INSANITY--let me tell you it fits its name!

So, as a One on One with Tony Horton subscriber, I received a sneak peak workout to Shaun T's INSANITY.

When I first heard that Shaun T was doing another workout program, I was chatting with my wonderful coach and friend Michelle. I thought that it would probably be as 'insane' as his Hip Hop Abs, which I'll say is just not really my cup of tea (sorry....I don't have anything against it, but I have two left feet, I'm not a dancer, and I don't have a lot of favor for the music in those workouts.) I told her it was probably nothing to write home about, not much of a killer workout. Then I found some teaser videos online for it. (You know....one of these day's I'll stop running my mouth before I learn more about the new up-and-coming product from BeachBody.....)
I have to say.....those teasers. I could watch each and every one that I stumble on every time I find it. I learned that May would be the eagerly anticipated One on One to arrive on everyone's doorstep, because it was being accompanied by a full workout (not just a teaser ad on dvd a FULL 40 MINUTE workout!!!)
So on Saturday, May 9th, I saw a BeachBodyBuddy's facebook status state that he was shaking from his first go around with the Insanity sneak peak. I was already counting down the days until I'd have the workout in my hot little hands and hawking over my bank account to find out when BeachBody would be charging me for the One on One--that would mean that my new favorite cardio workout would be on it's way.

So Monday, May 11th, I power walk to my apartment door and, much to my glee, the dvd is waiting for me. Happy as a kid on Christmas morning, I tear open the package, turn on the tv, the dvd player and take my first look. I stood there in front of my tv with all my things from work still in my hands, just watching. 'Hmmmm this doesn't look too hard' was my first thought, but I kept watching knowing that more was on it's way. At the end, I thought 'I can handle this. It won't be too bad.' I finally set my things down and flew into my workout clothes. I sent one quick text to my coach saying 'If you don't hear a review from me in about an hour or so, I'll see you on the other side of the pearly white gates :) I'll try to survive :)'

I was breathing heavy after the first series. He does 5 (I think it's 5, it could be 6) different moves for the warm up set. Then he picks up the pace for ... more of a warm up or something. By 10 minutes into it, you're stretching (don't want to stretch cold muscles you know...) and wiping sweat off your brow and your nose, trying to catch it before it creates a puddle on the carpet. After a wonderful 6 minute stretch, you get right back into rounds with a 'Suicide drill' (yes...you do this three times through) then 'Level 1' drills (and you do this three times through). Don't think that Level 1 means it's easy.
Shaun T kicks your butt and your legs with the Suicide Drills and then, in the Level 1 drills, you hit your upper body with alot of plank work and pushups. It's hard. By the time you get to the first set of Level 1 drills, your body is going "Uhmmmmmm....Is it over yet?!?!" I was wiped out by the time I hit the second last exercise of Level 1 drills--ski abs. I dropped to my knees to look up at the tv in dismay, thinking 'He must be crazy if he thinks I'm gunna do this all the way through....' I caught on the tv a bunch of people stopping, mid-set. I've never seen the cast stop mid-set in any workout dvd I've ever owned (that's alot!)
In this workout, no one person makes it through without an extra, mid-set break...or two or five or six.

What makes this workout so much different? You push and you push and you push your lower body. That's all well and good--most cardio workouts use primarily your lower body--I can handle that. And then you get down on the ground and when you're just about out of gas, you expect to push harder using your arms and core...but your legs are done and can't offer much help.

This workout was wonderful. I did it a second time on Thursday the 14th....It was a bit more..together this time around, but don't let that fool you. It was a good, hard, heart-pumping, sweaty workout that was intense.

Don't be scared....but this workout isn't for the faint-hearted or those who don't want to work hard. I can NOT wait till June when it comes out--what an awesome birthday present to myself!!!!