My Insanity Experience

I am calling this post my Insanity experience because I refuse to say journey, journey is far to overused by reality show wannabes. Anyway it's more of a blog I guess and my thoughts on the programme.

I started at 132lbs and finished at 125lbs so lost 7lbs in total. Which I think is a respectable loss given my starting weight. I have been losing weight for almost 4 years and have been battling a hamstring injury for the past 18 months and forced me to give up running - otherwise I'm convinced I'd be maintaining by now. Anyway after a break from cardio I worked my way up to Insanity via 30 Day Shred and sort of ignored my injury and seemed to be getting away with it. I also joined a gym with a friend who was just starting a healthy lifestyle so I could encourage her and decided to start Insanity a couple of weeks after that. Because I was going to the gym I was only doing 4 workouts a week and using the gym as my recovery days as they were no where near as intense. Then Christmas happened and I lost some of the results I had achieved, soon after my friend quit the gym and I realised I had an opportunity to start from the beginning and follow the programme properly so that is what I did.

In month 1 I lost 1lb a week consistently (including recovery week) then in month two things started to slow down on the scale which was a bit disappointing as I had read a lot of posts of people who lost no weight in month 1 then had amazing results in month 2. I guess I was building muscle or retaining water because my muscles were working so hard to recover and I was still seeing results in the mirror. I started drinking more water and sticking more religiously to my macros/cals on weekends - the one time I had a tendency to be really naughty - I had two weeks of no weight lost and then in the 3rd week lost 2.5lbs! Which seemed a bit of a ridiculous loss for someone of my size but I was very happy with that. This week I stayed the same.

Month 1 workouts I really enjoyed - max plyo was my fav although I hated the warmup. Recovery week is good but a bit boring after 6 days worth. Month 2 is quite insane lol having to do the fit test and max interval on the first day is an absolute killer! But Max Interval remains my fav. Had issues with Max Plyo in that some of the moves were soooo challenging that I struggled to do them properly - I could never get the hang of squat push-ups - I swear I wasn't doing them right because they didn't hurt enough!! So I kind of felt like I was missing out on that one, I tried to learn the moves but whilst I was doing that my heart rate was dropping so that one won't be making it into my permanent collection! Like most people I've spoken to I hated Max Recovery - way too long that one. During the penultimate week I really hit a wall, everything ached and mentally I started to struggle to find the will to push myself but I pushed through it and it felt amazing to be able to do so.

The fit tests were a bone of contention for me because over the first three I didn't see any dramatic improvements and I couldn't understand why I wasn't getting better - I kind of felt like my body was tired from working out as much so when it came to fit test days I was just too tired. But the forth test after two weeks on month 2 was a lot better. Unfortunately I won't be completing the final fit test as I have been experiencing pain my hip flexor which I think may be an extention of my hamstring injury putting the hip under extra strain. It caused me to miss a workout this week already and I can feel myself holding back the past couple of days because I can feel the niggling pain and I am afraid of making it worse. I don't feel there is any point in completing the final fit test if I cannot give it my all as the results won't be a true reflection of my improvement.

For anyone considering Insanity I would say it is very worth while and you will see results - but you get out what you put it and it IS hard, you have to be prepared to push yourself. Month 2 can be time consuming. I struggled to maintain a good social life and get my workouts in. Be as good as you can with what you eat otherwise there is no point in putting yourself through it. There will be days when you can't imagine finishing but take it one workout at a time and you CAN do it!
I was slightly sucked in by the marketing and had ideas before hand that I would emerge with a six pack beach ready body - that's not the case but I am much closer to my goal now. I think you have to do a couple rounds at least to see these kind of results.

Next I am going to work on sorting my injury out once and for all with the hope of getting back into running. Which unfortunately means I probably won't being getting much cardio in for a while but I going to explore strength training and work on my 'problem areas' which are abs, arms and back. It will be hard without cardio to burn fat but let's see how it goes.

I am absolutely gutting not to be able to complete the last couple days of the programme - this isn't how I imagined ending but I am still very proud of myself for pressing play every day and will be sending off for my t-shirt because I think I've earned it.

My fit tests went as follows;
Switch Kicks 31, 33, 33, 39.
Power Jacks 46, 49, 50, 55.
Power Knees 100, 99, 96, 108
Power Jumps 32, 36, 37, 45
Globe Jumps 8, 9, 9, 11
Suicide Jumps 14, 18, 18, 19
Push Up Jacks 14, 24, 23, 25
Low Plank Oblique 52, 49, 48, 67

I stupidly didn't take any measurements before I started and do have some photos to upload when I get onto a PC. I may regret putting them on the internet because I am wearing Gizmo boy pants in the first one!

This turned into a bit of an essay - sorry about that, more of a thing of getting my own thoughts in order. Thanks for reading if you got this far.