INSANITY Pure Cardio

Today I had the thrill of completing Insanity Pure Cardio.  This is one of the most Intense Cadio Workouts I have ever participated in. The first thing I noticed when I started the video was that the entire workout is only 38 minutes, that can't be too bad right? WRONG!


The workout starts with the infamous "warm up". As I have described before the warm up could be considered a workout by itself. In fact I can't think of too many workouts that you need a water break after the warm up. The "warm up" lasts 10 minutes and by the end I am already drenched with sweat and my heart is beginning to race. Thankfully, Shaun T then grants us a well needed 20 second water break.


After the water break it is time to go into about 5 minutes of stretching. I actually really enjoy the stretching even though I am nowhere near as flexible as the cardioholics on my screen, but I do like the change of pace and I do feel the results. Conversely proper stretching can help you no feel the results of a workout quite as severely. There was one very dark moment during the stretches a moment that brought fear and angst to me. As I am twisted and stretched in some funky position Shaun T asks someone " Are you as nervous about today as I am?" I thought to myself "well i wasn't, but now I am" 


Shaun T and I both had good reason to be nervous, after the stretching Shaun announces to everyone that it is time for our LAST water break. I took a glance at the clock and saw there was right about 20 minutes to go and wondered what was in store for me next. It only took about 20 seconds for me to find out. 


The next 15 Minutes were non stop cardio... 15 different exercise moves each for a solid minute and each without any rest in between. It is only 15 minutes is what someone reading this may be thinking... That's what I thought too... WRONG! AT the end of the 15 Minutes even Shaun T was laying on the ground. I will not try to lie I had to take a couple of breathers during this my cardiovascular fitness is not where it needs to be yet... but it is getting better 


Some of the moves I had to do I had njot heard of before and some were hybrids and combinations of various other moves. The 15 moves are:

• Suicide (side to side touching the floor)
• Switch kicks (saw these during the fit test they are killer)
• Wide football sprints
• Stance Jacks ( I still lack coordination and this move proves it)
• Pedal (two lunges, then sprint, followed by 2 more lunges, etc)
• Hooks and Jump rope (8 hook punches, several high jumps, 8 punches etc)
• Power jacks (like jumping jacks, but you go deep in a wide lunge)
• Level 2 drills (these are ridiculous 8 push ups followed by 8 run lunges, repeat)
• Frog Jumps (just exactly what they sound like)
• Power Knees (another repeat offender from the fit test)
• Mountain Climbers ( These were actually maybe my favorite)
• Ski Down (jump side to side as if skiing)
• Scissor Runs (darn coordination again makes these harder than they should be)
• Suicide Jumps (squat down, jump back to a push up, stand up again)
• Push up jacks (push ups mixed with Jumping jacks. as you push down you jack your feet apart, as you push back up you bring your feet back together. How to make 2 perfectly good exercises one demon of an exercise)

Finally a 1 minute water break while me and the whole cast tried to recover.

Not sure how much gusto I had left for the 4 minute cool down stretches, but I completed those as well...


I am linking another review of this same workout I hope you will check it out here.


Thanks to everyone for their support I wlill have another blog up soon about today's weigh-in... GOOD NEWS!