Insanity Asylum Pt. 1 DVD Program (Final Week 4 Review, Overall Rating & My Results)

Well it’s what you’ve been waiting for! My final review of Insanity Asylum! So excited to be an Insanity alum and an Asylum alum!

Week 4 Review

The final week of Asylum covered the same DVDs as the previous week, so there’s nothing new to report here. The last rotation of DVDs was Back to Core, Speed & Agility, Strength, Game Day, Vertical Plyo, Back to Core, Relief, Speed & Agility and the Fit Test.

I did change up my Strength workout during the final week by increasing the weights used from 8lbs to 10lbs. This made a huge difference for me in terms of difficulty! While it did slow me down, I felt WAY more sore in the days that followed and really felt accomplished. For me, it was as simple as taking a brief rest if I got tired and then joining back in again with the DVD; if that meant that I only did 6 out of 8 reps in the set that still felt better to me because the weights were heavier!

I will say that by the time Game Day came around I was happy to be almost done with the program! Game Day was still exhausting for me to do & I still found myself stepping on the floor ladder and getting uber-frustrated! Speed and Agility was the same story- utter exhaustion even though it was my final week.

Overall Review

Here are three PROS to the Asylum DVD program:

1. You will feel like an athlete. I think the program is more fun and creative than any of the other DVD programs I’ve done (eg. original Insanity, Jillian Michaels, yoga/pilates vids, etc). I really like Shaun-T‘s idea that Asylum is about becoming an athlete- even if you never played a sport in school! The fact that each of the workouts is meant to prepare you for “game day” where you simulate multiple sports is pretty cool and kept me pushing play.

2. It incorporates weights. In comparison to Insanity, Asylum gets points in my book because it brings in weight training- unlike the original Insanity program. For me this was a BIG draw, because I’m more focused on building muscle than losing weight. I think weights could even have been incorporated MORE -perhaps in the “Back to Core” video for example- but I like that this set of DVDs brought weights into the fold.

3. It’s only 30 days! One of the things that made the original Insanity hard (and also what deters me from doing something like P90x) is that these programs require a longer time commitment. While the original Insanity requires 60days (and P90x requires 90 days), Asylum only requires 30 days of work, which I think is totally doable. However, I’ve heard that Asylum Part II is coming out soon, so it may be that the program will eventually become a 60-day deal, but for now you can get it done in a month.

Here are three CONS to the Asylum DVD program:

1. High Level of Difficulty & Assumed Fitness. I would strongly advise anyone considering Asylum to master the original Insanity first. Why do I say this? Because there are a lot of exercises in Asylum that Shaun-T assumes you’ve done and mastered in the original Insanity. Like Power Jumps, Mountain Climbers, In & Out Abs. If you’ve never done these exercises before it will be difficult to jump into Asylum. Can it be done? Of course. There is a fitness test that you do at the beginning of Asylum (just like at the beginning of the original Insanity) to test your fitness level, so if you can’t do the exercises in the test you’ll know you need to wait on Asylum.

2. Equipment & Space. One of the biggest benefits of at-home workouts is that you can just press play and get your fitness on! While I like the inclusion of weights in the Asylum program, I disliked the floor ladder and jump-rope equipment. I live in a tiny apartment with low ceilings; there’s no way that I can jump rope in there! And I’ve already told you guys how I feel about the floor ladder- annoying and moderately dangerous! I landed a few jumps on the wrong part of the ladder and nearly slid and hurt myself! I wouldn’t say this is a dealbreaker, but I definitely felt this was a strong CON.

3. Moderate Results (compared to original Insanity Month 1). I charted my progress (weight & measurements) during both original Insanity and Asylum and compared the first 30days of Insanity to the 30 days of Asylum. The original Insanity wins no contest! Now to be clear, there could be a number of things explaining this gap. Maybe it’s because the original Insanity is primarily intense cardio and my body responds to that more quickly. Maybe it was my eating habits during Insanity vs Asylum. I’m not sure what the complete explanation is, but I think part of it comes down to the difficulty of Asylum. I found myself pausing and taking WAY more breaks during Asylum just to understand the complexity of the different moves being done. I got the hang of most moves by Week 3 and 4, but I think the complexity sometimes took away from my workout overall.

My Results

So what were my results? There were some changes, which is SUPER exciting for only 30 days of work, but they weren’t as dramatic as with Insanity:

Start/Finish
Weight          128/127.2
Chest             29/28
Waist             29/28
Low waist     32/31
Hips              38/38

All in all, I lost a total of .8 pounds and 3 inches! (Can you imagine how frustrated I’d be if I ONLY used weight as a metric?? Buy a tape measure people!)

Well that’s all folks! Thanks for following my Insanity Asylum review! If you are considering Asylum and have specific questions feel free to leave a comment below or email chicfitchef@gmail.com & I will do my best to answer you!

I’m now on the hunt for my next 30-day fitness challenge- suggestions welcome! 😉

-CFC

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