Category Archives: Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness, Learning, Life, Me, Travel

Late mid-year update 2018: A familiar feeling

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Late, as usual, but whatever. This is more catharsis for myself than anything else. Plus I’ve been hella busy so bleh. So far, I’ve been very happy with this year. It feels oddly familiar to 2007. 2007 was an epic year for me, and from 2007-2009 is when I experienced the most growth as a person and racked up a ton of life experiences. This year, 11 years later, so far feels a lot like 2007 in so many ways. It feels like I’m on the cusp of some more big lessons, wins, and life experiences.

In my 2017 year-end review, I wrote:

Next year looks to be business as usual in a lot of ways, but there will also be exciting opportunities available. I think it will be a hard but rewarding year. And if it’s a good year like this one I’ll gladly accept it. I’m excited to see what happens.

I’d say that’s largely true. Business as usual. Lots of hard work. But rewarding work. And the results are showing. For example, I rehired my swimming coach like I said I was going to do, and she’s been fantastic. I feel so much more comfortable in the pool, and panic far less now. I’d say I’m now a slightly-below-average swimmer at this point. I know that doesn’t sound amazing, but for my entire life I was so mortified at even the thought of putting my feet into the water that this is a huge achievement for me that I’m really happy with.

I’ve also hired a Spanish tutor, and after 5 months with him I can have so-so conversations and can express my ideas in Spanish that he’s able to understand. It’s definitely not fluency by any means, but he’s ecstatic with my progress and I’m somewhat satisfied. I really want to be fluent at the end of the year, which is quickly approaching, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll happen. That seems to be the norm for me. I just seem to have to work harder than everybody else to get mediocre results. When I read stories of people who get fluent in a language in 3 months or get down to 7% body fat after a 3-month cut I always get envious. I’ll do my absolute bestest to follow the exact step-by-step plan and I simply just don’t get the same results. But then I look back at how far I’ve come and remind myself that it isn’t a race and that the only person I should compare myself to is my former self.

Physically I feel fantastic. I’m in the best shape of my life, for sure. Training has gone exceptionally well and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve got some naggy elbows for the past month but they’re feeling much better now, and I didn’t have to slow down my training, progress, or volume. I couldn’t ask for more in this regard, to be honest.

I did end up going to India for a month in January, and I loved it. I went with one of my besties who hasn’t really traveled much and it was quite obvious he wasn’t having a good time. So we were both glad when he left and I continued on my own, then met up with some of my other besties. India is a challenging country in so many ways and yet it all felt so normal to me. Travel isn’t always comfortable, in fact, I’d argue that a lot of travel isn’t, and yet on the other side of that discomfort is so much win. With that said, I’m going to do some wandering for a while and work remotely in different countries. It’s time. I’m not getting any younger and this is something I’ve always wanted to do ever since I read about it in the 4-hour workweek way back in 2007. I have so many excuses in my head as to why I shouldn’t go, and only a few reasons for why I should. But fuck it, sometimes you just gotta stop listening to your head and listen to your heart. First stop, Asia! Stay tuned…

Health and Fitness

P90X3 Review : Pretty darn awesome!

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I recently finished a round of P90X3 and had a lot of fun doing it so I thought I’d do a little review with my thoughts and experiences with the program. I liked it so much that I’ve actually started a second round, this time doing a different calendar. Read on to find out more!

What is P90X3

P90X3 is the latest program from the P90 series designed and instructed by everybody’s favourite coach, that crazy kook Tony Horton. In typical Tony Horton fashion, he brings his wise cracking coaching style to the program that makes the workouts a lot more fun. So why the hell do you need another P90X program, you say? Simple, this one is shorter. 30 minutes, in fact. For me, this was a huge draw to the program as time is currently my most precious resource. If I knew that I only needed to set aside 30 minutes every day, then it was simply a matter of throwing it into my calendar. I didn’t have to worry about a 45 minute program one day, and an hour and 15 minute program the next. Just 30 minutes, every day for 90 days.

Note that the program has optional warm up and warm downs, but I never did them. I wanted to be in and out in 30 minutes FLAT so I would have zero excuses. If you were to do them, set aside about 45-50 minutes per day instead.

One thing I didn’t like about P90X2 was that you needed way too much equipment. Well they fixed that in P90X3, woot! All you really need is a pullup bar, and some dumbbells or resistance bands. Everything else is optional, like towels, yoga mats, and pushup stands. So if you’ve done P90X or P90X2 in the past, then you should be good to go.

Program Calendars

There are four 90 day calendars to choose from: the regular one that I just completed, the lean one that I just started, a mass one for muscle building, and a doubles calendar for those who miss their hour long workouts. There’s also an elite 1 month block that I’m not sure what it’s for. Eliteness, I guess.

Like most of these programs, there’s also a nutrition guide that I never follow. In fact, I made no modifications to my eating whatsoever and still got some awesome results. A few times during the 90 days, I also binge drank, ate like an asshole on many, many occasions, and just generally didn’t care too much about being super strict or tight on calories.

There were also some days that I was out of town for a few days, so what I did was double workouts on some days (and even a triple on one) just so I could stay on schedule. But I think 85 out of 90 days I was on point and stuck to the calendar, although I did switch around some workouts depending on what I was doing on my strength training days. That’s right, I did not give up my barbells. I would do the P90X3 workout in addition to them. I found the intensity of the P90X3 workouts allowed me to do this without any recovery issues whatsoever. I don’t think I’d be able to do this if I were to do P90X.

P90X3 Workouts

 

The workouts themselves varied in difficulty, purpose, usefulness and fun. My brief thoughts on each below:

Total Synergistics is a full-body workout that focuses on multiple muscle groups and stabilization stuff. In my opinion it’s a pretty easy workout that tries to do too much in 30 minutes.

Agility X is a cardio workout that has a little bit of plyometrics, a little bit of balance, and a bunch of agility “X marks the spot” training. Overall, it isn’t too intense or difficult. Newcomers might find it hard, but I think anybody who has done previous P90X programs won’t find it too bad. The good news with Agility X is you can push yourself really hard with some of the exercises by jumping harder, higher, deeper, faster.

X3 Yoga is a very short and awesome yoga program. I really like it because it allows me to do weekly yoga without taking 60+ minutes of my time and without all of that woowoo omm stuff. I just want to stretch and breathe and balance and quiet the mind, and I want to do it in 30 minutes. X3 Yoga is perfect for me and one of the best workouts in P90X3 and one of my favourite yoga workouts I’ve ever done. Love it.

The Challenge is a very simple pushup and pullup program. This is the only program of the 16 that left me sore the next day after doing it for the first time. I really like the simplicity of the program as well as the progression involved. It’s really easy to track your progress on subsequent workouts and I love that. Another one of my favourite workouts in P90X3.

CVX is pretty cool. It’s a mix of cardio and resistance training. For about 80% of the workout, it is very similar to a complex routine where you have a weight in your hands at all times and do a bunch of exercises. It’s tough and fun, but definitely not exhausting.

The Warrior requires zero equipment so you can do it everywhere. It involves a little bit of pushing, some jumping, and some isometric holds. It’s not too difficult, but works quite well if you’re stuck in a hotel room and need to get a 30 minute workout in.

Dynamix is a mobility workout. I love this routine because I know that without it I wouldn’t do any mobility work even though I know how important it is. So this forces me to get off of my ass and do some mobility stuff. I find it really has helped make my body more durable, less achy, and less stiff. This is probably my favourite workout in the series.

Isometrix is 30 minutes of static yoga poses. I like it because again, it isn’t something I would do without an actual program that tells me to do it.

Accelerator is another one of those cardio workouts that doesn’t require equipment and has low and high speeds. Not too difficult and sorta fun. I don’t hate it.

Decelerator is my least favourite program of the bunch. I am not sure what they are trying to do with this one. The upper body exercises are much more difficult than the lower body exercises, and some of them are just ridiculous. I am glad to see that the other calendars don’t have a whole lot of Decelerator in them, because if they did I’d likely replace them with something else.

Pilates X is a pilates program. I’ve heard of pilates in the past but have never tried it before. I can see why people like it. I personally found it quite challenging, and I am really glad this workout was included in the program because it lets me do something fun and challenging that I would have never tried otherwise.

Eccentric Upper is an upper body workout that focuses on slow, eccentric movements. It has the most challenging exercise in probably the entire P90X series: the eccentric V Pullup. It hurts every damn time.

Eccentric Lower is the lower version of Eccentric Upper. I did not find this lower body routine nearly as challenging as the upper body routine. Even still, I never do slow eccentric movements, so I’m glad that these are in the program.

Triometrics is like a way less intense version of Plyometrics X from P90X. The schtick of this one is that they do three versions of jumping: low, medium, and high. It’s ok, not my favourite workout, but plyo training is good for you so I still do it.

Incinerator feels the most like an original P90X workout in terms of exercises, but not in difficulty. A lot of weighted resistance work followed by bodyweight work working the same muscle groups.

MMX is the most fun workout in the program and also the sweatiest. Inspired by MMA, it involves lots of punching and kicking and sprawling. Lots of fun!

Conclusion

Personally, I loved the program and am already doing the lean calendar. Within the first month I was down 1 belt notch on my lifting belt. Within two months I was down two notches, and in the final month I was down three notches, but it’s very tight. I would say this program is really great for busy people, those who want to supplement their existing workouts and hobbies with additional exercise, and those new to the P90X workouts who aren’t quite ready to tackle the longer and more challenging workouts. For me, it’s a very good fit. I think hardcore P90Xers might find this program too easy, and that is understandable. And for those people who feel like they need to feel sore and exhausted for the program to work, P90X3 might not be a good fit. However, I love that this workout makes me feel alive and energized rather than sore and zapped. I highly recommend giving it a go.

Goals, Habits, Health and Fitness, Me

A Month Late

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Last year I wrote a post about some of my strength goals. One of them was to reach a 400 lb deadlift by the end of the year. Well, I’m a month late, but I did it. Monday, during training, I put 400 lbs on the bar and lifted it up. It was my first time trying. The most I had lifted prior to that was 375, which I had done the week before.

On 5/3/1, you don’t normally do a maximum effort lift. You basically enter your estimated 1 rep maximum (1 RM) into a spreadsheet, let it spit out some numbers, and you do the program based on the given numbers. And the program does its thing and magically your 1 RM just shifts up and to the right on your fancy progress chart as you get stronger. But you never really “see” it. My estimated 1 RM currently stands at 452 lbs. But like I said, the most I’ve actually lifted is 375. Luckily, 5/3/1 offers a deload week where you just lighten up, relax and do your thing, and this week I figured I’d give 400 lbs a try for shits. And bam, sure enough, up it went (that’s what she said…not!).

But I didn’t know any of this last year when I made my 400 lb goal. I didn’t know I would be on 5/3/1, either. I didn’t know anything. All I knew was that I arbitrarily set a goal for 400 lbs and I achieved it a month late. Some people would call that a failure. Those people are dumb. If you know these people, don’t listen to them. You see, because in the absolute sense I failed since I didn’t achieve the goal at the designated time, but in the relative sense that’s a a lot of weight to be lifting for a guy my size and my lifting experience (150 lbs and 1.5 years, respectively).

As I’m writing this, I am reminded of the time way back when I was doing Insanity and decided to climb the CN tower for charity. Again, I made a completely arbitrary goal of finishing in 15 minutes without doing any prior research or having any prior knowledge of how long it typically takes to run up the tower or what’s involved. And I ended up finishing at 15 minutes and 13 seconds, which from what I can recall was a pretty good score. That moment for me was a huge eye opener. I didn’t know it at the time, but something as simple as setting arbitrary goals has pushed me to achieve them (or come really close) in situations that I would not have been able to achieve otherwise. And it has served me very well ever since. Even if it took me 30 minutes to go up that tower, I would have been content. Why? Because that 15 minute goal set in motion the necessary actions for me to train and prepare myself in a way that I may not have done otherwise. All I needed was direction, and a goal provided just that.

Part of me wants to say rah rah you can do it. Aim high and shoot for the stars. But that’s just the rosy coloured story that you read in autobiographies and watch on movies or tv. The reality is that the arbitrary goal was just that, arbitrary. But it did help me do what was by far the most important thing, and that is show up and do the fucking work. There’s really nothing else to it. Who cares if you’re a month late, you did the work. That’s worth something.

Health and Fitness

Starting Strength Review

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Cover of "Starting Strength (2nd edition)...
Cover of Starting Strength (2nd edition)

Starting Strength is a beginner barbell training program from a dude named Mark Ripptoe. It is one of the more popular beginner barbell programs and for good reason: it works! Mr. Ripptoe definitely knows his stuff and has written an excellent book in Starting Strength, now in it’s 3rd edition. It is highly recommended reading as it discusses the benefits of strength, why barbells are the most effective tool to gain strength, and the important lifts that will make any human, even puny ones like myself, strong like ox. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though, as this book comes in at over a whopping 300 pages. The attention to detail regarding the physics, mechanics, and technique is really impressive and you can definitely tell Ripptoe knows his stuff. Do you need to read the book to start the Starting Strength program? Nope, but it is a good idea to read it anyway. If reading isn’t your cup of tea, at the very least watch Ripptoe teach proper form on the lifts on youtube because doing the lifts incorrectly is not only dangerous, but it slows down your gains. If you are worried about form in any way, hire a personal trainer. If you can’t afford one, ask a friend who knows what he’s doing. If you don’t have one of those, video tape yourself and post it on Ripptoe’s forum so that he can critique you. If you don’t have a camera, ask on the forums and practice using light weights. If you can’t do any of that then get the hell out of here because this post isn’t for you.

The program itself is really simple. There are different versions of Starting Strength, and I did the one called “The Wichita Falls Novice Program”. In nice bullet point form, what you need to know:
– Lift 3x/week
– Squat every workout. Squats are boss. Ripptoe suggests the lowbar squat (that just means lower on the upper back, as opposed to high bar squat)
– Alternate bench press with overhead press. These are your pushing movements. So Monday bench, Friday overhead press, repeat
– Alternate deadlift with power cleans. These are your pulling movements. I did deadlift with overhead press.
– Alternate chinups with pullups. Alternate them with the deadlift/power cleans. Huh?? Keep reading.
– every exercise you do 3 sets of 5. That means you do the exercise 5 times, take a break, then do it again 2 more times. That’s 3×5. The exceptions to this are the deadlift (do it 1×5), and the power clean (do it 5×3). Why? Once you start lifting the deadlift you’ll know why. It’s draining as hell. If you can do it 3×5 you have wolverine like abilities. Good shit. As for the power clean, because it’s a movement where form is uber important, you get more breaks and get to lift it less reps.
– Ripptoe also suggests to pack on muscle (and tons of fat) to drink a gallon of milk a day (gomad). That’s crazy town, and I ignored this bit. Die hards will say that I didn’t follow the program. Cool, I’m fine with that. Onwards!

Example week:
Monday – squat, overhead press, deadlift
Wednesday – squat, bench press, chinup
Friday – squat, overhead press, power clean

The next week:
Monday – squat, bench press, pullup
Wednesday – squat, overhead press, deadlift
Friday – squat, bench press, chinup

Rinse. Repeat.

Progressive overload is your friend. That’s how you get strong. This means that if you hit your numbers for the day, you add more weight on the next workout for that exercise. For example, if you do 3×5 bench press at 100 lbs on Monday, then on Friday you’ll try 110 lbs 3×5 bench press. How long does this go on? Forever, if you can handle it (don’t worry, you can’t). How much weight should you be adding for the next workout? When you are just starting out, you should see some big jumps. So go up 10-15lbs at a time for some of the more full body lifts like squat and deadlift, and 5-10lbs for the other ones. Scale back once you start failing on some lifts, and only go up 10lb or 5lb increments. In other words, do what you can handle, not more, not less.

Some tips and tricks to help you along the way. Use the bare minimum amount of gear possible. For newbies who have absolutely no idea what they are doing and who don’t have experienced trainers watching them, at least get a belt. That’s what I did. You know why? Because when I didn’t have a belt on I threw out my back. Yeah, that set me back a month and it hurt to sit, shit, sleep, walk, move, and breathe. In other words, it sucked. So don’t be stupid like me, HOWEVER using a belt, chalk, powerlifting gear, straps on the deadlift, etc. is slowing down your progress. Leave all of that stuff to the pros or until you can’t help yourself any longer. At least try to get a base level of strength. For a 200 lb male, aim for a 1xbodyweight bench press, a 1.75xbodyweight squat, and a 2xdeadlift. Some of your lifts will move faster than others, for me the deadlift and the squat kept on going but the bench and overhead press kept stalling out. So when are you done? Ideally, when your squat stalls after 2 resets and your deadlift stalls after 1 reset. What’s a reset? Well, when you get stuck and can’t move the weight any higher, drop 10% of the weight and try again on the next workout, hopefully working your way past where you stalled. Hopefully that takes you a long time and you become much stronger in the process. One final tip: check your ego at the door. If you’ve never lifted before, you’re most likely weak. Get over it. The barbell doesn’t lie. You can lift it or you can’t. There’s no room for gigantic egos on this program, unless of course you love getting injured. And yes, nagging soreness and injuries will pop up here and there. That’s just the nature of the game. If you can lift, then lift. If you can’t, then lighten the load, do more reps, or take a day off. You’ll start to get an intuitive sense of your own body, so listen to it, not your ego. I messed up my wrists on the very first day of doing power cleans and 5 months later I’m still messed up and was never able to do power cleans. I did deadlift on those days instead. So every other week I did deadlift twice/week, which was tiring as hell, but thems the breaks. For recovery, don’t forget to foam roll. I also like to take hot/cold showers, drown myself in epsom salts on occasion, and perhaps some supplements like fish oil, etc. Speaking of supplements, check out my homey’s kickass site, Examine.com . It is hands down the most definitive source on supplementation on the internets. So kudos to the examine team for cutting through the bullshit and getting down to business.

For me, I’m hooked on barbell training. Thanks Starting Strength for the good times. I’ve now moved on to a reverse pyramid training set up, as my lifts all stalled out on SS, and I’m looking to continue on my strength journey. I ended up with decent numbers that I’m happy with at just under 6 months of training with SS. At last measure, I weighed in at 135 lbs and ended with a 150lb bench, 107.5lb overhead press, a 255lb squat, a 315lbs deadlift, and weighted chins at 42.5lbs and weighted pullups at 37.5lbs. I’d love to get my bench to 200lbs, squat to 300lbs, and deadlift to 400lbs by the end of the year, but I know I have my work cut out for me. It’s alright though, I love the challenge.

Starting Strength is an awesome program and highly recommended for anybody looking to gain strength and muscle. I recommend Ripptoe’s superbly awesome book as well. For additional resources, check out the Starting Strength wiki at http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki, which I referred to often. New year, new beginnings. Now’s as good a time as any to get stronger.

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Health and Fitness

P90X2 Workout Review

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Tony Horton and the Beachbody crew are back with their latest home workout program, the sequel to the massively successful P90X series. It’s called…wait for it….P90X2! I just finished this beastly program and found it quite difficult to complete. There was definitely a lack of motivation with P90X2.

I started with P90X way back in the day. It was the first home workout program I ever completed, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Oddly, I never wrote a review for it for some reason despite it being such an excellent program. P90X2 tries to raise the bar, and Tony Horton mentions throughout the program that this is meant for P90X grads, but in reality you can do this program just fine without having ever done P90X or other similar programs.

Much like P90X, X2 is a 90 day program that consists of 3 phases. Phase 1 is called Foundation, phase 2 is called Strength, and phase 3 is called Performance. With the original P90X, there were very specific programs to follow. If you wanted to get lean, you would follow the lean calendar. There was also the classic calendar and doubles, both of which you would follow a very specific routine. With P90X2, you are given more leeway to decide on how long you want to stay in each phase. So for phase 1, you can stay in the phase anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks, phase 2 is anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks, and phase 3 is anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks. While some people might appreciate this flexibility, I am going to guess many will not. Many people who go through these programs like to be told exactly what to do. They want to be able to follow the calendar exactly and press play. With P90X2, the leeway is ambiguous enough to make people wonder how long they should do each phase for, as long as it adds up to 12 weeks. I ended up going with 3 weeks in phase 1, 5 weeks in phase 2, and 4 weeks in phase 3. This was largely arbitrary, except I wanted to spend the least amount of time in phase 1, because I feel I am in pretty good shape and didn’t need the extra time to “build up” to phase 2 and 3.

All workouts range anywhere from 50 minutes to 75 minutes in length. The longer days are the days that require X2 Ab Ripper. This will not be a shock to P90X grads who had to go through something similar in the original P90X. The workouts vary from phase to phase, but some workouts are used in multiple phases. X2 Yoga is used the most, as it is required in all three phases. Plyocide and X2 Recovery+Mobility are used in both phase 1 and 2. Workouts are 5 days per week with 2 rest and recovery days, which is 1 more day of rest per week compared to P90X.

The workouts in phase1 include X2 Core, Plyocide, X2 Recovery + Mobility, X2 Total Body, X2 Yoga, X2 Balance + Power, and Ab Ripper.

The workouts in phase 2 include Chest + Back + Balance, Plyocide, X2 Recovery + Mobility, X2 Shoulders + Arms, X2 Yoga, Base + Back, and Ab Ripper. In addition, you can substitute V-Sculpt for Chest + Back + Balance, and X2 Chest + Shoulders + Tris for X2 Shoulders + Arms. I did the substition for the last two weeks of phase 2 out of sheer boredom and curiousity.

The workouts in phase 3 include P.A.P. Lower (P.A.P. stands for post activation potentiation, which is a fancy term being thrown around fitness circles), P.A.P. Upper, X2 Yoga, and X2 Recovery + Mobility. There is also a random recovery week tacked onto the end of phase 3 should you need it, which is basically X2 Recovery + Mobility and X2 Yoga alternated every day.

Phew…that was a mouth full. It isn’t so confusing once you actually see the calendar and your options and start the program, though. The one thing that I believe is a big no no for this program is the sheer amount of equipment needed, which is tons more than P90X. You’ll need a mat, towels, tape, up to four(!) medicine balls, dumbbells of various weights, a pullup bar, resistance bands, stability balls, a plyo box, a foam roller, push up stands, and a bunch of other stuff that I’m probably forgetting. Conviently, Beachbody sells all of the stuff you need. I didn’t have all of the equipment needed, but I had most of it and made due. Tony Horton does emphasize that you can do this program in your hotel room if you are traveling, and thus don’t need all of the equipment. In other words, a lack of equipment should not deter you from starting the program. Nonetheless, it is always nice to do the exercises as they are designed for maximum benefit, but the sheer number of “stuff” you need for P90X2 makes this very hard.

I am not going into what each workout consists of individually (that would ruin the surprise!). Just know that there will be a lot of familiar stuff from P90X such as a warmup and cooldown, lots of pullups, pushups, dumbbell work, etc. But there will also be a crapload of new stuff including tons of stability ball work, medicine ball work, and foam rolling. I really liked the foam rolling, that was a nice touch, since I usually neglect foam rolling despite it being so important for recovery. The medicine and stability ball stuff was interesting, but also not really needed, in my opinion. I don’t doubt that the exercises were difficult, because some were (Impossible-Possible was one such move that destroyed me). But what did it accomplish aside from making me better at that particular exercise? That, I’m not so sure of. I’m not convinced that there is a skill transference to other activities, and I’m not convinced you can’t get just as strong or fast doing simpler exercises. But I digress, that’s neither here nor there. Variety is the spice of life, right?

Overall, this was a very good program. Tony Horton was his usual hilarious and whacky self, and most of the workouts were very good and left you feeling like you put in some good work. My results were pretty good as I leaned out some more while packing on a bit of muscle and got stronger. If you have the equipment or are willing to purchase them, this would be a great program. Alternatively, the original P90X is also really awesome, requires less equipment, and had more hilarious moments with Tony Horton. If you’ve never done P90X I would suggest doing that first, and if you are looking to try something new you can’t go wrong with P90X2. You can get P90X2 in both DVD and Blu-Ray. It comes in 3 sizes: Base, Ultimate, and Deluxe, which vary with the number of equipment included.

Blu-Ray: Ultimate, Deluxe, and Base.

DVD: Ultimate, Deluxe, and Base.

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If you liked this review, you may also like my Insanity Asylum, GSP Rushfit, Rip:60, P90X+, Insanity, RevAbs, or RMAX BER reviews

Health and Fitness

Insanity Asylum Review

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I finished Insanity Asylum a little while ago and haven’t gotten around to writing about it until now. Here are my thoughts:

Insanity Asylum is a 30 day home workout program from Beachbody and hosted by Shaun T, the same dude that brought you programs like Insanity, which I found to be a mofo. This program is no different in that regard. Shaun T really likes to kick your ass. The program is designed for people who have already completed Insanity and want to take their athleticism to another level. It is designed for athletic performance.

Equipment Needed: You need a little bit more equipment in this one compared to some other home programs, including an agility ladder, jumping rope, dumbbells, resistance bands, and an optional pull-up bar.

Workouts: There are 6 workouts and 2 bonuses. The workouts are Speed & Agility, Vertical Plyo, Strength, Back to Core, Gameday, and Relief. The bonuses are the assessment, which you do before and after the program to show your progress, and a 15 minute overtime program, which you’ll wish you didn’t have to do since its after Gameday. Asylum also comes with a nutrition guide, worksheet to track progress, and a calendar.

You combine the 6 core workouts for 30 days, which goes by very quickly. You can also use these programs in addition to Insanity or P90X, but I imagine you would be very, very tired. Workouts are usually about 45 minutes, except Gameday which is closer to an hour and Relief which is a 30 minute stretching program you have to do a few times in those 30 days. Of the 30 days, you only get 2 rest days so plan your time accordingly.

I found Insanity Asylum to be pretty challenging and tiring. I have never used an agility ladder before and discovered how embarrassingly uncoordinated I was at the beginning of the program, but gradually improved over time. The movements might feel unnatural and complex at the beginning, so you may need to practice a bit before getting them down correctly. Shaun T stresses the importance of proper technique for maximum benefit of the program. The assessment did show a significant improvement in performance numbers in a number of exercises compared with my pre Asylum numbers, so I guess that means Asylum helped.

I did find that this program really strained my lower back. Especially after the Strength program, I would find my lower back aching the entire next day. My feet and ankles were also sore until after the program ended (I did the workouts wearing Nike Free shoes). Also, be aware that you will sweat a lot in the program. A LOT. I would suggest a towel to dry off any chance you are able to because if you are working out on a smooth service such as hardwood, concrete, or tile, you WILL start slipping. It happened to me a bunch of times and I almost landed right on my ass once. In the videos, they do the workouts on astro turf so never run into the issue. You have been warned.

Overall, I give the program a thumbs up. I felt it really helped with my balance and coordination, especially. I cannot say for sure if that translated to improved climbing or grappling, it could be all in my head, but I did feel it. If you are looking for a challenge and improvement in athletic performance, then definitely give it a try. You can get Asylum here.

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If you liked this review, you may also like my P90X2, GSP Rushfit, Rip:60, P90X+, Insanity, RevAbs, or RMAX BER reviews

Health and Fitness

Rushfit Workout Review

12 Comments

I recently completed the GSP Rushfit workout and thought I would share my thoughts. I did finish late because I injured some cartilage near my ribs and needed to rest it up for a few weeks before I could continue. With that said, GSP Rushfit was a hell of a program and a lot of fun.

What is it?
GSP Rushfit is a home workout starring the one and only Georges St. Pierre and designed and guided by his trainer Eric Owings. GSP goes through the workouts with you and adds some hilarious colour commentary every once in a while, but most of the narration and coaching is done by Eric. I found the Eric/GSP combo to be quite refreshing as they complemented each other well. Each week consists of 6 days on, and 1 day off (rest day).

GSP Rushfit is an 8 week program with calendars for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. They do have a fit test assessment that you should do prior to choosing which calendar to go with but I wasn’t able to find it in the guides what numbers you should be shooting for to determine what program you should choose. I ended up going with the advanced program because when I did the fit test I was toe to toe with the champ with my numbers. Yeah!

As far as I can tell, the only difference between the beginner and advanced program is that in advanced you just do more workouts in the 8 week period. In the last half of the advanced calendar there are doubles (two workouts a day) almost everyday. On the calendar they have “Cardio” which is something you are supposed to do on your own. I thought this was a tad lame and lazy on the part of the designers but most of my days I was going to jiu jitsu training so figured that would do. There are 7 workouts to do over the 8 weeks:

Stretch for Flexibility, Balance and Agility (these were on the “Bonus” DVD), Abdominal Strength and Core Conditioning, Explosive Power Training, Full Body Strength and Conditioning, Strength and Endurance, and The Fight Conditioning Workout. The workouts all start with the same warmup and end with the same cool down. The warmup did an average job at warming up the appropriate joints. It should have focused more on the ankles and shoulders because those are used a lot in the programs. I did feel on a number of days that my shoulders and ankles weren’t sufficiently warm and felt some discomfort. The cool down is also way too long. It is only 7 minutes, but when you are doing doubles you really just want to get the heck out of there because you are so pooped. The workouts themselves are all 5 rounds to simulate a championship UFC fight except for the Flexibility and Balance and Agility workouts.

All of the workouts were great and varied to keep things interesting. What was really cool for me to see was watching GSP do his thing. You could tell he was really great at explosive stuff but really sucked at isometrics and flexibility movements. He cheated like most people do and Eric would call him out on it. It was rather entertaining. I found Full Body Strength and Conditioning to be the most challenging and by round 4 was pretty tired. Strength and Endurance was also pretty tough and had me gasping for air by the end of it. The Abdominal Strength and Core Conditioning workout was ok until round 5 when they had you doing bridges, which I couldn’t hold for the entire time until I was near week 7. My favourite workout was The Fight Conditioning Workout because it involved a lot of coordination involving striking, grappling, wrestling and judo components.

Pros of GSP Rushfit

  • Eric Owings is an excellent instructor. Very detail oriented, clear and concise
  • GSP cracks me up with his French Canadian accent and quirky sense of humour
  • Very good workouts that will leave you pooped but feeling alive
  • Good variety of movements and different body parts being worked that aren’t seen in other home workouts
  • Minimum equipment required. You only really need dumbbells.

Cons of GSP Rushfit

  • Complex movements such as the Turkish get up should not be in a home study course, in my opinion, because if done improperly could result in injury
  • Workouts are too long and there is too much chit chat between the warmup and the workout and the workout and cool down. Again, 6 days a week for 8 weeks is a big commitment for most people, at least make that time working out as efficient as possible.
Final Thoughts
GSP Rushfit is an excellent program that will whip you into shape. Like most of these home workouts, it does require a time commitment. It comes down to your priorities and what you value in life. If you are a fan of GSP and love mma and are looking to get a little more physically fit and lose weight, this is the product for you. I did feel some carry over strength that translated in my jiu jitsu training with GSP Rushfit. Maybe you will too!

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If you liked this review, you may also like my P90X2, Rip:60, P90X+, Insanity, RevAbs, or RMAX BER reviews