest for 15, sprint for 30 seconds and rest for 15, sprint for 45 and rest for 15 and then sprint for 1 minute flat out with everything youve got!

than you go back down the ladder to 45 seconds and 30 then 15.

This was great fun when all of the People on the screen run into the middle into a big huddle and just go for it flat out. It really makes you push yourself that extra bit more.

This add on DVD is great fun when you get the hang of the moves, but maybe it would have been better as 5 seperate DVDs and more exercises for each sport, but you cant complain as this is a great work out, and you can expect to burn anywhere over 600 to 1000 calories (not bad for an hours work).

I would thoroughly recommend this workout! If you are on the fence, just take the plunge!

This Is Insanity... Week 5 Review

Max Out

Basically, wow!!

I've never had to push myself to such limits, in such a short space of time.

This week saw me move on from the 'Basic' insanity workouts, and catapulted into the MAX series of workouts

Catapulted to the next level.

.

The warm up changes slightly for the MAX series, but its still the same principle, to raise your heart rate as quick as possible and then give you a 30 second recovery break to let your heart rate drop slightly, and then straight back into the thick of it.

After the warm up we go into the stretches and they are basically the same as the first 4 weeks, but they didn't need changing, they were great for giving you that ultimate stretch before you got into the real hard work.

Week 5 schedule 

Like i have already said, we go max this week and it puts us up against 4 new training sessions.

Max Interval Circuit

Max Interval Plyo

Max Cardio Conditioning

And finally the Max Recovery

But there is also a bonus DVD available (Max Interval Sports Training) that i will review fully another week.

During each of the 3 Interval training sessions i was burning upwards of 650 Calories per session (and losing about 48962496 litres of sweat)

And the Max Recovery DVD saw me burn around 400 calories, but that is still a lot for a stretch session.

Summary

One thing that's for sure, this set of exercises is not for the faint hearted!!

It takes all of month 1 to prepare you for what is to come, and even that doesn't prepare you for the carnage that you will put your body through.

As i keep a track on my heart rate and stats with my Polar Loop and H7, i have noticed over the last week especially, that when i do take a 30 second rest between intervals, my heart rate has started to come down dramatically. 

I know this program is working for me and i feel at the peak of my cardiovascular levels, and I'm only getting stronger, fitter and faster.

My Fitness Pal

I owe You one.

I've always tried to be healthy and have gone through many fad diets and health kicks, but i always go at it hell for leather for about 2 weeks and then it dwindles away and i fall back into a slump and start to feel crap that i haven't stuck to it and that leads to eating junk, its a vicious circle.

Then i Discovered My Fitness Pal and everything changed.
Its an app that i have used before, but i did not realise the community within the My fitness Pal world, its huge!!  There are forums and groups galore for different types of goals, be it gaining, losing or maintaining weight, or even just some general advice and encouragement.


Ive currently got a 38 day streak going on MFP, but some of my 'Friends' on the app have got streaks ranging from 50 to 1000 days which is just crazy dedication to food logging.

One of the great things about MFP is being able to manipulate your macros.
as i get alot of protein a day, i have mine set at;
45% Protein
35% Carbs
20% Fats

And i always find it very satisfying when i get within 1 or 2% of my goals, and its easy to work out what needs to be cut, or what needs to be added to the diet to get your macros bang on where you want them to be.

But for me, the USP (unique selling point) of MFP is the people that use it!
if you're like me and you struggle with motivation, and just need some extra get up and go, the people you get to know on MFP will give you exactly what you need.
Be it a 'you can do it' or if you've had a bad day, a comforting message. Without it i don't think i would be doing anywhere near as well as i am, and if you know me from My Fitness Pal, i just want to say thank you.

This Is Insanity... Week 4 Review

That S#*!S Bananas Yoooo

As the week started, i didn't!

I had a horrible bug that struck me down in my prime, BUT i wasn't going to let that stop me and i went ahead and completed 7 insanity sessions this week. yes 7.

On Thursday, rather than just do the Recovery DVD, i decided to do the Fast & Furious DVD first, and it was definitely a good choice. It made the Recovery Yoga session feel 10 times better.

As i said above, Monday and Tuesday i wasn't performing at my best as i had a 24/48 hour bug, but come Wednesday, i don't know what came over me.

Plyometric Cardio Circuit has been without doubt my least favourite Insanity DVD over the course of the first 4 weeks, but on Wednesday it was like i had an outer body experience and i wasn't actually doing the exercise, almost like i was drunk on a cross between testosterone and adrenaline!

Not that I'm complaining about this outer body experience, it actually felt amazing to feel like i was doing the hardest DVD (in my opinion) and not feeling exhausted, but still pushing myself to my limits and keeping my heart rate high. Id happily like to feel like that alot more ;)

Cardiovascular 

If you've Ever done Insanity, you will know that Sunday is rest day. But whenever rest day comes around, i always feel very lazy and tend to eat far too much junk food, so i decided this particular Sunday i was going to test how much insanity had helped my cardiovascular levels over the past month. And my oh my, didn't it just!!

I turned up at the gym not knowing what to expect as i stepped on the treadmill, but to my extreme surprise, i just kept going and going, and my heart rate was nowhere near where it used to be when i was running at 7/8 mph.

Before i knew it i was closing in on 5km, and i had no idea what my previous personal best was, but as it turns out, my previous best was 26:33.

Boom i hit 5km at a time of 25:38.

Knocking 55 seconds off my PB, But i wasn't going to stop there, i had 10k in sight, and i kept pushing and was alternating the speed between 7 and 10 mph up until i hit 9k, and then i 'went for it' smashed the speed up to 12mph and was sprinting my ass off like poor old Forrest Gump and i crossed the finish line so to speak at 50:02, and to be honest i was gutted i missed the 50 minute mark, even though it was only 2 seconds out.

Now i knew id only ever run 10k once before and i knew it was around 55 minutes the last time, so i had to wait till i got home to analyse, and analyses i did, 55:20 was my previous time, and i had gone and knocked 5 MINUTES AND 18 SECONDS off that time, i was completely buzzing! And i cant wait to try and beat that time again come the end of month 2 of insanity.

Month 1 Review

To say insanity has changed my life would be an understatement.

From day 1 i have continued to push myself through the barriers of sweat, pain and a 24 hour bug, and its been so worth it, I'm in the shape of my life and i feel 100 times better than i did at the start of day 1!

If you can spare 1 hour a day to improve yourself, i would thoroughly recommend jumping on this Shaun T life changing program.

With month 2 starting today, i don't know whether i am nervous or excited, but one thing i can tell you, i cant wait to write my month 2 review and to see the results.