Insanity work-out

[Tragic meat van guy]

The problem is that the conversation is totally one sided. All you ever hear are people saying "wow, this is great I've never felt better!". You don't hear the swathes of people who say "well I gave up because I was bored/tired/unmotivated" so there's never any rationality around this type of thing.

As you say, I imagine the people that did continue this for 90 days will continue to be involved in fitness. I also think that a very high percentage of those people were already involved or interested in fitness.

Getting people into fitness to buy fitness programs isn't hard, there's always a new flavour of the month. You could argue that the Spartan workout surpassed the popularity in the fitness world of Insanity after the rash of gladiator style films/programs.

Again, the thing that I'm always more arsed about is failure rates after 12 months than how great 7 people felt afterwards and these types of programs seem to have high failure rates based on the handful of surveys done independently.

You'll know yourself, fitness isn't something that you work to achieve in a 90 day program. It's how you live your life; what foods you eat, the amount of activity that you do, etc. The way that they market themselves, they put a number limit on a program that should be theoretically endless; and let's be fair here, the majority of people buying this type of thing are the type who want to get fit initially rather than those who want to reach the next plateau.

These types of programs remind me very much of the "Teach Yourself X in 24 hours" where X is Spanish or Maths or something. You can't learn Maths in 24 hours, it's just not possible to shake all of the bad habits that you have and retain knowledge of the right habits in that timescale.

The lad who is using this to get fit. Shall we have a bet what he looks like in one year, because that's the challenge here? People either drop out and go back to slobbing around or finish their 90 days and gradually become unfit again to where they need to do this regime in a few months.

I dislike any overcomplication or overmarketing of fitness and this is one of those things. All people need to do to get fit is control their calorific intake and start a very simple regime of increased activity. Insanity and P90X and the like are overkill for people wanting to get fit. They market themselves as allowing people who are already fit to get to the next plateau which I have no problem with at all.

It's like when people are addicts. You don't get clean by stopping taking the drugs for a certain amount of time, you get clean by changing your lifestyle.

Totally disagree to be honest. I used to go to the gym 3 times a week and totally flog myself cardio wise and saw very little improvement. I didnt realise it at the time but I was lacking a structure, just doing the same things as hard as I could 3 times a week and after seeing an initial brief improvement, nothing.

i then did this, which gives you a structure to your work out, an idea on improving your diet, and i found extra motivation to stick to your improved diet due to the graft that you put in AND CAN SEE WORKING.
It sounds stupid but most dont consider the idea of a photo diary of your bodyshape before doing this, but when you see it working surprise surprise, you keep at it!

Also its accessable, you do it in your front room, in less than an hour, with no one sneering at you no matter how bad you are when you start out.

Sure, its not the only exercise regime you will ever need but I personally know and also hear on here of so many people who have drastically improved their fitness cos of this and stuck to it.

I personally started this in october 2012 and completed it once. it opened doors for me and I realised what I have been missing before, a plan.

I now lift 3 times a week and my 3 cardio days are a mixture of circuit training, sparring and running about 15 miles a week split between fat burning jogs and hill sprints.
The transformation has been amazing BUT I dont think I would have done it without Insanity.

With regard to people not finishing insanity I'd put it to you that the same people would more than likely not stick with any routine.

Sorry for goin on a bit, I like your posts and have taken some great ideas and inspirations from the general fitness thread but your comments on insanity do come across a little ' Its not what I do so therefore its shite' Which there is more than enough of when it comes to fitness opinions already

 

[Damocles]

The problem is that the conversation is totally one sided. All you ever hear are people saying "wow, this is great I've never felt better!". You don't hear the swathes of people who say "well I gave up because I was bored/tired/unmotivated" so there's never any rationality around this type of thing.

As you say, I imagine the people that did continue this for 90 days will continue to be involved in fitness. I also think that a very high percentage of those people were already involved or interested in fitness.

Getting people into fitness to buy fitness programs isn't hard, there's always a new flavour of the month. You could argue that the Spartan workout surpassed the popularity in the fitness world of Insanity after the rash of gladiator style films/programs.

Again, the thing that I'm always more arsed about is failure rates after 12 months than how great 7 people felt afterwards and these types of programs seem to have high failure rates based on the handful of surveys done independently.

You'll know yourself, fitness isn't something that you work to achieve in a 90 day program. It's how you live your life; what foods you eat, the amount of activity that you do, etc. The way that they market themselves, they put a number limit on a program that should be theoretically endless; and let's be fair here, the majority of people buying this type of thing are the type who want to get fit initially rather than those who want to reach the next plateau.

These types of programs remind me very much of the "Teach Yourself X in 24 hours" where X is Spanish or Maths or something. You can't learn Maths in 24 hours, it's just not possible to shake all of the bad habits that you have and retain knowledge of the right habits in that timescale.

The lad who is using this to get fit. Shall we have a bet what he looks like in one year, because that's the challenge here? People either drop out and go back to slobbing around or finish their 90 days and gradually become unfit again to where they need to do this regime in a few months.

I dislike any overcomplication or overmarketing of fitness and this is one of those things. All people need to do to get fit is control their calorific intake and start a very simple regime of increased activity. Insanity and P90X and the like are overkill for people wanting to get fit. They market themselves as allowing people who are already fit to get to the next plateau which I have no problem with at all.

It's like when people are addicts. You don't get clean by stopping taking the drugs for a certain amount of time, you get clean by changing your lifestyle.

Totally disagree to be honest. I used to go to the gym 3 times a week and totally flog myself cardio wise and saw very little improvement. I didnt realise it at the time but I was lacking a structure, just doing the same things as hard as I could 3 times a week and after seeing an initial brief improvement, nothing.

Then you've missed my point. I was referring to people who aren't interested in fitness specifically and just pick these things up in a "Get Fit in 90 days" type idea which is where it seems most of the Insanity/P90X sales are coming from

Also, you went to a poor gym. Any decent gym should have an instructor or owner who asks the regulars how they are getting on and if they feel they are progressing.

 

[Tragic meat van guy]

Yep, I have missed your point.
What is it?

Also yeah its a council gym and not the greatest, the staff there will advise if you ask them, my point being is I didnt understand the importance of following some sort of programme and didnt seek advice.

In the same way your defending couch to 5k cos it worked for you in the fitness thread, I'm defending insanity cos it worked for me.

 

[Damocles]

I'm defending C25k not because it worked for me (if you notice I never actually talk about ever doing the C25k myself), but because the studies I have read have shown that it has a vastly smaller failure rate than many others to the point whereby the NHS now even recommend it.

This is the important thing and I've posted about it in the other threads. It doesn't matter what's worked for you, that's not how these things work. You are not a general person, neither am I, neither is BlueBoy_1985. Just because something has specifically worked for you means absolutely nothing, what you should be looking to recommend are the things that have been shown to work for the most amount of people statistically.

My point in this thread, to make it even clearer, is that the vast majority of the market that Insanity, P90X, Spartan, etc old are people thinking that they can do this program and become fit and it's just wrong. Fitness is a lifestyle change and not a program.

To become fit, you have to educate yourself on a proper diet and try to separate out the garbage "it worked for me" with the realities. You have to think about your calorific intake, your carbs, proteins, fats and sodium and have some general knowledge on what these things do in your body chemistry. You have to up your activity permanently and learn about correct form in the gym and in whatever exercise you do.

Again, you have to actually read what I'm writing. I have no problem with people using these programs if they are already fit or know about this stuff and are looking to push on, I've used the P90X program myself. My problem is with people who haven't done any of this before and buy this type of thing with the idea that it will make them fit; it won't, it will just put unnecessary and often dangerous stress on the heart (which is why they bang on about it being for already fit people and to check with your Doctor beforehand) and give them very specific dietary requirements that don't fit in people's general lives and will eventually be dropped.

 

[smudgedj]

I'm defending C25k not because it worked for me (if you notice I never actually talk about ever doing the C25k myself), but because the studies I have read have shown that it has a vastly smaller failure rate than many others to the point whereby the NHS now even recommend it.

This is the important thing and I've posted about it in the other threads. It doesn't matter what's worked for you, that's not how these things work. You are not a general person, neither am I, neither is BlueBoy_1985. Just because something has specifically worked for you means absolutely nothing, what you should be looking to recommend are the things that have been shown to work for the most amount of people statistically.

My point in this thread, to make it even clearer, is that the vast majority of the market that Insanity, P90X, Spartan, etc old are people thinking that they can do this program and become fit and it's just wrong. Fitness is a lifestyle change and not a program.

To become fit, you have to educate yourself on a proper diet and try to separate out the garbage "it worked for me" with the realities. You have to think about your calorific intake, your carbs, proteins, fats and sodium and have some general knowledge on what these things do in your body chemistry. You have to up your activity permanently and learn about correct form in the gym and in whatever exercise you do.

Again, you have to actually read what I'm writing. I have no problem with people using these programs if they are already fit or know about this stuff and are looking to push on, I've used the P90X program myself. My problem is with people who haven't done any of this before and buy this type of thing with the idea that it will make them fit; it won't, it will just put unnecessary and often dangerous stress on the heart (which is why they bang on about it being for already fit people and to check with your Doctor beforehand) and give them very specific dietary requirements that don't fit in people's general lives and will eventually be dropped.

So basically what you're advising is to use C25k (which I've never heard off so I've cut away handsomely to google and read about it) then when you've changed your lifestyle and only then consider doing Insanity or P90X.

I think that's good advice.

 

[Blue Smarties]

To be honest, Insanity is a fucking superb workout. Many people find it hard to get into fitness because at first they think people will stare at them in the gym when they lift weak, sweat their arse off or whatever. Truth be told, the reality is that nobody cares. IF people are looking at you, the chances are it's because you're being a knob by either lifting too much and dropping the weights on the floor, leaving the weights on the floor, or quite simply because you have seriously awful form. Insanity allows people to get into some decent shape in the privacy of their own home, meaning that many more will do it because they won't feel like they're being judged.

 

[Thaksinssoldier]

I started this three days ago, although I went straight into the plyometric/cardio 40 minute workout as it was free on the xbox fitness and I didn't realise there were other programs.

I was extremely, ridiculously fit up until beginning of 2006 as I played american football at a decent level. I always used a motivation for my workouts in those days, and that was that when I retired I'd never have to workout again and could eat everything I'd deprived my body of for years.

Well 7 years later and I've well and truly paid for that. I piled on the pounds and am stupidly overweight. What was worse was a trapped nerve in my back meant I could do no workouts whatsoever for the last two years, and one of those I couldn't even get off the couch due to the discomfort. Thankfully, this seems resolved, so I decided I needed to get fit. Here's what I've done so far:

Fucked out my couch. Yep, threw it out. Now the seat we have isn't as "slouchy" so it means we're up and active in the house a bit more.
Cut out the chocolate and coke. I've been off drink over a year and saw no difference. But cutting this crap out has made a huge difference.

Finally prepped to do a workout, I figured I'd go balls to the wall and give Insanity a go. Again, these were all on the same workout as it's the one free with xbox fitness, which is awesome btw. Here's how I've fared in just 3 days:

Day 1: I lasted 5.13 into the workout and collapsed in a heap. Thought I was going to need an ambulance. Both legs weren't working an hour afterwards. No breath.

Day 2: I last 8.27 into it. Breath was better but my left leg just gave up on me even though I could have pushed for another minute or two. Was stiff in my left leg until next morning, but rest of body felt okay.

Day 3: Big change. Up to 22.08. Breath was much better, again my left leg gave up on me. I felt I'd another 5 minutes in me other than the strength going. Within an hour or so, I was feeling tired but okay.

Day 4: Bring it on.

I've downloaded the full insanity program and will start it properly from Mon. I think this program really works with anyone who considers themselves to be competitive, as you are pushing against yourself in a really aggressive way. If I can get this unfit and feel a huge difference in just 3 days, well anyone can do it.

 

[Damocles]

The first few weeks are fine as you have the initial motivation to keep you going. People posting about day 64 are the ones that are the more interesting (and significantly fewer) posters.

So basically what you're advising is to use C25k (which I've never heard off so I've cut away handsomely to google and read about it) then when you've changed your lifestyle and only then consider doing Insanity or P90X.

I think that's good advice.

Pretty much yeah. Insanity and the like are considered extreme workouts for physically fit people for a good reason. Using them as a starting point is like teaching people Calculus before they can count

 

[Thaksinssoldier]

Managed 30.08 into insanitys plyo/cardio last night.Thats up from 5.13 in just 4 days.already seeing a huge change in my tone,it's already tightening the gut.starting the 60 day proper tomorrow.

Cannot recommend this enough.

 

[poyntonblue]

I've finished insanity to the point I'm going on holiday in a couple of days. Really noticed a difference, definition in arms, shoulders, and I've reduced waist size by a few inches.

Had a nosey at the asylum. Shit that looks ridiculous! I might have to have a stab when I get back!

Asylum is the best workout. I would however recommend Gamma T25 workouts to prepare for it, as otherwise the workout with the weights will be a complete shock. Also, the Speed workouts in T25 more than prepare you for the agility part of Asylum.

Cheers Col. I've been in Florida and T25 is all over the tv. I'll have a stab at that. Could do with downloading it rather than buying though.