So, my quest shall continue. Tomorrow I'll do my normal weigh-in and measurements, and will start a recovery week. I need a rest, but don't want to waste all that hard work by just stopping. I'll build up the workouts gradually, with the aim to start another crazy routine after Christmas.
Before I share my thoughts on the Hybrid workout, let's take a look at this last week's numbers. As per normal, I pulled the data from my Polar H7 Bluetooth 4.0 Heart Rate Sensor and recorded totals for duration and calories burnt.
I'm glad it has been a lighter week. I probably wouldn't have made it through otherwise.
So what are my thoughts on the Insanity/Asylum/Asylum 2 hybrid workout, and would I recommend doing it?
I am, without any doubt, fitter than I have ever been. I know that's a bold statement, and 17 year old me would probably argue, but I'm pretty sure I could beat him on every fit test. My improvements in all of the tests over these last 12 weeks has been pretty good;
An average 32.7% improvement is to me pretty impressive, and I wasn't far off from beating all of my previous bests. However, compared to Insanity, a 32.7% improvement after 12 weeks is nothing;
I know that I'm physically a different person now and that's not really a fair comparison. However, I also feel completely wiped out by the last 12 weeks, and have a feeling that this week's test results could have been better. If I'm too tired to show what I'm physically capable of, then what was the point? This hybrid is just too long!
I want to talk about the length of the hybrid, but let me give it some context. Here's what an average week looked like in each of the standalone workouts and the hybrid;
For the past 12 weeks, I've been burning an average of ~4000 calories in ~5.7 hours per week. That sounds good, until you compare it to any of the other workouts. The calorie burn per minute (I'll call it Intensity) is significantly lower, meaning that I've been wasting time. It's not that I haven't been pushing myself - You can see on the yellow graph above that on weeks 2 and 11 I was close to the Insanity burn rate. It has just been a long, slower paced programme, and that's disappointing. I could instead have done 5 hours of Insanity per week for the last 12 weeks, and would have achieved a higher calorie burn.
I know that a lot of what I'm perceiving as wasted time was the stretching, and I do appreciate that. I've noticed the difference in my flexibility, and would definitely have popped or torn something without it. I just think that the Max Recovery and Cardio recovery could easily have been swapped for Relief or Off Day Stretch, and not have wasted time that could have been spent either burning calories, or sleeping.
So would I recommend this hybrid workout to anyone? I think you can guess my answer. I can't figure out who this is for. If you're thinking of doing this hybrid, then it means that you've already done the three standalone workouts. You'll get better strength from Asylum/Asylum 2, and you'll get better Cardio from Insanity. If you want a mixture of the two, then just do Insanity month 2, but swap a couple of the workouts for Strength/Upper Elite. There's no real need to put yourself through these 12 weeks, unless you really want to start falling asleep at your desk in the middle of the day.
Of course, if I magically lose a load of weight overnight, and abs appear in the morning, I may change my mind :)
A huge thanks to my family for putting up with me through this, and to the UK Insanity Facebook group for their motivation and support.
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