The Insanity workouts
I have to say upfront that I'm very much a P90x guy at heart but have developed an appreciation for Insanity. I utilize all areas of fitness to stay in the best shape I can - resistance training, cardio, yoga, etc. However, when push comes to shove I consider myself a weight lifter as it's what I love to do.
That being said I've been intrigued by Insanity for a very long time. I had talked to numerous individuals about it, read countless reviews on it, and had considered it for myself for a very long time. This past January I decided to go ahead and purchase it.
Insanity is very much a cardio based workout program with virtually no resistance training. It's a 60 day program designed to shred fat and get you in phenomenal shape in a relatively short period of time. The best way I can describe it is it's Plyometrics from P90x on steroids. 6 days a week!
Insanity Workouts
The Insanity workouts were like no cardio workout I had ever done before which I loved. It was a far better cardio workout than a treadmill and definitely more difficult than plyo and kenpo x from P90x. Insanity utilizes interval training except that it flips it upside down in anotherwards you go hard for 3 - 4 minutes and then are rewarded with a brief, and I mean brief 30 second rest before you go again. It had been a very long time since a cardio workout made me work that hard.
All the Insanity workouts are difficult but I found the max workouts which are scheduled in the last month of Insanity to be in a league of their own. When I finished Max Interval Plyo for the first time I literally laid on the floor grasping for air trying to figure out what I had just done! This is a program that is definitely designed to continue to push you to your max and help achieve results you never thought possible.
Making Insanity Work For You
How does Insanity fit into your fitness regimen? It honestly depends on your goals. I'm going to be brutally honest here Insanity is not for an individual that is severely out of shape. I've been working out consistently day after day for over 2 years and this program let me know I had done something. Myself personally will probably never use Insanity as a stand alone program. It doesn't fit my goals that I have for my body. I want to continue to stay lean and build muscle. I'm far from where I'd like to be in terms of muscular build.
When I first got Insanity I completed 3 weeks of exclusively Insanity workouts. Towards the end I could tell it had already cut in to some of the muscle mass I had built. Here is where I think Insanity fits in….for individuals like me who want to preserve or continue to build muscle then I think it's a great complementary program. Lots of people, including myself, find a P90x/Insanity hybrid to be the best of both worlds. For me I want to continue to have resistance training involved in whatever training regimen I'm utilizing.
However, if you're not as concerned about building muscle and just want to shred fat and get lean as quickly as possible then Insanity by itself is definitely for you. Believe me, 60 days of Insanity will help you achieve that very goal.
The bottomline is I think Insanity has a niche in your fitness regimen no matter what the goals are that you have for your body.