Insanity Round 2 Day 50: Back At It Again!

After a few days off of Insanity due to business travel and the weekend, I was back at it again today with Max Interval Circuit. I burned 831 calories, with my heart rate maxing at 165 and averaging 137.

As for the past weekend, I put down 32 bags of mulch as my primary workout, and given the 85 degree temperatures with high humidity, I sweat through about 4 T-shirts that day. I always find it funny when I catch myself keeping my core tight while lifting something, like a big bag of mulch. Shaun T has definitely retrained me!

Have a great week!

Taking 2 days off due to business travel...

I'm in Pittsburgh today and tomorrow, so no Insanity workout or blog until Friday. Have a good week!

Insanity Round 2 Day 44: New Workout Today!

Today I completed an Insanity workout that I've NEVER done before. Long story short, there is a Deluxe version of Insanity (that I didn't order) that includes a few extra workouts. I found out about that after I ordered Insanity so I ended up ordering the bonus DVDs separately. One of the bonus workouts is called Max Interval Sports Training. I did that today. All I can say is WOW!

It was very hard. The structure of the workout was very different from all other Insanity workouts. No warm-up stretch. A lot more breaks. No circuits. Every move was new and different, with most lasting 30 seconds to 2 minutes. But the workouts were far more strenuous and intense. The low plank walks were simply not possible for me. Try it yourself if you don't believe me! Get down on the floor into a plank position as if you were doing a push-up, then lower yourself down and hold, with your elbows back (not out) to really stress your triceps. The only things touching the floor are your hands and toes. No knees. Then try walking your body with your hands and feet to the left or right (right hand and right foot together, then left hand and left foot together). Make sure you try this on a carpeted floor or you may fall flat on your face like I did. I couldn't do it at all! My triceps are simply not strong enough yet, even after almost 2 months of Insanity. Crazy stuff.

Anyway, I still loved it, because it was great doing a bunch of new moves I hadn't seen before. It was like finding a long, lost Insanity workout, and after all these months.

I burned 747 calories in 54 minutes, with my heart rate peaking at 185 (during the sprint "ladders") and averaging 139. The average is low because there are a lot of breaks. It's not non-stop cardio, which I'll admit was a nice change of pace.

I emptied my water bottle and completely soaked through my shirt again!

Insanity Round 2 Day 43: Weekend Rehab!

After taking a couple days off for my band's gig and Father's Day, it was back to reality today. I opted not to follow the schedule exactly this week, and did Max Interval Circuit instead of Max Cardio today. I always burn the most calories with Max Interval Circuit, and after eating at Buffalo Wild Wings (where I ate wings and a bacon cheeseburger) I needed it! But no regrets. Letting loose a bit every weekend is what keeps me going all week. Some people need to go cold turkey. Others need the occasional turkey with gravy. You'll need to determine what works best for you.

I burned 958 calories today, with me heart rate peaking at 175 and averaging 150. I also added some bicep weight training as I did last week. That seems to be working well, as I already can see a bit more definition. It will be helpful going into P90X next month!

And if you're wondering why my shirt looks all one color, it's not because I didn't sweat. It's because I sweat all the way through it!

Have a great week...

Insanity Round 2 Day 39: Sanity Check!

One of the nice things about this not being Round 1 is that I'm free to mix things up a bit. Today, instead of doing the Recovery workout, I tried something I've never done before. I purchased the new "Sanity Check" DVD that is meant for people who are going to start Insanity but may not be quite ready to jump right in. It's a single workout, only 26 minutes long, and it's a bit easier than a typical Month 1 workout. The moves are a bit simplified and less stressful, and there are only two repetitions through each set, instead of three. But still, it was a nice way to do something different and still got my heart rate up. I bought this as a gift for my brother-in-law, Mike, who will be starting Insanity once I complete it in a few weeks.

So today I burned 393 calories, with my heart rate peaking at 172 and averaging 143. Pretty good numbers considering the short duration of the workout (keeping in mind that all workouts include a 10-12 minute warm-up/stretch and 3 minute cool-down stretch.)

I've got a band gig tomorrow, so this will be my last workout this week. The Month 2 workouts are just too hard to do, then having to go off and play drums that evening. My arms are too exhausted, as I learned earlier this week during rehearsal. So I'll get back into this on Sunday or Monday (in case you didn't notice, I started this week's workouts on Tuesday so I'm kind of off the schedule a day or so, but no biggie).

Have a great weekend!

Insanity Round 2 Day 38: Max Cardio!

I completed Max Cardio today, burning 704 calories, with my heart rate peaking at 171 and averaging 145. I did not have time to eat breakfast before my workout today so I definitely had less energy. I also had some soreness for the first time, this time in my upper back, probably from pushing so hard the past 2 days. But hey, this is Month 2 and it's not supposed to be easy!

Regarding breakfast, you may be saying, "There's always time for breakfast", but for me, there isn't. I need to eat 45-60 minutes before I workout or I get a cramp, and to do that I would've had to get up an hour earlier than I did. There are 3 things important to me fitness-wise. They are sleep, working out, and eating right. And it's in that order. Sleep is #1, by far. It's also the one that usually gets the short end of the stick with most people, but without a good night's sleep I'll never have the energy to get through the day, yet alone an Insanity workout. Everyone is different, but I've learned a lot about what I need to do to maintain my energy over the past several months, and sleep is the key for me!

Anyway, have a great rest of the week, and that's for reading my blog today.

 

Insanity Round 2 Day 37: Catching up Since Feb 11, 2013!

Wow! I forgot how crazy this workout is. Max Interval Plyo is a real butt kicker! I continue to incorporate some bicep weight training, and my arms now feel like wet noodles. And of course, I have band practice again tonight, and as a drummer, arms come in handy.

I felt beat up at the end. My body was done, just done, by the end. I burned 903 calories, with my heart rate peaking at 180 and averaging 151. Compared to yesterday, as you can see, the calorie counts are a bit down. This is to be expected because the focus of Plyometrics is less cardio and more explosive strength. Believe me, you still get up there, particularly with the Power Jumps (which are still a beast to do over and over).  But still, I enjoyed the workout. Compared to Round 1, I was able to complete many more moves and at a faster pace. I was hating life after these two workouts last time around, but not so this time. They've been tough, but far more doable than before. That's a good feeling!

Ok, so what's so special about Feb 11, 2013? It's the first date I wore my heart monitor. While I didn't bring it to Asia, and sometimes I opt not to wear it, or forget to wear it, I still found some interesting statistics that I hadn't noticed before. It's been logging the duration, number of sessions, and total calories I've burned since that date almost exactly 4 months ago. So here you go...

Since Feb 11, 2013, for the sessions that I did wear my heart rate monitor I've completed the following:

- 70 hours, 21 minutes and 1 second of workouts
- 75 individual sessions
- 48,571 total calories burned

One of the interesting things I can calculate is, based on the 48,571 calories burned, I can calculate that since 1 pound equals approximately 3000 calories for me, if I divide 48,751 by 3000, I get 16. That means that I've worked off 16 pounds since February, regardless of my diet. In other words, if I ate 48,751 additional calories than I did, I would weigh the same that I weighed then, but I don't. I'm actually down around 30 pounds. This tells my I've lost about 16 pounds from working out, and another 14 pounds from eating right. That may not all be perfect since there are certainly other factors, but it's interesting to think about. So many people say getting fit is a balance between working out and eat right. Turns out they were right!

And yes, I just divulged my weight loss after all this time. I'm down 30 pounds since I started. Sometimes it's 33 pounds, sometimes 27. It fluctuates A LOT throughout the day and on any given day. In general I continue to lose about a pound a week, which is fine by me. Weight loss was never my primary driver (but I'll take it! Ha!)

Til tomorrow!

Insanity Round 2 Day 36: Welcome to Month 2!

After a couple of days off with the extended family in town, I'm back in the Insanity saddle once again. Today marked the beginning of Month 2 of Insanity, and it was as hard as I remember from Round 1. It absolutely kicked my butt today, but I loved it.

I completed the Max Interval Circuit workout today, which was an hour long (50% longer than any workout from Month 1). I burned 1027 calories, with my heart rate peaking at 178 and averaging a whopping 160! From the beginning of the warm-up to the very last move, this workout is HARD! I sweat through my shirt almost completely and drained my water bottle. Still, I think I did better than I ever did in Round 1, and I loved every minute of it. All the moves are a bit different than in Month 1, mostly to make them more difficult, but it's also nice to mix things up a bit. It's great to be in the home stretch. Four more weeks and I'll be done with Insanity and onto P90X!

Have a great week!

Insanity Round 2 Day 33: TGIF!

Today is Friday! I completed Core Cardio & Balance today, but didn't wear my heart rate monitor, so no stats today. If you're wondering what happened to Day 32, I didn't workout yesterday. Instead I mulched some of the landscaping before the rain got too heavy, then had band practice for 2 hours last night. What can I say? That's real life!

Anyway, still feeling great. Down another pound. And the weekend is officially ON!

 

Insanity Round 2 Day 31: Mixing Things Up a Bit!

So today I decided to mix things up a bit. Yes, I completed the Core Cardio & Balance program, but I paused just as the "hip flexor burn" segment started and decided to lift some weights. This is the first time I've incorporated weights since I started getting into shape. I dusted off a pair of 15 pound dumbbells and a 50 pound barbell buried deep in my basement, and did about 10 minutes of bicep, shoulder and upper back work. I've been thinking about this for a while, because there really aren't any bicep exercises in Insanity. I worked up quite a sweat doing 2 sets of about 10 reps of several different lifts. I think I'd like to add this 3 times a week going forward to see if I can tone my biceps a bit over the next 4 weeks. We'll see how it goes!

I didn't pause my heart rate monitor, so my total calories burned was higher than yesterday, given the additional time and energy expelled during my short weight lifting session. I burned a total of 549 calories, with my heart rate peaking at 166 and averaging 129.

I was down another pound from last week when I weighed in this morning, so feeling good. No soreness. Knees and back holding up very well, so onward I go!

Obviously one of my favorite workout shirts!

Insanity Round 2 Day 30: Day 30?!? And This is Recovery??

If you haven't been reading my blog, you may wonder how I went from Day 27 to Day 30 in 1 day. But if you have been reading my blog, you already know, so I won't repeat it yet again.

Regardless, here I am on Day 30 and it's MY first day of Core Cardio & Balance. I remembered this being a much easier workout than it was! It's not really heavy cardio, but the muscle work at the end is really tough. I'm going to be sore tomorrow I suspect, especially my shoulders!

Anyway, I burned 469 calories, with my heart rate peaking at 168 and averaging 132. As you can see, much lower numbers, but they don't reflect the muscle work that the heart rate monitor doesn't pick up. Four more days of this, then a day off, then it's onto Month 2!

Insanity Round 2 Day "27": I Should Be Recovering, But No...

Today is Monday. It should be my first Recovery workout between Month 1 and Month 2, but I didn't complete my Saturday "Day 27" workout. Instead, my wife and I did 4 hours of yard work on Saturday, and another 2 on Sunday. Re-edging landscaping beds in preparation for new mulch, trimming bushes, weeding...all that kind of really fun stuff. We both were sweating like crazy doing all that back-breaking work, so I was in no shape or mood for an Insanity workout after that. I remember back from Round 1 how repetitive the Recovery week was, so I figured a good option would be to complete my last "real" workout today then do the Recovery the rest of the week. So that's what I did!

Anyway, I completed Plyometric Cardio Circuit today. I burned 612 calories, with my heart rate peaking at 173 and averaging 145. I felt really good today. My cardio continues to improve, and it's getting harder and harder to get my hear rate up to 180. My recovery time also continues to improve. It was really gratifying to know I've completed Month 1 yet again, but I'm not looking forward to Month 2. If you've never done Month 2, you may not understand, but if you have, you certainly do. The workouts are 50% longer (60 minutes instead of 40), and the moves themselves are much more intense. But that's still a week away, so I won't worry too much about it today.

Have a great week!