Note to self...(Insanity-related)

[UnstrungHarp]

When planning rotations, never schedule Insanity Max Interval Plyo the day after Hardcore Extreme Interval Circuit!!

Today I kept wondering why I felt so tired during the warm-up and didn't seem to have the usual stamina through the intervals (especially on push up moves)...then I remembered what I had just put my body through yesterday: 71 minutes of Cathe-craziness. You'd think I'd learn my lesson but this happens all the time. I always create my own rotations based on what I think I need the most, but obviously I tend to get overly optimistic in the planning stage!

At least, I'm hoping that's the reason I felt so weak today. I'd hate to think that I'm forfeiting everything I gained during the regular Insanity rotation. I'm only doing Insanity once a week now; the other five days are Cathe workouts. And, my upcoming February rotation is going to be less cardio-centric and heavy on the Gym Styles since I've never done them before and am dying to try!

So, I'm curious - has anyone finished Insanity and then felt like any of their progress was lost after switching to another rotation? I can't keep doing Insanity-only forever, but I'm wondering if I should increase to maybe three days a week if I want to maintain the results.

 

[CLango]

I finished Insanity over Christmas and am now doing a hybrid of STS/SC/Insanity. And, yes, it IS insane to be mixing all of these workouts. Right now, I'm doing the Insanity workouts once or twice a week.

My performance in these workouts has depended alot on what I've done prior to doing them. I found (at least initially) that I could do much better in my Insanity workouts if I hadn't exhausted my upper body first. While my lower body gets tired doing Insanity as well, it seemed it was my upper body that got TOO tired, and I had to give up on some of the upper body/core moves. I've never had to give up on any of the lower body moves (no matter how badly my legs are burning!)

So it may be likely that you exhausted your body too much doing Hardcore Extreme the day before your Insanity workout. I wouldn't take that as a sign that you are losing the gains you achieved in Insanity but, simply, that you are challenging your body in different ways now and your body is responding differently. I am about one month into my hybrid now (week four of Meso 1) and am finding that I am getting stronger and stronger with each workout I do and am pushing through the Insanity upper body portions where I was having to give up on them a couple of weeks ago because of exhausting my upper body. I take that as being a sign of progress. In fact, yesterday I was doing Max Internval Circuits and thinking to myself that the pushup sections are getting easier now (easier than when I did my Insanity-only rotation) that I'm lifting weights more regularly. Believe me, I wasn't thinking that two weeks ago!

So my recommendation to you is stick with your plans as is for a little while longer and see if your body adapts. I wouldn't recommend sacrificing your strength training plans to be able to continue doing the Insanity workouts as you did before because I believe shaking things up and shocking the body is very important....and effective.

Enjoy your Gym Style rotation! Those are some great workouts.

 

[UnstrungHarp]

Thanks for the input and the encouragement! Still a little frustrated though, because today I did Travel Fit and struggled with the push-ups. I'm really looking forward to my rest day tomorrow so maybe my muscles can recover fully from this crazy week. I will do my Gym Style rotation for February and then probably start back with more cardio in March. I wish I had STS to try after that...maybe by then I will break down and buy it.

 

[CLango]

If you are struggling with the pushups in something like Travel Fit, I'm wondering if it is possible that you are over-training right now. I wouldn't expect that kind of a fitness drop off from doing less Insanity, especially if you are doing something like Hardcore Extreme Circuits. So, yes, I think giving your body a good rest may be the best thing right now.

And I can't say enough positive things about STS, so if you are looking for an enabler.....