One man’s voice Thoughts, rants and commentary from a husband, father of five and professional web geek

Insanity: Day 1 – Fit Test

Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill as that he knows not it tolls for him;

John Donne

Why in the world would I have ever thought that I could withstand intense cardiovascular exercise like that of the Insanity Workout given my current physical condition? You'd think I had a death wish. Or that I was just too stupid to realize that I could kill myself by just reading the literature.

This thing is no joke boys and girls. When it says that you should not try this without first consulting a doctor, they aren't kidding. It is intense. It is rigorous. It is freakishly over the top. And it is awesome.

Today I started the program. Today's workout was not really a workout so much as it was a benchmark of where you are starting. Called the Fit Test, it measures your current physical condition in eight different core cardio routines. It does this by having you perform a particular routine as many times as you can in one minute. The test allows for one minute of rest in between each routine.

But before we get into the fit test, I have to make mention of the warm up. The warm up is, in and of itself, a workout. Especially if you are coming from a sedentary lifestyle like mine. Yes, it is only three and a half minutes of moderate intensity exercise. But it will kick your butt.

The warm up routine is simple and consists of 30 seconds of: jogging in place, power jacks - jumping jacks in which you lower yourself into a squat, Heismans - in which you step high from side to side alternating your arms so that your elbows touch your opposite high knee, 123 Heismans - same as the Heisman but with a 1-2-3 step stutter in between each high knee, butt kicks - in which you try to touch your heels to your booty, high knees in place and mummy kicks - where you very quickly kick your feet out on straightened legs while scissoring your arms directly in front of you.

After the warm up you stretch and shake out your muscles for a short time before diving right in to the fit test. The fit test routines are:

• Switch Kicks - High, straight leg kicks while your core is tightened and your arm are pulled in tight to the body but still held up.
• Power Jacks - Jumping jacks, except you lower yourself into a squat on the down swing.
• Power Knees - High knee kicks where you bring your leg from the ground to about chest height to kick your own hands.
• Power Jumps - Vertical squat jumps in which you jump, level your hands in front of you then try to kick your own hands with your knees.
• Globe Jumps - Vertical jumps, from hands on the floor, in a square pattern. Once square counts as done.
• Suicide Jumps - Stand then hands to the floor to push up position to legs up to vertical jump. Like an intense burpie.
• Push Up Jacks - Push ups, except when you go down you kick your legs apart like a jumping jack.
• Low Plank Oblique - Push up position except on your forearms, then you kick your knee to your side alternating legs with each kick.

One of the best demos of these routines can be seen at Brad Gibala's blog about his Insanity journey. You should check it out, just to see what is involved.

I wish I could say I did well, but the truth is I am fat, overweight, unhealthy and out of shape. Still, I think for coming from a cold start to this level of exercise, my numbers are somewhat promising:

I'm hoping that I can continue this through for the full 60 days. I say hoping because honestly this is one of the most physically painful and taxing experiences I have had. Still, I love how badly it kicked my butt as I was doing it, so I'm pretty sure I will be sticking with it.

At least for today.