Good Lord am I tired. Today’s workout was a combination workout consisting of Max Cardio Conditioning and Cardio Abs and it left me wiped out. By the end of it I couldn’t do any more jumping and was struggling to make it through even a few seconds of anything that required the use of my quadriceps. That tells me two things: 1) I am pushing harder during my workouts now than I have been up to this point; and 2) I still need a lot of work on my quadriceps.

I’m pretty excited about this week so far. I won’t go into that until tomorrow (weight day!) but this has been an awesome week of exercise, weight loss and training for me. Today, specifically, was a good day as I was able to complete more segments straight through without stopping than I have ever before. Of course the leg exercises, the ones that require me to squat then jump into the air the bring my legs up to meet, destroyed me. But pretty much anything else, from push ups to ab work to cardio work I was able to do completely. Which is a big win for me.

I wish I could remember the bulk of the exercises in today’s workout, but I have a hard time remembering my own address let alone the exercises after an Insanity Cardio day. I know there is lots of jumping – basketball shots to squat twists, jump rope to squat pulses – and lots of running – football drills, high knee/squat sprint/floor sprint – but there isn’t a lot of chest work, which is something I like a lot since the Max Interval exercises have a lot of push ups in them. And even though I cannot remember all of the exercises I did this morning, I do know that as I write this, even 25 minutes after stopping my workout, I am still wet with sweat. Not a bad way to end my workout, I’d say.

Tomorrow ends my seventh week of Insanity. After that I have today’s combination of exercises three more times. That means three more times I get to beat myself up for an hour to try to get more in shape, lose more weight and get stronger. Can I do it? Of course I can. And so can you if you are wondering that about yourself.

No matter where you are coming from, no matter what your story, I personally believe that anyone with a real and true desire to improve their health can do this workout. It often hurts to make that transition, as anyone who has ever started Insanity will tell you. But if you can get past the initial discomfort of it you will be well on your way to a better, more fit you. If I can do it, coming from almost 300 pounds and having not exercised in over eight years, you can too.

Dig deeper.

Yeah, I’m totally getting the groove of the Max routines now. I was able to complete almost all of the Max Recovery exercises today with the exception of the push ups immediately after the opening stretches and the push ups to one arm balance moves we did toward the end.

Speaking of push ups, I think Max Recovery should have been named Max Cardio Pushes and Push Up Overload with Stretching the Core and Butt. I know, that name probably wouldn’t have fit on the DVD, but it is more indicative of what the Max Recovery program actually does. We spent practically the entire work out on our hands. And when we weren’t on our hands we were working the core. Not that I mind. Lord knows I need a core improvement and could use a stronger chest. But it would be nice to have some variety in the workout.

Regardless, I am starting to become more and more acclimated to the workouts now and am about at that point where I can really start pushing through some of this stuff without wanting to strangle Shaun T or trying to figure exactly what motion he is making. Which means I can totally step up my agilities, my endurance, my strength and my weight loss. I’m loving this.

I have two more days this week before we rest again. I’m hoping that by my weigh in on Saturday morning I will be 260 pounds. I am very close to that now and I think with proper diet and a huge push in the next two workouts I can hit that mark. That would leave me 10 pounds to go in the last two weeks of the program to hit my goal of 250 pounds, a loss of about 40 pounds in nine weeks.

And I will be challenged to do this. Tomorrow Sandi and I are going to have a night together without the kids to discuss some upcoming activities regarding our children. We are also going to be discussing the upcoming school year and some of the things we want and expect from the year to come. That usually means eating out or picking something up for dinner. Which means I really, really need to behave this weekend and work out as hard as I possibly can to make sure I don’t blow it right before my weigh in.

Wish me luck.

I think I’m starting to get the hang of the max workouts now. Much like it took a while in the first four weeks to get acclimated to the workouts, the movements, the speed and the intensity of the exercise, I’ve spent the better part of the last 10 days learning how to do the exercises in this routine. I think I’ve gotten them down now.

Today I was able to push through a lot more of each circuit than I was last time. I was able to do more push ups, more agility movements and more combination movements. I’m still very weak in quadriceps based jumping movements, but I am continually improving in those. Which is a good thing since there aren’t as many high leg jump type movements in Max Interval Plyo as there could be.

As has been the case almost from day one, I push myself pretty hard in all of the circuits. As I get to the end of the program I am usually gassed. Today was no exception. By the time the last “challenge” circuit came upon us I had pretty much nothing left to give. I was dripping with sweat the entire workout and at the end all I really wanted to do was plant my face in the ground and die. Well, maybe not die.

Still, I recovered from this workout way faster than I have all the other Max workouts so far, so I know that I am improving my stamina and conditioning. Which again means that I will be able to push through more of the exercises in the remaining few days I have on the program. I’m hoping that equates to significant weight loss and an extreme improvement in my conditioning since I am still not sure what I will be doing after this but want to be in shape enough to be able to do whatever it I choose as my next challenge.

Which leads me to a point that I think is interesting… the more I work out the more interested in my own health I am becoming. Same can be said for dieting. The more I watch what I eat the more disgusted I’m becoming with nasty food, eating out and generally unhealthy eating habits. Sure, I have my moments where I want to pig out on a fat, greasy cheeseburger and sit on my butt and not exercise. But those moments are few and far between now.

Now I’d rather exercise and drink water instead of stuffing my face. I’d rather be healthy. My health is not just important to me, it is a priority for me. If you are on a fitness journey of your own I hope that you find that slight obsession with health that I have found. Not to the point that it overtakes everything you do but at least to the point where your health becomes a priority for you as much as destroying my health seemed to be a priority for me in the past. It’s only been six and half weeks, but almost everything I do now is wrapped around the question “how will this improve me as a person, a man, a husband and a father?”. If I can’t seem to find an answer to that question I have to seriously reconsider if what I am doing, eating, drinking, watching or even saying is really worth it.

So I’ll ask you. What decisions will you make today, what actions will you take today that will improve you as a person, a human being, a spouse, a parent, a child, a sibling, an employee, etc? If you strive for success you will find it. Keep pushing. And dig deeper.

I had an extremely difficult time finding my motivation this morning. The last few days have been very hard for me to get up and get moving. I know I am tired, physically, because I am not sleeping nearly as much as I should be. But this morning I just felt exhausted and it showed in my workout.

I was able to do most of the first circuit. I’m not able to do it completely just yet, but I am way farther along now than I was last week when we started this segment. But I’m pretty sure that the first circuit is where my abilities stopped today. Specifically, the Ski Abs/Push Up Jack/In and Out Abs/Oblique Push Up combination destroyed me today. I was not able to complete a single 45 second segment of those.

By the end of the workout I was completely gassed, breathing heavy and drenched in sweat. That is a good thing for me. But I really, really want to be able to complete a max workout. The first four weeks of working out went about the same as these have gone so far, so I am encouraged by my progress so far. I’m just hoping I can progress enough to be able to say, at the end of this thing, that I was not only able to complete the Insanity program but I was able to complete an entire workout during the program.

Until tomorrow when I tackle Max Interval Plyo, stay strong, push harder and dig deeper. You can do it.

I wish I could put my finger on it but this morning’s workout seemed so much harder than I expected it to be. I know that I did better during the program than I did a few days ago when I did it, but there was something about it today that seemed to be burdensome beyond the normal burden of the extremeness of the exercise.

I pushed hard today but felt like I wasn’t really getting anywhere with it. I managed to work up a decent sweat, but it wasn’t the pouring sweat that I am used to. This could be due to me not drinking enough water yesterday. It could be because I felt tired and didn’t feel that I could push as hard as I wanted to. Whatever the case, I just don’t feel like I pushed back quite as hard as I would have liked to.

The exercises being what they are, I did feel as though I was more able to do them. I was able to complete more intervals and push myself through many of them. But as the program ran on I lost a lot of steam. The end came and I hardly had anything left to give it.

Still, I made some progress over last time, which is really all I want to be able to do. Next time I plan on kicking this thing’s butt. Though next time this program will be piggy-backed with Cardio Abs as well. Bekah and I are thinking about making the Max portion of Insanity a true Max by using Insane Abs instead of Cardio Abs. We’ll see if that pans out. She is way more ambitious and energetic than I am, so I may have to override her.

Until tomorrow when we crank out some Max Interval Circuit, remember to push harder and dig deeper. Even if you don’t feel like it, you are still doing work and you are still pushing your limits which will always result in good things for you.