Insanity: Week Four

Yay! We made it through one month of Insanity!

For anyone thinking about doing this workout one warning: make sure you keep your body aligned.

They tell you these things in the video but you have to remind yourself. My knees and ankles began to hurt after the first couple weeks and it took me a while to adjust my movements to avoid injury.

For me this is absolutely making sure that my knees are over my ankles always. I know it may not always be very lady-like to have your knees spread so wide for those squats, but trust me: it will save your knees. I have to be most careful about this in squats, knee highs, stretches and (oddly enough) the heisman. I noticed that doing this also seems to help my ankles. Be careful out there!

So month one is over! Five weeks to go. This coming week is a new workout called "Core Cardio and Balance." And the workouts will change for the last month. Into new territory!

I have started to notice that my butt and thighs are more toned. I have always had a big butt and thighs (this is where all my weight goes). I measured today and I lost a half of an inch in my hips and my butt. None in my thighs yet. I also gained just a little weight but I think that was the fat converting to muscle. And Krissy told me that my shoulders and arms are getting bigger--she usually stands behind me for our workouts--she could see that while I was stretching. Happy day! Overall I feel very satisfied with the progress so far.

I have noticed that all four of us have lost a little weight and look more toned. We can get through the majority of the warm ups and we do pretty well in the exercises (though we all still have to take breaks). And we feel great! The soreness did start to come back more in weeks three and four but it's not so bad that we can't walk so it's all good.

With so many of us working out together our motivation stays up. It's almost like peer pressure. "Well, we're all going to work out... it is implied that you are lame if you don't..." Horrible right? But we have been enjoying our time together for snacks and hot tub afterwards. And we put 1$ per workout day into our little piggy bank! We are going to do something fun to reward ourselves after all this. Spa day, manicure/pedicure, something.

Jhenn's chalk board piggy bank for our reward! On the other side it says "Shaun T. says 'dig deeper!'"

Good luck to anybody who wants to try it! We recommend it!

Insanity: Week One

That's right folks, my friends and I made it (mostly alive) through week one of Insanity! Yay!

The first few days my legs were so sore I could barely walk. Going down stairs was agony. Even the little fit test on the first day made me hurt.

I am proud to say that only one week later I have already noticed improvements! I think we all have. For one, we can move after the workouts and the next day. Second, we can get through more of the warm up than we could at first (I know it's just the warm up but if you haven't seen in, its a whole workout in itself...).

We have a few motivational things to get us through.
1) Probably the most important thing: we have each other to keep us going and we are establishing a routine. Moral support is wonderful!
2) Afterwards we share a nice, healthy snack: bananas, apples with peanut butter, pita and hummus, chocolate milk, protein shakes, cottage cheese, etc.
3) Most days we visit the hot tub in the apartment complex. Very nice.
4) At the week's end once we finish at the hot tub we make and share a healthy dinner. This week Kat made a veggie casserole.
5) At the end of the 60 days we promised ourselves a treat. Maybe a spa day or something similar.
6) And last but not least, getting to cross off the workouts on the calendar with a very decisive black X.

Photo taken by my workout buddy, Jhenn :)

YAY! We feel great about what we are doing and we can't wait to be in amazing shape!

Our tips if you are going to do Insanity:
1) See the list above for additional motivation and tips.
2) Do extra stretches of your own (we think his are bunk, honestly, they don't do nearly enough and no arm or ab stretches. His stretches also require you to support your body weight while you do them and usually our legs are too shaky to get a good stretch. So we do his and then we do more on the ground...).
3) I got this from a co-worker who is super-fit: after you work out and stretch, lay on your back and put your legs up against a wall. This helps get rid of lactic acid (so I am told). It seemed to help some and I guess it can't hurt!