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Insanity Before and After Pictures and Fit Test Results

In this on-going review of Insanity blog series, the truth behind the Insanity 60-day weight loss program is revealed with a play-by-play description of what the program is really like – and more importantly – if Insanity really works!

The Cardio Recovery workout portion of the Insanity program is the first “day off” in the program, although the term day off is used VERY loosely! Yes, it is an easier workout than the other Insanity routines, but to say that it is easy would be far from the truth.

Breathing & Stretching

Insanity Cardio RecoveryThe Cardio Recovery routine starts out pretty slow, which is a welcome change from most of the Insanity routines, all of which have you dripping sweat in less than 5 minutes.

The first 3 minutes are simple breathing and stretching exercises that, although not terribly difficult, do get you both mentally and physically prepared to start cranking things up during the rest of the workout.

Plank Work

The next 6 minutes consist mostly of “plank work,” which is to say that most of the movements include at least some portion of time spent in the classic plank exercise position. For anyone not familiar with the plank, it is basically the “up” portion of a standard push up. Your body is parallel to the floor, your arms are full extended, and your toes are on the floor.

The plank work exercises consist of several versions of getting into and out of the plank position, in and out jumps while in the plank position, and 1-leg pulses that work your hamstrings (back of the leg) and your glutes (butt muscles).

By the end of the 6-minute plank work section, your legs and shoulders are very much warmed up and ready for action, and your heart rate is also up high enough that most people will be sweating more profusely by this point in the workout.

Deep Muscle Work

The next section of the Cardio Recovery routine is a full 10 minutes long and consists of “deep muscle work”. In layman’s terms, it means is that you work your muscles through longer, slower repetitions, and you also hold several static positions in order to build up muscular endurance.

This portion of the workout consists mostly of squats and lunges, all done in 3 ways: slow, controlled repetitions; static  holds while in the contracted (difficult) portion of the exercise; and pulses which are short range of motion movements done from the contracted portion of each movement.

This 10 minutes of the workout is the most challenging, because there are no breaks to speak of. You basically get into a lunge or a squat position, and then you have to stay there LONG after your muscles are fatigued and begging for mercy.

Quadricep and Oblique Strengtheners

This part of the Cardio Recovery workout is about 4 minutes long and has some unique movements that most people have probably never seen before. They are meant to strengthen the quadriceps (top of the leg) and the obliques (side abdominal muscles).

The movements are done while in a modified “all fours” position where your knees are kept off the ground the entire time while you go through various leg and abdominal exercises – overall, some pretty cool stuff.

Hip Flexor Work, Flexibility, and Balance Poses

Coming up on the end of this workout, the next 9 minutes are spent stretching out the hip flexors, stretching your body overall, and working on improving your balance. The hip flexors are worked and adequately stretched during every single Insanity workout, and balance is also improved simply by the nature of the Insanity exercise routines.

The exercises in this portion of the Cardio Recovery workout aren’t terribly difficult, especially for people who have been doing Insanity for a few weeks, but they are still effective at what they are supposed to do, which is to increase your flexibility and balance.

Conclusion

The Insanity Cardio Recovery workout is just that a RECOVERY from cardio. It is not meant to be an easy workout, but rather just a break from the normal intensity of the Insanity workouts.

That being said, there are portions of the Cardio Recovery DVD that are far from easy, so skipping this workout is NOT an option during the 60-day Insanity program. You need this workout for the benefits of the workout itself, as well as for the much needed break from the rest of the Insanity craziness!

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Insanity Before and After Pictures and Fit Test Results

Here are the latest weight loss and exercise blog posts from the Surfside Fitness blog. These 5 blog posts collectively represent a HUGE amount of very useful weight loss, nutrition, and exercise information, so do yourself a favor and read each and every one of them, and then take action on what you learn!

Eat Your Way to Great Abs

Interval Training: The Best Way to See Quick Results

Does Exercise Matter for Weight Loss?

You Can Eat Great and Still Lose Weight

12 Ways to Eat Healthier on the Cheap

Save 25% or even 50% off of Insanity by clicking right here!

Insanity Before and After Pictures and Fit Test Results

In this on-going review of Insanity blog series, the truth behind the Insanity 60-day weight loss program is revealed with a play-by-play description of what the program is really like – and more importantly – if Insanity really works!

The 30-day mark is the official half-way point for Insanity, and it is also the third of five Fit Tests that you take during the 60-day weight loss program. Click on through to check out the Initial Fit Test and also the 2-Week Fit Test to learn more about the test itself, and the great results that I have gotten from Insanity so far.

The 30-Day Difference

There are two HUGE differences when you take the  Insanity Fit Test at the 30-day mark, although thankfully those differences don’t come into play until after you have taken the actual test.

1. The 30-day Fit Test is taken directly before a full workout. Yep, that’s right – first you give an all-out 110% effort for almost 25 minutes during the test, then you still have to do that day’s workout afterward!
2. The 30-day Fit Test is also the transition from Month 1 of the program into Month 2, and the second month is quite a bit more difficult than the first – as impossible as that seems!

As challenging as all of the Insanity workouts are, once you transition into Month 2, the intensity and the duration of the program both increase immediately.  The workouts are longer, and since you have been working out intensely for a solid month at this point, the intensity gets cranked up as well.

The 30-Day Insanity Results

Insanity delivers on its promises of both weight loss and a high level of fitness, and the Fit Tests combined with the visual details are proof-positive of that. Both in the mirror and on paper, the Insanity results are beyond dispute.

Here are my Fit Test Results from Day 1 up through Day 30:

As you can see, there has been improvement – drastic improvement – in every single exercise. Refer back to the Day 1 Fit Test Review for the details on how hard these exercises are, and how there is not much time during the Fit Test to catch your breath, and you’ll see that these kind of results can only come from a massively increased level of physical fitness.

Insanity Before and After Pictures

I am holding off on posting the Insanity before and after pictures until I get to the end of the program simply because I haven’t had a chance to take any intermediate pictures yet.

I will, however, post front, side, and back pictures from Day 1 and Day 60 so that you can see side-by-side the physical results, and I will also post the Day 45 and Day 60 Fit Test results.

Stay tuned!

Buy Insanity Now!

OR
Become a Beachbody Coach and save 25% off of Insanity and all Beachbody products, supplements, and equipment!

Related Posts
INSANITY!
Review of Insanity – The Fit Test
Review of Insanity – Plyometric Cardio Circuit
Review of Insanity – Cardio Power and Resistance
Review of Insanity – The Fit Test Week 2
Review of Insanity – Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs
Review of Insanity – The Fit Test Week 4
Review of Insanity – Cardio Recovery
Review of Insanity – Core Cardio and Balance
Review of Insanity – Max Recovery
Review of Insanity – Max Interval Circuit
Review of Insanity – Max Cardio Conditioning
Review of Insanity – Max Interval Plyo
Insanity Before and After Pictures and Fit Test Results

Save 25% or even 50% off of Insanity by clicking right here!

Insanity Before and After Pictures and Fit Test Results

In this on-going review of Insanity blog series, the truth behind the Insanity 60-day weight loss program is revealed with a play-by-play description of what the program is really like – and more importantly – if Insanity really works!

Insanity Pure Cardio
and Cardio AbsMost of the Insanity workout routines consist of a similar and very effective format: Warm-up, stretch, an intense interval training circuit routine, and then a quick rest before continuing with on-going interval training circuits for the entire workout. That format repeats until the end of each workout, and then a thorough – and very welcome! – cool-down stretch finishes out the exercise session.

In the Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs routine, however, the format is quite a bit different, and quite the challenge as well.

The routine starts out with a warm-up and stretch, just as the other DVD’s do, but once the stretches are done and the actual exercises start, they never stop until the entire workout is done.

Most of the Insanity workouts are based on high-intensity interval training followed by brief periods of rest, back to high-intensity, then rest, back to high-intensity, and so on. It is that “reverse interval training” that makes Insanity different than any other home workout program on the market right now.

In the Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs routine, however, once the high-intensity starts, there are NO BREAKS of any kind. You just keep “pushing through” as Shaun T calls it, and you don’t stop exercising until you get to the cool-down stretch at the end.

The period of time that you do this constant exercise is approximately 20-minutes, which doesn’t seem like much when you see that number in black and white. However, this is the Insanity 60-day weight loss program that we are talking about, not some mamby-pamby, ineffective workout program. The Insanity exercises are all challenging, effective movements, and they all share a similar trait:

The better you are at the movements, the harder they are and the more benefit you get from doing them!

In other words, Insanity isn’t one of those routines that you can “conquer,” and then have to move on to something more challenging later on down the road. People don’t conquer Insanity – they survive it!

Cardio Abs

The Cardio Abs routine is actually a separate workout than the Pure Cardio routine, but if you follow the Insanity workout schedule – and you should – then the Cardio Abs workout is done immediately following the Pure Cardio routine.

Pure Cardio is just about 40-minutes long, and the Cardio Abs routine is about 16-minutes long. The total exercise time on the day that you do Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs will be just under 1 hour.

The Cardio Abs routine itself is a good combination of intense cardiovascular movements along with effective abdominal exercises. The ab movements are meant to target not just your “visible” abdominal muscles, but the inner muscles as well, collectively making the workout a core training workout, not just an ab routine.

For anyone who has done the Ab Ripper X routine in P90X, the Cardio Abs routine is not as difficult from a purely abdominal training perspective. However, the combination of intense cardiovascular training along with intense ab and core movements makes Cardio Abs every bit as challenging as Ab Ripper X, just in a different way.

Conclusion

Overall, the Insanity Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs workout routine is at the same time a welcome break from the format of the other workouts, yet it is also just as challenging as the other routines.

There are no Insanity workouts that don’t leave you dripping with sweat and feeling a serious sense of accomplishment, and in that regard, the Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs routine gets the job done just like the rest of the Insanity workouts.

Buy Insanity Now!

OR
Become a Beachbody Coach and save 25% off of Insanity and all Beachbody products, supplements, and equipment!

Related Posts
INSANITY!
Review of Insanity – The Fit Test
Review of Insanity – Plyometric Cardio Circuit
Review of Insanity – Cardio Power and Resistance
Review of Insanity – The Fit Test Week 2
Review of Insanity – Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs
Review of Insanity – The Fit Test Week 4
Review of Insanity – Cardio Recovery
Review of Insanity – Core Cardio and Balance
Review of Insanity – Max Recovery
Review of Insanity – Max Interval Circuit
Review of Insanity – Max Cardio Conditioning
Review of Insanity – Max Interval Plyo
Insanity Before and After Pictures and Fit Test Results

When it comes to weight loss, sometimes it seems like it’s just not possible to lose that much weight. This Beachbody home workout video customer was able lose over 100 POUNDS in the comfort of her own home.

Check out the video, and then learn more about all of the incredible products and services that Beachbody offers. These kind of results can be YOURS if you’re willing to do what it takes to make it happen!