Well, maybe failure is too harsh of a word. Let’s just say, overconfidence in my Insanity prowess sparked my ADHD into overdrive. Which in turn, caused me to add more (Insanity Asylum) on my plate. Which I couldn’t really handle. Ultimately, leading to me NOT completing either Insanity or Insanity Asylum.
The first time I tried Insanity was right after I completed P90X a few years ago. Again, my overconfidence told me — “You are in the best shape of your life. No need to follow the schedule. Let’s just do Pure Cardio and see what this is all about.” As you can image, that experience ended in tragedy. The second time I tried Insanity, I was successful!! Mainly because of the prior 90Days of TurboFire. Anyway, the only time I felt more pride at accomplishing anything was when I cranked out a baby without pain medication. Being over 40, those experiences are few and far between. That experience with Insanity was hard. It wasn’t pretty. But I FINISHED and I was walking tall!! My third time doing Insanity, I felt I was in even better condition. During the year, I had completed P90X2, rocked a ChaLEAN Xtreme/Brazil Butt Lift Hybrid, completed the Rip60 program and was an avid Spin Class & Pilates attendee. Even still, it took my body a two weeks to catch up to Insanity. After the first 4 weeks, I was not taking any breaks. I was pushing hard to out perform that Tanya .. and I may have even been successful a few times. But here’s where it all started to unwind …
My overconfident inner-peacock said, “For the last 4 weeks, why don’t you do the Insanity/Asylum Hybrid?! This is just to easy. You should push yourself, more.” (Note to self, smack down that peacock in the future.) I dug out my Asylum program. Double workouts start the second week — peacock says, “psht. I got this!” My overconfidence also totally blocked out the memory of how HARD the “Max” workouts are in the Insanity program. So. I injured myself. During my the subsequent rest week, I read all the materials for Asylum. Apparently, I should have been taking Sundays & Wednesday OFF. No wonder my Piriformis muscle felt like it was going to explode from my body!!
Coming back from my rest week, I hoped back on the Insanity/Asylum schedule. I love the both the Insanity AND Asylum workouts. Individually. But these doubles, I can not do … this time around. (see what I did there, speak sweet example). I read that Hope Solo and the Olympic beach volleyball girls swear by the benefits of Asylum. I can totally see that!! I need to keep my inner-peacock in line by reminding it that we are not Olympic athletes.
Yesterday I thought, maybe I’ll just ditch the Insanity/Asylum Hybrid schedule and just do the Asylum schedule. I took a look and the workout scheduled was Vertical Plyo .. ugh. No. So I subbed Insanity’s “Max Cardio Conditioning”. I killed it! I was so in love with that workout that I thought, “I should have just stuck with the original Insanity plan and not even gotten involved with Asylum, at all.” See this ginormous circle I just went through .. it’s no wonder people who suffer from ADHD/ADD take longer to reach success.
I have decided to just finish up my 8 weeks of Insanity with Asylum. I truly enjoy those workouts — it’s just enough speed & strength. Like an Olympic level boot camp. I am hopeful that this inner peacock has learned a lesson. And I hope that you always, always read directions :)
Speak sweetly to yourself.
Filed under: A Work in Progress, About Me, Fitness Programs & Groups, Insanity Experience Tagged: ADHD, Asylum, Beachbody, INSANITY, Over 40, Over-training, Piriformis, ShaunT, TurboFire
