When you decide to take the Insanity challenge and embark on 60 days of the toughest exercises you have endured (hopefully), your first challenge is to complete the Fit Test. This is designed to keep track of your progress over the next 60 days as you will take the test every two weeks and compare results, but also as an indicator of whether or not you are truly ready for Insanity.
The Fit Test should definitely be taken first, this is not a step you want to skip, and it should definitely not be taken lightly. Shaun T, creator of Insanity guides through an intense series of workouts that will prepare you for the rest of the DVDs in the series. The warm up alone is enough to leave an average person winded and struggling to complete a full circuit. Beachbody.com describes the Fit Test as a way to “put your body to the test and see what you’re made of.” It does just that.
Shaun T is one of the most motivational coaches I have seen on DVD. Having also tried the P90x workout by Tony Horton, I am familiar with Beachbody.com and their motivation practices. Tony makes you push, but Shaun T feels like he’s there, he is very upbeat and for a high power cardio based workout this seems to be a natural fit.
The test starts off with series of warm up drills. These are pretty standard across all the DVDs in the series. A power jog, jumping jacks, mummy kicks etc.
The idea behind the Fit Test is to see how many reps you can do of each of the 8 exercises in 30 seconds. Even as you watch Shaun T who is definitely not out of shape and two students from his class perform the same moves you are, it is obvious they are struggling at times. No number is unacceptable, just do as many as you can and push through. I have included my first time numbers as a comparison, for the most part I was close to what demonstrator’s were able to pull off. The exercises you do are as follows:
Switch Kicks 90
Power Jacks 41
Power Knees 59
Power Jumps 30
Globe Jumps 4 (at this point my legs were weak and I found jumping almost impossible)
Suicide Jumps 10
Push Up Jacks 10
Low Plank Oblique 30
The Fit Test so far is the easiest thing I’ve done on the Insanity schedule. It was hard….very hard but It is not impossible, and afterwards I have never felt better about myself. Step one completed, on my way to a new me. A few days later I started to feel the soreness of working muscles I usually ignored in the gym, but my endurance levels have gone up significantly. My impression? So far Insanity has lived up to its name and Shaun T has kept his promise. Dig deeper and push through!