Thinking About Insanity? Try Boot Camp Instead

A fitness boot camp post by Cambridge expert Callie Durbrow

In the last few years all of the craze in fitness has been that of Insanity and P90X. This is not going to be a post to completely bash them (well, maybe a little) but I just want to get the word out there about some potential issues.

The Insanity workouts were created by trainer Shaun T. Yeah, you can start calling me Callie D. I think….

These workouts are heralded as the “hardest workouts on the planet.” Well congratulations, Shaun T, you can make people tired. Any joe-shmo can do that….

Cambridge fitness boot camps or Insanity

The thing about Insanity that’s appealing to people is that you can do the workouts in your home, it’s a follow along system and you even have a fitness test to measure your progress. Plus these guys are pretty awesome marketers. I’m not doubting that Insanity workouts but I don’t believe that it works for the right reasons or for everyone. Here’s why…

1. In the battery of fitness tests people are asked to complete as many reps as possible in 60 seconds with only 60 seconds of rest. While this is great for some advanced folks, beginner and very de-conditioned exercisers can set themselves up for injury right here.  Shaun T. does remind people constantly about form but when you don’t have someone directly in the room with you, who’s to say the form is good?

2. Month #1 is all about the cardio. Intense bouts of 3 mintes a pop with only 30 seconds of rest in between. This is a super high ratio and again not allowing for great recovery. In the first month many of the issues regarding injury are not muscular but instead tendons, ligaments and connective tissue are not properly ready for this kind of impact and intensity.

3. The idea behind the 3 minutes on, 30 seconds off routine is to tap into the “fast twitch muscle fibers” to keep the burn going after the exercise is completed. This is a great concept, except that fast twitch muscle fibers operate best in a state of freshness and can certainly not fire rapidly for 3 minutes at a time. Endurance becomes a huge factor as opposed to power and speed as the marketers are pitching. Bottom line, workouts that are just long and hard end up being very much endurance based and we know that endurance is NOT the key to fat loss. When a workout becomes more about endurance and less about those short bursts of exercise that actually boost your metabolism, you are hindering all the results and especially the “after burn” where if done right, your metabolism is elevated in that workout state for up to 36 hours post workout.

—>Check out how to get a serious “after burn” of calories and why Cambridge boot camp may be right for you <—–

4. This is not for beginners, but this is often the market for this type of product. Beginners need more instruction and personal attention. People with significant amounts of weight to lose need to learn the base of exercise before completing high level plyometrics and jumping. It’s not to say it can’t be done, it just must be done safely.

In our boot camps and fitness training groups at Durbrow Performance, we focus on keeping our groups small so everyone can learn the exercises and different progressions are handed out depending on your fitness level. We have people who have been with us for 5 years or for 5 days and everyone is able to work out together because of these levels and systems.

If you are thinking about getting fit, toning up and losing fat, come try a FREE week at our Cambridge boot camp location to see just how important the personal instruction, team motivation and fun environment is to ultimate fat loss success.

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