| Two years ago, I completed Shaun T's 60-day Insanity program. After completing the program, I noticed an improvement in my endurance and overall fitness. The program mixes circuit training with high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Not only are the workouts super challenging, but after completing this type of exercise, your body benefits from "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption" (EPOC), or what some people call the "afterburn". After you complete the exercise, your body is still recovering and adapting and thus consuming more oxygen. This process allows you to benefit from your workout even when you're done working out! This means that you've worked out, stretched, showered and moved on with your day, and you're still burning energy HOURS later! Who doesn't want that?! This is why you might see some HIIT workouts advertised as being able to achieve the same workout in half the time of a more traditional workout. |   |
While I fully recommend the entire Insanity program, I've put together an "Insane" workout for you to try at home - no equipment necessary! Just turn up your music, set your interval timer & GO!
Notes about this workout:
- Some of the moves in this workout are high-impact. Please feel free to modify the workout to make them low-impact if necessary.
- This workout is designed in a '2 minutes ON/30 seconds OFF' format. When you are ON, you want to give the exercise EVERYTHING you've got. When you're OFF, grab a drink, wipe your sweat, but walk around and keep your feet moving. The OFF section of the workout comes after each 2 minute block of work.
- Do each set 3 times through with a 30 second break after each set. When you're done, move onto the next set.
- Be sure to stretch at the end of the workout. Check out some post-workout stretches from Health.com.
- Each set is broken up into 4 exercises - do them for 30 seconds each, as fast as you can (with proper form), with no break in between.
- If you're unsure about any of the movements, check out the videos linked to the name of the exercise or google them before you start the workout. You want to be able to do this workout all the way through without stopping to look something up.
Do each exercise for 30 seconds, then without stopping, move on to the next exercise. This will take 2 minutes to do all 4 exercises in each set. When you've completed one set, take a 30 second break and repeat the same set so that you do each set a total of three times. When you've completed a set 3 times, move onto the next set. This whole workout should take about 30 minutes start to finish, including stretching at the end.
Warmup
| Set 1
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Set 2
| Set 3 |
Stretch
This workout has a lot of plyometrics that is going to work your legs! Be sure to give them a good stretch when you're done, making sure to target your quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes and IT band. Don't forget your upper body too!
What did you think? Can you feel the afterburn?
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