Insanity With Shaun T

I spent my Saturday morning trying out a new workout – Insanity! Earlier this week I received an email from the local marketing manager for Powerade Zero. She invited me to attend and blog about an event they were hosting today at a local Y. Powerade Zero has partnered with Insanity and Hip Hop Abs founder Shaun T for a nationwide “No Excuses Tour.” (Check to see if the tour will be stopping in your city.) I immediately agreed to attend the event because I wanted to see what Insanity was about and I was offered the opportunity to meet Shaun – he’s incredible!

I was able to meet Shaun when I arrived at the event. I was happy for the opportunity to grab a picture with him before being put through the ridiculous workout! The after photo would have been a whole different story! He was very friendly and personable and we chatted a bit about his crazy travel schedule. He’s a busy man and makes appearances and leads workouts all over the country. He draws huge crowds everywhere he goes.

After meeting Shaun I was shown to the workout area. The event was held on a huge sports field in front of the Y and there were hundreds of people in attendance. The energy of the participants was incredible! Everyone was so pumped to workout with Shaun. I was surprised to find that Powerade had a mat set up for me and that I was stationed front and center. I was pretty nervous because it meant that I definitely couldn’t slack on the workout when I was standing right underneath Shaun T! 😉

Then it was time to sweat! The Siskey Y group exercise instructors did a great job warming us up and getting us ready for Insanity.

Shaun hit the stage and within minutes sweat was pouring off my body and I questioned how I could possibly survive an hour of it. After about 10 minutes he declared that the warmup was over. The warmup!? I felt like I had already worked out! While the intensity remained high, things slowed down a bit after that and became a little more manageable. We started working in sets of work where we would do about four exercises, 30 seconds on each, three rounds through. We got a 30 second recovery between rounds. The exercises alternated between more dynamic/jumping movements and more static/strength type movements so that was nice for recovery within the sets of work.

Shaun is an amazing instructor. His enthusiasm and energy was infectious and he frequently got off the stage and interacted with participants. He pushed us in an encouraging way that made you want to keep working and give it your all. Just when you thought you were going to die and couldn’t go on, relief came.

He also incorporated some fun drills. Here’s a video of a scissor jump drill that we did. We had to do 10 scissor jumps and 5 pushups. The catch was that we couldn’t jump until Shaun said “go.” If anyone popped up early, we had to start over. We did FOUR ROUNDS of this. My thighs were on fire!

Towards the latter part of the hour we came down for some abs. You’d think this would be a “break” but not so much. Again, Shaun interacted with the participants and brought two up on stage. I shot a video of the ab circuit, which we repeated six times, just so you can try it at home!

Abs, hips and thighs burning yet? You’re welcome! 🙂 Oh and a warning to my yogis…you know what to expect for abs this week!

We finished up the class one last set of dynamic work. We went one minute on through about six different exercises. One was vertical jumps with knee taps. Can we take a moment to appreciate Shaun’s vertical jump? Crazy.

Insanity was an awesome workout and I left sweaty and happily exhausted. Thank you to Shaun T for his energy and to Powerade Zero for inviting me to be a part of this great event! Have you ever tried Insanity? If the tour is coming to your city, I highly recommend attending!

Post-workout lunch was an egg, cheese and avocado bagel from Owen’s Bagel & Deli. I had been craving Owen’s for weeks and it was everything I hoped for. I also had half a bag of salt and vinegar kettle chips. Mmm…

After lunch I strolled across the street to the Atherton Mills Market in search of eggs but all the farmers were sold out. I got a carrot, orange and apple juice instead from Luna’s.

Time to relax and enjoy the rest of Saturday. Have a great weekend!