What a BEAUTIFUL day we’re having here in the Atlanta area. The weather is an absolute mood lifter. It’s one of those days that all I want to do is lace up my shoes and sneak out for a long carefree, unhurried run. A girl can dream. The hubby is out of town and thus I landed the star role of Single Mom for a few days. To all of you women out there who do the single parenting on a daily basis, many kudos/props/hats off/and cheers to you . You’re stronger women than I will ever be. My oldest are almost 5 and my youngest is just over 1 and to this day I STILL ask my husband every morning, “Do you really have to go to work?”. Oy.
All of the insanity of the past few husband-less days inspired me to whip out a little Kesha “Go insane go insane throw some glitter make it rain!” Shaun DVD called … you guessed it… INSANITY! Today is a cross-train day anyway so why the heck not? I propped open the door to the back deck, put the little buns in the back yard with a cup of dry cereal (organic kamut and millet cereal thank you very much) and dripped a good amount of sweat to Cardio Power and Resistance, followed by 20 minutes of Shaun’s “Insane Abs”. Good workout? Yes, thank you.
When doing a home workout with little buns running around everywhere, there are going to be interruptions, that’s a given. “Mom, I neeeeeed more cereal,” “Mommy, doggie is running away”, “Uh oh, poo poo” …. you get the idea. So you work even harder during the drills and reserve your breaks for the time when you know a little one is going to be tugging at your running shorts or pooping on your shoe. I have never been able to get through a complete INSANITY workout without taking at least a couple of breaks. Hey, Shaun T has to take them too! Sure, they may only be 5 seconds or so, but a break is a break. This program has you working at 85% of your maximum heart-rate – that’s intense!
Just some of my favorite moves in the Power and Resistance section:
- Power Jumps (holy high heart-rate batman)
- V-push-ups (work those shoulders)
- Walking push-ups
- Globe jumps (ok, so sometimes I feel like a monkey doing these, but yay for moving squats)
- Sprint/hurdles in place
- Butt kicks (these are in the warm-up portion)
SO MUCH FUN! Especially when your one year old rips off her diaper and backs up her little buns into your face just as you’re rising from your push-up. It is truly an awesome work-out – every time. If you’re looking for a way to get faster and stronger, and you’re tired of weekly hill repeats or just want a break from fartleks, INSANITY will do the trick – especially the Plyometrics portion! When I was trying the 60 day program, I didn’t have much time to run (which was ok, because I was healing from an overuse injury). A few weeks in, I hit the trails for a run and felt like I was flying! I couldn’t believe how fast I was going considering I had not been running very much. The power from my legs was explosive! I’ve slowed a bit since (due to illness and injury), but I am so excited to get back to the level of shape that I was in when I was hanging with Shaun T more frequently.
It was a good morning work-out, followed by an easy 800 meters at the pool this evening. A gorgeous day, great work-out, the arrival of the husband is on the horizon, and I have a trail run scheduled with a good friend tomorrow. All is well.
And as my TV workout buddy would say,
“DIG DEEP!”
Running Buns 