Insanity: Tips & Adivice

As Shaun T. says, dig deeper! Don't give up and don't worry about keeping up with the cast. Form is more important than speed. Trust me, you will get stronger if you keep at it. The FitTests will help you gauge this every so often. Best of luck!

Keep Pressing Play (KPP)

Stick with it, don't give up, don't miss a day! If you can't do all exercises, modify a bit. Take longer breaks if you need to. Track your progress with the fitness test. Don't skip the warm-up - as they say, insanity's warm-up alone is others' total exercise

Dig deeper! Keep pressing play! Believe in yourself.

I lost incredible inches on insanity! YOU CAN DO IT, TOO!

Keep Pressing Play (KPP)

This is very true....There were days when I would be complaining and whining about doing it, but I still hit play. I swore that I would not do the moves,lol, but I always did. Shawn T. is a great motivator.

Also in your first week, you will be super dooper sore.Don't be afraid of this, it happens to a lot of people, once you are done with the warm-up, you will feel better.

One other thing, for example, there is one move that shows up on almost all of the videos. The first time I did it, I knew my back would not be able to handle it, so I modified it. 3 months from starting I can now do that move and it doesn't hurt me. So try not to injure yourself!

First off, well done for doing Insanity, it's a great program because it has a bit of everything and really improves cardiovascular fitness and lean muscle if you really commit to the program and lifestyle. Month 2 is a lot harder (and more satisfying after a complete workout!) than Month 1. The workouts are longer, the warm up is harder and the moves are different so you don't keep doing the same thing over and over.

Second, what you eat is absolutely critical to your success. Follow the nutrition guide as best as you can. You don't have to eat the exact meals. Just make sure your diet is 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% healthy fats. That's the main rule of the nutrition guide. Eat every 2-3 hours and eat enough! How many calories are you eating and how old are you? I would say eat at about 1800-2300 calories (use myfitnesspal.com and enter your details to get a good number).

Your nutrition needs to be good too. You need to eat something about every 3 hours to keep your metabolism going all day. Make sure you eat something in between breakfast, lunch and dinner such as a snack of fruits, nuts or low fat cheese. Ideally you should be eating something every 3-4 hours to keep your metabolism going constantly. Eat fruits, vegetables, wholemeal/wheat/grain/pulses, lean protein, and healthy fats. Healthy fats are key to weight loss and fitness: soya, seeds and nuts, oily fish, avocados, flaxseeds, extra virgin olive oil etc. You need these in your body. Don't start crying when you are in the middle of the program and wonder "Why am I not seeing good results?"

Also, take pictures so you can track your progress, it's the best way to judge how hard you trained and how good your diet was. The only downside to Insanity, for me, is the lack of upper body weight training (using actual weights) - unless you have the Deluxe version with the weights video. Yes, you're doing a ton of push ups and using your own weight, but getting fully toned around the entire body (especially the abs!) is also about lifting weights (or using bands). You need to combine cardio and weight training to help build lean muscle and lose fat. Weight training isn’t just for people who want to gain muscle mass, it needs to be incorporated into a training program for the best results. Running 5-7 days a week just isn't enough. Doing weights burns a TON of calories, and by lifting weights, you'll become stronger and be able to push harder in Insanity. So if you have the deluxe version with the weights video, give it a try. Or move to P90X or a P90X and Insanity hybrid after you finished. This is what I am doing after doing Insanity and am noticing better results with P90X and my diet is 100x better now because I use myfitnesspal.com to track my progress.

Also, remember that it's not really a 60 or 63 day program. It's the rest of your life. You can't go back to eating crap and not exercising once you finished. What's the point of doing Insanity? Only choose foods from the top 3 tiers of this guide (http://www.teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/michis-ladder) and workout 5-7 days a week doing a variety of workouts: cardio and upper body training.

Stay away from coke, pepsi, diet coke/pepsi, chocolate, crisps, doughnuts and takeways eg fish and chips, pizza, Chinese, McDonalds, Burger King etc because this is all poison to your body. The same for alcohol and cigarettes.

Good luck.

I'm going to start on Monday as well. I'm so nervous. Eke!


I should also mention that I can't even do a proper push-up. Yeah.... I'm screwed. :ohwell:

I'm on day 14 and I love it. I've seen in a difference in weight loss and inches lost. Don't get discouraged and just keep doing it. I'll be taking my two weeks progress pics today. MFP really helps me stay on track with Insanity.

Since it looks like there are a few of us starting the program tomorrow, shall we form a group tp keep track, post progress reports, and motivate others? If you like this idea let me know and I will set us up.

I started insanity today (Sunday) because I want my rest days to be Saturday instead of Sunday. Anyway I did the fit test last night and was cussing out Shaun T lol.
It was more like me saying " you gotta be kidding me! I can't do a minute of push up jacks after I did a minute of suicide jumps lol.
Like everyone else said take it at your own pace, don't be disappointed if you can't keep up, eventually you will be able to keep up if you keep trying and pushing your limits everyday.
Good luck. See you at the 60 days mark

Under Message Boards » Fitness and Exercise >> TOPIC: Insanity Challenge there is a thread where new Insanity users are posting their progress. I think this is a good location for us "newbies" to keep each other motivated and updated.