Round 3 / Day 5: Insanity Max Cardio Conditioning

Near the end of this workout, even Tania (TANIA!) can't manage to complete all the required jumps. I eked 'em all out, though I looked more like this (only without the awesome unitard):

Insanity Fit Test (Part Deux)

I hadn't revisited the Insanity Fit Test since starting Round 2, mostly because I'm deathly afraid of it. As you might recall, I barely made it through my first attempt at the Fit Test. But now that I've completed my 90-day P90X/Insanity Hybrid, I was curious to see how much (or even if) I've improved -- before all my gains disappear with the onset of laziness and inertia.

My post-Round 2 Fit Test results, after the jump...

Round 2 / Day 84: Insanity Max Cardio Conditioning + Cardio Abs

During Right Kicks / Left Kicks, Shaun T walks over to Tania, who's flying through the moves. "If you can go as fast as Tania," he says to the camera, "keep up with her. If you can go faster, go faster."  I tried my damnedest, but in the end, I had to opt for Plan C: Going (much) slower than Tania.

One more week. Just one more week.

The Insanity Fit Test

Holyfuckingshit.

Perhaps it's because my level of cardio fitness is crap, but the Insanity fit test is several orders of magnitude more difficult than anything -- ANYTHING -- I did on P90X.

Wielding a stopwatch, Shaun T marches you through the eight fit test exercises like a friendly, encouraging drill instructor, while two of his trainees, Tania and Chris, perform all of the moves along with you. The fit test itself is just 25 minutes long. Sounds easy enough, right?

Wrong. First of all, Chris and Tania (especially Tania) are -- in Shaun T's words, "MACHINES." They hustle like squirrels on speed, popping up after each set of exercises to flash their big fucking smiles. And the moves themselves aren't just insane -- they're IN-FUCKING-SANE. You're asked to perform each of them as many times you can in one minute, with good form.

Shaun T begins with a 2-minute warm-up: You jog, do jumping jacks, Heismans, butt kicks, high knees, mummy kicks -- nothing terribly difficult if you're used to doing P90X Plyo, but then again, this is just the warm-up.

Afterwards, there's a quick stretch, and then Shaun T turns to Tania and Chris -- both of whom have already completed a round of Insanity -- and leads them through the fit test exercises. After each move, they announce how many reps they cranked out, along with how many they originally did when they first took the fit test pre-Insanity.

I can be pretty competitive, so my goal -- however unreasonable it may have been -- was to try to kick Tania's and Chris' asses. And during the first few moves, I was feeling pretty damn good about myself; I was keeping up with Tania and Chris, and even beating them in reps in a few of the exercises. But three-quarters of the way through the fit test, my chest started hurting. And then both of my thighs cramped up. I could barely stand, and had to pause the DVD to catch my breath. I threw up a little bit of yogurt and banana in my mouth. After a three-minute break, I finished the finished the fit test, but I feel more battered than I ever did after a P90X routine.

After the jump, see how I fared on the Insanity fit test.