Ahhh, it is nice to know that a rest day DOES occur!  Today’s day was uneventful.  Did a lot of playing with the kids and lounging around eating.  We had a great dinner from a new Pho restaurant in our neighborhood called So-Ba.  It is gooood!

Other than that, I have just been thinking about the fit test tomorrow and I am excited to see how much (hopefully) I have improved.  I plan on eating well and getting my mind in the right place to push myself during the test.  I remember after the first test I thought I was going to pass out, but I feel confident that I will not feel that way again.

Day 13- Pure Cardio AND Cardio Abs!

Today was the first day of doing 2 workouts back to back.  I was really worried about how today would go, but it wasn’t too bad!  Pure Cardio by itself is definitely insane and a workout I don’t know if I could ever do non-stop (I shouldn’t say never, we’ll see after it’s all said and done!).

So the first workout is Pure Cardio today and the whole thing is maybe around 35 minutes.  The heart of the workout is 15 minutes straight of insane exercises.  You complete 15 exercises back to back at 1 minute each.  Reading it on paper it doesn’t sound bad, but it IS!  My heart rate isn’t skyrocketing, but my muscles turn to noodles during this workout.  Hopefully as I get stronger I can do more.

After I finished this routine I took about 3-5 minutes to grab some more water and then launched into Cardio Abs.  Cardio Abs is about 16 minutes in length, which was a relief when I saw that!  I thought it would be another 35 minutes or something.  But, that doesn’t mean it was easy!

Cardio Abs is of course designed to work out the abs.  The interesting thing about this is that out of all the exercises there are no crunches or no sit ups!  The workout starts with a series of jumps designed to use your core to bring your knees to your arms or elbows.  These were challenging right off the bat because of tiredness from the previous workout.  Form is very important here.  Then there are a few different series of exercises that performed from the “C” position (sort of sitting leaning back balancing on your butt).  You know when you get the form right because the burn comes on!  Then there were a few more exercises from a plank position, again working the core.

I enjoyed the Abs workout and could see using this one in the future just on it’s own.  I am glad to have gotten through it all today!  Tomorrow is the best day . . . . Rest Day!

Insanity Day 12 – Cardio Power and Resistance

The workouts are becoming quite familiar now as I close in on 2 weeks of the Insanity Workout.  Today’s cardio and power resistance went ok.  It was a bit of a challenge because both of my kids (ages 3 1/2 and 5 1/2) wanted to participate with me!  For the most part it was ok, but when we get into some of the dynamic moves like globe jumps and moving pushups, I was fumbling over them.  It is hard to speak nicely when you have little breath in your lungs!

It turned out ok though I suppose as I am definitely knowing that I can do more each time I perform a routine.

It was hard motivating myself today for some reason.  I think I was just in a funk all day for other reasons, but for one of the first times during this stretch I wasn’t excited to get started.  By the end of the warmup that had been forgotten and I started getting into it . . . kids and all!

I am sort of nervous about tomorrow because it is the first day with 2 workouts.  I am guessing you are supposed to do them back to back which will end up being about an hour.  First the Pure Cardio and then the Cardio Abs.  The good thing is it is Saturday tomorrow and I will have extra time to get into the groove.

Day 11 – A Welcomed Cardio Recovery

During the week I don’t have a lot of time to prepare nice big breakfasts, so this is what I typically eat each morning before heading out the door: A big bowl of Kashi cereal.  In the bowl I also cut up a medium size banana, add 2 tablespoons of flax seeds, and top it off with organic 2% milk.  This is a really healthy and tasty way to start the day.  Kashi is high in protein and fiber and I get a few extra calories from the banana as well as the health benefits from the flax seeds.

While I don’t follow the Insanity Nutrition Guide exactly, I basically follow all of the same principles.  I am looking for high protein meals that can pack on a few extra healthy calories per day.

On the weekends I like to eat eggs.  I have been doing omelets with a mixture of 3 egg whites (pre packaged carton) with one real egg and whipping them up and adding veggies, herbs, and garlic.  Add a couple strips of Morningstar Breakfast Strips and you have a tasty high protein breakfast!

Today was the “recovery” day. I quote the word recovery because it is recovery from cardio, but not a rest day per se. As mentioned before, the Cardio Recovery day is really still work. We work the muscles by doing poses which you hold until you start to burn. Some of the squat moves really get to me before I have to release. I can handle doing the squats in motion, it is when we finish the set of 10 or 16 or whatever, he has you stop and remain in the squat position. Then he goes on talking about the posture, etc. for what feels like 20 minutes! (In reality it is like 1 minute, but the burning in my legs tells me another story).

The plank exercises I actually like. They are working the core which I can feel is getting stronger.

So you do still get a workout, but not an intense one. It is a nice break for sure and a day I look forward to weekly now! I don’t even wear my heart rate monitor on Cardio Recovery day because it really isn’t needed. Also having this easier workout is quite motivating. It reminds me that there are only 2 more days until a REAL rest day!

Day 10 – Back to the Plyometrics Cardio

Today was back to the Plyometrics Cardio Circuit.  I am now starting to repeat all of the main workouts so I am a becoming a bit familiar with them.   Coming into today I was feeling like I have been hitting a groove and that the workouts were going to start to get easier.  Well, I was right that I am in a groove, but was wrong on the “easier” assumption!

Starting at the warmup I felt like I was a bit off today.  I did make it through the warm up, but it felt hard.  For the first time in a while I was thinking more of when the video would be over rather than focusing on the exercise at hand.  I can say though I am feeling a bit stronger in some of the pushup exercies which is nice.

I did make sure to push myself today though and as Shaun T would say “Dig Deeper”!  It really is a mental gut check at times to make sure you stay motivated.  The one small thing that kept me going was that tomorrow was a Cardio Recovery day   I look forward to Thursdays for sure!

One cool thing to note is that I have finished day 10 of 60, so I am 16.67% of the way there!

Day 9 – Pure Cardio Pushing The Limits

Here we go again, Pure Cardio!  This really is a crazy routine as you go non-stop in some insanely hard moves.  While doing an exercise for 1 minute does not sound like a lot, it really is!  Again, the heart of this routine is 15 minutes of 15 different exercises for 1 minute.  As this was my second time through it I knew what to expect, but that didn’t make it any easier!

Once again I got through the warmup and stretches without stopping.  It is still hard for sure, but I am proud that I can do that.  I think I got into the second exercise before having to stop for the first time tonight.  After that I just pushed myself as hard I could trying to keep my heart rate high, but safe.

Some observations about my body today is that I can say most of my muscles feel normal.  My legs don’t hurt.  I am starting to feel stronger in the core area which is nice, everything starts at the core.  I also am feeling some soreness around my shoulders.  This makes me happy because I am working that area. Part of my goal is to build muscle so I am fine with that!

Day 8 – Insane Cardio Power & Resistance

I was actually happy today to get started on week 2 of the workouts!  I am in some weird way looking forward to these every day now.  Today’s workout was the Cardio Power and Resistance workout again.  Looking back, this was the first workout of the series, after the Fit Test on day 1.  I wonder why they made this workout the first one because it is quite hard!  Or maybe that is more to the point.  If you can’t get through day one then maybe you shouldn’t be doing this at all.

After I did this workout the first time, pretty much my entire body was in pain.  I am happy to say that I have very little pain at all in any part of my body!  This makes me proud as I figure my body is adjusting the workouts and those muscles that haven’t been worked in years are now starting to respond

Once again, I made it through the entire warmup and stretch.  Now knowing all of the workouts in this first month series, I also know that this warmup is harder than the others.  Since this is a workout more geared toward strength conditioning, some of the moves are more resitance than cardio.  Either way, i made it through and I believe I got through the first set of the first circuit before kneeling over heaving for air!  Afterwards  I felt pretty good and was able to enjoy the rest of the night without feeling spent.

Day 7 – Rest Day!

Ahhhh, a day off!  I can proudly say I have finished the first week of INSANITY!  Today was the first official rest day. Seeing as how you only get one rest day a week it was greatly appreciated and well deserved.

So, what do you do on your day off of INSANITY? Eat and watch football of course!  I spent most of the day lounging around playing with the kids as it was a rainy day today.  Then I enjoyed watching both the AFC and NFC Championship games.  After today there is only one more football game left in the season (no we don’t count the Pro Bowl!).

Tonight I will get my rest and prepare to eat healthy tomorrow in anticipation of week 2!

Day 6 – Second Round of The Plyometric Cardio Circuit