Insanity Review

First day/last day   

Yesterday, I finished Insanity - a 60-day workout system designed by Shaun T. and sold by Beachbody.

We bought our copy through Amazon. The Base Kit includes the DVDs, a nutrition booklet, a calendar and quite a few marketing materials for Shakeology, diet pills, etc.


Results
Let's do this part upfront. Maybe it'll motivate you to keep reading. I lost 15lbs. (I was not fat, just a little bigger than I was used to being.) And almost all my clothes are big on me now. I feel good. I sleep better. My skin looks good. My stomach is flatter, my arms don't squish as much and my thighs aren't bulging. And surprisingly, I want to keep exercising.


A quick assessment on a few points:

Price
$144 may seem like a lot of money for an exercise DVD set. But I've joined gyms and worked with personal trainers. $144 is a drop in the bucket compared to those costs. In fact, one session with a trainer is almost that much. And since my husband and I did this together, it was even more worth it.


Nutrition Booklet
Except for some vary basic calorie calculations (which you can find online), the booklet is pretty useless. It has a few recipes, but you can find those on the Beachbody website. It's not enough recipes to get you through, in my opinion. I've been collecting low-calorie recipes on Pinterest to supplement(/completely take the place of) this booklet.

IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT WITH INSANITY, YOU HAVE TO DIET. You need to count those calories and have a ton of willpower. I cut soda, candy, desserts, caffeine and almost all booze. (Of those things, I hope to keep staying away from soda and caffeine. Everything else will be seriously moderated. I hope.) I ate about 1500 calories a day and tried to cut back on non-exercise days. You can likely eat more than 1500 calories and lose weight a little slower than I did, especially on off days.


Calendar
The calendar is super great. We stuck ours on the fridge. It tells you which exercises to do and when. You can check them off, follow along, write all over it, etc. It feels so good to check them off. Insanity is SIX DAYS A WEEK. I want to make sure you know that. I'll talk about the calendar a little more later, but the basic point is: use this as a guide. Not a bible.


Shaun T.
I don't think you can get through this exercise without liking the guy. He's super positive. Cute, but not intimidating. Friendly. Encouraging. He's kind of a hot mess when he tries to talk and exercise at the same time, saying the wrong body part or switching around exercises, but you get past that very easily. His catch phrase (or Insanity's catch phrase) is "dig deep."

Now the review:

I don't think I could ever recommend Insanity to anyone. (Keep reading.) It is hard. I mean, it is miserable. I cried on the floor for about thirty minutes after one session. I screamed, I cussed. There are no exercise modifications to make it easier. You are right up there with the big boys, whether or not you can handle it. In the cardio videos, there are hardly any breaks. You will sweat. You will hurt. And Shaun T. will keep telling you to dig deep, even after you are basically broken.

I had no idea what I was getting into. I never saw the infomercial. My friend, Amy, lost a bunch of weight and looked amazing. I asked her what she did and she told me Insanity and T25 (another Shaun T. exercise program.) So then I just bought it. I read some online reviews later, as a survival mechanism. I probably should have read them before.

Dude, I'm not going to watch this. I've lived through it. But here it is for you.

I was not very "in shape." Some of the exercises were impossible for me. Still are. Especially the pushups. You kind of learn how to modify them for yourself - stay in plank position, do lady pushups, do half-pushups, fall face-first on the floor... The exercises made my knees ache. I had to take days off to recover. This program is total hell on your knees. So. Many. Jumps.

The first day of Insanity is the Fit Test. If your willpower lasts beyond that, you're doing well. It is grueling and awful and you will suck at it. You basically record how many reps you can do of each of these exercises in one minute. You will hate Tania, by the way. She's so damn smiley. WHY IS SHE SMILING? (Later, I read some online stories about Tania and I grew to like her. She's a machine and quite a powerful lady.) You're supposed to take the fit test again and again as you go through Insanity, recording your improving results.

The first month of Insanity, the exercises are about 30-40 minutes long. The warm up will wear you out. I repeat: Go easy during the warm up or you will never make it.

This slightly-over-the-top saying is not messing around.

The exercises are hard. The cardio one is the shortest (besides the ab exercise, which on the calendar, the abs exercise is an add-on to another exercise in the same night) and also the absolute worst. No breaks after the stretching. Just hardcore endurance shit. And the "recovery" days are nice, but they're still work.

After the first four weeks, you have a week called "Recovery Week." Again, these exercises aren't easy. It's the same DVD for six days. There's something at the end of the workout called burners. The name is accurate and they made me very unhappy. (I plan to do Recovery Week again now that I'm done with the second month, before I move on to T25.)

At this point, you are pretty much dreading the next month. Max? MAX? That does not sound good. Especially since the first month IS STILL HARD! It hasn't gotten any easier. I don't even understand it. It's like you never get used to it. But my husband and I decided to push on. Do our best. And we delved into the second month.

Holy. Balls. Things got worse. The exercises in the second month are a little over 45 minutes to just under an hour. You really feel insane at this point. There were definitely times where I was exercising and thought, "This is crazy. Why am I doing this? I quit. I should quit." And then I'd just keep going. Cardio, again, is the worst and shortest. It breaks you. Makes you feel inadequate and like a total failure. But here's the good thing - it's really all A-for-effort. You're going to lose weight and get fitter even if you can't do every single exercise. Even if you stay in child's pose for 20% of the exercise.

As I said earlier, I can't recommend Insanity to anyone. Because if you don't want it, you're not going to make it through. But it you have the willpower and the desire - if you are damn determined - you can do this and it will be worth it.

It helped me to post on Facebook about my trials and progress. People there encouraged me. You don't have to follow the calendar exactly. If you need a day off, take a day off. If your knees are aching, don't overdo it. If you need to do cardio one day and abs the next, do it that way. Shaun cannot see you. And I know it feels like you're disappointing him, but you have to do it your way.

Only weigh in once a week. And have patience. I think I read somewhere that the more muscles you have, the more calories you burn. At first, you're building those muscles. Then the numbers will fall.

It also helped to have my husband there, suffering with me. I highly suggest getting a workout buddy to feel your pain.

T25, here we come! Hopefully I'll review that one day too.