One man's voice Thoughts, rants and commentary of a simple man

Insanity: Day 5 – Pure Cardio

Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,

-- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Charge Of The Light Brigade

Well, let me preface this post by saying that I was totally wrong about which routine I was going to be doing this morning. I thought it was Plyometric Cardio Circuit. It was actually Pure Cardio. That, in and of itself, should have been enough to scare me. And it was.

But what really scared me was when, in the middle of the stretch after the warm up, Shaun T, the very fit instructor, says to the camera "I'm nervous about what we're about to do". It was almost like watching a horror flick when the last victim is walking in a dark house, down a long hallway with lots of doorways attached to it. I thought the grim reaper would jump out of my TV any time.

Shaun T was not kidding. The warm ups went as usual, about 10 minutes of gradually intensifying cardio work in 30 second bursts with no rest. Quick side bar to the warm up... I actually was able to complete the entire first 3:30 routine without stopping. That's the first time I've been able to do that.

The stretching was likewise business as usual, save for the warning Shaun T gave about what was to come. And you know what? It was with good reason.

The exercising started with about 20 minutes left on the disc and proceeded to stay at 100% intensity for 15 minutes straight. Minutes, each exercise was one minute long. Rest? There was none. Nope, it was literally 15 different exercises at a "fast as you can go" pace, one minute in duration for each, until almost everyone in the video was on their faces. For the record, Bekah and I were right there with them, prostrate on the ground considering our will to live.

But we pushed on, dug deep and fought hard until the end. When it was all over we were tired, sweaty and totally revitalized from the insane workout we just completed. Yes, we completed it. We stopped at times along the way, but we made it to the end of the routine where even Shaun T himself admits, while laying on the ground drenched in sweat, "That s*** was hard".

Yes Shaun T, you are correct. It was indeed hard. You son of a... nevermind, I have eight more weeks of you.

Thought for the day
As I completed the fifth day of working out with this stupidly intense work out regimen I am reminded that a little endurance through difficult times produces even greater endurance. Like a muscle that is worked out gets stronger, so does one's resolve to not quit, not accept failure and push through until success happens.

It is hard to stay in the thick of this work out. I stop working often. But I always try a little harder today to push through pain. And I am seeing the rewards of that already, even after five days. I was able to push through the first five segment warm up routine for the first time. On Monday, I wasn't able to make it past the middle of the second segment of the first routine.

So if I can encourage you a little bit, when the pain seems unbearable and you feel like you just cannot do it anymore, try to do it for just one more second. Each second. I bet you'll find, as I have, that you have at least one more second of endurance in you.