Happy Birthday, Mom!
Welcome to the Asylum:
Since I'm somewhat insane today, this is a good segue to give a review of my favorite workout ever: Insanity Asylum. I have done each of the workouts at three to four times each, depending on the workout (though I've done Relief, which is stretching, probably six times). First and foremost, it's a really good workout program. It's challenging and very effective--I've already seen significant changes. Second, but equally important to me, I LOVE Shaun T, and enjoy all of his workouts. I think he's a great coach. He's motivating, entertaining, and infinitely watchable.
He's much more hard core and badass on the Asylum workouts than any of his others, and I really enjoy that side of him as well. Each week I do one "play" workout--usually one of my Bhangra dancing videos or one of Shaun T's Hip Hop Abs workouts (which are very fun, but still a good workout), and it's really funny to see the contrast between Shaun T's silly, flamboyant side in HHA, versus the drill sargeant approach in Asylum.
There are no real breaks in Asylum. The "warm up" is as intense as the workout itself, so there is no easing into it. Without fail, I am dripping sweat within the first five minutes. There are a handful of water breaks that are incredibly short, and he is completely unapologetic about driving us so hard. I like that. He repeatedly states that at this level, we shouldn't need any more than two breaths worth of a break, and that motivates me to push myself (though I definitely need to take more than two breaths of break time sometimes, I anticipate the day when I don't need to). Even though the workouts are incredibly intense, the time flies, because they are not boring. They are physically challenging and mentally challenging--he has some very elaborate combination moves that really force me to focus, and because we're constantly busy, the 40-45 minutes seems to fly by.
Hands down, vertical plyo is the killer. It is absolutely brutal, but effective. That was last night's workout. Normally during the workouts, when Shaun T says, "This next move is the beast!", I get a little surge of excited adrenaline. When he says that during V.P., I cringe a bit, because I know it's going to be so much worse than the beast. I am most excited to completely master that workout and get to the point where I laugh when he says that.
I have seen a huge difference already in my performance. After just three times through these workouts, I noticed that when I did my old (still intense) plyo workout, that I could jump higher, longer, faster, farther and am quite impressed by the rapid results.
I have been doing the Asylum workouts every other week, rather than every week, because I'm trying to listen to and care for my (aging) body. I initially wanted to do Asylum workouts for 4-6 weeks straight, and then assimilate them into my other workouts, but they do take a toll. I am in good shape, but I'm also in my mid forties, post menopausal, and have arthritis in my hands and feet, and all of the running/jumping leave my feet and knees pretty worn out by the end of the week. Doing one week of Asylum and one week of my other workouts (HIIT and strength training) seems to work well for me.
L has been doing them with me, and she's not nearly as enthusiastic as working out as I am. She's reluctantly been working out with me almost every day for the last month. She used to have a choice between working out with me or walking the dogs with Mark, and she usually chose walking the dogs (at a pace that is not really a good workout). She's become very unsatisfied with her body lately and would like to carry less fat than she is carrying. I don't want her to focus on weight at all, but she does need to build more muscle to be healthy and fit, so M & I decided that to be responsible parents, we would have to help her with this. Now she's my workout buddy nearly every night. We want her to be healthy and fit, but not appearance focused or weight obsessed, so I feel like we're walking on a tight rope with this. Saying or doing one thing wrong at this sensitive, hormonal age can do lasting damage to her body image/self-esteem, so it's a little bit scary to navigate.
Initially, she was very whiny about it and would literally just go through the motions, which gets no results at all. Lately, she's had a turn around in attitude that has been wonderful. She's really trying to do the workouts, rather than trying to do as little as possible, and is anxious to see results. She's been starting to challenge herself with the workouts, trying to do more reps or have better form each time. Asylum was a HUGE challenge for her, but she is really stepping up, and I'm so proud of her. It's awesome to see her try a workout that she swore she was incapable of doing, and see her push herself farther each time. The self-esteem that builds (not to mention the fitness) is immeasurable!
On a side note, I was SUPER disappointed to find that the Tough Mudder has a minimum age of 18. I really wanted her to do it with me next year, as think it would be fun, give her a tangible goal to train for, and again, help build self-esteem and a better mind-body relationship. Sadly, we will have to wait a few years to do it together. I will be doing it next year and am really excited about it. That gives me a while to try to talk Dej & Mark into it. She doesn't like the mud involved, and Mark isn't sure about the physical endurance part, but he has plenty of time to train. So far, we have a team of four (vegans!) committed for next year, but I'd really like them to join us. With the average age of 29 and only 24% females, I will probably be the oldest woman there. I've been a female computer scientist for over 20 years, so I refuse to be intimidated by the numbers!
Back to Asylum: My favorite part may seem a bit odd, but it's very important to me, particularly since I am doing these workouts with L. The other participants in the video--the people doing the workout with him--are all athletes. There is not a fake boob to be seen.
I find nothing more disgusting than doing a workout only to look up and see a bunch of bolt-on Barbies. A true athlete does not have fake, giant boobs, because they get in the way (besides looking ridiculous on a lean, muscular body) and are not natural. Women who spend money on this rather than helping the less fortunate with that money are appearance obsessed, not fitness based. I'm fairly disgusted by the women in the Hip Hop Abs video, as a couple of them have ridiculous, fake breasts. I probably wouldn't have noticed it, but L pointed it out to me, and it became more and more of an irritant. These women belong in porn, not fitness. This is not a message I want sent to my impressionable teen daughter! The women in Asylum are fit, strong, and natural (or at least look very natural), and their real bodies motivate me greatly. These women are appropriate role models for my child, not the balloon bimbos prancing around trying to be sexy. I have NO tolerance for fake boobs (with the exemption of mastectomy reconstruction, of course) and find them a gross symbol of what's wrong with the world today (breast-obsessed culture, women as objects, shallow, appearance based and lacking in substance, money spent on fun bags when people/animals are starving and dying from lack of medical care--really?? These are valid priorities for people?!) and they absolutely induce rage in me. I will not knowingly associate or spend time with such trite, useless, anti-feminist females and surely don't want to work out with them!
** The pictures are L's latest watercolor paintings (on 11x15 watercolor paper) and Daisy, because she was standing next to me looking goofy (but very cute).
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