Insanity D54

Finally didn't do Max Recovery,
I wanted to do the gym work first and got so caught in it I did a lot more than usual and burned myself a little too much for Max Recovery... And yes this is an excuse I just didn't really feel like doing it and that's all (even if it's true I was really tired after gym)

D54 Max Interval Circuit, is still demanding, especially at the end and with arm exercises. I don't feel super tired after though.

Insanity catch up.

This week was kind of weird regarding training.
first D50 on monday : I didn't do the insanity in the morning, but I did it after work and it was quite good.
I even did the usual gym training.
Then tuesday morning I was able to do D51 without problem (not even 12 hours after the previous training)
during the evening the basic strength training went well, I even added some core training that wasn't planned.
Yesterday was D53 with Max Cardio Conditionning in the morning and Insane abs in the evening.
I tried hard to do the Insane abs as in the video. The moves are not hard, but doing everything in a row makes the abs burn. the planck part was still not completed perfectly (I still lack arm strength I guess, and not enough willpower too). after that my planning (changed this week) was to try Max time was the levers, then train L-sits, straddle sits, pseudo planche and pseudo reverse planche.
Results are quite surprising :
-Back lever I was able to stay about 30 seconds and I think I could have pushed a little more.
-Front lever I was able to stay about 20 seconds and I don't think I could have pushed.
I wasn't able to do any L-sits and didn't even try the Straddle sits, my arms were not burned and could have handle it I think, but my abs were totally burned (Insane abs before I tried to keep abs contracted at all/most time like he said).
Pseudo planche/reverse planche were absolutly no problem, I didn't even feel much of a burn. Next cycle I will go for the elevated feet version. Maybe I just didn't do them right... I wonder...

Insanity D47.5,D48-D50

It should be a long update but I'll keep it short
-D47 second half Insane abs, it's quite long but the exercises are more or less all the same kind: in a position where your abs are already contracted, do small moves... it burns of course but I'm not a big fan of this kind of exercises when it's only that. I have to consider if I want to continue the insane abs or change it for something else like P90x ab ripper (which is in my opinion more complete) Or even my own version.
-D48 I did for the first time Max interval sport training. Only thing I have to say : I had fun, the exercises are not that hard but it's a quite long training. I think I have to push myself for the jumps... Noticed that I wasn't able to jump to the maximum.
-D50 : today. well no comment to do, I didn't do it... yet. I woke up with a headache and I started the warm up as well as the stretching and then I stopped cause I was still not in a state of training.
I hope I''ll be good enough this evening, I'll do it then.

Other thing I think I'll cut my static training in different parts, cause I haven't been able to do the back levers + the L sits + straddle and I think that's not good. So on monday and friday I'll do the Handstand (approx 2 min total) and the front and back lever, If I feel fresh I'll also do the L-sit and straddle (or maybe should I go for a max time L-sit /straddle... yeah I'll think about it), and Wednesday I'll do the L-sit and straddle first and the rest if I feel fresh enough (or maybe just try a max rep).

Insanity D47 / half. Gymnastic bodies

Chronological order, so Gymnastic Basic strength training. A little update on the upper body pull and press for week 6 :
- Yesterday's press was headstand push up, with wall help (actually I use my bar cause the wall is behind my bar and other walls are not useable/ accessible). It's week 6 of this cycle (remember I named this cycle "cycle 1.5" cause I stopped my first cycle half way when I got my bars and I decided to start insanity) which means actually the 6th time doing it in this way since I do it once a week (3 press exercises a week / but each time a different one).
This press exercise is certainly the hardest of my current cycle (Ring push ups are ok, bulgarian variation is hard but I don't feel as much, and dips are ok at my level of variation :simple dips on p bars).
Because I have been able to inish the 3 reps set without breaking the sets, I've decided to try to focus more on control. So a (slightly?!) slower upward movement and a (slightly again?! I can't really tell) slower down negative movement. Result, the last of the reps was really hard, harder than last week, so I guess it works.
Does it count as breaking the steady state cycle, it's a modification of the move... whatever, I don't count it as a modification, I count it as executing the move correctly, the overload period is over and I'm supposed to be at the load period. I didn't change the ROM nor the leverage (which are the 2 things that define a variation normally) so let's say it's ok and it allows the end of a cycle to still be nice and interesting.

-About the upper body-pull, L-chin ups, same thing as for the press, I was able to do 3 sets of 4 to 5 reps, so I decided to focus on control and slowing down the move. Resuls, 3 sets of 3 reps with the last set being a little hard, and feeling my abs as well (which didn't occure when I was faster).

-And I also did the hang to back hang (going through front lever/ reverse hang/back lever....all tucked) this time I did less but I controled it more and I didn't bend the arms.

Now about the first half of Insanity this morning : Max Cardio Conditioning.
I have quite mixed feelings about what I did this morning...
The warm up was not hard but I didn't feel like giving a lot during the warm up. The knee lift (which I usually start without jump for the first round) was really easy.
Then I feel that at the en of the warm up I wasn't totally warmed up and didn't have enough oxygen flowing to my muscle (still felt somehow in an inactive state).
And once more I feel that the stretching is so light.... so didn't give much during the stretching part, resulting in a feeling of being stiff for the kicks exercises.
Then the first exercise I couldn't give my all, I felt the burn and didn't do the maximum ROM I should have done.
After that I somewhat realised that if I didn't do anything, this would be wasting today's training. I still didn't do great but little by little I went in and actually gave it, not my all, but a lot. I was even surprised for the in&out + push up jacks I was able to do full ROM and fast 4 times in a row before being worn out.
I still find the ski hops hook the most ridiculous movement of the entire insanity program.
I still finished the workout sweating like crazy, with my legs burning (oh yes I actually did do the last exercise, squat speed bag something.... not a full squat but still enough for the legs to burn and when it was to hard I actually went down little by little instead of going up).
So mixed feeling as you can see, I feel that I didn't give enough at the beginning, but I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made for some exercises (maybe I did better because I didn't give much at the beginning).

Insanity D46

Nothing to say about it, it's Max recovery, I revovered and no I didn't push myself and I'm not motivated to push myself for this, the stretches are not stretching me enough (especially for the arms and legs) and the other things burn but I don't like it... I still did the workout and went through almost everything (arms not completelly).

Didn't do the static gym training yesterday (had something else), that's the reason I tried the new thing on tuesday, and I'll do it tonight too (it's lever related exercise so I guess it will help too).

Tomorrow is Max cardio conditioning + Insane abs. I'll do as usual Max cardio conditioning in the morning and the insane abs as a "warm up" for gym training. I'm watching it right now, I think the back lever / front lever will feel like hell after this...Insane abs is 30 minutes something... The exercises still don't look as hard as the ab ripper X from p90X, but it's longer...

Insanity D45

I want to say I'm pretty disappointed... by myself.
I was on a good progression curve (You can notice from the few last posts I was saying it's getting nice and good, and everything).
And this morning despite feeling fresh (had a good night sleep) and not having any muscle soreness (not that I could feel) I was a lot less able to endure the burn.
I guess I need to keep the motivation and keep pushing.
Was out of breath faster...legs were less powerful. The abs wer quite good (did the power push ups with straight legs as well as the wide leg in and out).

Gymnastic : I tried something new with the ring push ups /rows , I did a hang to front lever to reverse hang to back lever to back lever hold hang and reverse (tucked of course). It's a nice /hard thing to do. I was actually not doing it right every time (I had to bend the arm a few times).

[edit] I understand why it wasn't' that good this morning, I feel new muscle soreness since noon. I think it''s yesterday's training. I was feeling so good that I pushed more and it had this result on today''s training.
[end edit]

Insanity D44

Not much to say except that I'm making progress. It's the third time doing Max Interval circuit I was going through 2 of the 3 series without problems (sometimes did easier variation to preserve the knees, sometime did harder variations, when I say easier / harder the difference is very small but I have to tell it to be honest).
I also did the third circuit quite alright.
One of the main variation I do is for switch kicks / high knee and the similar moves, when I feel some weakness in my knee I don't jump to switch , I keep trying to go fast still (it's both easier and harder, easier because the jumps are more cardio, harder because there is no rebound help.)
An other variation I do is for moves that are one sided, I alternate sides to try working symetrically.
Sometime I also do the moves in two steps when I feel like the one step version doesn't allow as much power (that's usually for combined jumps/hooks moves as hooks have power if pushing the ground while twisting).
Well I'm still slower for moves that combine push ups and other things but I always do the full ROM of the push ups when on the video I see the guys trying to go fast but not always going all the way down.

Insanity summary 3 days

Couldn't update so here is D40, D41 & D43 :
Second time doing the Max version of each exercise (plyo, cardio and circuit)
It was much, much better.
Still not able to do everything at full speed / without break, but there are some exercises I''m sure I''m using a bigger ROM and I don't take a break as often as the persons in the video.
I'm also feeling better after the training and  the multiple push ups parts are going a lot better (compared to the beginning). The level 3 drill (16 push ups + 16 planck knee lift) is still out of reach with full ROM at the same speed, so I''m doing level 1 instead (4 push ups + 4 planck knee lift) I manage to go to a total of 24 push ups where they go to 32.
My joints are also better (used kneepads 2 days for the rest, know it's ok).

I'm planning to do the second part of Insanity one more time after I finish it and after one week of rest (actual vacations.. so harder to exercise). And then maybe try to do Asylum... we''ll see

Just a small note on gymnastic training:
-Levers still on the right track. "tried" to do flat back for back lever, not as natural as for front lever.
-Handstand have to work on it to be able to do a free standing handstand.
-Abs.... negative pseudo front. Need to work a little bit more activelly on the core. maybe try the L to V (knowing I won't go to a V) and other strange things.
-Dips I feel something strange in my right hand when I do dips. I'm trying to have max ROM and do 5 reps /set
-Reverse hang curls. It''s still a very strange move for me... full body weight curl and you have to  keep your balance, I feel that to do it right I'll need some time.

Insanity D39

Yeah... already D39, I can hardly believe it...
Well first I'll be starting  with yesterday's gym training.
I didn't do much (it's still something like 45 minutes break included, but doesn't feel like a lot because didn't do a lot of different things).
I switched back from pseudo wall HS run to static handstand work. My shoulder were already so taxed from the insanity workout I couldn't move. I think that's actually a good thing because I noticed my form isn't quite right and steady (I'm not opening the shoulder enough anymore).
The levers are on a good way still. The form seems fine and the series feel like I still work but I don't fight as much to go through (looks perfectly in line with the gymnastic steady state training explanation). One note : since I asked help to see if my butt and shoulders are leveled, I think I have unconsciously swtiched from a tucked front lever to a flat bask tucked front lever... not exactly a bad thing but I wonder if it will affect the steady state thing.
I've also done a serie of static "front lever flag" well it's really not that, but can't find a nice name. it's just inclined straight body hold, the feet are up the hands help keep an angle between the shoulder and the ground by grabbing something (here the base of my PB) of course the smaller the angle the harder. I would say I'm around 60 degrees. Of course this is to help for front lever. I hope that by doing this I wil prepare my core well enough by the time I try to get to the full front lever (a few months from now, at slow pace like I'm doing now in about 10 month I should be doing the full front lever and full back lever...) I should think of something to work on my back for back lever...

Max recovery : To tell the truth, I really didn't want to do it at all, remember when I said I hated cardio recovery? Well I was expecting something similar, and somehow it is. But it was quite good as far as recovery goes. It's a little less taxing on the legs, but well I HATE this #@%*& arms part. Other than that it was quite good. Oh yeah, today I felt my left knee a little too much, I'm really going to be careful about that.
Tomorrow is hard again, but I still feel all my muscles... hope I'll have recovered enough.

Insanity D38

Max cardio conditioning.
It's like pure cardio but the next level : longer, harder exercises. (only 45 minutes compared to the others but normally no break).
My legs feel so heavy after that.
And I felt weakness in my joints quite a few time... have to be careful about that, when this arrives  it''s either focus even more than usual or stop completely to avoid an injury.
Tomorrow is Max recovery... it will be good for the joints, but I already know it will be horrible for the muscles...
Ok so the training... lots of combined jumps and arms moves which is kind of tiring. Some move I feel are not studied for  coordination or maybe I''m just not accustomed to it yet.
Warm up is strange compared to usual, the third serie of mmoves doesn''t have the same moves as the first two.
It''s hard... Doing it integraly without any break seems not possible for me right now... 4 weeks after I'm not even sure...

Insanity D37 / Gymnastic body cycle 1.5 week 5

First gymnastic strength training :
Both good and bad :
-it was really hard to do the "pseudo wall HS run" (call it pseudo because of my modification to make it possible at my level, id est straddle HS with feet on the bars to help the balance and certainly the arms, I'll keep it like that for a time cause otherwise I won''t mke it through without injury I can tell).
-it was somewhat hard to do the levers at first, but then I could finish the sets more easilly than usual (I mean the last rep was not way harder than the first one)
-The really bad part is I was totally burned after the levers, tried to do a tucked planche but crashed. The reason is certainly the insanity gear 2. I hope I'll be able to catch up quickly, I''ve not been doing the L-sits for a while either ( I do the L-chin ups but it's not as hard for the abs).

Insanity D37 : first I want to say I was wrong, The exercises are harder, yesterday it didn't feel harder because I was fresh, but today I know it's a lot harder I got muscle soreness I didn't have for a few weeks.
about the Max Cardio Plyo. It's crazy hard. There's only two series plus one isolated set, but I have to admit it, it's "Insane". The first serie by itself can burn you up entirelly : full body moves, more core twist, more arms.
My favorite move the "Power push ups" it''s not one step from the abs/push up combination I''ve seen in my gym training. basically it's a push up plus a straigth legs inverted V-up (understand get the feet and hand to the same level on the ground). The one I'd love to do is just a little bit more dynamic / plyometric : same move except you touch your feet while airborne and you get right back in the push up position.

I have to be honest, I don't really know how the people on the video did and I can't tell if I took more break than them, cause I was to focused on myself. It's a hard one and I''m worn out.

Insanity D36 (no D34) & gym

Woooohooo Max Interval Circuit!!!
Yeah finally starting the serious part of Insanity!
I have to admit shamefully that saturday I didn't do D34. I was really bored. Maybe it was a bad thing and I should consider that I won't complete Insanity. But I don't care. The fun part begins! and I''m finishing this.
So what's different? what's new?
Well it's longer, about 20 minutes longer which is not small. How does it impact the training? One more serie of exercise (instead of 2 series we go up to 3).
What about the training itself?
The warm up is a little bit harder, with inclusion of exercises that were in the series like the switch kicks.
The exercises in the series are not "harder" by themselves but they include more different parts of the body in one rep.
What do I think of the overall difficulty level felt?
Gosh it's tiring. It''s not like going from almost no exercise to the first week of Insanity but it's quite hard. it is actually a lot harder, in the third serie I had to modify a little bit one or two moves cause I was too tired to do the jumps for the squat hooks, but I did squat... hard to explain easy to show...
I'm still a little bit pumped up by the training, but I think I'll have a big feeling of tireness at noon.
At least, that''s what I like in training... pushing the limits.

Saturday I actually did more dips than the "standard" I still did 3 reps per set. I tried to increase the ROM to the maximum of my current capacity (which is go down to a position where the shoulders are slightly above the hands) and do the move in a more controlled manner (go slowly and stop at both the top and bottom).
I did that quite randomly during the day (good being in week end) and actually didn't really count, but I can tell it had an impact, cause I felt my shoulders and chest muscles yesterday (more than usual).

I think this evening it will be very hard for me to do the gymnastic training... lets see.

Gymnastic body (cycle 1.5 / week 4)

Don't know what happened but I was able to do the 3 sets of headstand push ups quite "easilly"
It maybe thanks to the handstand wall run, or it maybe because I changed the training method from series to circuit (I called serie doing 3 sets of one exercise in a row with rest in between, and circuit doing one set of each exercise then start over again, I hope it's the same definition for most of the people). I added a leg work exercise too so that it gives me enoguh rest (in circuit mode).
I tried to do one tuck front lever row.... as I thought it is hard. and I tried one tuck planche push ups the ROM is really small (using pushup bars) and it's already hard.
A really small explaination on the title. Cycle 1.5 is because I stop in the midle of my first cycle when I got my bars to be able to include the levers in my training. And hten week 4 it means it's the 4th week of this cycle.
I'm doing a "steady state" type of training so I'm doing the same every week for 8 weeks. It allows the 3 phases of training (overload, load, underload). It might feel a little bit boring at the end, but you have the psychological advantage of a "success" period to boost the confidence before entering a new cycle. I''m at week 4 and I'm starting to get positive result like less struggle to end a workout an/or success trying harder variations.

Insanity D33

Bored... doing every day the same thing is boring, not that it's easier or anything...
only tomorrow left.
I know I'll regret it on monday but it's ok, I prefer being dead tired rather than bored.