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.

Post from: Build a New You

Insanity: The Asylum

Well, I am happy to say I met my 20lb goal well before summer is over, even with a few weeks with skipped and/or half hearted workouts.  I evaluated where I wanted to go with my future fitness goals and decided to do a round of Power 90 Master Series with a goal of losing another 10lbs or so before doing P90X where I would be working on changing my body composition by dropping my body fat percentage and building more muscle.  I ran this by my Team Beachbody coach and he agreed this was a good plan.  Your coach is a great resource, contact them and put their experience with Beachbody programs to good use.

Power 90 Master Series was developed after both Power 90 and P90X and is meant to make for a smooth transition between the 2 programs.   It uses the ‘Muscle Confusion’ technique from P90X along with the 3 weeks of  intense workouts followed by one recovery week schedule.

There are 2 suggested Master Series schedules, Standard and Lean much like P90X has 3 workout schedules you can follow, depending on your desired results.  This week starts my Power 90 Master Series Lean program.  With the lean program you actually use the disks from Power 90 (during the recovery weeks) along with the 6 new Master Series disks.  There is more variety of workouts than you had with Power 90.

Monday’s workout was Core Cardio.  Just like the title suggests it mixes cardio with core (abs) exercises and incorporates some of the P90X moves or a modified version of them.  The workout starts with a warm up routine to follow along with in contrast to the Power 90 workouts that just had a text message before the workout that you should perform a warm up before exercising.

You start out with Prison Cell Push-ups, as many as you can do in 1 minute, then go on to Side Kicks, alternating 5 on each side.  The next move, the Abranome, is the fist time since starting Power 90 that I could have used more room to work out in as, while on your back, you swing your legs from straight up in the air to all the way to the left side then the right side.  I could not go all the way to the floor due to space limitations.  You end the set with Crescent Quick Switch reverse lunges.

After a short water break you move right into Cockeyed Sphinx Push-ups (ouch, need to work on these).  Run Jacks are up next, think of mixing running in place while your arms do jumping jacks then switching with your legs doing the jacks and your arms running.  It’s the cardio version of rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time.  Then it time for more ab work with Kayak Bike (double ouch), ’cause the normal bicycle wasn’t hard enough for me…..  We end out this set with 30 reps of Lateral Lunge Touch, a side lunge where you reach overhead and touch your hand to the floor on the opposite side.  I fell short of the 30 reps on this one too.   Since these are so much fun you get to repeat them again!

The last set has you starting out with the Dreya Roll Push-up.  You roll backwards on the floor and extend your legs straight up, then roll forward move into plank and do a push-up, stand up and do it again.  Ok,  I’m having a really hard time with the roll thing.  I need to work on coordination and flexibility I guess to be able to do this smoothly and not land hard on my butt when I start the roll.  At least the next move is easy, the Defensive Back Scoot, sort of a side shuffle moving forward and backward.  After that is on your back again for Feet to Fingers Crouch and it’s just like it sounds, bring your legs and arms straight up  and touch your toes.  Time to get your heart rate back up with the Boxer Switch, quickly switching from a right to left to right fighting stance for 30 reps.  But wait, there’s more!  You get to repeat this set again as well.

After a nice cool down you go into a stretching session that adds different stretches than you were using in Power 90.  I still need to work on my hamstrings the most, very tight…

The day after doing this workout my inner thighs are very sore.  I guess the lateral moves are hitting muscles that weren’t getting a lot of work in the Power 90 series.  It’s a good feeling, at least I know I’m moving forward and working more of my body and adapting the new workout.  The muscle confusion at work!

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.

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

Power 90 Master Series - Core Cardio 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.

Post from: Build a New You

Power 90 Master Series Core Cardio Revew

Insanity uses interval training to beat the “stress adaptation response” which normally causes your body to get used to exercise and stop improving.  Interval workouts use sets where you perform at maximum effort then one of lower intensity, then repeat the cycle to achieve a cumulative effect.  Adding high intensity exercise with your heart rate at 80% of maximum forces your body to use fast-twich muscle fibers that are not normaly used in cardio workouts.  These muscle fibers will continue burning fuel even during lower intensity exercise.  With Insanity you will likely be working out at 85% of maximum and as a result you could be burning as much as 1,000 calories per hour!

While Shaun T’s earlier DVD programs Hip Hop Abs and Rockin’ Body were dance based, Insanity uses sports science and high level conditioning techniques to create its body composition changes.

While programs such as P90X and ChaLEAN Extreme focus on weight training to build muscle and burn fat, Insanity uses only the resistance of your own body to crank up your cardio, lower you body fat percentage and sculpt your muscles.  The only gear you need are water, a towel, and you own commitment.

Insanity is geared towards people in top physical shape, extreme athletes, graduates of other Beachbody programs, cardio workout lovers and former scholastic athletes.  It is not recomended for beginners, pregnant woman, obese people, people who aren’t willing to work hard or people who don’t consistently do high-impact exercise.  There are other Beachbody programs that can help to get us ready for Insanity.

Insanity by Shaun T, Beachbody's newest, most extreme DVD workout!

Insanity includes:

10 Insane workouts!

1: Dig Deeper
& Fit Test

To start, Shaun will put your body to the test and see what you’re made of.

2: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Burn fat with intervals of intense lower-body plyo and sweat-inducing cardio.

3: Cardio Power & Resistance

Build lean muscle and upper-body definition with strength-training and power moves.

4: Cardio Recovery

Shaun goes easier on you once a week so you’re ready for the next round.

5: Pure Cardio
& Abs

Skip the intervals—this nonstop cardio workout is all extreme.

6: Cardio Abs

Do explosive intervals of cardio and core moves for rock-hard abs.

7: Core Cardio
& Balance

Take a break after month 1 and gear up for month 2 with this workout.

8: Max Interval Circuit

The interval circuit that’s more intense than anything you’ve ever done before.

9: Max Interval Plyo

Push your legs ’til they beg for mercy with power and plyo, all at your MAX.

10: Max Cardio Conditioning & Abs

Get pushed to your limit with this extreme cardio workout.

Insanity can be purchased here for $119.85 the Deluxe package can be purchased here for $164.70 and the Deluxe Results and Recovery package can be purchased here for $239.70

If you join the Team Beachbody Club you can save 10% on all Beachbody products.

Or sign up to be a Team Beachbody Coach and save 25% on Insanity as well as all Beaqchbody purchases and 50% on all shipping, all while potentially earning money just for getting fit!

You can see a longer video with behind the scenes filming action on my Videos page.

Post from: Build a New You

Beachbody releases Insanity!

The program is broken down into two alternating routines, the ‘Sculpt’ which is a resistance based circuit training workout and the ‘Sweat’, which is a cardio/aerobic/abs workout.  All the exercises are designed to be done at home with a minimum of equipment such as the included resistance bands.  Through the entire program you are reminded to go at your own pace and hit pause when necessary.  You will be better off going slow and completing each workout than pushing yourself too hard and burning out half way through and not finishing all the exercises.

Level 1-2 Sculpt is about 29 minutes.  You start with a stretch based warm up followed by three sets of various resistance based exercises.  These range from several different types of push-ups, upper body resistance band sets of overhead presses, curls, triceps extensions, etc. and lower body workouts such as lunges and squats.

Level 1-2 Sweat lasts around 36 minutes.  After your warm up stretching it’s right into power yoga moves such as upward and downward dog, plank, warrior, etc.  Then you start with 2 rounds of low impact aerobics followed by 2 rounds of higher intensity aerobics then some lateral X, boxing type foot work..  Now that your really starting to sweat its into a few rounds of Kenpo style kicking then a few rounds of punches.  After a few minutes to cool down get comfortable on your back for 10 sets of 10 different crunches.

Halfway through the program or when your comfortable with the workouts you switch to the level 3-4 which ramps things up.  Even though your still told to go at your own pace your subtly reminded that it’s level 3-4 and you should try to “Bring It”. The workouts are a little longer and you are either adding sets, doing harder variations of the exercises or just adding new exercises to target different muscle groups.

Also included are:

• Program Guide
• 90-day calendar
• New Fat Burning Express DVD
• Fat Burner Meal Plan
• 6-Day Fat Burning Express Plan
• Success measurement card and tape measure
• And a Power Sculpting Band FREE!

The program does not use any sort of fad diet or magic pill, just tried and true methods that work such as calorie deficit and resistance training.  If you read the Beachbody web site you will notice it says “Fat Burning” and not “Weight loss”.  There is an important difference, while you want to lose fat you don’t want to lose lean muscle along with it.  That is just what will happen if you only diet without resistance training at least 3 times a week.  It’s not just a DVD exercise program, it’s a way to start a new, healthier lifestyle.

If you have any questions about this or any other Beachbody workout PLEASE use the contact page on the top menu bar to email me, I really do want to help you on your journey.  Beachbody has other DVD workout programs that might be a better fit for you depending on your goals, the style of workout you enjoy  and how fit you are now.  As a Beachbody coach I’m here to help you get the most out of your workout time.  You can pay it forward when its time, there is nothing quite like the feeling you will get when you help someone reach their fitness goals.

You can read more on the Beachbody forums where people post their stories and before & after photos.  Sign up for a free account here.

The cost is $59.85 and it can be purchased here.

If you want to save %10 you can join the Beachbody Club.

If you would rather buy Beachbody products such as Power 90 for 25% off, help others get fit, and even possibly make money while getting fit you can sign up to be a Team Beachbody Coach like I did.

Post from: Build a New You

Review of Power 90 In-Home Boot Camp DVD Workout Program

What made me think of this conversation was a recent article on over training over at T-Nation. I’m not going to repeat everyting in the article but they talk about seeing muscle gain by doing a set to failure (while keeping good form), possiblly two or three sets max, then moving on.

It’s always nice to have another source back up the theory of what your doing.

Post from: Build a New You

You do HOW many sets?

Like many Americans I’ve been putting on a few pounds a year since my mid thirties, so has my wife.  Spring rolls around, beachcat sailing season starts up and everyone jokes about how our wetsuits shrunk over the winter.  We’d chalk it up to getting older and get on with our lives.

Then one day everything changed.  My wife joined a gym….  Well, there was no way she was going to be loosing weight and not me, but I’m not really the gym type.  Then I remembered seeing the P90X infomercial.  I’m usually skeptical of anything advertised on infomercials.  I’ve also been online since 300baud modems and bulletin boards and am fairly good at researching things on the net.  After a few days of looking into P90X I came to two conclusions, I works and it’s not for me.  When you have guys on on bodybuilder forums talking about how intense the workouts are and you have me that got winded walking up a flight of stairs I thought it best to start out with the basics.

It turn out the same company, Beachbody, that puts out P90X also has other workout programs with the same trainer, Tony Horton.  The one I chose was Power 90.  I believe that this was the right path for me to take.  Yesterday finished my seventh week of working out.  I’m down 12 pounds, a total of 15 inches (3 around my waist alone) and went from struggling through 3 pushups to doing 51 yesterday morning.  I’m now confident that once I am through with Power 90 I can take on P90X!

Another good choice for a workout plan leading up to P90X is  Slim in 6.

Don’t wait, pick a plan and start to Buid a New You.

Post from: Build a New You

Why not P90X?

This also works great with vanilla meal replacement or whey shake mix for an iced  french vanilla coffee!  Both are great ways to help Buid a New You!

Post from: Build a New You

Crazy Mocha or just plain Crazy?

I’m a 41 year old Manufacturing Engineer that spends most of my days behind a desk and until starting with Beachbody, spent most nights behind a computer playing online games leveling up little computer generated characters. Now I’m leveling up ME! It takes less time and has real world benefits.

I’m now on level 3-4 of Power 90, still hitting pause a few times during workouts, down 11 lbs in the 7 weeks I’ve been folowing the plan. An added bonus is the lean muscle I’m building as well, much better than some loose weight fast diet plan that looses muscle along with the fat.

Post from: Build a New You

Who am I?