To Insanity and Beyond

Why does Shaun T even call it recovery, anyway? I mean, you’d think recovery would describe a way for your muscles to actually, oh, I don’t know, recover. Not in Insanity.

Not that I’m complaining… loudly. I actually love that there is no jumping in Cardio Recovery. But I gotta tell you, the slowness and depth of the exercises is a killer. The slow squats, squat holds, squat pulses, slow lunges, lunge holds and lung pulses kill me. Every single time. And there seems to be no way around it for me.

All of the other exercises I can do, though some are a little challenging, with relative ease. The bent leg, plank butt lifts – I really don’t even know what Shaun T calls them – are pretty tough just because of the form you have to be in to do them. But I can still do them. And most of the other plank based exercises are not nearly as tough now as they were just a few weeks ago.

But those slow movements are my undoing. So I have yet another thing to try to improve upon on my body. I really want to be able to do the low and slow leg exercises without having to stop like I do now. I know it will take leg strength to do it.

But if there is one thing I’ve learned in Insanity, it is that I can do anything. It might hurt a little bit, and it might be uncomfortable, but it is always attainable. I just need to dig deeper.

Most the time I love recovery. But in Insanity, recovery is simply a way of saying “you’re going to still workout, only slower and more painfully”.

The one thing I love about Cardio Recovery is that there is no jumping in it. It is totally no-impact so that helps a guy like me, who is pretty large, really allow his lower extremities to rest. Of course that is totally compensated for with the insane slowness of the deep and large muscle exercises we do in this program.

Slow squats, slow lunges, pulses… all of these are murder on your muscles. But they are murder in a good way. I’m amazed at how much stronger my legs have become since I started Insanity. And I am amazed at how much stronger I am mentally, knowing that certain exercises are going to hurt like hell but still being able to prepare myself mentally to accept that and still push through.

Today I was challenged physically AND mentally. And I had to step up big time, both physically and mentally, in order to complete today’s recovery workout. This is mainly because I did Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs this morning because of a schedule issue last night. So I was actually doing two different Insanity programs on the same day with recovery being the second. That made Cardio Recovery extremely challenging today.

At the of it I was tired, sore and felt fatigued. I actually haven’t felt fatigued like this since my first week of my first round Insanity. Which was kinda nice because I was able to capture that feeling again and really dig deep, pushing myself through the end of the workout to complete it. And when it was all done I felt good, if a little tired, and very, very accomplished.

I decided today to take it easy on myself and actually do what was scheduled for today: Cardio Recovery. I did this because my body is tired. Physically I’m hurting a little from the last two weeks of pounding myself daily. I needed the recovery and I’m glad I took it today. Last week I chose to do Max Interval Sports Training on my recovery day because I absolutely love that workout. I think if I wasn’t tired and feeling so worn out this morning, I would have done it again. I’m pretty sure next week I will be back on sports training instead of recovery on Thursday. We’ll see.

Cardio Recovery was sort of challenging today. It has been a while since I did slow squats and slow lunges, holding them in position for a while then pulsing them. I have to say I had to stand up a couple of times today during that part of the routine. I was burning like crazy during those and for a while I was actually shaking in my position as I held it. It was so crazy in fact that as I drove to work today I could still feel the effects of those moves almost two hours after I had completed them. Now that is a workout.

I also noticed today, again, that my shoulders need some work. Actually they need lots of work, not just some. But at least I know I can target them now, like I did my quadriceps in the first round. I’m hoping that before this round is over that I will actually be able to work my chest and core effectively from the plank position instead of being bound by weakness in my shoulders.

Otherwise my recovery workout today was awesome. I had forgotten how much I loved it when Shaun T looks into the camera while your legs are on fire and says “Remember, this isn’t cardio, it’s control.”. Thanks for reminding me Shaun T. I’ll try to remember that if I ever fully regain the use of my legs.