It’s no wonder that the people in the Insanity DVD commercials look ripped.  If they actually did the workout program (and weren’t just models) then they burned a ridiculous amount of calories every day for 60 days.  There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly special about the workouts in terms of complexity, but they are indeed action-packed with plyometrics at every turn so you’re bound to shed weight and improve your agility and your muscle:fat ratio.  You do max reps for each workout so the intensity is very high for a prolonged period of time with minimal rest.

Here’s a promotional video from youtube, definitely corny but I’m sure that if I went all-out for 60 days I’d see some results, it’d be hard not to:

I borrowed the DVD set from a coworker who just finished it.  She’s an ex-college athlete, mother of two, engineer and she said she definitely noticed an increase in athleticism from doing the 60 day program.  However, she also said that she had to slow down her program to three days/week because the plyometrics were getting to her knees.  My knees also bother me sometimes so I could see this as a barrier to sticking to the program.

I looked through the DVDs she gave me and chose Core, Balance, and Cardio because I had just done a few days of upper body workouts and needed a day off from those muscles so throwing in some cardio would be great.  I brought my laptop outside during lunch and did the workout in fresh air.  I certainly got a few weird looks from coworkers passing by but oh well, those are likely the same people who make excuses about why they don’t exercise.  Personally, I’d rather look silly and be fit than the other alternative of normal and out of shape.

The workout was certainly tough because every movement was dynamic, something my body is getting used to.  Most of the training I do is for endurance sports like running, biking, and hiking.  Unlike back in high school, I do very little agility-based sports these days so whenever I do, I feel it the next day for sure.  My min/max/average heart rates were 86/158/134 over the course of the 35 minute workout.  At the end of the workout I found out that this particular segment was considered a recovery workout.  Soaked in sweat after a good workout, I tried to imagine what a full blown workout felt like, I guess I’ll have to try it out at some point.