Insanity: The Asylum Final Thoughts

Today is it.  After 30 grueling days of the hardest work I've ever done, I've finally finished "Insanity: The Asylum."  I regret not blogging about these workouts before, but I mean it when I say the hardest work I've ever done.  Shawn T starts you off with an Athletic Performance Assessment that measures your coordination, strength, endurance, and just how far you can push yourself to achieve.  That gets done once every 30 days.  While it's the shortest of the videos, it still left me doubled-over gasping for air.  The other workouts aim to target different aspects of athletic performance while still providing a full body workout.  The first week you basically get familiar with the workouts, starting out pretty easy compared to what's coming (even though it's not easy at all).  Shawn T takes you through Speed and Agility, Strength, Back to Core, Vertical Plyo (the worst by far), Gameday, Overtime (which you don't see until around the 3rd week), and Relief (stretching, thank the Lord).  I'll do a more in-depth review of these workouts later, but if you've never heard of this program the basic jist is resistance training: using your body as a weight instead of dumbbells.  You can make your workouts as hard (or easy) as you want depending on how you want to push yourself.

Thinking back to when I first started this program, I remember how frustrating it was getting familiar with the workouts.  My first Speed and Agility I ended up swearing more than working out because I couldn't keep up and I tripped on the jump rope and ladder constantly.  But I think that's the mentality of this day and age:  We want instant  results and when we cant get those we get frustrated.  Unfortunately, that's not how it works.  In any sort of fitness routine, I've learned that being patient and letting go of mistakes and failures will yield better, less stressful results.  It's important to not dwell on the mess-ups and little set backs and instead focus on the improvements and positives, in both workouts and life.  So long as you keep pushing yourself to do the best that you can each time you put in one of these DVDs or each time you go to work or each time you play a sport, you'll improve somewhere.  I saw that happen each time I did a workout during The Asylum. While I definitely struggled every time, and some days I just did awful because I was so wiped out, I could see that I was jumping higher, enduring longer, and pushing out a few more reps each rotation.  You can do it too!! It's all about believing in yourself.

Nearing the end of the program, the last week or so, I struggled with my focus.  I was exhausted, both mentally and physically.  Mentally I had been struggling with living at home after graduating college, listening to arguing parents and not really having "me" space anymore.  The stress that compounded from this took it's toll on my workouts and made it difficult to continue.  Realizing this, it set me into an even worse spiral.  Adding the mental stress to the physical toll from this program, there were a few times I almost gave up (vertical plyo sucked my soul out, haha).  But this is the true test of The Asylum, and probably why the program was named such.  Can you overcome yourself? Can you overcome mentalities and push past barriers to improve yourself?  The answer is YES!  I did, and anyone else who is thinking of trying, or currently participating in this program, or any other program, YOU CAN.  It's body vs. mind where body normally wins but true accomplishment comes from getting back up, wiping the sweat off your face, and pushing play every day.  You can do that and you will see improvements every time.

Now that I'm done with The Asylum, the question becomes what to do next.  The program came with some suggested hybrid workouts (Asylum+Insanity/Asylum+P90X) post Asylum, and that's definitely on my mind.  However, I keep asking myself, "Could I do better?  Did I really give this everything I could?"  I definitely believe I can do better, and will most certainly do this program again in it's fullest.  There's always room for improvement no matter what fitness level you may be on.  That's another thing to take away from programs like these.  Always challenge yourself to do better.  Break down your barriers and persevere through the pain (muscle burning that is, please don't seriously hurt yourself) and have confidence in yourself.  You will see results.  But baby steps first, the recovery week seems lovely at this point....

Here are my results:
Day 1/Day30
Chest: 42.5"/43.5"
Right Arm (Flexed): 14.25"/14"
Left Arm (Flexed): 14.5"/14"
Waist: 34"/32"
Hips: 37.5"/36.25"
Right Thigh: 22.25"/22.75"
Left Thigh: 22.25"/22.75"
Weight: 188.5 lbs/181.5 lbs
% Body Fat: 12.72%/10.41%


Fit Test Results
Day 1/Day 30
Agility Heisman: 5.5/7.5
In & Out Ab Progression: 39/44
Lat Push-Ups: 20/26
Mountain Climber Switch Kicks: 60/95
Agility Shoulder Taps: 4/5.75
X Jumps: 21/21 (Height Improvement)
Moving Push-Ups: 3.5/4
Agility Lateral Shuffle: 7/11
Agility Bear Crawl: 5/8

Thanks for reading guys and as always, contact me with any questions!