A normal person might have changed the channel with the realization that the commercial for Shaun T's Insanity Workout wasn't going to end anytime soon. If I were normal, we wouldn't be here. I kept watching. I'm no sucker for advertising ... but. There were smokin' hot, sweaty people! They were working out really hard! There were promises to get me into the best shape of my life! In only 63 days! Did I mention the smokin' hot, sweaty people?
I was intrigued. Minutes later I was researching the product on the Internet. When I was satisfied about the quality and intensity of the workouts (and when I found a new copy on eBay for a Buy It Now price that was half the TV price), I bought it. (Ooops, Sorry Shaun)
Here is how it works. For the 1st month, you alternate through a series of 5 different workouts, working out 6 times per week. When you reach the 5th week you do the "Recovery" workout for that week. Starting in week 6, you rotate through 4 new DVDs, for a total of 10 DVDs. At the end of 9 weeks, you've completed an intense training program. What makes the workouts different from others on the market, the "insane" part, is that rather than moderate cardio with short bursts of intense cardio over the course of 30 - 60 minutes, you do the exact opposite. It's called Max Interval Training, "long bursts of maximum-intensity exercises with short periods of rest."
Starting the program now at the New Year is really just coincidence. I'd been wanting to do something. My clothes were starting to strain thanks to life circumstances that got me off my usual Tae-Bo & mostly healthy eating routine: first looking for a new place and then the move, followed by slacking off in the beginning part of the fall as I settled into my new diggs. At the time I bought the discs I knew the crazy non-routine months of the holidays were not optimal for me to start.
But now, no more excuses. I've got a nice 63 day stretch of deliberately under-scheduled social activity through the beginning of March, and I'm going to get my butt in shape. I don't have a particular weight goal in mind. My attitude starting out is less about defined goals and more about "Let's see what I can accomplish". I'll be following the meal plan (5 300-calorie meals a day) and doing crazy cardio. Obviously I'm going to lose weight, and yes, I want to. But within that crazy cardio is intense resistance training, so I'll be gaining muscle. And that's what I want: shed fat, but gain muscle. What the number on the scale says is less important to me than how I feel, how my clothes fit, and how I look to myself in the mirror.
Sure, I have some results I'd like to see. I'd like to see my upper-thighs as firm as the rest of my rather shapely and muscular legs. I'd like to lose the back roll. I'd like, once and for all, to get rid of that little pocket of fat that hangs around my upper arms near my pits keeping me from the cut look of Michelle Obama. I'd like a slimmer waist, but want to keep some of the softness of my lower abdomen. I'm not sure these things are possible, but I'm going to try.
As much as this is about trying to reshape my body and improve my overall health and fitness, there is also the mental aspect. I want to know I can do this. I've been told that when I set my mind to something - really, really decide something - that I can accomplish that thing. It's not universally true, but it's true enough. It was true when I decided at 8 years old that I would have a Masters if not a PhD. It was true again 7 years ago when I finally decided that though I'd always been overweight, I didn't need to spend the rest of my life pushing the scales close to 200 lbs and managed to lose over 50 in less than a year.
This time around, I've deliberately chosen a workout that I know is beyond me. At least it will be to start. I imagine I will take a lot of extra "rests" during the workout. But that's the point. You don't test your limits, mind or body, by doing things that are easy. It's a crazy-hard workout. I'm crazy to want to do it. But I want to find out what it takes for me to push through whatever walls I hit, mental and physical. I think when I'm through, I'll have accomplished something pretty incredible.
This blog is intended to be in some ways a review of the DVD series. But it will include my thoughts on the process, on my progress, check-ins on my motivation and more. Ultimately I hope to create a history of what I went through to accomplish whatever results I achieve.
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