Insanity: Pre-Day 1

Insanity is a new workout by Shawn T of Hip Hop Abs fame. Shawn incorporates Max Interval Training in Insanity to push you and your body to your maximum potential. Traditional interval training pushes your body for short bursts of energy with long breaks in between. Insanity inverts that to have long periods of intense activity with short breaks in between. See his webpage for details.

I did my first Insanity workout yesterday and it was a new type of work for me. I have graduated P90X so I am in pretty good shape already. I made it through, drenched in sweat, with a sort of ache in my lungs and a noticeably tired heart! This feeling persisted for several hours after the workout. It was awesome.

The warm-up was a workout in itself for most people. This could be managed differently by a person willing to not push as hard in consideration that this is “just” a warm-up. I am not that person.

A few minutes into the workout, I felt muscle fatigue in the muscles that support my ankle. This is likely due to the jumping moves at the speed they are encouraged and the angles of the jumps in various moves. I hope this sort of work will strengthen my feet and ankles for backpacking.

By the end of the workout, I was pushing with everything I had, but I was hitting a sort of wall. Being a distance runner, I am used to hitting the wall where there is no more immediate glucose to fuel muscle and my body needs to start consuming its own fat cells. This was different. This wall seemed due to my body’s inability to get more oxygen to the muscles. I think my VO2 max is lower than it will be by the end of 60 days. If I had the resources, I would have it tested pre and post Insanity. Since I lack this gear, I will do the fitness tests and watch the growth there, as well as in my timed 2.5 to 7 mile road runs. Theoretically, if my VO2 Max increases, I should be able to run each of these distances much faster.

Currently, I haven’t done the fit tests! I actually cheated and did one workout early I was so excited; you know how a boy gets with a new toy. I will officially start the program tomorrow or the next day with the prescribed initial fit test that looks like a killer in itself.

I will keep you posted.

Cheers!