60 days, so many abs

Happy Birthday Kettner! To celebrate your special day, we completed the 60 day insanity workout cycle!!

Liz here: I gotta admit, the last few weeks its been kind of hard to work up the enthusiasm to workout for an hour every morning, but I feel extremely accomplished that I did. I had a physical for the first time in 2 years and my new doctor told me she COULD FEEL MY ABS. Holy shit. Not to mention that my legs are rock hard, to the point that it grosses me out.

Our final fit test was this morning, and I was at a disadvantage, as I hurt my wrist last week, and couldn't do any of the plyometric exercises, but regardless, here are my results:

Switch Kicks: 110, down from 118 last time

Power Jacks: 57, up from 53

Power Knees: 104, up from 93

Power Jumps: 50, up from 42

Globe Jumps: 11, up from 10

Suicide Jumps: 0

Push Up Jacks: 0

Low Plank Obliques: 0


So now what? We're going to finish off this week with the recovery session, and then we'll continue to do the videos of our choosing 4 or 5 times a week. Insanity 4 eva!




Maris here. Well, that was fun. Now I'm ready to plan out our workout schedule post-Insanity. I think we're going to mix the "easy" workouts with the "max" workouts and see how that goes. And also have 2 days off instead of 1.

In terms of my Insanity experience...You can't really see my abs (I think I am genetically doomed to have a little gut) but that's cool. What surprised me the most is that most of my pants don't fit comfortably any more; they are TOO TIGHT. Specifically in the booty and thigh regions. So, Operation: New Pants is happening soon. To be fair, I only own 2-3 pairs of pants, so this is actually a pretty urgent mission. But enough about MY PANTS. Here's my last Fit Test results:

Switch Kicks: 130, up from 125 last time

Power Jacks: 40, up from 35

Power Knees: 100, up from 80

Power Jumps: 37, up from 28

Globe Jumps: 7, down from 8

Suicide Jumps: 13, down from 15

Push Up Jacks: 24, up from 20

Low Plank Obliques: 53, up from 40

All in all, I feel great and I'm psyched to continue working out INSANITY-style!



Greetings, internet. Joe here. I too stuck it out through the entirety of the 'Insanity' workout program (with a couple holiday exceptions -SUE ME), and I have to say, also share in a sense of accomplishment. That sense is tempered somewhat by the fact that Insanity isn't really ending, and, like Maris, I don't really have any visible evidence of my strengthening abs. But I can't deny that the workout routine has certainly forced my body into better shape. Going forward, as we'll be setting our own workout schedule, I'm hoping to do more of the ab-intensive routines, rather than the predominant 'endless jumping' exercise sessions. Not that I haven't seen any benefit from those. My legs are rock HAHD.

Switch Kicks: 135, up from 120 last time

Power Jacks: 54, up from 50

Power Knees: 104, up from 94

Power Jumps: 65, up from 45

Globe Jumps: 9, up from 7

Suicide Jumps: 13, up from 12

Push Up Jacks: 25, up from 23

Low Plank Obliques: 50, same as last week.


INSANITY-For-A-Little-Bit-More-I-Guess!

4 out of 5 fit tests COMPLETED

Ahoy there! Liz here: as promised in my last post, here are my fit test results so far (keeping in mind that I missed the 3rd fit test because I was in Philly sitting in a coffee shop with Kettner instead of insanitying):

First Fit Test 11/28/2011; Second Fit Test 12/12/2011; Third Fit Test 1/16/2012:

Switch Kicks: 97, 127, 118

Power Jacks: 43, 53, 53

Power Knees: 60, 80, 93

Power Jumps: 1/2 (blew out my bum knee), 37, 42

Globe Jumps: 8, 10, 10

Suicide Jumps: 9, 14, 15

Push Up Jacks: 0, 0, 23

Low Plank Obliques: 43, 60, 55



I'm happy to report that there are improvements (mostly). Obviously, since I resurrected my old bike accident knee injury the first time I tried Power Jumps, anything is an improvement, but I'm really happy with the progression. Those are small potatoes compared to the real victory: Push Up Jacks! I had shamefully admitted that I couldn't even do 1 push up when I started insanity, so to go from two zeros to 23 feels really great! Look out world: I'm gonna push up... on you... or something.

Now I will turn the computer over to Maris, who will give you her fit test results!!






Hey everybody! I love Insanity. Especially when it makes me fart (you KNOW what I'm talking about). Liz and Joe don't like that part though. Here's my Fit Test results (so far):

First Fit Test 11/28/2011; Second Fit Test 12/12/2011; Third Fit Test 1/2/2012; Fourth Fit Test 1/16/2012:

Switch Kicks: 75, 77, 120, 125

Power Jacks: 30, 40, 40, 35

Power Knees: 55, 70, 77, 80

Power Jumps: 15, 32, 30, 28

Globe Jumps: 7, 9, 8, 8

Suicide Jumps: 8, 13, 12, 15

Push Up Jacks: 0, 0, 15, 20

Low Plank Obliques: 25, 40, 40, 40

I should note that for Push Up Jacks, I did modified push ups the first two Fit Tests, so I didn't count them (Liz and I are in the same boat push up-wise).

Insanity has been a nice challenge. I played soccer for 9 years (from age 5 - 14), and after that, I pretty much fell off the workout/exercise wagon (with the exception of the occasional jog, and that summer where I taught canoeing and kayaking...). So, 7 weeks in and I feel great, and I definitely want to stick with a workout plan after the 60 days is up. Joe and I have both gained about 5 pounds doing Insanity (which I'll assume is muscle weight, since we all eat relatively healthy). I just can't wait until nice weather so we can add a jog or swim to our schedule!





Joe is currently baking us some delicious chocolate peanut butter cookies (hey, I said relatively healthy), so I will blog his Fit Tests for him:

First Fit Test 11/28/2011; Second Fit Test 12/12/2011; Third Fit Test 1/2/2012; Fourth Fit Test 1/16/2012:

Switch Kicks: 100, 90, 140, 120

Power Jacks: 37, 37, 49, 50

Power Knees: 63, 82, 89, 94

Power Jumps: 19, 35, 27, 45

Globe Jumps: 8, 10, 7, 7

Suicide Jumps: 8, 10, 11, 12

Push Up Jacks: 20, 24, 18, 23

Low Plank Obliques: 50, 59, 46, 50

Joe's a powerhouse with the push ups. In terms of organized exercise, this is his first go at it (he had some pretty severe asthma when he was younger). It's safe to say that Joe gets the most angry with Insanity. The Third Fit Test was combined with the Max Interval Circuit (an hour and a half); I thought he was going to Hulk out and murder the computer. Regardless, he's sticking with it (his goal is to be able to do push ups with Liz and I sitting on his back).


Just 2 more weeks until we complete the 60 day cycle with our final fit test! You probably won't hear from us until we're certifiably INSANE, so until then, we'll be DIGGING DEEPER (into this bowl of cookie batter)!

insanity 3-way

Hello INSANITY PUNX!

This is my first time posting here, so I'll give you a little background: Maris, Joe, and I are 3 self-employed cartoonists living in the same house in Somerville, MA. We are pretty much attached at the hip: they're a couple, and I'm their permanent 3rd wheel. We cook dinner together almost every night, have "work parties" where we sit around and draw for hours on end, and all have the same problem of not having anywhere to be on a regular basis, so our exercise is fairly limited. The solution? Let's all do insanity and get totally buff beach bodies in the dead of winter!!!

First off, I've never put much importance on exercise: I'm the kind of person who can eat whatever they want and maintain a slim, albeit weak, figure. When I worked at the MFA I used to bike 12 miles everyday, but now that I work in my living room, I hardly get on my bike at all anymore (so not punx, I know). When Maris suggested we try the insanity workout, I was mostly intrigued to see how long we would keep it up for. As of writing this we have completed week 5; this was our first week of the MAX level workout. I know that I never would have made it past week 1 without having friends that I'm completely comfortable around doing the workout alongside me.

Besides motivating each other, and making fun of some of the more ridiculous moves (floor humping, anyone?), doing insanity with a group is interesting because each of us has different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the exercises. I can do squats until the cows come home, Maris is way more flexible than Joe or I, and Joe can do the push ups, while Maris and I have been slowly working our way up by using our knees (when I started insanity I couldn't even do 1 push up, now I can do 10 in a row, but the crazy variations still give me trouble). Also, I'm totally the sweatiest one of us. I can't speak for all of us, but I can say for myself that I'm not completely convinced that I full-on enjoy this work out, but I do like feeling active for an hour a day, when the rest of my time is spent sitting in front of a piece of paper or a computer screen.

That being said, I would like to use the forum to publicly apologize to our downstairs neighbors, who have to listen to us doing mummy kicks and stance jacks at 9 in the morning. We've been told that at times it sounds like we're having some kind of crazy tantric sex party: Shaun T knows how to get us going, that's for sure.

Well, bye for now! I'll check in with an update after our next fit test (I missed this last one because I was in Philly. IRONIC (in that Alanis Morrisette way).

yours,
Liz

p.s. don't keep your legs too wide... JOSH.