Insanity is scheduled so that for the first four weeks (or, if you're doing my version of a P90X/Insanity hybrid, first six weeks) is spent getting your body used to daily hardcore cardio. Each session in the first half of Insanity runs about 30 to 40 minutes in length (which -- believe me -- is plenty).
After a recovery week, you put away all the DVDs that came before, and start sweating to the Insanity "Max" workouts, each of which are 50 to 60 minutes long, and kick up the intensity level several notches. I'm too scared and exhausted to peek at what's coming up, but if Max Interval Circuit is any indication, these last six weeks of Round 2 are going to be utter hell.
Details after the jump...
At one point during Max Interval Circuit, Shaun T yells out: "I'm smiling 'cause I love killing people!" I believe him.
This 60-minute workout begins with perhaps the most challenging 10-minute "warm-up" I've ever seen. Like the Insanity DVDs we've encountered before, Shaun T leads us through three increasingly rapid rounds of several exercises. (Many of these moves are familiar because we did them in previous Insanity workouts -- but as part of the core workout, not the warm-up.) Each of the following exercises are done for 30 seconds during the first two rounds, and for 15 seconds during the final round:
- Jog in Place (which becomes Sprint in Place by the time we're in the last round)
- Arms Up Jumping Jacks (your arms shoot straight up and down with each jump)
- 1-2-3 Heismans
- Side-to-Side Jump Ropes
- Arms Out High Knees (just like High Knees, but with your arms straight out to the sides)
- Switch Kicks
- Hit the Floor
- Side-to-Side Floor Hops (which are actually pretty fun)
After some water and a few minnutes of stretching, we start the workout in earnest. It consists of three circuits of four exercises, and each circuit is repeated three times each. Below is a list of the moves in each circuit.
Circuit One:
- Pedal / Power Lunges (sprint in place, and then do four Mary Katherine lunges, and repeat)
- Ski Abs / Push-Up Jacks / In & Out Abs / Oblique Push-Ups (while in a plank position, do four Ski Abs, four Push-Up Jacks, four In & Out Abs, and four Oblique Push-Ups -- and repeat)
- Power Strikes (get down in a left lunge and rapidly punch down twice, quickly moving your back knee up between punches -- then switch to the other side and repeat)
- Frog Jumps (good old Frog Jumps -- I hate them)
After three rounds of these exercises, we get a one-minute bonus move: Football Runs / Cross Jacks.
Circuit Two:
- Hook Jumps (do four hook punches while in a horse stance followed by four hook punches from a low squat, and then crank out four high jumps -- switch sides and repeat)
- High Knees with a Twist (we know this one from Core Cardio & Balance)
- High-Low Jab / Squat (starting from a squat position, leap up in the air and throw a high side punch, and as you land back in a squat, throw a low side punch -- repeat)
- Floor Switch Kicks (just like Switch Kicks, only you do them from a Table position)
After three rounds of the above, we do one minute of 1-2-3 Jabs, which look like a mash-up of 1-2-3 Heismans, Touch the Floors, and some shitty Wesley Idol Kenpo X move.
Circuit Three:
By the time the final circuit began, I was totally spent, and my heart was exploding out of my chest and throat. But Shaun T is screaming "DIG DEEPER," and so I do.
- Side Suicide Jumps (just like Suicide Jumps -- fun! -- but with staggered hands and side planks)
- Squat Hooks (jump down into a deep squat and throw a mean right hook -- then do the same from the other side and repeat)
- Full Body Drill (drop down into a plank position, do eight plank runs, do four walking push-ups, do eight wide knee plank runs, and then jump up to a standing position -- and repeat)
- Plank Punches (from a plank position, start punching)
No bonus move after Circuit Three. You just kind of lay there, stunned and nauseous, in a pool of your own bodily excretions.
Strangely, I can't wait to do this again next week.
