Insanity Week 1 Update

Insanity. Some features that all the workouts have in common are the double clock, the exercise sub-titles, and the tips sub-titles.
A little bit about those features - the workouts showcase a double or dual clock. One clock counts down the total time of the workout. The second clock or timer counts down the exercise interval or rest period. Love this feature.
Also the workout features sub-titles that show what exercise you are doing and while you are doing a particular exercise, tips that give you helpful hints appear throughout. I also love this feature.

Insanity Week 1. The workouts for this week were the Fit Test, Cardio Abs, and Plyometric Cardio Circuit.

The Fit Test is around 25:40 in length. It has a warm up in which Shaun states the moves will be use in other Insanity workouts.
The moves used in the warm up are:
Jog, Jumping Jacks, Heisman, 123 Side to Side, Butt Kicks, High Knees and Mummy Kicks.
After the warm up, you start the Fit Test. The Fit Test contains 8 moves. You are to perform each of the 8 moves for one minute doing as many as you can for that minute. Shaun explains each exercise before you do it, so you are getting about a minute rest in between each of the eight moves.
The moves are:
1) Switch Kicks
2) Power Jacks
3) Power Knees
4) Power Jumps - similar to tuck jumps
5) Globe Jumps - these are around the world jumps, so four jumps make 1 rep
6) Suicide Jumps - these are essentially burpees
7) Push up Jacks - from the plank position
8) Low Plank Obliques
There is ending stretch
The power knees irritated me because they were all to one side. At the 1/2 way point, I thought Shaun would switch it up and have us do the other side but no.
This was a nice little workout. I felt it. I don't have this one schedule to do again but I might do it again at the end of the month to see if my numbers increase.

Cardio Abs is about 16:45 in length. There is a warm up. The exercises in the warm up are:
Jog, high knees, high knees with twist, jump rope, tucks jumps.
The warm up left me breathless. You get a brief water break before you start the main workout. The exercises in the main workout are:
Wide Tuck Jumps
C-Sit Position
C-Sit Position Twist
C-Sit Position with Knee Lift
C-Sit Position A-Frame Ab Twist
C-Sit Position A-Frame Ab with Knee Lift
C-Sit Position Hold Center
Water Break - 30 Second Rest
Single Leg Raise Right
Single Leg Raise Left
Water Break- 30 Second Rest
Both legs Raise
High Plank Position alternate side knee
Low Plank Position alternate side knee
Low Plank, Hip Tuck, Into High Plank, Reverse

There is an ending stretch. The only exercise I didn't care for was the Wide Tuck Jumps. I felt the challenge with all the C-Sit Position work.

Plyometric Cardio Circuit clocks in at about 41:47. It consist of a warm up, stretch, 2 circuits, and an ending stretch.
The exercises in the warm up are:
Jog it Out
Jumping Jacks
Heisman
123 Side to Side
Butt Kicks
High Knees
Mummy Kicks.
Shaun repeats the warm up three times. Each time through, he increases the speed of the exercise. After the warm up, you get a water break before going into an almost 7 minute stretch. Then the fun starts again with the circuits. I listed the exercises of the circuits in the worksheet. You will see that there are four exercises per circuit and you repeat each circuit 3 times. After going through one iteration of the circuit you get a 30 second water break. The 30 seconds flies by. The third time through each circuit, Shaun tacks on another 3 to 4 exercises before giving you your water break. So you think that you are getting a break but not yet.
This workout was challenging. I tried to do the exercises as Shaun did them the first time through the circuit but after that I started modifying some of the moves by taking out the plyo. I will say, in some cases it took less effort to just do the plyo move than it was to come up with a modification.
What I found with the workout, was that I was fine as long as I was standing. Anytime I had to go to the floor, I struggled or the workout became harder. It made me happy that the Mountain Climber move was done from the standing position.

I started the workout by not wearing my heart rate monitor but Shaun kept mentioning it, so I put it on after the warm up stretch. At one point in the workout, it showed 99%.

That is week 1. So far, so good.

Fit Test - 3 stars
Cardio Abs - 3 stars
Plyometric Cardio Circuit - 3 1/2 stars