1-30-10: I made it past sprinting in the third iteration of the warm-up. I made it halfway through the hyperspeed jumping jacks as well, but still needed a few breaks. I feel I am in a good spot though. I can force myself through the hyper butt kicks and the hyper high knees and while I stop hyper mummy kicks a 5-10 seconds early to catch my breath before stretching (which oddly starts off with breathing, but whatever), I know I could push through those if the motivation of getting through the whole warm-up was on the line. The other main roadblock is the hyper Heisman. The Hyper 1-2-3 Heisman isn’t as bad because there is a shuffle step break in between the Heisman which is definitely not a Cardio break, but at least gives the quads a break. That is why the hyper Heisman is still a formidable foe. I can do it at a slower pace, but that isn’t what the almighty Shaun T wants in the third iteration. He wants me to push it. He wants hyper. He wants insane. The non-hyper Heisman will not do. Still, not ridiculously far out on this one.
I made it through most of the first iteration of the workout as well. The power jacks (or…is it a slight variation…still jumping into a squat position and jumping up…just not sure if there is a slight variation on what you do with the arms) were burning in that first round, but I grunted and screamed and clawed and made it through the first time. I also climbed the mountain. Good ole mountain climbers. Of course, I needed to break when skiing down the mountain. I have gone cross-country skiing and downhill skiing and neither compare to this tomfoolery. It actually reminds me of watching my friend Joe attempt the moguls run the only time I went downhill skiing. A lot of crazy leg action was necessary…that…well…he didn’t have at the time. It was more of a “hey Dave! You fell down a bazillion times today. Watch me do the moguls to attempt to even things up”. Still, this is what the ski downs remind me of and I certainly do not have the crazy leg action necessary at the moment.
The rest of the workout was better than before. Still a lot of breaks, but I definitely felt improvement this time around. Yes, instead of only doing half of the actual workout, I think I probably did about 60%, so I’m kind of passing.
Tomorrow I am throwing in a Pure Cardio and Cardio Ab workout at Vin-a’s instead of recovery for two reasons. Initially it was just so that we could cross-motivate and get a workout in together this weekend, but I am also using it to adjust my weekly schedule so that recovery will now fall on Mondays.
Side nutrition note. While gung-ho about this new meal plan strategy, I already have several major cheat days in mind. One will be a day or set of days in early March (or whenever…it changes yearly) at Sarz’s annual b-day party. As part of his b-day I will demand a massive Meijer run and it will probably be the first time I have pop this year (caffeine is essential at his parties…so are 148 Swiss cake rolls). Another will be mid-October for my annual four day Halloween movie marathon. Again, a source of caffeine will be necessary along with a few extra thousand calories of delicious goodness. I am not bound by Shaun T’s nutritional laws. I will just be pretty good…most of the time.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Insanity Workout Day 25: Absolute Power and Resistance Corrupts Absolutely
1-29-10: Nothing like a good day of Power and Resistance to inform me that I will not be able to proceed to the month two DVDs as scheduled for next week. It really would not make sense. There has been improvement, but I’m thinking it is going to take an additional two weeks to be where I want to be before moving on to the next level of madness.
I hate power jacks. Especially in the warm-up. They ruin me for the rest of the warm-up. That being said, I completed most of the first two iterations of the warm-up before having serious difficulties in certain exercises (power jacks) in the third iteration. By getting creamed by the power jacks, I then had less energy for the log jumps, and subsequently less energy for the 1-2-3 Heisman in a most disastrous trickle-down effect. (I also am not a fan of the evil shoulder push-ups Shaun T requires of us…that gets a big honorable mention).
The workout itself was nothing to write home about either. Perhaps it was bizarre ordering, but some exercises were messing with me. In Pure Cardio, I am decent at the suicide drills. In Power and Resistance I have little effort to offer the mini-suicide drills. (The whole Power and Resistance workout seems like one long suicide drill.) Mini-suicide drills (he does not call it this, but this name makes more sense to me) has you doing 180s. Jump and spin in the air so that your front foot is now your back foot and your back foot is now the front foot. When landing be sure the front knee forms a 90 degree angle to the ground. Back leg is slightly bent, but more stretched out in a lunge. When in the air raise those arms as if to say “Here I am God! Take me now!”.
Tomorrow is Plyometrics. Goal is to get past sprinting in the third iteration. This will almost be TOO easy.
I hate power jacks. Especially in the warm-up. They ruin me for the rest of the warm-up. That being said, I completed most of the first two iterations of the warm-up before having serious difficulties in certain exercises (power jacks) in the third iteration. By getting creamed by the power jacks, I then had less energy for the log jumps, and subsequently less energy for the 1-2-3 Heisman in a most disastrous trickle-down effect. (I also am not a fan of the evil shoulder push-ups Shaun T requires of us…that gets a big honorable mention).
The workout itself was nothing to write home about either. Perhaps it was bizarre ordering, but some exercises were messing with me. In Pure Cardio, I am decent at the suicide drills. In Power and Resistance I have little effort to offer the mini-suicide drills. (The whole Power and Resistance workout seems like one long suicide drill.) Mini-suicide drills (he does not call it this, but this name makes more sense to me) has you doing 180s. Jump and spin in the air so that your front foot is now your back foot and your back foot is now the front foot. When landing be sure the front knee forms a 90 degree angle to the ground. Back leg is slightly bent, but more stretched out in a lunge. When in the air raise those arms as if to say “Here I am God! Take me now!”.
Tomorrow is Plyometrics. Goal is to get past sprinting in the third iteration. This will almost be TOO easy.
Insanity Workout Day 24: Pure Cardio Makes My Head Hurt, But At Least Ski Downs Following Mountain Climbers Makes Sense
1-28-10: I may have to make another small modification to the schedule. The day off is supposed to prepare me for the next week of hell. Only, I have been playing basketball the night before the start of the next day’s workout. Meaning that I typically have 24 hours in between workouts, except for after my “day off” in which I only get 10. I think my day off needs to be on Thursday, which would maintain a 12 hour spacing in between my last workout of the Insanity week and my basketball game, but would allow a day of rest to come after that hellish day. I think I could really use that day off to recover. This would also move Recovery day to Monday, which is also better as it is a shorter workout, meaning I should be able to start the work week off right.
I made it through the second iteration of the warm-up today. And the second time was at an increased speed. Excellent. I also made it through most of the initial sprinting of the third iteration of the warm-up before breaking. Still not where I need to be, but definitely some good personal improvement.
Rethinking most of the stretches, really there is only one that I hate. Sure, my form is suspect for the deep lunge, the one that kills me is the stretch that Shaun T tries to trick us with. He wants us to think it is a stretch, but it really isn’t. He thinks he can just throw a cardio exercise in the middle of the stretching and I’m not going to notice? Oh! I noticed Shaun T! The exercise comes right after the hip flexor stretch (my actual stretching nemesis). The idea is to balance on one leg, with your other leg parallel to the ground and your arms providing additional balance on the floor. The “stretch”, or so he calls it, requires moving the back leg in and out. This isn’t stretching. This is another “he hate me” drill.
The actual workout for Pure Cardio is terrifying. Still, I at least can make an imaginary story for part of it. This being where the mountain climber exercise starts. This is essentially high knees while alternating grasps at the ceiling with your arms. To the casual observer, it appears that you are climbing…well…nothing…you actually would look quite insane. Since this is the Insanity workout, you are clearly in the right state of mind then to imagine climbing up a mountain. I am good at climbing the mountain. Depending on the prior exercise, high knees are not the worst thing in the world. Then in a completely backwards twist, the ski downs start and so does the pain. In my mind I think this shouldn’t hurt. I’m skiing down the mountain I just climbed. Really I just have to let gravity do the work. But no, Shaun T has taken the fun out of skiing, making you feel like you are attempting to ski uphill, or down a hill with a disastrous coefficient of friction (that’s for my boy Sarz as he is most likely to actually read this.)
Cardio Abs again is like a distant memory even though it really didn’t happen all that long ago. I believe there is a severe lack of oxygen after Pure Cardio that prevents me from remembering Cardio Abs. Maybe I am blocking them from memory. Either way, what I can remember is an opening warm-up that isn’t awful by itself, just awful if it is following another workout. The floor exercises range from “not so bad” to “well, I did one, time for a break” to “Okay! I think I get what you are doing…oh…the drill is over?” Cardio Abs will make more sense when I perform Pure Cardio better. Pure Cardio will make more sense when that blasted warm-up is mastered.
I made it through the second iteration of the warm-up today. And the second time was at an increased speed. Excellent. I also made it through most of the initial sprinting of the third iteration of the warm-up before breaking. Still not where I need to be, but definitely some good personal improvement.
Rethinking most of the stretches, really there is only one that I hate. Sure, my form is suspect for the deep lunge, the one that kills me is the stretch that Shaun T tries to trick us with. He wants us to think it is a stretch, but it really isn’t. He thinks he can just throw a cardio exercise in the middle of the stretching and I’m not going to notice? Oh! I noticed Shaun T! The exercise comes right after the hip flexor stretch (my actual stretching nemesis). The idea is to balance on one leg, with your other leg parallel to the ground and your arms providing additional balance on the floor. The “stretch”, or so he calls it, requires moving the back leg in and out. This isn’t stretching. This is another “he hate me” drill.
The actual workout for Pure Cardio is terrifying. Still, I at least can make an imaginary story for part of it. This being where the mountain climber exercise starts. This is essentially high knees while alternating grasps at the ceiling with your arms. To the casual observer, it appears that you are climbing…well…nothing…you actually would look quite insane. Since this is the Insanity workout, you are clearly in the right state of mind then to imagine climbing up a mountain. I am good at climbing the mountain. Depending on the prior exercise, high knees are not the worst thing in the world. Then in a completely backwards twist, the ski downs start and so does the pain. In my mind I think this shouldn’t hurt. I’m skiing down the mountain I just climbed. Really I just have to let gravity do the work. But no, Shaun T has taken the fun out of skiing, making you feel like you are attempting to ski uphill, or down a hill with a disastrous coefficient of friction (that’s for my boy Sarz as he is most likely to actually read this.)
Cardio Abs again is like a distant memory even though it really didn’t happen all that long ago. I believe there is a severe lack of oxygen after Pure Cardio that prevents me from remembering Cardio Abs. Maybe I am blocking them from memory. Either way, what I can remember is an opening warm-up that isn’t awful by itself, just awful if it is following another workout. The floor exercises range from “not so bad” to “well, I did one, time for a break” to “Okay! I think I get what you are doing…oh…the drill is over?” Cardio Abs will make more sense when I perform Pure Cardio better. Pure Cardio will make more sense when that blasted warm-up is mastered.
Insanity Workout Day 23: Basketball Just Isn’t Feeling Like a Day Off
1-27-10: Difficult to get up today was. Quite fascinating. No workout so I should have been able to get to work at a crazy early time. I was exhausted the night before, so I fell asleep at about 7:30. Yet, despite all this, I made it to work at about 9:00 (an hour later than usual since I started Insanity).
Still, once at work and throughout the day, my energy started to build so that I had plenty of juice for the night’s basketball game. This was a good thing because Rich had a rare spot of foul trouble. Weird. I almost never see him in foul trouble. This left me covering the big man for much of the night. After an early dunk over me (yikes), I was able to make things sufficiently difficult for him for just long enough for his teammates to stop looking to make an entry pass (which was a HUGE mistake…top priority should have been to get the ball in the post to this guy every single time down, especially when I was covering him). There was some random double-teaming that helped deny him the ball as well. Definitely a good night of ball. And definitely a good workout. Insanity workout week starts in 10 hours…yikes.
Still, once at work and throughout the day, my energy started to build so that I had plenty of juice for the night’s basketball game. This was a good thing because Rich had a rare spot of foul trouble. Weird. I almost never see him in foul trouble. This left me covering the big man for much of the night. After an early dunk over me (yikes), I was able to make things sufficiently difficult for him for just long enough for his teammates to stop looking to make an entry pass (which was a HUGE mistake…top priority should have been to get the ball in the post to this guy every single time down, especially when I was covering him). There was some random double-teaming that helped deny him the ball as well. Definitely a good night of ball. And definitely a good workout. Insanity workout week starts in 10 hours…yikes.
Insanity Workout Day 22: Plyometrics Magic Tricks Revealed
1-26-10: So, you want to know the real secret behind Plyometrics? You’ve heard me whine and complain, with the possibility of this workout being impossible looming. The trick to successfully completing this workout is simple. Audit it. Don’t participate. Don’t take the test. Just watch the video. Do this, and, while doing nothing for you health wise, you will have beaten the dark and evil sorcerer, Shaun T.
This represents the last workout of the week. The last workout is always the most painful. And…and the first one. Actually, the second, third, and fifth as well. Except for Recovery. Recovery is the worst! But seriously, by this point it is almost easier to push a little harder as there is some sort of proverbial light at the end of the tunnel in the form of this magical day off.
Again, I felt there were some things I did better than usual, and others that I was hoping for more improvement on. The beginning warm-up is definitely getting a little better. However, another interesting observation is that the farther I get in the warm-up and the harder I push, the less energy I have for later in the workout. I must beat this warm-up. I MUST!
This represents the last workout of the week. The last workout is always the most painful. And…and the first one. Actually, the second, third, and fifth as well. Except for Recovery. Recovery is the worst! But seriously, by this point it is almost easier to push a little harder as there is some sort of proverbial light at the end of the tunnel in the form of this magical day off.
Again, I felt there were some things I did better than usual, and others that I was hoping for more improvement on. The beginning warm-up is definitely getting a little better. However, another interesting observation is that the farther I get in the warm-up and the harder I push, the less energy I have for later in the workout. I must beat this warm-up. I MUST!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Insanity Workout Day 21: Not Much Power, Plenty of Mental Resistance
1-25-10: Yikes! This was a rather dismal effort. I think it all started with the warm-up. It always starts with the warm-up doesn’t it? In this case, I was getting myself mentally psyched to make it somewhere within the third iteration before breaking. Shaun T and his Power and Resistance Insanity routine had other ideas in mind. I had forgotten that there is a slight alteration in the warm-up for Power and Resistance. Really, only one exercise got in the way: Power Jacks. Similar to regular jumping jacks, this beast requires dropping into a squat position. While okay by itself, since the next four exercises require some effort from similar muscle sets, the hellish warm-up manages to become worse than hellish. I’m not even sure I know what that means. Oh yeah…and then the warm-up closes with jumping. Still bending the knees, it is essentially a nightmare to close out the warm-up.
(Insert paragraph describing my hate for stretching…see any previous day’s entry that talks about stretching)
The workout was brutal. I am going to hope that by pushing myself harder in the warm-up I had less energy for the actual workout and thus the seemingly “back to square one” type effort I had. Well, that’s not entirely true. Again, I pushed myself hard at every exercise. When it was time to go faster, I pushed myself to go faster. I just took a lot of breaks. Yes…I believe the breaks are my favorite part of every workout. Well, tomorrow is Plyometrics again, so another shot at the warm-up before week 4 starts. Yeeha!
(Insert paragraph describing my hate for stretching…see any previous day’s entry that talks about stretching)
The workout was brutal. I am going to hope that by pushing myself harder in the warm-up I had less energy for the actual workout and thus the seemingly “back to square one” type effort I had. Well, that’s not entirely true. Again, I pushed myself hard at every exercise. When it was time to go faster, I pushed myself to go faster. I just took a lot of breaks. Yes…I believe the breaks are my favorite part of every workout. Well, tomorrow is Plyometrics again, so another shot at the warm-up before week 4 starts. Yeeha!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Insanity Workout Day 20: When I Think Recovery, I Think Searing Pain
1-24-10: Funny how this little Insanity workout has changed my perception of the word “recovery”. Now it is more closely defined as pain and suffering. At some point Shaun T clearly loses his mind and starts to create exercises designed by a madman. He has us do slow motion squats. Not disastrously painful, but can definitely be felt. Then he has this wonderful idea for us to hold the squat position, but since that isn’t painful enough, he also has us try to push our thighs closer together. While in searing burning pain, we are then to start doing pulses, mini-squats I suppose. My capacity to come up with fitting expletives escapes me as all I can think is “Wow! My pain receptors sure are working well today! They are certainly on top of their game…ow.”
On a bright note, while this is still a painful day, I can definitely see improvement in this workout, particularly with my balance. There are a lot of crazy “balance on one leg” type drills in this workout, which were difficult the first few times. In fact, it might have taken half the allotted time just to get into proper position before. Now, the “balance on one leg” exercises were not much of a problem. It feels good when improvement is noticed. Yeeha!
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