Completing the first 30 days of Insanity pushed me with my cardio but the 2nd phase of the Insanity program was a beast. I completed it without missing a workout and feeling good about my results. I didn't see a great reduction in my weight, like I did when I completed P90X, but I can tell that my body fat percentage decreased and I do look leaner. Numbers aside that's the bottom line about doing this anyway right? Looking better and feeling better after a program like this is achievement enough for me! There is another reason for that too but I'll discuss that further down. I don't disregard the numbers by the way, I'll provide those in a minute.
What I Liked About Insanity
I was coming off an injury to my distal bicep, so the idea of a program that uses no weights and equipment, really appealed to me. Well, I used a heart rate monitor, but I'm not sure if you can call that equipment. I also liked the fact that the Insanity program was only 60 days, as opposed to the 90 days of P90X. Once you do Insanity, it's easy to see why it doesn't continue on for another 30 days. It's just not needed. Some may be concerned about losing any gains from P90X, but I would have to say that I don't think that's the case. You still do a bit of upper body and shoulder work just not to the extent of P90X. Push-up and floor exercises that work the chest and shoulders are added to the cardio mix and I was getting a good burn from those. The last point which was a nice change was that the first month of exercises in Insanity were only about 40 minutes including warm-up and cool down. That gets extended in the second month, but a least you build up to it!
What I Struggled With
If you had thought Plyometrics was tough in P90X, just wait till you get to do Max Interval Plyo! That doesn't happen until the second month in Insanity but I find it funny that a word that I hardly used prior to P90X has become a 4 letter word in my mind..."PLYO!"
What Could Be Better?
Shaun T was a nice change from Tony Horton, but for such an Insane workout I thought that there should have been a light warm up and stretch before getting right into it. The warm up was more like a pre-cardio workout to the cardio workout. The stretching is done post warm up which is fine, but its a pretty intense warm up. Also,
the Cardio Abs routines really didn't do anything for me. I thought the P90X Ab Ripper routines were much more intense. Even though I was burnt out after an Insanity workout, when having to do Cardio Abs right after, I still walked away thinking, "Okay, was that it?"
So what were my results?
I started Insanity at the 79.2kg (around the 175 pound mark) and ended up at 78.5kg (173 pounds). One thing I noticed that with the Insanity program is that due to the calorie burn in each workout, I felt that my appetite shot up quite a bit. I found myself eating more during this program than I ever did with P90X. Not eating bad stuff, but just needing more food intake to feel satisfied.
Closing Thoughts
Shaun T and the Insanity program provided me with a great way to continue on with working out since I hurt my distal bicep. I really didn't want to stop since I was feeling really good completing P90X. This program really pushes cardio and I found myself burning calories like crazy. I read somewhere in the forums that the Insanity workouts burn anywhere from 300 to 1000 calories per workout. The product home page says up 1,000 per workout but of course that depends on each person and how intense they worked out that day.
I would recommend Insanity to someone who:
-Needs a change from P90X
-Wants to lose weight very quickly
-Would like shorter workouts without weights or equipment
-Doesn't mind cardio...(maybe "loves cardio" would be a better way to say it)
Overall, I'm glad I did it. It gave me ideas about incorporating some of the routines into P90x in some way when I do another round of it. For example, as fun as it is, I wasn't too keen on Kenpo as an intense workout. The P90X Plyometrics was good, but after Insanity, I think any of those Cardio routines are a bit more intense.
Robert Hickey completed P90X and Insanity can tell you more about his P90x vs insanity experience on his blog. Robert lost close to 30 pounds with P90X and his is just one of many P90X Success Stories on how this program can change your life.