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Have I fallen off the wagon, or am I cleverly working a new system? Probably somewhere between the two. It’s clear to say that I’m not following the Insanity 60 day regime. Instead, I’m trying to hit at least 3 workouts per week - typically one each of Pure Cardio, Cardio Power and Resistance and Plyometric Cardio Circuit. However, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that sometimes I’m only managing one a week. However, I worked out on Friday and today, so I’m currently in the clear workout-wise.

Stats-wise, I’m currently the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life. I currently weigh 67.5kg (148lbs for you Americans; 10 stone 9 for Brits) and have a body fat percentage of 11.3%. In my head, I thought this was actually a high fat percentage but having read up on the matter it seems that it’s actually pretty darn good. It seems that male models get lower percentages (~8%) but they’re difficult to sustain, and much below that results in lots of veins showing through - not a good look. So whilst originally I’d hoped to reduce my body fat percentage I think I’m OK with this number now.

I also now have some measurable improvements in stats: my chest is about 3cm bigger than when I began this journey, my thigh circumference has increased by 5cm. There are other measurements which have increased, but frankly I’m so crap at measuring them that the error bars are probably bigger than Shaun T’s pecs.

But the basic message is this - working out and trying to eat sensibly have improved my body shape and statistics. Not exactly rocket science, but I can actually be proud when I look in a mirror. All the more reason to keep it up!

My swapping of days and throwing in an odd extra rest day have completely thrown my track of where I am in this programme. But at the very least, I did Pure Cardio today. Nothing special. Move along.

Afterwards, I decided to take my measurements, and this has shown that I’m definitely back on track towards a decent body. Since starting this latest burst of Insanity:

• My overall weight is down by 0.3kg;
• Body fat has fallen from 12.8% to 11.3% (not bad!);
• Bone mass up from 2.9kg to 3.0kg;
• Visceral fat down from 2.5kg to 2.0kg.

Not a shabby performance, and it puts me pretty much back where I was when I finished my last full round of Insanity in summer 2012. But my biggest (and yet still quite tiny) achievement is that my biceps are now the largest they have EVER been. They’re at 28cm, which still puts them in pre-pubescent school girl territory but given that my twiglet arms were originally 26cm at the biceps, this feels like a massive accomplishment!

I’ve been naughty and taken 2 extra rest days this week, but this was because of a horrible work schedule.

Thursday was “day 9” Plyometric Cardio Circuit and today was “day 10” but instead of Cardio Recovery I did Cardio Power and Resistance because I thought I should push myself after such a lax week.

I’m really liking Power ad Resistance more this time round. I can really feel the moves working on my chest and arms in a way which I haven’t before. My arms are pretty puny, but after my first round of Insanity I had felt most of the impact on my legs. It seems that now my legs and cardio are improved, I’m able to last long enough to see some results elsewhere.

Persistence pays off!

A chance to catch up… I’m still at the Insanity, albeit with some minor tweaks

Day 5 was Cardio Recovery which I’m not hugely keen on but it makes a nice contrast to other days.

Day 6 I took my recovery day early because of other commitments. But then I was cheeky and took another rest day. I finally did Cardio Power And Resistance to make day 7. Today’s Day 8 and I did my Pure Cardio as planned.

One of the toughest parts of Insanity is fitting it into your routine. I’m taking a slightly more relaxed approach this time and it seems to be helping me to stick to it.

For motivation I’m focussing on a couple of things - a forthcoming conference in Philadelphia where I want to be able to confidently use the pool in the hotel without worrying about my body image is helping a lot.

Oh hi Pure Cardio, nice to see you again.

Or, strangely, not. Pure Cardio was my favourite Insanity workout for a long time but for some reason I didn’t enjoy it as much today. It’s like I’ve flipped - I’m now looking forward to Cardio Power and Resistance which I used to hate.

Pure Cardio is always tough. One of the guys in the video, Mario, takes several fairly lengthy breaks during it. He’s clearly in good shape and has a much better body than I do. However, I can now make it through this workout without such long breaks. And that feels ridiculously good.

I began this round of Insanity on Sunday with a blast of Cardio Plyo, but then I took Monday off - this was a planned thing, an after work event and I knew in advance I wouldn’t have time to do the day’s routine and was OK with that. But I knew that it meant I really, really couldn’t miss the following day.

The next days was Cardio Power and Resistance. Traditionally this was my least favourite workout of Month 1 - all those jumps and squats are really tough on the legs, and as I’ve complained many times before that’s the part of my body where I’ve felt Insanity the most. For some reason though, it didn’t seem as bad this time - maybe I’ve just built it up so much in my head, the reality was better than my fears. Hell, I even managed the power jumps and globe jumps.

Today was Cardio Recovery. I’m not a huge fan of this one either, but my sore shoulders from all those V-push ups yesterday aren’t complaining about it.

After illness broke off my previous Insanity run, it’s been hard to get motivated to start again. Yet again I’d been trying to fool myself into thinking that I would get fit with Pilates and push ups. There’s no denying that they’re good for you, but without a programme I just don’t stick to it.

So today was Cardio Plyometric Circuit. Day 1. Again. It was a struggle to make myself do it, but weirdly when I started I found myself pushing harder than I have done in quite a while. By the end of the routine my legs and arms were trembling - Shaun T would have been proud.

Question is, will I keep it up?

I was trying to decide whether or not to take today as my rest day; in the end, fate decided for me. My partner is ill and was up all night coughing and sneezing – unable to sleep, I went to sleep on the sofa, so didn’t get a particularly good night’s rest. I awoke groggy and stiff from being squeezed onto a sofa which is too short for me, so I took today as my rest day.

I thought it would be interesting for folks who haven’t tried Insanity if I used today to give an idea of how the workouts are structured. Most of them follow a pretty standard formula:

• Overall length is about 45 minutes in month 1 and an hour in month 2.
• The first 10 minutes are the warm up - 7 different exercises, each for 30 seconds. When you finish the seven, you go back and run through them but at a higher pace, and ultimately go through the cycle three times.
• Next follows the warm up - this is about 5 minutes of stretching in various yoga like poses. Good for a warm up, but I’m fed up of the phrase “go into a hip flexor stretch”.
• Then comes the main workout. In month 1, it comes in two chunks; in month 2 it comes in three chunks. Each chunk consists of a circuit of about 4 exercises and you do each exercise for about 30 - 60 seconds. After one circuit, you take a 30 second break, then repeat the circuit again. You do the circuit three times. The main workout lasts about 20 minutes in month 1.
• Finally, there’s the cool down stretch - more like a traditional stretch and less focus on yoga poses. This lasts about 5 minutes.

The big surprise to a lot of people is that (in month 1) the “main” workout is just under half of the video, but don’t let that deceive you - it’s all pretty hardcore, even the stretches are demanding.

Some variation comes in the different sessions - Cardio Recovery takes out the high energy intervals and focuses on slower moves; Pure Cardio removes all the breaks and has no repetition of moves - you’re encouraged to take a break when you feel you need it, rather than at set times.

Insanity is tough. There is a fair bit of repetition in the moves. But it’s also structured enough to give you a sense of purpose and progression, and you can’t argue with the results.

Back to Plyometric Cardio Circuit today. Considering it’s just week 1 and the amount of time which has elapsed since I finished Insanity in August, I’m surprised at how few breaks I’m having to take during the workouts. Also, at long last, the muscle aches are beginning to pass.

There are a few moves in this workout which I don’t like - notably basketball drills - but some of the other moves I hate like frog jumps and globe jumps are thankfully absent. I’m glad it’s my recovery day tomorrow though (remember, I’m skipping the ‘Fit Tests’ so my day 1 was technically day 2 of the programme). Not sure I’ll keep up the early morning workouts once I’m back at work though… I head back on Friday so I’m tempted to move my rest day to Friday to give me a few more days to try and get into a love for morning workouts. Somehow I don’t think it will happen though.

A wise man once said that it didn’t matter whether you worked out in the morning, afternoon or evening - the most important thing was to pick a time when you were likely to do it, rather than skip the workout. I’m trying to keep that in mind.