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.

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Insanity: The Asylum

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.

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Workout Review 3/28/11 – 4/3/11 Insanity, Week 3…

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

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Workout Review 3/14/11 – 3/20/11 The Insanity Begins…

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.”

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Members of congress reveal their own health care plan. P90X!

As the title of the DVD suggests this workout uses interval training, bursts of high intensity work mixed with rest or lower intensity effort.  During the high intensity periods your body works in an anaerobic state, using glycogen stores for short bursts of energy and producing lactic acid giving you that  ‘burn’ that lets you know your really working.  During the low intensity periods your back in an aerobic state, converting stored fat into energy, getting oxygen back to the muscles and breaking down the lactic acid.  With both aerobic and anaerobic systems getting a workout it’s the best of both worlds.

Each of the calisthenic type  exercise is done for one minute.  The first 20 seconds are low effort and allows your heart rate to come down a little from the previous exercise.  The next 20 seconds you ramp up the effort a little, either by bigger movements, faster execution, getting plyo, or a combination of these.  For the last 20 seconds you can give it all you’ve got!  Go ahead, push yourself and go for the burn, you’ll get to back it down after just 20 seconds.

Like most of the Master Series workouts you start with a low intensity warmup followed by a series of stretches.  Then you start with the intervals.  Are you wearing your wearing your heart monitor?

First up is your basic running in place, nice and easy for the first 20 seconds, then pick up the pace and lift you legs a little higher for the next 20 seconds, and finally get those knees up for all out running for the last 20 seconds.

Next up are the Mary Katherine Lunges (superstar…) and you progress from reverse stepping lunges to plyo reverse lunges over the course of a minute.  This is when I learned to not stand under the ceiling fan while doing plyo exercises (duh).

The same progressing for Squat Kicks, easy at first, not going too low or kicking too high while you recover a little, then get lower and kick higher, then the last 20 seconds go low and kick high while the heart rate climbs, breathing gets heavier and legs start burning.

How about some nice easy Tires, lightly hopping from one to the next.  Heart rate is down a few points so pick it up a little more for the next 20 seconds.  Now get them knees up there for the last 20 seconds, it’s Tires On Fire!

Squat Run time, get in a fighters stance, not to low to start off with and do the upper body running motion (think of dancing the twist).  If you have light weighs feel free to swing them as well to give you a more intense workout on this one.  The insert weights from my PowerBlock Sport 9.0 set are 2.5lbs each and fit nicely in my hands for this.  After 20 seconds, switch legs, get a little lower and pick up the pace.  For the last 20 seconds switch legs again, get real low and really crank the arms.

Short water break!  Finally….

Now do them all again!

Now for a different set.  Start out with Tony Horton’s own Wacky Jacks.  Start out slow and steady then for the second 20 seconds you do a larger, exaggerated motion but still at a slow pace.  To ramp up the intensity you do the larger movements at a faster pace.

Plank walks sound easy enough, get in a plank position and bring each leg up to your chest in a walking motion.   Next up is a faster run instead of a walk.  If you can, for the intense part, get low in the bottom of a push up (Chaturanga) and do the run motion.  I had to pass on that and just kept up with the run in plank for the last 20 seconds.   Sure it’s cardio but after holding plank like this for a minute you might feel it in your abs as well.

With the Run Stance Squats you do just that, get in a run stance and squat down.  First touch your ankle for the easy one, then your toe, then to get low touch the floor in front of your foot.

Eagan Brothers puts your on the ski slopes doing a slalom type movement, first with a step-touch and progressing up to hopping back and forth.

Horton Head Hammer is another of those great Tony moves.  First from an easy wide legged squat you jump and pivot around to face the rear, then back again to the front.  Keep repeating this for 20 seconds then add a reach to the ceiling, touch the floor then the pivot.  For the last 20 seconds get plyo and jump for the reach, touch the floor and pivot.

Whew, another water break.  Repeat them again if you can.

As always, Tony gives you ways to modify each move so you can adapt it to your level.  He even suggests that for the first time through you might want to skip the second round of each series.

If your looking for more information on this or any other Beachbody program you can sign up for a free Team Beachbody account here and check out the forums for other peoples experiences and success stories.

Cardio Intervals can be purchased as a single workout DVD here for $19.95

Power 90 Master Series – Cardio Intervals DVD

or as part of the complete Power 90 Master Series program here for $59.85

Power 90 Master Series

As always if you sign up for the Team Beachbody Club you would save 10% of the cost of any Beachbody products.

For the best deal you could sign up to be a Team Beachbody Coach and save 25% on all Beachbody purchases and 50% on all shipping, all while potentially earning money just for getting fit!

If you have any questions I can answer about any Beachbody programs like Power 90 Master Series, Tony Horton One on One, Ten Minute Trainer, Slim in 6, Hip Hop Abs, Rockin’ Body,  any of the supplements or their Club or Coaching programs please email me with the form on the ‘Contact‘ page on the top menu bar.

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Power 90 Master Series Cardio Intervals DVD Review