Good Morning from San Francisco International Airport!
I am using the term "morning" loosely (It's actually only 12:41 AM- still night some might say?) but Kett and I are en route the the East coast to hang with friends, do a meet and greet with his mom, and watch me perform in a fancy pants experimental film fest. (www.mixNYC.org is the website! My piece will be performed this Friday at 9:15PM if you wanna check out my sweet ripped bod in a contemporary art context). We have a six thirty AM flight so we are getting all buck wild and pulling an all nighter in the liminal capsule of SFO. I've abolished my "no soda" decree of just a few days ago in order to guzzle a Coke Zero (gross, I know-my insides will punch me soon, I'm sure.) and I am using the glory that is the revelry of remaining just immature enough to willingly go without sleep to fuel an Insanity post. Huzzah.
This morning, after our second fit test and two weeks of me really following the calendar I confidently declared : "Hey Kettner, I think those rest days really work!" His response? : "Duh!"
My fit test results this time around have shown vast improvements from my first stab at Insanity. I only stayed the same in one category, and went slightly down in another but mostly, I kinda killed it. I felt ready, confidant, excited, and all around good for most of the moves and amazed myself with exponential improvement on most exercises. Globe jumps can still kick rocks, for all I care, but I am much more capable of at least holding good form while mired in pain than I was when I started this round.
A few things:
1) Having a buddy to do Insanity with is really motivating. I did about half of my first round minus Kett, and while I still think I improved in that time, having Kettner there with me makes it lots more rigorous and also just fun. Because of the sweet OCD I have it drives me fucking nuts to be off beat during moves like switch kicks, and so I push to meet his pace, which is honestly much faster then I would go on my own. After pushing harder than I thought possible it is much easier to accept the recovery workouts and days off. Other bonuses: We can laugh at the cute things Shaun T. says ("Act like you're holding potato chips when you do this move!") an lastly, having the dude I love most get all sweaty and grunty next to me is never a bad time.
2) Adding Cardio Abs after Pure Cardio in the second week actually felt a lot more jarring then I would have imagined. Mid Cardio Abs warm up I threw up a little in my mouth- a new phenomenon! I think that really getting my form right and pushing the moves hard is of course an improvement, but depletes me much more quickly then when I would take lots of rests during sets due to inabilities. Consequently, Insanity gets harder as I get stronger. I think this will eventually taper off, but as it stands now- WOOF. What an ass kicker.
3) Fuck a recovery work out so hard. I find those slow lunges to be completely awful- perhaps even worse then the level two drills-to ski abs- to in&out abs set that all Insanity-ers seem to dread. Why do these suck so much? Someone please explain why I burst into tears halfway through every single time....
Fit test Results! First week one, then week two.
Switch kicks: 89/94
Power jacks: 49/54
Power knees: 90/94
Power jumps: 32/35
Globe jumps: 8/8
Suicide jumps: 20/21
Push up jacks: 23/20
Low plank obliques: 59/69
Ok, Kettnerd here, so I'm back with more insanity. It's been a couple of weeks since me and Lacy jumped back into the program right with the first fit test. It's been mostly really really good. I hit some stumbling blocks after only a few days though when grad school/freelance illustration just refused to give me any breathing room. Such a bummer , but really what i've found is having the better part of an hour every day where I push and physically exhaust myself really helps to prevent me from emotionally exhausting myself dealing with other pressure and stuff. It's just like I don't really have the energy to freak out. And some of that excess stress can get channeled into suicide jumps or doing moving push ups until my arms cave. so, like I said I did miss a couple, but I just hopped right back in like I didn't miss a step, it hurt, but my body is once again getting into the groove of the exercises. There isn't an awkward pause so i'm able to just, as Shaun would say, be "in it", and when that happens it really does feel great.
So we had our second fit test together, and I think we were both happy with the results. (I haven't checked Lacy's post yet, we are sitting beside each other in a mostly empty airline terminal, maybe we'll dazzle the delta airlines boarding staff with some early morning mummy kicks, who knows?) Anyways yeah I was happy, my numbers mostly jumped a little, except Power Knees, which dipped.
Week 1/Week3
Switch Kicks: 120/121
Power Jacks: 46/53
Power Knees: 85/75
Power Jumps: 54/57
Globe Jumps: 9/10
Suicide Jumps: 20/21
Push Up Jacks: 36/38
Low Plank O's: 61/69
I've found it helpful to track progress even in the midst of regular workouts, especially with bigger moves like power jumps and globe jumps, I try and keep count and I've noticed how I'm able to do more even in the sets, of course I am also sometimes reduced to a puddle, or some moves will suffer after I really push in others. Classically in the Plyo workout, I will really try to bust my ass with power jumps and squat kicks, and by the time it gets to hit the floor I just don't have the strength in my legs to go fast. So yeah, Insanity is doing it's job, but I would say that more than showing the lil jump in numbers the biggest difference I feel is needing less recovery time when it's all said and done, so encouragement to those who try out insanity and give up in the first week, you should hang in, it's amazing how strong you feel when you realize that you can push yourself and your cardio will just naturally get so much better that you can recover what you need even after just 30-45 seconds. Dig deep.
Oh, and what did I say about a mummy kick?
strange rituals? savage cruelty?? Shaun T, what have you gotten us into?
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