Day 1 - First Fit Test

DVD - Digging Deep (instructional pep-talk from Shaun) & Fit Test

Before beginning Insanity's max interval discs, you're supposed to take a fit test. The fit test consists of 8 discrete exercises. You are timed 1 minute for each exercise. During that minute you do as many reps as you can, at whatever pace you can manage. The idea is that you repeat this test at roughly 2-week intervals throughout the program to track your progress and see how your fitness improves. I did it tonight and will do it again on Jan. 18th.

In the Fit Test DVD, Shaun has two of his crew, one woman and one man, complete the Fit Test. I didn't catch if he said how many weeks they'd been following the program, but they were comparing the results to the first Fit Test, so I'll assume they had completed the first 2 weeks. There is a brief warm-up, then some stretching, then the Fit Test. 8 different exercises at 1 minute each might seem like something to sniff at, but DAMN. With the cool down and stretching the DVD is 25 minutes. I worked harder and sweated more during the 8 1-minute tests than I ever did completing a 50 or more minute Tae-Bo disc.

I'm starting from a place of more flab and less fit than any of the people in his video and most of the online reviewers I've found, so I was fully prepared to be able to complete far fewer reps than the already hard-bodied who started this workout. I surprised myself! In most cases, I was within 5 reps of where the woman started, and sometimes I was able to do more than the man had his 1st time. I've also since compared my results to a couple of people online who had been doing fitness training for a while when they started Insanity, and I'm still fairly in line with them. I got my ass kicked, but it's nice to know I don't have light years to go to catch up with them.

My results (note, reps = 1 unless otherwise noted):

Switch Kicks (2 kicks = 1 rep) - 78
Power Jacks - 55
Power Knees - 101
Power Jumps - 32
Globe Jumps (4 jumps = 1 rep) - 5
Suicide Jumps 16
Push-Up Jacks - 20
Low Plank Oblique - 46