First, I did finish last week off by completing Cardio Core & Balance on days 33 and 34. I have to say I am glad I am done with the recovery week, I fell into a bit of a rut heading into the weekend. I did have the mindset to not push myself during the recovery week and I did just that. Unfortunately, this “dogging it” mindset I had led to a very bad weekend nutrition-wise…and at the time I did not feel guilty about it. My wife even made a comment that I am too extreme one way or the other. She sees me follow a very strict nutrition plan during the work week but then see’s the complete opposite on the weekends. I do hope to figure out the concept of “balance” one day but it’s just the way it is right now…

So, today marked the first day of the second set of “max” insanity workouts. I started the morning off on a bad note, I did not want to exercise so I stayed in bed as long as I could. The schedule called for both the Fit Test and Max Interval Circuit and my original plan was to do both in the morning before getting ready for work but that was also assuming I got out of bed when my alarm clock went off. I did eventually get up and I had time to complete the max interval training workout  so I did that one and saved the fit test for later on tonight. The combination of not wanting to exercise and not knowing this routine made me hesitant to go all out at the beginning so I just kept pace with the video. Towards the end of the routine, I did fall back from the pace of the video but I did not have to take any additional breaks. Although, I no longer take pride finishing a workout without taking additional breaks like I once did. I can easily slow down my pace to finish these workouts without taking any breaks. But if I show burst of 100% effort, my body pretty much shuts down and forces me to take a 5-10 second break. In my opinion, there is no right or wrong way to do insanity….if you feel destroyed at the end, call it a success

On a side note, Nash (see pic above) is also doing insanity and he had this to say about today’s workout…

“Its stupid….I took like 50 breaks..its like it never ends…my heart rate monitor said over 1000 calories burned.  Just finished.

It really is the dumbest workout I have ever done….I was sweating so bad that I had to be careful I didn’t fall cause my floor was soaked.  So stupid.”

My first response to Nash’s email was to laugh but then I thought I might have dogged it today (didn’t think I did) so I am on a mission to feel like Nash after tomorrow’s workout. This will require me to give 100% effort whenever I feel up to it. Thanks Nash (being sarcastic)…and good job, sounds like you had to dig deep to finish!

Dropped 1 pound this week. I will take it though, my workouts have not been intense and my nutrition was pretty bad last weekend. I am about 4.5lbs shy of my goal weight and I haven’t even started the second half of insanity yet. I should have no problem reaching this weight if I continue doing what I am doing…which is being strict on nutrition Monday thru Friday

With that said, the weekend has arrived and I plan on cheating on my nutrition again. I find it to be very hard (borderline painful) to be strict with nutrition on the weekends. Everyone is different but I much rather do extra workouts to compensate for the extra calories….

This morning was the fourth time this week that I completed Cardio Core and Balance…and I still have to do it tomorrow and the following day. I can’t say I am bored with this workout either, which is surprising. I see it as a nice change of pace, almost like a week off. I will be the first one to admit that I am not even close to going all out during this routine so that is probably why I am not complaining about it. I am breathing heavy at times but that is pretty much the extent of it. Being a P90X graduate, the last section of shoulder burns doesn’t really affect me. I do feel it a little but not much…if you have done P90X, you know what I mean.

I added about 20 minutes of the P90X Chest & Back routine on top of my workout this morning. Seeing that I did some back exercises yesterday my focus was more on the push-ups. I definitely did not fight for extra reps on the pull-ups so you can say I dogged that part of it.

I hope to piggyback the Shoulders & Arms (P90X) routine onto tomorrow workout…

Completed Cardio Core and Balance again this morning. I then added 20 minutes (skipped warm-up) of the P90X Back & Bicep routine before shoveling MORE snow.

I feel like this week is the calm before the insanity storm that is about to hit in 5 days…

BRING IT!

I ended up doing Core Cardio & Balance last night and I also completed it this morning. To start, what’s up with the clapping during the football shuffle exercise…I guess Shaun T is trying to make it fun, it felt awkward to me.

Seeing that this is the recovery week, I took Shaun T’s advice and did not go all out. He does claim you can pick up the intensity at times but I decided against it. From what I have heard and read, the second half of insanity is crazy intense so my plan is to not push myself cardio-wise this week. If anything, I am going to treat this week as a cardiovascular recovery week….my goal is to keep the intensity level low during each workout. Now, physically I feel great so I am not going to be shy to mix in a few P90X strength training routines (not the cardio ones).

The intent of this recovery week is to make sure you are ready both physically and mentally for round 2 of insanity. Again, I am fine physically but I could use a week off from pushing my cardiovascular system to the limit…..especially knowing that the last 4 weeks of insanity is going to be hell