Asylum Review: Strength

Day 3 of Asylum is Strength. I have to admit it isnt necessarily what I was expecting, but it was an Asylum workout. I was definitely slowly getting worn away throughout the workout.

I guess I was expecting a P90X style workout, where you do sets of a defined exercise to exhaustion. The strength work was much more like Core Synergistics type of strength workout (to the extreme), where you are doing moves for a period of time, as opposed to a point that you are burned out. Also, similar to Core Synergistics, the exercises dont isolate a single muscle group, but combine multiple muscle groups.

The warm up is about 10 minutes, and uses dumbbells in a dynamic way. For example, holding a dumbbell, you do a squat, and then rotate it around your head. You also lunge to a side holding a dumbbell and then do a couple of rows. In this workout, you do repeat sequences of events. However as opposed to doing an exercise harder in the second and third sequence (as you would in Insanity), Shaun T makes the moves more complicated. This is how it is throughout the workout.

Again, there is a short stretch, and you go into the strength training. The exercises get progressively more intense. Again, as the time goes on, you get worn down. There aren't any max rep exercises. While a pull up bar is desireable, there is only one set of real pull ups. There is also a mountain climber set of pull ups, where you dont necessarily pull yourself up, but you hold yourself in position with your chin above your bar, and then you attempt to switch your hands into different positions. This is really hard.

While a pull up bar is desirable, there are non-pull up options for all exercises, so you really dont need a pull up bar.

I am assuming that there is some more strength work in the other exercises. At this point, I would describe this strength work as much more like P90X+ than P90X. If you are not familiar with P90X+, then consider it a much harder version of Core Synergistics. I know it will create much more muscle endurance, and to say I was profusely sweating is an understatement. Whatever you want to call it, it is a very serious workout that does work your whole body. However I want people to be aware of what to expect.

Asylum Review: Speed & Agility

The first official day of Asylum is the Speed and Agility DVD. As with all Insanity workouts, you never know what to expect. However, the Fit Test did give you a feel for what to expect. So, here is the first impression review of what to expect in the workout and review of the workout.

The warm up was actually a series of primarily jump rope exercises about a minute each. These include jumping rope with high knees, criss crossing, etc. Every set was about a minute each and it ended up being about 10 minutes long. There is no repeating of the exercises multiple times. There is no bar graph on the bottom of the page about the level of difficulty, like there is in Insanity. I guess the philosphy is that you are always supposed to push yourself. Stretching was less than 5 minutes.

I have to admit that the early part of the actual workout was more difficult mentally than physically. It was a lot of concentration to do the quick feet through the agility ladder. For the first section of the workout, I really didnt feel like I was being worked that hard, and probably could have got a more effective workout if I wasnt worried about fast feet stepping in the right places. I assume that over the next 30 days, it will get better.

However the workout did become progressively harder. You can see the value of the agility ladder, as In and Outs are now measured and you are pushed to bring your feet in tight. That takes a lot of work after awhile, and Shaun T keeps coming back to Ins and Outs. There are a few moving push ups. I lot of hops on one and two legs that begin to wear you out. Also, I was surprisingly hurting doing Bear Crawls, which you end up doing several variations of throughout the last 15 minutes.

I dont intend to go exercise by exercise through the program, but in general, you do a move for a minute and then move on. You do come back to In and Outs, and do variation of some of the moves you did before. Again, Asylum is emerging to be much more like a Pure Cardio workout, where you dont go through multiple sets that you do with more effort in the progressive sets. It is go all out on every set. I did this workout in a hotel room with the air conditioning on very high, and yet despite my early comments about the workout being more mentally than physically hard, I was drenched in sweat. So far it appears that Insanity is meant to make you a better athlete, who needs agility as much as they need to build up endurace. I am not sure if I can say that this workout was harder than lets say, Max Plyo, but if I stick with it, I know I will be quicker and possibly as fit.

This is however Day 2 and there are 6 more DVDs to try out. There is however a theme that seems to be emerging that Asylum is definitely more in tune to make you a better athlete, rather than just getting you in better shape. Strength is tonight when I get back home.

Asylum: Review of Sports Performance Assessment (Fit Test)

As I received Asylum today, I just had to do something. You are supposed to do the Athletic Performance Assessment, also known is Insanity lingo as the Fit Test, before beginning Asylum. Unlike doing Insanity, there is no time to waste with a Fit Test within the 30 days. Frankly, I dont even think there are more than 2 Rest Days in the program. As I intend to go through all the DVDs as soon as possible, I thought I would throw this review up asap for everyone else so that they know what to expect. If you want to read my future reviews, please feel free to Like this page.

Surprisingly, the Asylum Fit Test was not as strenuous as the Insanity Fit Test. There is more focus on functional fitness, like agility, as opposed to just cranking out numbers like in Insanity. Don't get me wrong. It isn't easy by any means. Most of the exercises involve the agility ladder in one way or another. There are a few fast feet exercises, where you zig zag in and out of the ladder. There is the Bear Crawl, where you crawl back and forth on the floor over the ladder. There are X Jumps, similar to P90X X Jumps, but deeper. There is also a set of pull ups or push ups at your descretion.

Again though, I wont dread doing this Fit Test as much as I do the Insanity Fit Test. Maybe I am in better shape, but the tests didn't seem to wear me down. I was sweating. I was somewhat winded at times. But, I look at it as more of a sign as what is to come. There will be a big focus on quick feet. There will be a bigger focus on moving exercises...and there will be pull ups.