Insanity Workout Day 12: The Happily Obese Response to Plyometrics

1-16-10: A word about obesity. While never caring too much about my weight, I have an unfortunate suspicion that the increased weight does make things more difficult in the workouts. It is a fascinating dynamic I had not considered. What do I mean? Well, say that you are starting to workout in a gym. For your first time, you would start with lower weights. In the Insanity workout, you are only using your body as weights essentially. This means at the start of your Insanity workout you are starting with more weights, and the better shape you get in, there will be a reduction in weights, which is backwards. However, when this happens, I will also be able to expend a little less energy on power and more on cardio...more balance. I can certainly see how this could be frustrating though for people just starting out. Not for David though. David get strong. David get angry. David SMASH!

A cool thing happened for today's workout. Vince came over to participate in the workout. And Vin-a is the master. Very impressive. He didn't even take a break until almost the end of the second iteration of the actual workout. Since he did not take nearly enough breaks, I made sure to take plenty for him. He also was able to offer some tips on form. He let me know that my back was not being kept straight enough on certain drills and that my knee was too far forward on the deep lunge stretch. Another challenge is if you are rather unfamiliar with most drills and can not see yourself doing them. It can be helpful to have someone experienced help out here and there.

Finally, a word on some of the most hated exercises from Plyometrics. I think the theme will be the skiing drills. One is a simulation of slaloming on the slopes by keeping your legs together, swinging your arms back (like you were pulling back on the ski poles), bending your knees, and then jumping to the right. Repeat to the left. Just a painful jumping drill really, which there are many, but I mention this evil one because there is another drill called Ski Abs which is also related to skiing in a different sort of evil way. Here you get into a pushup stance, shoulders over wrists, and swing your legs out to the right, with your legs slanted towards your chest. If that doesn't make sense, think about how you would jump into a crouched position from a pushup position. Instead of the forward crouch, the legs go to the right. Then back. Then to the left. Then back. Then take a break. Do one or two more. Collapse and cry. Do one more. Take a break. Get water. Feign a back injury until the next drill.