Insanity Workouts for HIIT

[Brahette]

Starting up my hardcore Scivation program again on Monday, got alot more weight to lose this time. The workouts are chest/back on mon, bis/tris on weds, quads/hams on fri, and abs/delts/lower back on sat. Because I have more weight to lose, I was planning on hitting the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays for some HIIT/additional cardio (also plan on doing 10-20min PWO on workout days). I was thinking instead of going all the way to the gym on off days, to just do an Insanity DVD workout instead - probably the Pure Cardio DVD since that one is mostly cardio and not bodyweight exercises.

Anyone else done something like this? Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!

[Euqinom]

Much intrigued by the 'this time' part of your post. Makes me expect/suspect you've gone through an extreme diet and bounced back.

[Brahette]

Much intrigued by the 'this time' part of your post. Makes me expect/suspect you've gone through an extreme diet and bounced back.

lol thanks for not answering the question. I did my Scivation routine 2 years ago and have just been working out in the gym since then... not really following any program. For the last 6ish months, haven't been doing anything in particular on a regular basis, so I'm finally buckling down and doing my Scivation routine again.

[Euqinom]

I know, I just got curious.

[sonti]

HIIT cannot be done for more than 15-20 minutes or else it's not actually "high intensity" intervals. Insanity is about 40-45 minutes per DVD. I use it for at-home cardio and think it's just fine, but if you want to do HIIT specifically at home, I'd look into tabatas or even outdoor HIIT sprinting. I do kettlebell tabatas at home because I can't do HIIT outside with the baby.

[Brahette]

HIIT cannot be done for more than 15-20 minutes or else it's not actually "high intensity" intervals. Insanity is about 40-45 minutes per DVD. I use it for at-home cardio and think it's just fine, but if you want to do HIIT specifically at home, I'd look into tabatas or even outdoor HIIT sprinting. I do kettlebell tabatas at home because I can't do HIIT outside with the baby.

I believe the actual workout in the Pure Cardio DVD is approximately 20min. There's more time spent for the warm up, stretch, and cool down. Think maybe cutting out the warmup would be a good idea? I think just the warmup itself is about 10min.

[sonti]

I believe the actual workout in the Pure Cardio DVD is approximately 20min. There's more time spent for the warm up, stretch, and cool down. Think maybe cutting out the warmup would be a good idea? I think just the warmup itself is about 10min.

Ah okay, I see what you mean (it's 45 minutes but about 25 of that is a separate abs workout). It's pretty decent cardio for sure. I'd say give it a try, why not? I'm like you, I don't bother going if it's cardio I can do at home.

[Bout2break69]

I did a couple rounds of insanity in the past and love it right now I'm using it how you mentioned you were thinking about using it, and it works great for me. If nothing else at least it'll help you get some variety in. I don't recommend skipping the warm up though, if you do skip anything I'd make it the last 5-10 mins of the workout and go straight to the cooldown/ stretch. The warm up really helps ease you into the workout so that you're less suseptible to injury. So maybe do the 10 min warm up, 15min workout, 5 min cooldown? Good luck with whatever you chose to do!

[thedrummer105]

Starting up my hardcore Scivation program again on Monday, got alot more weight to lose this time. The workouts are chest/back on mon, bis/tris on weds, quads/hams on fri, and abs/delts/lower back on sat. Because I have more weight to lose, I was planning on hitting the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays for some HIIT/additional cardio (also plan on doing 10-20min PWO on workout days). I was thinking instead of going all the way to the gym on off days, to just do an Insanity DVD workout instead - probably the Pure Cardio DVD since that one is mostly cardio and not bodyweight exercises.

Anyone else done something like this? Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!

I just follow the INSANITY program and then supplement with chest/back/arms in the gym. If you want to drop the weight I would almost just recommend doing INSANITY entirely. The way it is set up in succession allows for the body to make the changes it needs to be able to adapt to the cardiovascular stress and drops the fat weight.

[Brahette]

Thanks for the tips everyone!!

I actually attempted to do the full Insanity program a few times, but kept falling off the wagon. I decided that I need to get back in the gym and stick to a strict diet - I did it before with great results, so I'm sure I can do it again.