Happy Healthy Blogger Thursday! This week I am so excited to introduce you to my friend, Lindsay at Biking Before Bed. Lindsay and I “met” through Foodie Penpals (Thank you Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean!) I was assigned to be Lindsay’s pal.  I started looking at her blog and totally fell in love with it. It is a great combination of fitness and healthy cooking. I have so much admiration for her in how she attacks her workouts.

As I was blog stalking, I found out that she did Insanity. I was thrilled to find another BeachBody fan. We start emailing back and forth, and I begged her to do a guest post about Insanity because it’s something I have always wanted to try and I loved learning about it. I had a feeling others might be in the same boat.

 I think it’s called Insanity because you have to be a little insane to try it. 🙂 It’s super tough but everyone I know who has done it, has gotten super results. The workouts are amazing and Lindsay gives a great firsthand account of it. So without further adieu…

Heeeeerrrrreee’s Lindsay!

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Hi y’all! My name is Lindsay and I blog over at Biking Before Bed. On my site you will find everything from workout ideas, to recipes, to daily ramblings about life in TX where I have lived for almost 2 years now. I love biking, hiking, exploring Texas with my boyfriend Ryan, and trying out new recipes.

I am so excited to be doing a guest post for Kimberly! I was first introduced to her wonderful blog during The Lean Green Bean’s monthly Foodie Pen Pals Swap. When I saw all of the teas, chocolate, and sample of Shakology, I knew we were going to get along great! I absolutely love her story of how she met her husband!
Since Kimberly is a Beachbody couch, I wanted to share my experiences with the 60 day workout program Insanity.
I’m not exactly sure what inspired me to do this particular program. I have done DVD exercise routines here and there but with no consistency. Some that I have tried (Jillian Micheals in particular) were fun and fairly challenging. Others were dull and pretty basic. I had read some testimonies online of other people who had tried Insanity and it seemed to be extremely challenging which was just what I was looking for. My workout routine had gotten a bit stale and I was pretty much up for anything. Although Insanity has a nutrition component, I chose to just follow the workout schedule.

So on Halloween, I did the first of 5 fit tests. Each fit test consists of 8 moves, each done for one minute. The goal is to do as many repetitions as possible. Every two weeks, you repeat the fit test to see your improvement. For the first four weeks, you complete 6 workouts a week. Since I started on a Monday, my rest day was Sunday. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I completed 30-35 minute workout. Thursday was an active recovery day and then there were two more days of cardio on Friday and Saturday. There were three different cardio routines that alternated over the 4 weeks. Starting in the second weeks there was a 20 minute ab workout once or twice a week as well.

Since these workouts were fairly short, I was able to do them before work. I loved leaving work at 5 and knowing that my workout was already done!

For the first few days I was sore and achy but I was surprised at how quickly my body adapted to the workouts. There was definitely a lot more power moves and jumping then I normally incorporate into my workout. Many of the exercises reminded me of things you would do in high school sports practices. One of my favorite parts of Insanity was seeing others doing the same workout. Seeing the “professionals” struggle and have to take breaks too was quite motivational to me. I often found myself trying to keep up, or beat the people on the screen. I would definitely recommend buying shoes that are specific to plyometric exercises. Once I bought new shoes, I felt way more comfortable and powerful than when I was in my running shoes.

 

The fifth week was a recovery week. I did the same cardio core and balance track every day. This workout was a combination of abs and power yoga. While it wasn’t as physically demanding I was very sore by the end of the week. It was a nice break on my knees.

The last 4 weeks were similar in structure to the first four except that the workouts were longer. Each workout lasted between 50 and 60 minutes. Since these workouts were longer, especially the days that also include the fit test or an abs workout, I often did them in the afternoon. When I did do them in the morning, I had to eat something first because they were too strenuous to do on an empty stomach. For the first week of longer exercises, I felt like I was starting all over again. I was literally on the floor by the end sometimes. But I always felt so accomplished and somehow refreshed afterwards. These workouts made me realize that I really don’t push myself as much as I could in the gym!

So did the program work?

Based on the numbers alone, I would say that Insanity was a successful program. Every time I did the fit test I was skeptical that I would do that much better than 2 weeks prior. And every time I was surprised how much I had improved. My best exercise was definitely pushup jacks. I did twice as many on day 60 as day 1!

Numbers aside, I feel amazing. My legs are definitely stronger and I feel that I am in the best cardio shape that I have been in awhile: probably since high school sports days. I ran for the first time this weekend since the program started and I easily ran 5 miles.

One final note about the program. The workouts, even the shorter ones are very physically demanding. I feel that it is important to be in fairly good physical shape before attempting to do any of the workouts. Unlike some other DVD programs I have seen, there were no demonstrated alternate moves.
I hope that this review was helpful and I encourage all of you to try out this awesome workout program. It will rock your world! Thanks again to Kimberly for the opportunity to share my experiences with you. I hope to see some of y’all over at Biking Before Bed.
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Thanks, Lindsay! That sounds just awesome. I think Manatee and I will be trying this after we finish P90x2.
What is a workout that you have been wanting to try? What’s the hardest workout you have ever done?

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