I can do it from the comfort of my own home (as thereвЂ™s no equipment involved), in enough time to get it done before work which means my evenings are free. Insanity is just super convenient, plain and simple. ItвЂ™s no secret that improving core strength can have an amazing effect on pretty much any physical exercise you do, from other strength training and conditioning to steady state cardio like running. His words of encouragement and light yet no-nonsense style definitely makes you want to вЂњdig deeperвЂќ every time.ДЄlthough Insanity is largely cardio based, the majority of strength exercises included are targeted towards your core. The workouts are only about 40-45 minutes long but the max intervals along with a fierce combination of fast-paced cardio, plyometrics and body weight exercises has me collapsed on the floor every time.ДЄside from the fact that heвЂ™s adorable (extremely ripped version of Will Smith anyone?) HeвЂ™s extremely motivational and is not at all condescending (IвЂ™m looking at you, Jillian Michaels). ItвЂ™s the first DVD workout IвЂ™ve tried that I can say is just as effective and sweat inducing as an hourlong session at the gym. IвЂ™m happy to report that I am now on day on day 28 (a rest day) and am officially DONE with month 1! HereвЂ™s a quick run down of why IвЂ™m loving it so far: The good news is that by the end of week 1, I realised that although the program was very aptly named, I wanted to keep going and try to see it through for at least a month. I appreciated the challenge, but it seriously kicked my butt and I thought about throwing the towel in several times. The bad news is the first week was horrendous.

I was in so much pain by the second day even just sitting down hurt! The workouts were extremely challenging and unlike anything I had ever done before. Sure enough, I tried the first couple of days out and it, was, brutal. So in a manner of sorts, trying it out, even if only for a week, was sort of a personal challenge.

Even with what I thought was a fairly decent fitness level, I was worried I wouldnвЂ™t be able to stomach it having not kept up a decent running schedule in so long. IвЂ™m not going to lie, a part of me was extremely intimidated by the Insanity program at first. Every two weeks you complete a fit test to gauge your progress, which consists of completing as many reps as possible in one minute of a set of given exercises. After that comes a recovery week where you repeat the same workout every day (one that is supposedly lower impact and more focused on core strength) and then comes month 2 which brings with it 4 new workouts, all of which are longer, harder and evidently far more intense than the first month. For month 1, you rotate the first four which are anywhere from 35-40 minutes long and workout 6 days a week. Just to clarify for anyone whoвЂ™s unfamiliar with the program, Insanity consists of 10 workouts in total. The worst that can happen is IвЂ™ll hate it, I thought, and IвЂ™ll just move on to something else. After doing a little more research and reading through some pretty glowing testimonials and reviews I decided to give it a shot, for at least a week.

I watched one of the workouts and was absolutely floored at how intense it looked, almost immediately I thought it wouldnвЂ™t be my kind of thing, despite the fact that IвЂ™ve long been a fan of HIIT training. Each INSANITY workout keeps you constantly challenged as you alternate between aerobic and anaerobic intervals performed at your MAX. You perform long bursts of maximum-intensity exercises with short periods of rest. As Shaun T, fitness guru and the mastermind behind Insanity explains: I of course did my research and was instantly intrigued by the idea of max interval training as opposed to traditional HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). At the time I was growing a little bored of my gym routine and was frustrated with the fact that my running shoes hadnвЂ™t seen anything but a treadmill in far too long on account of the вЂњtropicalвЂќ weather outside, so I decided to check it out. If you follow me on instagram, youвЂ™ll know that for the past month or so I have been doing the infamous Beachbody 60-day total body conditioning program touted as вЂњthe hardest fitness program ever put on DVDвЂќ, Insanity.ДЄlthough IвЂ™d always heard about Insanity in passing (along with P90X, another well known program from ), I didnвЂ™t exactly know what it entailed until a friend who was doing it explained it briefly to me. So, part of me canвЂ™t believe itвЂ™s taken me this long to post about this, but as I always say, better late than never.

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