Asylum-Vertical Plyo Preview
April 22 , 2011 –
I am doing a dry run of all the Insanity Asylum workouts before our May 1 ASYLUM CHALLENGE start. I will do a full Insanity Asylum Review after my 30 days, but I want to provide my initial impressions.
Let me tell you about my first time through VERTICAL PLYO. OH…..MY…..WORD. This is 40 straight minutes of all out plyo action. I love when Shaun T says, “This is not Insanity!” as if that was some workout for senior citizens. He also introduces us to the ultimate oxymoron…”active rest”! Only Shaun T. When he said that I actually laughed out loud because if there was someone to create that term, it would be him. I was dripping with sweat so bad that I felt like someone put a facet over my head.
One word sums up my performance the first time through. UGLY! Man, this was really really tough. Just when you thought you were in shape, Shaun T reminds you that you don’t know what “in-shape” means. I am really lookinging forward to getting good at this routine over the next 30 days.
When I dissect VERTICAL PLYO, I break it down into 5 Rounds.
– Round 1 starts with a warm-up. I use that term very loosely. Alot of exercises with the speed rope gets your heart rate up very quickly. Then he gets the burn going early with moves like “Ladder Hop Squats” and “Ladder Rotational Jumps”. After 7 exercises, he lets you sip some water and do a 3.5 minute stretch.
– Round 2 introduces the strength band. You work your back with some “Back Fly” exercises and your legs are in constant motion with exercises like “Standing Long Jump” or “Low Stance Jacks”. After some speed rope “active rest”, we move on.
– Round 3 brings in further challenges by using BOTH strength bands: one around your ankles and one around your wrists. This is about the time that I was slipping all over the place from my sweat all over the floor. After some more speed rope “active rest”, we progress into the next round.
– Round 4. By this time I was really feeling it. I could feel my form slipping so I knew I had to slow down. FORM FIRST! By the time you get to “Scissor Jump Agility”, the entire cast is shouting out the reps. Good thing they are because I didn’t have it in me to shout with them. Although I did let out a yell during the last set. LOL!
– Round 5 – Although not official, Shaun T does give you about 30 seconds of a true break before he starts his active rest of “Double Jumps Jump Rope”. The last 3 exercises focus on your power with “Single Leg Power Jumps” and “Lateral Jumps”. It takes alot of mental energy to focus at this point and ensure your form is good. In the last exercise, Shaun T does mention that “hell” is almost over. Well, at least he admits it! LOL. He finishes with a <3 minute cool down.
This is a KILLER workout. Get ready because this one will work you really hard in a very short timeframe. My average BPM for the workout was 144 on my HRM and it said I burned 600 calories. And I had actually paused a few times to get my agility ladder in the right place. I highly recommend doing RELIEF after this workout. It is really needed after all the high impact exercises.
Although you move way to fast through the routine to write down your reps, you can download the VERTICAL PLYO workout sheet HERE. (I have shown a preview below.) It will help you learn the routine and there are things like the “Standing Long Jump” and “Lateral Jumps” where it may make sense to write down the number of reps and the # of ladder rungs you jumped over. Once I have completed all the Asylum workouts, I will compile into one file like I have done with my other workouts.
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