If you follow me on twitter you’ll have already heard some of this, but the more I come up with to tweet, the more I’m thinking I should do a more elaborate post.
My brother, Jay got me the Insanity Home Workout DVDs for my birthday, last week. He and my sister-in-law have done really well by this program. They look fantastic (that’s them on the right). Jay credits a large part of his success to the fact that they’re short* (about 40 minutes), so he can always squeeze one in to a busy day and to the calendar they give you to help structure your workouts. I believe his exact words were; “Sometimes you don’t feel like it, but it doesn’t take long and it’s right on the calendar so, might as well”.
So, I’ve hopped the Insanity band-wagon and decided to take the 60 day challenge, starting today**.
I’ve read through the whole program, and I have to say I’m impressed. There’s a lot of great information and guidance here, including dietary recommendations and a meal plan. The calendar you get outlines which DVDs to do each day, and they shuffle around a lot, to help prevent plateaus as well as to keep you from getting bored. (Both are frequent issues for me.)
As I’m doing the reading, I’m thinking this is a great tool for beginners because it’s so comprehensive and the progress logging is always so motivational when you’re starting out…Then I did my fit test.
The fit test is the first workout. It’s only 20 minutes long and you do one every two weeks to see how much better/more you’re doing. I figured it was no biggie. Great way to ease in the week, then I’d probably go to spin class after.
Yeah right!
I was sweating like a thief in church by the end of the warm-up, feeling barfy by the third interval (with five more to go!) and by the end, I was wondering what I did to make my brother hate me so much that he would inflict this upon me?!
But, I said I was going to do this so I’m in it for the duration now. I’ve tried a couple of smaller challenges in the past but tend to forget or get busy with other things, so to help keep myself accountable I’m going to start tracking on Fitocracy again. You can follow this madness there, or just link to me if you could use some new fitness friends. If you’re not already using Fitocracy, I recommed signing up. It’s a free, fun community and leveling up is actually much more rewarding than you’d think it would be.
*The workouts, that is. I think Jay is only a few inches shy of 6ft.
**See what I did there? Starting Monday, hee hee hee.
