Lifting iron in back street gyms was my way of life. Many years ago fitness and workouts had been the centre of my life. It’s been perhaps ten years since I stepped inside a gym. So with all these fresh starts under my belt, I decided I wanted to sort out my fitness levels as well, get back in decent shape. After working at the same place for eight years I handed in my notice, shipped out and started a new job which got my brain chugging along again, working on business strategies and putting together marketing plans. For the first time in my life I was living in a place that I actually wanted to live, rather than ending up there through chasing a job or some other happenstance. A New StartĮarlier this year, my life started to get back on track. I’ve read somewhere that just 17% of people who begin the Insanity workout program actually complete it. In fact, I haven’t met anyone who made it through the first month.
I still haven’t met anybody in person who actually completed the full 63 day Insanity workout programme. Not many, in my experience! Quite a few people I know through work have had a go at the Insanity workout, but have given up either through injury – mainly knees or ankles – or just found it too severe or too much of a commitment. Instead of working out at maximum intensity for a short period of time and then easing back for a long rest before hitting another quick high intensity peak, it exercises you at maximum intensity for three to five minutes, with a 30 second rest period, then launches you straight back into prolonged high intensity again and again. It uses the maximum interval training method, which flips interval training on its head. If you’re not aware of the Insanity workout, then it’s an at-home ten DVD cardio workout programme from Beachbody that requires you to work out six days a week for around 40 minutes to an hour or so each session. This is an ongoing record of my personal fitness journey, will I make it through to the end? What Is It? I never paid much attention, it looked a bit glossy.
So, I’ve half-seen this Insanity Workout being advertised on shopping channels for a while now, Shaun T shouting for his crew to ‘dig deeper’ and lots of arduous looking exercises taking place to camera, with maximum interval training and nicely shot professional video being the name of the game.