Round 6 – Day 1 – Insanity: Asylum (Plus Some KB and Crossfit!)

April20, 2011

It’s time!!

19th June 2009 I started P90X. I had owned the DVDs for a while, had done P90 with Tony (the gentle, less annoying version) and was aching for something to change my life. That something was me! It seems odd to me that I should have suddenly decided to do this and where it has led me, but just like Baz Luhrmann says:

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm
on some idle Tuesday.

The same thing applies for anything, troubling or not, that changes your life. You don’t always plan for it, sometimes it just happens.

I have to admit, when I started I was coming off a good summer in the gym and I was a little full of myself:

Let me just say that I consider myself to be in decent shape. I can do a hundred pushups, a couple hundred crunches and a handful of full extension chinups without much effort. However, I am a static athlete. Most of what I do is with free weights and my strength is very limited to the range of motion. So even though I can bench close to 400lbs and shoulder press over 275lbs I am not necessarily “fit”.

However my sentiments were correct. I was strong, but I was not fit. Nor was I particularly healthy. After round 1 of P90X I was impressed both with myself and with Tony’s program. It wasn’t until I tried Insanity that I was once again surprised by the quality and care put into the workouts. I am prepared to be impressed again and I have to admit I am a little giddy with excitement. I will be back later, after the Athletic Performance Assessment!

 

R5 Is Over – Exciting Times Ahead. Insanity:Asylum Finally Arrived!!

DONE AND DONE...
Done and Done!

Yesterday was the last day of the RKC Rite of Passage. It wasn’t the best heavy day I have ever done but it was a relief and a real sense of accomplishment to finish. Now at least I can pick and choose my KB workouts and throw a little spice in there.

Second, this morning I weighed in for Biggest Loser at work and won the month, not only that but I am now 239.8 which is a total of 52lbs down. Add that to the 39″ waist I discovered the other day and I am really hitting the marks here!

Third, and the really REALLY big news, Insanity:Asylum arrived last night!! I watched the fit test (or as Shaun prefers to call it: Athletic Performance Assessment) and it didn’t look super tough but I have already got an issue with the stuff they send you. The skip rope is terrible. Whoever decided to use a plastic rope instead of a leather or rope (go figure) is an idiot. So I will be going to Wallymart this afternoon to pick up a nice speed rope I saw there not too long ago. This means that today (time permitting) will be R6D1 – The IA Fit Test.

So the package included a crappy rope, an agility ladder (to put on the floor), the DVDs, a wall calendar and a couple of resistance bands. The big deal for me at least is that the program is 30 days long but in their infinite wisdom, Beachbody have recognized that a lot of people who will be buying IA will have already done one or both of P90X and Insanity. Therefore they have put together another 2 30 day calendars, one integrating IA with P90X and one integrating IA with Insanity. Good call BB! Not only that, they will no doubt rope in the few renegades who may go straight to IA and squeeze some more BB$ out of them!

I am seriously looking forward to the Fit Test this evening before I go coaching. It is only about 25 minutes or so and I will be ready to start day 1 of IA tomorrow.

HOWEVER!!! I am going to try and dilute the 30 days of IA with some KB workouts, I am hoping to stretch it out to 60 days with the inclusion of some Crossfit / pullup workouts also. It’s not that I don’t think it will be hard enough, but I don’t want to lose my KB skill set or my pullups during the process. The biggest problem I had with Insanity was that there was no back work involved so I found myself doing extra chin ups when I could in order to get the balanced workout I wanted. Whatever I do, the day 1 workout will no doubt be a rude awakening as I move towards more mobility once again.

 

R5D64 – Medium RKC, Insanity Asylum And Hello 39″ Waist!!

Today, the 18th, apparently Insanity:Asylum goes on sale on the Beachbody site. I have found a Facebook group where “coach Todd” is reviewing it one day at a time. Since my package still isn’t here I will have to make do with the review of day one.

There is more to come, so go to the Facebook page and “like” the page!

Medium day was OK, I have managed to get over the shoulderblade pain from last week by taking 3 days off which is unfortunate since this week is the 2 month weigh in for Biggest Loser at my workplace. Hopefully I will win this month and at least win my money back! I am almost done the RKC and as a continuance I have several DVDs of advanced KB routines to keep my interested in KB work while I start Insanity:Asylum. I am very excited, I am sure I have already said that, but the idea of being able to transition so smoothly into the next workout is a huge weight off my shoulders. I think after heavy day this week that may be it. If not, there may be one more week to go. Either way, the KB workouts have really made a difference in my physique and my strength. Especially in my core where I am notoriously lazy, the KB workouts have really tightened me up and caused me to go below 40″ in my waist for the first time in a very long time. Even when I was 252 for the wedding, my pants were still a 42! So you can imagine my surprise when I measured in at 39″ yesterday!

I imagine I won’t have time to work out today, but at the same time, spotting back tuck on floor is as much of a workout as you would need, talk about combining speed, strength and quick reflexes into a workout!

R5D63 – RKC Light Day Outside. Shipping Details.

Today was the first time I was able to go out on the deck and do my workout with the chin up bar outside. I just love to work out in the afternoon sun, it is very calming, but at the same time very invigorating. Also, the chin up bar I have out there is higher and wider than the one indoors and so creates a much better range of motion for the chinups. It was RKC  light day, so the workout was pretty quick, however I managed to develop a pain behind my shoulderblade which I assume is a part of nerve impingement in my neck. It comes and goes, just one more thing to deal with while I wait for my package to arrive. I got a note from Beachbody that my package had shipped and it should be here in 1 week. It’s very exciting, let me tell you!

At the end of last year, this is what the deck looked like. I don’t have big plans for it this year other than to try and extend the chin up bar on the left and secure it with something better than a chain nailed to the side of the decking. I am also going to be making a jump up box of 24″ since at various places around the deck I can go from 14″-10″ of height. Having a sturdy box will be great however I am not certain I won’t bang my head on the upper deck. Even if I do, the lower deck extends past the upper, I will just have to place the box away from the overhang. Those bars are yellow for clarity in the picture, in fact they are both black. One is a plumbing pipe, about 1.5″ thick. The other, longer one chained to the supports is the top pipe of a chain link fence which is at least 2.5″ thick giving me a grip workout at the same time.

R5D62 – Grass Fed Beef and Chest Day

Mark’s Daily Apple had a good article yesterday about the benefits and differences with grass fed beef. We all know, to some degree, that the massive feed lots don’t produce the healthiest meat and that grass fed is the way to go but what does it really mean? Some of the things we tell ourselves and each other are ingrained but can use some inspection, and MDA does a great job of that on the beef front. The whole article can be found here and the link to Mark’s blog is here. I like his site because he often takes time to answer questions that most of us find relevant and in a simple way. The guy could be taken to task about his past with the Beachbody supplements thing but then again, read his site for a while and you will quickly realize he knows his stuff! I also found a cool article on making sausages…

I also find it amusing that when I speak with people about not eating grains and tell them that their diet is the same diet they feed cattle to make them gain 800lbs in a few months the little light goes on over their heads. Doesn’t mean they will stop eating donuts, but at least it gives them food for thought.

Yesterday was chest day and I found myself thinking that my workouts are a bit one dimensional at the moment. I am really enjoying the KB challenge but it does leave a bit to be desired on the variety front especially if you don’t take the time to do something interesting during your variety days. Maybe it is because I was so excited about yesterday’s news regarding the Asylum or just that since I was sick I have been only doing the RKC and not adding extra work. Maybe I am getting excited at the prospect of spring and the fact that I am going to be able to work out outside and do my sprints around the 600m track that is my neighbourhood I am not sure. What I do know is that I need to get my creative side going again and maybe get back to picking the WOD as my variety day so I don’t lose my Crossfit touch. For my chest day it was pretty sad actually, I did a few chest presses with the KBs (45 and 70) plus some pullovers and then did 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 on the bench with 205lbs. It wasn’t a lot of work, but since I was coaching and was short on time, it worked out fine. I should have done dips and some tricep work too, I will have to address that at a later date.

R5D61- I Know What Happens Next! I’m Going To The Asylum!!!

Heavy day was pretty good, I seem to have a different way of doing the clean and press with each arm, however, my dominant (and therefore I assumed smarter) arm doesn’t seem to get it as well as my left. In fact, my left arm is quick, mobile and always gets the clean and press exacly right, no forearm banging, no off centre weighting… I don’t get it. It appears that my right side is more of a pull up clean with my traps rather than my left side which is a lift with the legs and then rotate around the bell after pulling back like starting a lawn mower. I am not sure why they are different but I am starting to have more respect for my left arm in the cool side of the body contest.
But that is not the big news, I got an email today saying that “INSANITY:ASYLUM IS HERE!”. Yes, I am super excited that the arrival of my Asylum package should coincide approximately with the completion of the RKC Rite Of Passage. It also means that I am going to have to work the KBs into my Asylum workout schedule, no matter how hard it is. Even if it means just a few swings, snatches and clean and presses a day. I am pretty stoked, mostly because it means I will be getting back into some cardio work which I am occasionally a fan of but also because the Asylum promises to be a bootcamp type sport oriented workout. That sounds like my cup of tea. We will have to see, but P90X was as described, Insanity I think lived up to the hype so I am cautiously optimistic about the new regime. Not only that, but I think it will give me some much needed mobility work in training for the Warrior Dash 2011 which is coming up July 9th. I have to admit the timing couldn’t be better, I was starting to suffer a little from the anticipation of the  90 day wobble where you get to the end of the 90 days, if it is P90X or whatever, and wobble in your workouts due to the lack of structure you suddenly find yourself in. Not this time though. Even though this is my 5th round of 90 days, it still is difficult to set yourself up for the start of the next round so as not to lose momentum.

 

Paleo, It’s Pretty Good. In Other News, Cats Go “Meow”.

Today FitDay decided to publish an article on the Paleo diet. Now I am a big FitDay fan and obviously enjoying the benefits of the Paleo diet so I found this particularly interesting. The article, however can be summed up as follows:

The Paleo Diet, it’s pretty good.

I was hoping for a little more, but they seemed to get the spirit of the thing correct while not pissing anybody off or risking having someone mail them an envelope of veal or even worse, a mean face carved into the side of a summer squash.

More into the spirit of sensational news stories about our health, the Brits are again leading the way by claiming that we can now get human milk from cows. Apparently they have been putting human DNA into cows (any volunteers for that job?!) and getting breast milk. I can only envision a herd of 3000lb breasts wandering around a field but that’s because I am really a 12 year old boy.

Next in my inbox was something I swear I have seen before, lots of pictures of what compromises a “fit” body. I am sure this came up some time ago, only because I remember the graphics involved. It did spawn an interesting conversation about what we as fairly sedentary office workers would consider to be “Fit”. We came up with the decision that it is how you are able to move your body around your space. Not how much over your bodyweight you can bench or shoulder press but rather how able you are to get around and do what you need or want to do. I am very happy that the notion of fitness seems to be graduating towards being “less vulnerable and more durable” as Tony likes to say out in the real world. I know there are people out there who want to hang on to the past glory of muscle heads and steroid freaks but as the population ages we are only going to see more of the movement towards less “dangerous” and more functional fitness.

As for personal news, this past weekend at one point I weighed in at 239lbs. I know I was very light, I hadn’t eaten and so it was not a clear reflection of where I am but HOLY CRAP! It was back in September of 1999 the last time I was in the 230’s without sickness being the cause.

It has been the kind of week that drains you of all your faculties, no emotional, physical or mental energy left. I still haven’t got rid of the 3lbs I gained last weekend during my “Hey I am under 240″ celebration. That buffet at Golden Griddle sure did a number on me. I was 241 this morning and am looking forward far too much to going to Marché tonight to expect to be any less tomorrow. I also am under the impression that the spate of weight loss was indeed a freaky cycle and that it has been exorcised by the mountainous breakfast of last weekend. Still, I can expect to at least remain where I am for a while, and then when the planets align again, down it will go. I just hope that I can keep my eye on the target of being 225 by New Year.

Needless to say, that 225 never transpired, but then again what did I expect not really knowing what my body was doing with the food I was giving it? Even I am not arrogant enough to proclaim that I will reach that milestone, since 225 would take me back to before my weight records began in earnest sometime around 1997. From what I can recall, I left University around the 195lb mark. I know the following year I ballooned as my life took awkward turns and twists leaving me in a place I would rather forget. I was up around 300 within a couple of years and even after I got that under control I still never made it back under 245. So we are in fairly uncharted territory, and yes, I am aware that I am painfully obsessed with my weight, not only that, I have discovered an alarming personality flaw… I can’t stand really fat people.

R5D59-60 – Recovery

I have finally managed to shake this lingering sickness. The baby is better, my wife is recovering nicely and thankfully we were both in good enough shape to enjoy this past weekend at Orangeville for the gymnastics competition. My workouts have suffered though, over the course of a week I have managed only 2 workouts, a light and medium day of the RKC. Interestingly, my aches and pains are much improved and although I hadn’t really planned to take the week off, my body certainly had other things in mind. I have never really been one for rest weeks, I find them frustrating and a block to progress, of course that is because I am an idiot. Your body needs rest, your body cannot perform without adequate sleep but also without adequate rest cycles. You can not go anywhere once the tank is empty, but fill up when you are at 1/4 and you will go forever. My new found respect for rest weeks will continue to add to my personal knowledge and probably enable me to go further with my fitness than I have been able to previously. If only I can remember to rest when I start to feel sore instead of waiting until I actually run myself into the ground. I am supposed to do RKC heavy day today or tomorrow, depending on time availability and then I will be back on track. However, I am coming to the end of the RKC and will have to find a KB integration method to help me maintain my love of the KB workouts and allow me to explore my next big thing.

R5D54-8 – Inadvertent Rest Week (revised!)

I posted the other day that I am sore a lot recently. I am getting out of bed in the morning stiff and not feeling that great. So last week I tried to take it easy, it started on Monday which I had to take off because of the mock meet and the fact I was short on time. I only worked out 4 days during the week, and as the weekend progressed I got more and more sick. It’s now Monday and I feel awful. My back is incredibly sore, I seem to have picked up a bug from the baby and I really feel like I have been through the grinder. I think it is my own fault though, I have a feeling that my short (or barely there) warmups are causing me more grief. I think that the one great thing about following along with DVD workouts is that you tend to spend more time warming up than you do if you are by yourself. My RKC workouts are not for the faint of heart and are short and brutal. However, not warming up properly before I do them is leading me to be more sore and may eventually lead to back problems. At least that is what I think is going on here. I can’t think of any other reason that I would be so sore. The only thing that has changed is the fact that I have been trying to take advantage of how short these workouts are. But not doing the full 10 minute warmup is a mistake I am finding out. Hopefully this sickness will pass quickly and I will be able to get my full 5 days workouts in and have enough rest time to sleep and get the girls ready for their competition. It’s going to be a busy week, especially with the first competition so I am hoping the excitement and adrenaline will help me through!

**Edit**
So much for that. I spent half of Monday and all Tuesday on the couch with a terrible cold. It’s Wednesday and we are 2 days from competition and I hope I can shake this thing. It seems like an eternity since I worked out (I did heavy day on Sunday) and hopefully I will be able to get back to doing light day today and get back in the groove. Got to love being sick…

R5D52/3 – Heavy Day and Coffee… And Other Rambling Tangents…

Sunday I did heavy day, including more with the 70lb KB. I took Monday off since it was the Mock Meet for my gymnasts and I was short on time. This week I have to try to stick to the schedule, adding an extra day off is messing me up. I am a little torn however since I seem to be sore and tired alll the time at the moment and I am wondering if I have been slightly overtraining. It’s hard to say if I have or if I am being lazy, there seems to be a fine line there!

What about coffee? There is some chatter on the Paleo landscape about if caffeine is permitted or not. I don’t really care if it is or not, to be honest, I enjoy a cup of tea or coffee but I don’t have it after about 1 in the afternoon. The reason is not because of the caffeine, but rather the stress it creates in your body. It’s fine in the morning, although I don’t think I need it since I have sworn off caffeine for a year on 2 separate occasions, but towards the end of the day you are bound to interrupt your sleeping patterns and that is a cardinal sin. You see there are right and wrong ways to think about health and what is important. For example when I used to spend 2 hours in the gym in the morning and then scarf down 2 bagels with cream cheese and load up on pasta each day I would have prioritized the major factors like this:

Exercise
Diet
Rest Days
Sleep

Since then, I have come to realize that exercise is a small component of health and fitness and my outlook appears more like this:

Sleep
Stress
Diet
Exercise

So why stress? Well, studies show that our performance is directly related to stressors, both physical and mental. So the more stress you place on your systems, the less healthy you will be. The folks over at Catalyst Valley have created just the graph to illustrate the new world order:

So try and reduce your stress, and I know there are a thousand sites and methods but the ones I find are simple but effective go like this:

– De-stress in the car on the way home. Most people, myself included, hate to commute but my 30 minutes in the car have become a time to unwind, laugh at a podcast or two, sing along to some 80’s pop or simply plan my next workout. Whatever you choose, don’t let your drive home add to your stress, it is the perfect time to relax and decompress.

– Use one workout a week to do some relaxation, stretching or yoga. Don’t add it to your schedule, replace an existing workout with it. You would be amazed what a couple of weeks of quiet yoga will do for your workout ethic.

– Be early. Most people are rushing because they are disorganized. If you are early, you will always have a few minutes to yourself to relax before you start whatever you are doing. A few minutes or quiet reflection in a day while basking in your organizational nirvana is pretty amazing. Do you remember the last time you were early somewhere?

..and what about dairy? I have my own take, I am phasing it out just because I don’t seem to miss it, but as usual, Fitbomb has done a stellar job of working through the issue here.

And don’t think that these Paleo people are only south of the border, the Canadian Physicians are starting to notice that we are resembling Tim Horton’s Donuts not just eating them… Diseases of Affluence he calls it…