Insanity Workout? Is it for the insane?

Here we go again
A couple weeks ago I got a message on my facebook page asking me my thoughts on the new “Insanity Workout”. He had sent me the marketing video that was floating around on youtube and I checked it out and I said it looks to me like a p90x copycat from the way it was being promoted. I told him harder is not necessarily better.

That’s my opinion and I am sticking to it.

What I hadn’t realized was that it was put out by the Beach Body Company which is the same company that put out p90x which would explain why their marketing behind it would be the same. It is also the same company that put out Hip Hop Abs and Turbo Jam and I guess with the explosion of popularity behind p90x they realized the profit potential in that market and decided to run in that direction. Can’t really say I blame them.

Now the attacks begin. First let me say I am doing this critique based upon opinions and biases that I have picked up over the years. First bias is I don’t do aerobics which this program along with the Plyometrics X disc from p90x simply looks like glorified aerobics. You can dress a civilian up in as much Marine Corp attire you want but unless hes been through Marine Corp bootcamp and came out the other side a fighting machine he is no Marine.

Now as for the “secret” behind their Insanity Workout? They say they flipped interval training on it’s head to make it more effective. Wow…why didn’t I think of that. Just take what the top dudes in the industry are doing and do the opposite to get more results. Well sorry it doesn’t work like that. You see you can workout hard, and you can workout long. But you can’t workout hard and long. Your intensity is directly proportional to the length of the workout. If your workout is going to be an hour and a half do you really think you can train at the same intensity as if it were 10 minutes long? The answer is “no”. If I were to take their concept of doing long bouts of intense intervals followed by short rests to a new level of just doing the hard intervals all the way through with no rest…guess what you get. Steady state cardio, something that has been shown inferior for fat loss.

…and speaking of cardio. On just about every disc it is promoted as having cardio in it and yet they want to make you think you are going to build muscle. Cardio doesn’t build muscle unless you are already genetically predisposed to it. And if you are looking for conditioning (which they also promote this as a conditioning program) then go for Kenneth Jay’s Viking Warrior Conditioning. The science behind KJ is sound and blows me away every time I read it. Yes, real science from a real scientist/in the trenches coach/freak of nature in terms of strength and conditioning. (did you notice my bias towards my fellow Kettlebell coaches? it’s because the Party is always right)

Since it is all body weight exercises completely devoid of anything pulling related you will not get the biceps that they do in Insanity. I don’t think you will build anything with it…well maybe some leg muscle but the plyometrics that the beach body company has an infatuation with is not good for building muscle. True plyometrics is a shock tactic for training the nervous system meant to be used sparingly and it doesn’t have enough time to load your muscles with the tension that is necessary for building muscle. Same kind of reason running won’t build your muscles.

If you were going to go with a program from the Beach Body Company I would rather you went with p90x. And as you know I recommend Turbulence Training over p90x since the before and after pictures are about the same across the same timeline even though Turbulence Training has you training about 2 1/2 hours a week while p90x has you train a minimum of 6. While I am on that subject it was the amount of before and after pictures from p90x that had originally caught my attention. I thought to myself “How on earth did they get people to actually stick to the program?” Well the answer is p90x (and insanity also) has a multimillion dollar marketing machine behind it producing an extremely high volume of sales. That’s why p90x is practically a household name and that is why there is over 2 million searches a month on google. Now if you sell close to a million copies do you think you might get a couple people that actually see it through to the end? Yup. It’s not that they have a high rate of compliance…they just have a lot of people doing it….and newsflash healthy eating and exercise together work….not exactly new. Here is my video review comparing the 2 programs

Incidentally did you notice that those 2 programs by the Beach Body Company use negative states of mind to promote their products? Confusion, Insanity…both undesirable traits.

Eric Moss RKC over and out

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3. Rain's Ninja Assassin Workout Routine
4. re: Biggest Loser Workout
5. an ab workout that makes you miserable