Insanity & insanity

Okay, much awaited & finally here is my review of week 1 of Shaun T's Insanity program. Well, I won't sugar coat it. It was BRUTAL! Lots of jumping, plyos, planks, speed work, football & basketball drills. But the good part was a lot of stretching! The only soreness I felt was my calves & I attribute that to the running in place, butt kicks, high knees & other similar drills. They feel better today & so far no issues.

Week 1 (these rotate for a full month)

Plyometric Cardio Circuit. Burn fat with intervals of intense lower-body plyometrics and sweat-inducing cardio. (40 min.)

Cardio Power & Resistance. Build lean muscle and upper-body definition with strength-training and power moves. (40 min.)

Cardio Recovery & Max Recovery. Shaun goes easier on you once a week so you’ll be ready for the next round. (80 min.)

Pure Cardio & Abs. Nonstop, extreme cardio workout. (40 min.)

Week 2-4 (all of the above plus)

Cardio Abs. Do explosive intervals of cardio and core moves for rock-hard abs. (20 min.)

Again, totally brutal but a great challenge & the addition of the stretching that I fail to incorporate into my program. I did a bit of foam rolling this past week help with the calf tightness & it seems to help. I also moved to the tile area of our basement for some of the moves rather than doing them on the carpeted area.

So that's Insanity. Now onto the insanity. The hard part of the first week was being excited to see a scale drop since I'd worked SO hard (I also kept my Savage weight training in there too! So Saturday morning, I hop on the scale & see that it's UP! I was ticked but trudged about with my workout for that day anyway. I killed it & remembered to dig out my HR monitor to start tracking those workouts that way. I don't get caught up in the numbers but want to make sure that I'm working as hard as I could be.

Anyway, it's up. Not happy of course but google "weight gain on Insanity." Sure enough most people experience that. Now, I don't know if they are people who'd not worked out before but Insanity is not recommended for novices so I assume they are like me. I've eaten REALLY well for quite a while with the exception of a really good meal once a week & this week was no different inspite of the "gain." Yesterday, I took a MUCH needed rest day but was back to eating well, healthfully or whatever you want to call it. Made mistake of getting on the scale again today & was just ticked. I actually started sobbing during my workout (Insanity) & had to have a "come to Jesus" with myself.

I came up from my workout & hubby had just returned from the gym (he wanted to do some weights) but I said nothing & jumped in the shower. He later came to check on my & I asked him to move the scale. Not just that but hide it. It CANNOT define me & while I've been really good about ignoring it, clearly I'm not able to do that right now.

For the record, I see GREAT changes in the mirror, much better shoulder definition, clothes still fitting well, etc. I am built like my father & unlike many women can build muscle fairly easily. I'm not saying I gained tons of muscle last week but what I am saying is that if my body was primed & ready for it, it'll happen. So in the meantime, the scale goes away. I will find my measuring tape tonight (should have done that a week ago) & go from there.

Yes, I sound like a loon at the moment but I'm in a much better frame of mind than I was this morning. Sometimes I guess you just need to have a breakdown to be able to move forward!!!!!