Beachbody - Insanity Fit Test (preliminary review)

(Over the next few days I will be watching these videos and taking notes getting familiar with the exercises and movements in this program as I have never really done a program like this. I once attended a cardio kick boxing class, notice the word once As I watch the videos I will post my initial thoughts and then when I begin I will just give my feelings on how I felt at the end of each session and post my fit test numbers here as well. Now onto the review)


WOW... INSANE... I mean really I just watch the fit test for this program. This is what you will be doing every two weeks to see your progress. It is 8 exercises. Many you most likely know if you work out often, though these are kinda slight variations. You do each exercise for 1 minute, with a 1 minute rest. It involves a few minutes of stretching warm up then at the end a few minutes of stretching for cool down. I will be listing the names of the exercises here no real descriptions for them I hope in the future to record one of my fit tests and I will post it for all to see. It did leave me with one question. Something I thought odd about the test but I have a theory already as to why. Keep in mind this is just a fit test.. not the work out. The names are what they are called in the program, So here it is

Switch Kicks, 1 min rest
Power Jacks, 1 min rest
Power Knees*, 1 min rest
Power Jumps, 1 min rest
Globe Jumps, 1 min rest
Suicide Jumps, 1 min rest
Push up Jacks, 2 min rest
Low Plan Obliques, and Done

Now before the last exercise there was a 2 minute rest the people in the video looked pretty wiped by this point.

* I bet you are wondering why I put that. Well it was simple cardio knees but for the fit test you apparently only do them to one side.. I assume this will be your strong side as in the video he said all to lean to the left and they were kneeing with their right leg. now I suspect that since this is just a test that the exercises during hate program will be working both sides, so here you are just testing to one side.

How does Insanity differ from other workouts. Well as you may be aware most other workouts of this type use interval training. You typically go at a moderate pace then push hard for 30 seconds to a minute then slow back down. For Insanity they call in Max Interval training. Where you push hard for most of it then slow down for about 30 seconds to a minute. It so far seems to be a mix of stretch, Plyometrics and traditional cardio exercises with some slight variations.

now I am not sure the exact date I will be starting this program. I have to find a place where the kids will be out of the way but I have access to a TV and room to jump. Not much room in my house for this.

Update.

OK just to give you all an idea of how I am progressing in my workouts... When I first started training in BJJ I was weight in at about 290 pounds, and I would get winded with in a minute or 2 of rolling.
once I started training I started to hit the gym a little bit and things started to get better.
I got down to around 270-275..

Then I started this blog. over the last 2-3 weeks I am walking around at about 264, meaning if I were to compete MMA I would not have to cut weight to reach the 265lbs limit on the Heavyweight class.. Over the next week or two I plan on increasing my gains as I will be changing my diet plan and starting on the Insanity program by Beach body.

I plan on getting a BMI (body mass index) check done at work on Friday and regardless of how ugly the results look I am going to post them so you can all see my progress.. probably some pictures as well so there will be physical evidence of my progress.

Once I start competing I will be posting pics and vids here as I get them as well. I was hoping to compete this weekend in teh state championships, but my instructor advised against it as you all can see I have only made a few training classes in the last 2 months or some. with some good news at work yesterday I am hoping to have a good schedule that will get me more class time.

Physical Training

OK as part of my training as over the next two months I am going to have a hard time making my actual classes do to a new work schedule I am going to take this time to work on the physical condition of my body. Where I work we have a full health club and I am starting on the One Hundred Push-ups program and its 2 sister programs Two Hundred Sit-ups & Two Hundred Squats. I will be attending my BJJ classes on Thursday evenings and Friday mornings before work.

Last night was day one of the aforementioned programs. Now for details of the programs I suggest you check them out as here i will just be telling about the results of the final sets as they are based your max you can do after the first several sets. So for the final set you are trying to push yourself to your max after you have already worked the muscle groups hard.

My inital tests to get my baseline and see where in the program I start I did a few nights ago my base lines were:
Push-ups - 25
Sit-ups - 40
Squats - 63

So here are my results after the first night..

Push-ups- final set min required was 17. I was able to do 17. To be honest the last 3 or 4 I had to go down onto my knees.

Sit-ups - final set min required was 25. I over indexed and hit 76

Squats - final set min required was 27. I maxed out at 50. Since I have a bad knee I may have been able to do a few more but I did not want to take a chance on it going out on me.

So to date on the program here are the total numbers for each exercise

Push-ups total - 97
Sit-ups total - 197
Squat total - 194

Well that's where I stand on that so far.