My Shakeology Experience

I recently finished my first bag of Shakeology!

I was pretty critical about the tag lines and marketing jargon all over the bag, so I decided to try it and make my own opinion.  I want to keep this review simple so here is my list:

T25: Week One

Just finished my first week of Shaun T's new fitness program Focus T25.  This program is CRAZY in the sense that every workout is only 25 minutes long (or minutes short..) The workouts are designed in seamless progressions to raise the heart rate and reach a high intensity in that short amount of time.

I LOVE Shaun T's Insanity, but sometimes a 45-60 minute workout is too much after teaching a fitness class or two. T25 is perfect for me because I can still get MY workout in while avoiding burnout, but this program would be excellent for anyone with a busy schedule!

Shakeology: Review Part 1

One of the most valuable things I was taught in college was the importance of and how to be an informed consumer.  Mostly responsible for this was my Exercise Psychology Professor Dane Cook. We spent several hours reading abstracts, critiquing methods, and discussing results and conclusions of scientific papers for his course.  He stressed the importance of this critiquing process as THE way to true information.

This process is ESPECIALLY crucial in the health and fitness realm because there is such an overload of information (accurate and not so accurate..), opinions, products, and people trying to make their buck off the failing health of Americans.

Beginning next week I am excited to be part of a 30 Day Challenge Group working together with some awesome people to get our health and fitness back on track.

INSANITY®: The Live Class and the DVDs

When I first heard my favorite at home fitness program, INSANITY, was coming to group fitness I was ecstatic.  I had been leading group fitness classes at UW Madison for less than a year at that point, so I was a little nervous for the undertaking.  But, I mustered up my courage, and in May 2013 was part of the first group in Wisconsin to be INSANITY Certified.

It was an amazing experience being with people that, like me, were pumped to share INSANITY with their classes!

I'm super excited to announce that I will be leading INSANITY classes at the Aurora Wellness Center beginning this fall!  Here are the details:

I fell in love with the at home Insanity program almost as soon as I started it. (It took me a week to get over my initial soreness before I could really admit that.) That was summer 2010, and I've done several rounds of the 60-day program since.  Shaun T is the instructor that leads you though the DVD program.  He is so motivating, encouraging, and real throughout the workouts you begin to feel like you know the guy!  If you don't already, I suggest following him on Facebook.  His posts are an excellent way to brighten up your newsfeed.  Aside from Shaun T, my favorite part of Insanity is the level of intensity I can achieve in a relatively short workout.  But don't just take my word for it, here's my workout data from Max Interval Circuit yesterday:

Max Interval Circuit, Insanity.  Average Heart Rate, Max Heart Rate, Calories Burned. Garmin F60 Heart Rate Monitor 

Max Interval Circuit is the longest, and in my opinion the most difficult of the Insanity workouts.  But don't worry, this workout doesn't appear in the program until month two, giving you plenty of time to work your way up to it.

After Shaun T and the intensity level, my next favorite thing about the at home Insanity program is feeling like an athlete again.  The moves are reminiscent of my high school basketball and soccer practices and drills.  Some of my favorites are moving push-ups, power jumps (yes, power jumps!), and anything with kicks and punches.  

And lastly, my final favorite thing about the Insanity DVD program is how easily and quickly you see your progress.  Every other week, Shaun T schedules a Fit Test into the program where you record how many repetitions of 8 exercises you are able to complete (with proper form!) in 60 seconds.  This is a workout in itself, trust me! Even after the first two weeks I was AMAZED at how much I had improved.  My week 4 Fit Test results were even more drastic, and I continued improving my numbers all the way through the 60 days.  

After I began Insanity my friends and roommates saw how much I was enjoying it, and how my fitness was improving.  It didn't take long before they started the program too! It wouldn't be an unusual sight to find two of us sweating like crazy people in the basement of our college house rocking an Insanity workout.

A sweaty Snapchat I sent after an Insanity warmup

and a friend's response

So that's all I have to say about Insanity for now, but you can be sure to find me writing about it again (it is one of my TOP favorite workouts!).  I will also post about my first few classes at the Wellness Center this September.  I am so excited to introduce this format to more people! Please leave a comment if you have any questions, and I will get back to them shortly!