Insanity Review: The Workouts
This is a companion piece to my general overview of the program. Aside from the workouts I specifically mention as suboptimal, they are all fantastic.
Insanity is broken up into 2, 4-week phases, separated by a recovery week. The first phase functions to establish the base level of conditioning required for the second. Each phase has 3 main workouts that you will complete each week, often multiple times.
Workouts usually consist of a warm up, a stretch, the main workout, and a cool-down. Do not skip any portion.
Phase 1:
The Fit Test: This occurs in both phases, and you’ll complete it every other week to track your progress. It’s not nearly as challenging as the main Insanity workouts, consisting of a short warm up and stretch, then 8 exercises for a minute with plenty of rest in between. That being said, all of the moves in the Fit Test appear in the main workouts. If you gun-it as instructed, your heart rate is going to skyrocket.
Some tests you’ll experience significant improvement across the board. Other tests you’ll struggle to surpass your previous outing. Dig deeper, work hard, and push it. I failed to improve on an exercise just once, low plank obliques between day 15 and day 36. If this happens, use it as motivation for next time.
As you get better, it gets harder to beat your previous score. There’s only so much you can do in a minute.
Pure Cardio: The most strenuous workout in Phase 1 and my least favorite. Shaun T even says in the stretching portion that he’s nervous for the workout. After the warm up and the stretch, you get a water break, and that’s it. The rest is a 15-minute blitz of 15 exercises for a minute each. I fatigued rapidly in this workout and frequently had to take a breather. As I advanced through the program, my breaks decreased.
Ski-downs are the least pleasurable move in the sequence. Get into a squat, keeping your knees together. Jump up and to the side without twisting your upper body. When you come down, land softly into a squat, and shoot your arms back like you’re skiing down a hill, keeping your knees together, then jumping back the way you came. The burn I feel in my quads during this exercise is unique, not in its intensity, but about how much I hate the sensation.
My favorite is the hooks and jump rope. Throw 8 hooks to one side then do four jumps where you bring your knees to your chest. Repeat, alternating sides with the hooks until the next move. This is the exercise that shocks your body into adapting or collapsing.
Plyometric Cardio Circuit: The middle ground in terms of difficulty, it has more breaks than Pure Cardio. I.e., it actually has breaks. It’s broken into 4 sections: suicide drills, football drills, basketball drills, and punch drills.
The suicide drills consist of 3 circuits of 4 exercises for 30 seconds each, followed by a water break. Immediately after the third circuit you transition into football drills. These consist of 2 exercises for about 1.5 minutes. Then you finally get to rest.
Basketball drills mimic the timing structure of the suicide drills, and after the 3rd circuit, you immediately go into punch drills. Basketball drills are bonkers. I still can’t get through them without multiple breaks. Punch drills, while the easiest, are at the end.Which means you’re exhausted by the time you get to them.
As the plyometric in the name would imply, there is a plenty of jumping. I found it the best the best lower body work in Phase 1.
The most enjoyable and infuriating exercise in this routine was the same: the level 1 drill. It involves doing 4 push-ups, 8 floor sprints, then launching your feet forward and popping up. Repeat. I love that it works the whole body, and you can feel yourself growing stronger with every move. I hate that I can’t get through them with Shaun T, buckling every time I try.
Cardio Power and Resistance: The least challenging of the Phase 1 trinity. From the beginning, I required noticeably fewer breaks. The timing is like the plyometric circuit: 2 circuits of 4 exercises with a short series right after the 3rd set. There is appreciably more upper body work in this workout, including some direct attention to shoulders and triceps.
What makes this workout easier is that the exercises I have the most trouble with (regardless of exertion) are at the beginning of the circuits, so I have the most energy when attempting them. In the other workouts, they were in the middle or the end.
I hate the hurdle jumps. A lot. They require sprinting in place then leaping to one side on Shaun T’s cues like you’re jumping over a hurdle. I can never get the timing right. On a positive note, I really enjoy the V push-ups. Get in a plank position and walk your feet forward until your body is in a v shape. Then do a set of pushups, which in that position are similar to military presses. Most of the shoulder work in phase one involves stabilization and regular pushups, so some direct contraction was welcome.
Cardio Abs: You are supposed to complete this workout after pure cardio starting week 2. On its own, it’s not particularly challenging or cardio intensive. Nevertheless, doing it right after pure cardio is rough. There are about 4 minutes of cardio, then 10 minutes of floor work. No crunches, a lot of isometric exercises and planks. It’s a decent ab workout, but Ab Ripper x and X2 Ab Ripper from the p90x series were more involved. It’s on par with Ab Ripper 3.
Cardio Recovery: I don’t know how to feel about this workout. For the most part, it’s uninteresting, dull, and uneven in difficulty. It’s not a yoga routine, and though there’s a fair amount of stretching I would have liked to see more. It gets the blood flowing to the various parts of your body and keeps them warm, so that’s a plus.
While sweating, panting, and an elevated heart rate are assured, it’s nothing compared to the other workouts.
The Recovery Week:
Do not skip this week. It’s six straight days of the “recovery” workout: Core Cardio and Balance. This routine is not as challenging as other insanity workouts, but it’s no joke. Your heart rate will spike, and you’ll frequently be panting. Though there are a lot more breaks than usual and exercises which are not as intense.
The level-1 drills pop up again, but at a slower pace. I was able to get through the entire set without resting. Towards the end of the video there is a circuit of hip flexor exercises that are excruciating, but otherwise, I completed the workout without much trouble.
Your body will thank you for the reprieve.
Phase 2:
The results of Insanity come from Phase 2. Whether it’s the abs, the cardiovascular strength, or the unparalleled sense of accomplishment. Phase 1 is only to give you a chance at dragging yourself across the finish line. It’s that bad.
You’re supposed to do the 3rd and 4th Fit Tests on the same day as the Max Interval Circuit workout. If you decide to do the test right before, you’re a braver person than I. If you have time, do the Fit Test in the morning and the max workout later in the day. Or do the fit test on the Sunday before. If you insist on doing them back to back: good luck.
I saw a lot of people online feeling “discouraged” in Phase 2 due to the immense difficulty of the workouts. I never felt that way. However, I did occasionally feel lazy or that I wasn’t working hard enough. This is for two reasons: 1) I was burning out early in the workouts and 2) Phase 2 is easier to half-ass. It’s structured in such a way that you can lollygag through the exercises easier than in Phase 1. Thus you have to discipline yourself and push it every time.
That being said, it is way harder to blitz through a phase 2 workout. I adopted a strategy of following Shaun T until failure, taking a 5-second break, then hopping back in as fast as I could with good form, then breaking for 5 again, and so on.
The workouts are also about 20 minutes longer, so block out more time in your day.
Max Interval circuit: I don’t want to use the word “easy” around any of the Max workouts, but if I had to say which one is “easiest” it would be this one. Granted, that’s like saying being stabbed 14 times is better than 15. I saw the most progress in my performance in this workout, which was fantastic motivation.
Instead of 2 circuits with 4 exercises of 30 seconds each, you get 3 circuits with 4 exercises of 45 seconds each. Once again there’s a series directly after the third set in a circuit before you break.
The best exercise was squat hooks, for the same reasons as hooks and jump rope, times 10. You throw four high hooks, then four low hooks, followed by four power jumps.
The worst was squat high-low jabs. You jump up and punch up with one arm then land in the squat position, getting low and punching that same arm towards the ground before launching up again. As you can infer from earlier, I hate the quadriceps burn more than any other. To make matters worse, these hooks come after the squat hooks and a set of oblique high knees, so your heart and lungs are about to explode.
This was my favorite workout of the entire program. I will be using it for cardio for years to come.
Max Interval Plyo: Ridiculous, yet I often feel like I haven’t worked hard enough, as my chest and shoulders tend to give out earlier than I would like.
This is the strangest Insanity workout. It’s potentially the easiest and the hardest of the max workouts depending on your strength level. Since there is a great deal of muscle work, 13 sets of chest for example, you are forced to take a break when your muscles give out even if you still have some cardio in the tank. If you’re not a walking ball of lactic acid resistance, you physically can’t do as much later in the workout and your heart rate and activity level drop.
However, when you get to a point to where you can make it through to the end without taking too many breaks, it is the hardest and most insane workout of the series.
It’s structured like Max Interval Circuit except for the last circuit, which has one set, not three. This workout had a move I hate substantially more than any other: squat push-ups. I never feel like I am doing them right and I have to slow down significantly to maintain as close to proper form as I can muster. Instead of describing them I’m going to let the master show you how they’re done.
Power push-ups are the best part of this workout. This is the point in each workout where I know I’m going to die. I just keep telling myself that I will rise more powerful than I can possibly imagine. Get in the push-up position. Thrust yourself upwards, bringing your legs in as your upper body rises. Think of a pair of scissors opening and closing. You don’t stand up completely, but your heels should be on the ground, toes in the vicinity of your fingertips.
Max Cardio Conditioning: Basically Pure Cardio 2.0. After the warm up and the stretch, you wheeze from move to move for 30 minutes straight. A little over halfway through the workout you do 3 “recovery” exercises, which give you a chance to gather yourself somewhat. They’re only easy by comparison.
This is the Insanity workout that requires you to be most in tune with your body. It’s the most tempting to slack off in, but if you don’t pace yourself, you’re going to burn out quick. Work as hard as you can while maintaining proper form, then take a few second then hop back in. Keeping good form has the advantage of slowing you down compared to simply flailing about, resulting in a natural way of pacing. While preventing injury.
Max Cardio Conditioning is the only routine where I came close to puking. The second time I attempted it, I got incredibly nauseous towards the end and had to take an extended break.
High knees/low sprints/floor sprints are insane in the best way. You do eight high knees, eight sprints, and eight floor sprints in rapid succession over and over again for a minute. At one point, I zoned out, and my body went on autopilot with one command: “run.”
The finisher in this exercise is speed bag, it really sucks. You get into the squat position and rotate your arms around each other as fast as you can for a minute. Think one of those old-school push lawn mowers before engines were a thing.
Max Recovery: This is the worst workout in Insanity.
On the one hand, it felt more like a recovery sequence than cardio recovery did. There are a lot more contract and relax moves in this one as well as some hardcore stretching. Nonetheless, with the sheer barbarity your body endures through ought the week it really should be more of a yoga routine.
Completing it feels like you’re marginally adding to the general weariness of your body, unlike Cardio Recovery, which was neutral in that regard.
The Deluxe Videos
There is a deluxe Insanity package available, which I had no intention of purchasing. There are three deluxe workouts: Max Interval Sports which can replace Core Cardio and Balance in Phase 2 (not in the recovery week), Insane Abs which can replace Cardio Abs in Phase 2, and Upper Body Weight Training, a weight lifting routine.
A friend of mine who had purchased the deluxe program loaned me Max Interval Sports and Insane Abs. They were unable to find Upper Body Weight Training.
Max Interval Sports: I’m torn on how to rate this one. I hate sports-themed workouts, but this is definitely the least rage-inducing crack at one I’ve seen in a long time. The difficulty is also hard to gauge. It’s definitely less challenging than the primary Phase 2 workouts, but I’m not sure where it stands relative to the Phase 1. I probably would put it above Cardio Circuit and Plyo Circuit, but below Pure Cardio. My massive improvements in cardiovascular strength make it hard to judge thoroughly.
The warmup is different, and there is no stretching segment until the end. There are five “sports” that you go through. Martial arts, which consists of a great deal of punching. Football, which is basically one protracted adventure in the squat position moving back and forth and side to side. Basketball, a trip to jump city. Gymnastics, a challenging block of core exercises. Finally, track & field, which is all about that heart rate.
There’s a troublesome exercise in here called bronco jumps which requires a fair amount of coordination. Something I lack. Start in the squat position, put your arms out and fall into a handstand, kicking your legs back like a bucking bronco. Then, use your arms to leap back into the squat position and do 3 hops.
Ladders, on the other hand, are simple. You sprint in place for 15 seconds, rest for 15, then sprint for 30, rest for 15, and so on, up to 60 seconds. Then you descend back down the ladder. I really enjoyed these, they’re a reminder that you’re still in a beastly cardio routine.
Insane Abs: This is a tricked-out version of Cardio Abs. It’s about twice as long, with double the cardio and floor work. Your lower abs and obliques will be incinerated. While there are no crunches and a lot of new and exciting moves, the length is a little much. It runs 30 minutes, which puts your total workout time at around an hour and a half if you’re doing this right have Max Cardio Conditioning. Many won’t have time for this.
Ab Ripper X is still the best ab routine I’ve experienced in timing, intensity, and variation. Insane Abs is better than X2 or X3 Ab Ripper, but the king still reigns.
