Something Beats Nothing Every Time

Core Cardio and Balance

This workout is a nice break from the crazy pace of some of the other Insanity workouts but it is cleverly designed that you can really modulate your heart rate to give you the kind of workout you are looking for. Each section is 60 seconds unlike most of the other workouts I have done so far and that in itself makes this a challenge.

Here’s the breakdown:

Warmup

Switch Heel Kicks – Like skipping rope with an imaginary rope. And imaginary hip hop friends
Mummy Kicks – Arms out at eye level, legs kicking straight ahead with knees straight. I’m not a fan of this one.
Side-to-Side Football Shuffles – Hands up in the famous football stance, shuffle 4 times a side
Log Jumps – Rather than jumping across the log, Shaun tells you to imagine is rolling towards you. Avoid it!
8 High Knees / 8 Power Jacks – He tends to twist slightly on the high knees.
8 Fast Feet / 8 Hooks – Fast feet are stationary football shuffles, hooks are same as Kenpo.

Stretch

Very basic stretch, after all, this is not a hardcore workout by any stretch of the imagination.

The Workout

Each move is done for 60 seconds if you can make it. If you are watching, there are times when several of the participants in the background give up and rest. That makes me feel better and is a surprise motivation to me. This may have been done on purpose, if it was, Shaun T is my hero. Likely it wasn’t, it’s just they think he can’t see them!

Moving Ski Jumps – Same as regular, just move 4x to the left and then back.
Hit the Floor – This is a single floor touch on each side with a high reach in between.
Level 1 Drills – 4 push-ups, 8 plank runs, stand up, drop down, repeat. A modified burpee.
Heismans
8 Switch Kicks & 8 Hop Squats – Switch kicks are just front high kicks with no rest. Hop squats are like stationary Groucho’s. Get into a plie squat and jump slightly, staying in your squat.
High Jumps – Jump. High. Higher is better.
Moving Plank Walk – This is hard since it’s the only real work your shoulders and chest do. No pushups, just walk side to side in plank position.
8 Elbows & 4 Suicides – Kenpo elbows with suicides*
4 Hops Switch – Hop on one leg 4x then switch. Other knee should be at hip height.
8 Jabs & Jumps – Jabs from Kenpo in a horse stance then jump half turn to face the opposite way and jab there.

* Suicides are hard to explain, easy to do. I tried explaining it to my gym kids and they were completely lost. It is basically a floor touch with your left hand, 3 steps to the right, floor touch with your right hand. Sounds simple, but apparently not. You have to be quick with your steps, they are suicides so you are supposed to be running the same way you would if you were running suicide drills across a floor.

Next comes Hip Flexor Burners.

Be warned, the problem with this exercise is that you can’t really tell how long you are going to be doing each part. It is in fact 30 seconds, I think it would have been slightly easier had I known that. It’s also 3 sections after each other.

Start with arms up in fighting stance. Lift your back knee until it is above hip level, lower and tap the floor and repeat for 30 seconds. This is the easy part.
The second part requires you to pulse your knee up for another 30 seconds, while keeping your foot off the ground and your knee above hip level. That part starts to hurt.
Finally keep the knee at hip level and kick your foot out to horizontal and back. For 30 seconds.

At this point there are only 2 moves left. Oblique Knee Lifts and Plie Shoulder Complex.

Oblique Knee Lifts – Reach your right arm up to the sky, while bringing it down to the side like a lat pulldown (or chin up I suppose) raise the same side knee to the side until your elbow meets the knee. This is a good exercise if you really squeeze the obliques. If not, it’s easy for this to be a time waster.

Plie Shoulder Complex

This is a five-part exercise, each part being 30 seconds.

Start in a deep plie squat, with your thighs parallel to the floor (the deeper, the harder it is). Extend your arms to the side, palms down and pulse them up and down like you are gently flapping your wings.

Next, arms start at the side and clap in front of your face, arms straight. Stay in plie squat.

Next, instead of clapping to the front, clap overhead, arms straight, still in plie squat.

Next do arm circles forward just like the P90X version only you are still in your squat.

Finally, circle the opposite way and after about 20 seconds Shaun T calls it quits. If you look at the timer, as they are all high fiving and laughing it up, your timer is still running. Don’t be lazy, fill the time.

I liked this workout. It was as hard as I needed it to be and it was really easy to dial it up when my heart rate started to fall.