The blurb:
For those unaware, Insanity is a workout developed by noted American fitness trainer Shaun T that is marketed as a 60-day programme to an incredible body. For about £100 you get a set of DVDs that guide you through the 45-minute workouts — which you can do pretty much anywhere you have a DVD player — and promise you ‘a year’s worth of results in 60 days’.
The concept isn’t exactly ground-breaking or new, home workouts have been around for years and if you vacuumed vigorously for 45 minutes everyday for 60 days you’d probably end up losing weight. However what is — or was — new is the concept of doing the workouts at such high intensity with so little recovery time. Traditional HIIT (High Intensity) workouts are based on one exercise, practised for short periods of extreme exertion and then a longer recovery time, such as all-out sprinting for 45 seconds followed by two minutes of walking. Insanity, however, flips that equation, with long high-intensity periods of multiple exercises followed by short rest times. Which is a bit insane when you think about it.
Despite this fairly sadistic set-up the workout has proved very popular, so much so that earlier this year it was rolled out as a legit class activity with proper accredited trainers. Which brings us to the team at London Insaniacs, who are running Insanity classes in Hammersmith, Fulham, Putney and Chelsea, all led by the very energetic and enthusiastic Tanya.
The process:
As the chart-music-on-steroids was kicking in, Tanya shouted out instructions on how the class was going to run. A warm-up followed by legs, upper-body and abs, with the main three areas split into three rounds with short rest times in between — and by short I mean very short. Without much warning the class kicked into gear with some stretching and deep breathing until a klaxon sounded and the leg exercises began. Burpees, squats, knee raises and several other exercises were performed at a high tempo, with 30-second rests in between the rounds leaving me covered in sweat, out of breath and feeling sick.
I’d consider myself quite a fit person; I did a triathlon a few months ago, visit the gym four or five times a week and even cycled to this evening’s class. I was wrong, I am not fit. Insanity was demonstrating why it could change Rik Waller into Brad Pitt in Fight Club, and this was only exercise group one.
After a 60-second rest we got into upper-body exercises with movements such as squat twists and crouch punching. By the third round the class (several newbies included) had adjusted to the tempo and were able to keep up with most of the exercises. And where we weren’t Tanya was quick to offer encouragement and correct bad form as she bounded around the class with seemingly endless energy.
The abs section consisted of planks, downward press-ups, what felt like Cossack dancing and several other core exercises. The tempo was no less intense but at least when doing plank or something core you’re resting, sort of. After three rounds of abs the class was over and the red, sweaty faces breathed a sigh of relief. Broken and exhausted we may have been, but everyone said the same thing: they felt great and that they’d done a proper workout, without one piece of equipment in sight.
Insanity is a gruelling and incredibly high-tempo workout, however, if followed properly, there is no doubt it will allow you to lose weight, tone up and build muscle. Yet you can easily see how people could go easy on themselves if trying it at home, which is why classes like this are a good idea. Knowledgeable instructors, loud music and a group sense of togetherness help push you through the really hard bits — and there are a lot of hard bits. Once a week for 50 minutes may not be enough, but it’s a good start and Tanya proved to be an excellent instructor.
