Insanity: The Asylum
What is INSANITY: THE ASYLUM™?
INSANITY: THE ASYLUM is the first in-home sports-specific training program based on drills used by pro athletes. During this intense 30-day program, you’ll practice moving like a football running back, serve aces like a tennis pro, score points like an all-star guard, and more. Your instructor, Shaun T, creator of successful programs like INSANITY® and Hip Hop Abs®, will help you spike your speed, coordination, agility, strength, and power to an elite athlete level.
Why is it effective?
Shaun T built INSANITY: THE ASYLUM on three cross-training cycles. During Cycle 1, he’ll push you to master a series of core sports exercises. Once you’ve gotten those under control, the real fun begins. As you step up to Cycle 2 and Cycle 3, Shaun T challenges you to dig even deeper with more complicated sports moves and progressively tougher drills. This combination pushes you to use more muscles and develop skills that give you a measurable competitive edge.
What makes INSANITY: THE ASYLUM unique?
Elite athletes use proven sports training drills to sharpen their game-day skills and get into astonishing shape. Now with INSANITY: THE ASYLUM, you can too.
With its included Agility Ladder and Speed Rope, you’ll train with more focus, concentration, and skill—just like an elite pro athlete. After 30 days, you’ll get faster, stronger, and more agile than you ever imagined—enabling you to perform any sport or activity with eye-popping speed and skill.
How does it work?
INSANITY: THE ASYLUM combines MAX Interval Training with progressive sports drills to push you to Dig Deeper® than ever. Shaun T will lead you through sports-based exercises that get progressively harder. So you’ll burn calories, build muscle, and unleash your inner world-class athlete. In just 30 days, you’ll be ready to compete, with dramatic, measurable improvements in your athletic ability.
Shaun T is your fitness expert.
Former collegiate track-and-field star Shaun T collaborated with Beachbody® to create INSANITY®, one of the most intense workouts ever put on DVD. Now he’s helped create INSANITY: THE ASYLUM, the first in-home sports-specific training program based on drills used by pro athletes. Commit to working out with Shaun T and you’ll be working to achieve elite athlete status just like him—in just 30 days.
Who is Insanity: The Asylum for?
Insanity: The Asylum is meant for people in top physical shape who want to take their results to the next level, graduates of INSANITY, P90X®, and other advanced fitness programs, athletes and former athletes who want to improve or recapture their performance, no matter their sport or game, people who are tired of traditional cardio and aren’t seeing results anymore, cardio lovers like runners, spinners, or cyclists, and people who want to achieve rapid, dramatic improvement in their fitness.
Who is Insanity: The Asylum NOT for?
Beginners; pregnant women; children; people who aren’t willing to work hard; people with back, neck, joint, or other injuries; or people who don’t consistently do high-impact exercise. I had mentioned in a previous post that Insanity might not be the best program for obese people to start with and that hold true for Insanity: The Asylum as well. If you are obese and looking to start a fitness program you might want to read my previous post here. Some people have commented that they started with Insanity and modified the routines. Just be sure to explore all of your options with Beachbody programs before making your decision and as always feel free to contact me with any questions and I’ll do my best to help.
Workout Review 3/28/11 – 4/3/11 Insanity, Week 3…
Monday (3/28/11) Fit Test – Starting week 3 with the fit test and did better on all but one exercise. I could have pushed harder but gave up too easily so I’m felling a little bad about that.
Tuesday (3/29/11) Plyometric Cardio Circuit – Almost – Yesterday morning I though my allergies were acting up but it kept getting worse all day and definitely wasn’t allergies. I was feeling really bad when I got up but gave it a shot anyway. Made it through the warm-up, almost, called in to work and climbed back into bed for the rest of the day.
Wednesday (3/30/11) Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs – Slept late in the morning but tried to get through the workout at night. It was a struggle but I made it through with some longer than usual mini breaks. We followed it up with Cardio Abs even though I seem to be getting a good ab workout with the other routines. I wish I was getting cramps in my side during EVERY workout, thought that should be getting better by week three…
At least I’m starting to feel better.
Thursday (3/31/11) Cardio Recovery – We are continuing to do the workouts after work this week and this one went smoothly as usual.
Friday (4/1/11) Cardio Power & Resistance – I was a little beat after work today but got in the workout. My butt was dragging through most of it but at least I finished.
Saturday (4/2/11) Plyo Cardio Circuit – Slept late, got up and ate breakfast before working out. Waited a while before starting but I still prefer working out before a meal instead of after. The workout went OK but for the rest of the day I started feeling really bad, just like earlier in the week. I hope I didn’t push things too soon instead of taking more time off for rest.
Sunday (4/3/11) Day Off – spent most of the day in bed or on the coach but feeling better than I did Saturday night.
Workout Review 3/21/11 – 3/27/11 Insanity, Week 2…
So far, so good. One week down and we’re both still alive and willing to go another week.
Monday (3/21/11) Cardio Power and Resistance – Now that I know what to expect I’m able to pace myself a little better. The jumps in this one are tough for me. Seems to really get my heart rate up.
Seems a little strange to open the window at 4:30am with outdoor temps in the low 40s but it feels good. Looks like we’re putting an air conditioning unit in the workout room this summer if we keep doing Insanity once it gets warm.
Tuesday (3/22/11) Pure Cardio – I made it through Shaun’s Insanity ‘Warm Up’ without pausing. I took my first mini break doing the Switch Kicks and by the time I got to the Level 2 Drills they breaks weren’t that mini any more. Fast push-ups during those drills are a killer and I could only make it to the second set of eight.
Wednesday (3/23/11) Plyometric Cardio Circuit – Another warm up without a break but went downhill from there. By the second level of the second circuit I was having a hard time making it past the halfway point of each exercise. Then for some strange reason the computer I use to play the videos in our workout room shut down. It restarted again but it took long enough that I was starting to cool down. All in all not my best effort. I’ll have to push a little harder next time.
Thursday (3/24/11) Cardio Recovery – Since this is a short half hour workout I hit the snooze alarm for another 15 minutes of sleep (to help with recovery, right?). I’m still struggling with staying in some of the deep squats as long as they are in the video so need to work on endurance. Other than that a nice easy morning.
Friday (3/25/11) Cardio Power & Resistance – This one is another leg killer for me showing that I need to work on my legs more especially the Vertical Jumps.
Saturday (3/26/11) Pure Cardio – Spring is here and the weekends are getting buys, but still cold… Didn’t get to the workout until 8:00pm which is a half hour before I’m usually in bed. I was supposed to follow up with Cardio Abs but was ready to call it a night. Kathy waited took this as her off day and did the workouts on Sunday which was probably the smarter thing to do.
Workout Review 3/14/11 – 3/20/11 The Insanity Begins…
Last week we finished a month of Power 90 Master Series. We’re both feeling comfortable with the workouts and think it’s time to move on. The plan was to start P90X this week. Unfortunately Kathy has been having a lot of pain in her right hand due to tendonitis and finally got a cortisone injection in her thumb. Lifting weights and doing pullups are probably not the best idea right now so we decided to start on Insanity instead.
Monday (3/14/11) Fit Test – There were several tests I had to stop before the test was up. At least it was a short test.
Tuesday (3/15/11) Plyometric Cardio Circuit – Wow, it feels like the fist time I did a Power 90 workout and couldn’t make it through a minute of jumping jacks… This is going to be a different experience than P90X.
The warm-up was a killer workout by itself. My heart rate got up to 177 which is a little higher than I’d like so I need to pace myself a little better. We pushed really hard and were totally drenched after the workout.
Wednesday (3/16/11) Cardio Power and Resistance – Took things a little slower today with some breaks during the workout. We both really felt our calves today, guess this workout is hitting things a little differently than Power 90 Master Series did.
Thursday (3/17/11) Cardio Recovery – This was a nice break, especially since both of us were still complaining about our calves. I noticed that Shaun doesn’t really have a calf stretch in the workout so we started working in the downward dog calf stretch that Tony uses in P90X.
Friday (3/18/11) Pure Cardo – This one was a little longer and less of an ramped interval workout. Legs felt better and I kept close tabs on my heart rate, keeping max in the high 160s.
Saturday (3/19/11) Plyometric Cardio Circuit – Repeat of Monday’s workout. Slept in and did the workout late morning instead of our usual time of 4:30am during the week. Not quite as intense with more mini breaks throughout than the first time through, still drenched by the end of the workout.
Sunday (3/20/11) Day Off
Members of congress reveal their own health care plan. P90X!
It seems some members of the government know a good health care plan when they see one. They are not relying on others to care for them but are taking their health into their own hands.
Paul Ryan, Wisconsin’s 1st District Republican representative and former trainer, along with Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Michigan’s 1st congressional district have been leading some other members of congress in daily P90X workouts. Tony Horton has been known to stop by an occasion to work in with them.
“It’s a fantastic workout,” Ryan says of P90X, which stresses the importance of muscle confusion and cross-training. “Bart Stupak and I lead it every morning. There’s about a dozen of us who do it.”
