Insanity: Asylum Volume 2 is now out!  If you don’t know, Asylum volume 2 is the second installment of the Insanity Asylum workout series.  Asylum was made as a sports driven workout program that will help you maximize your speed, coordination, agility and power.  If you have seen some of my Asylum video reviews or if you are apart of my Facebook group, you will have seen that I love these workouts.  It takes the intensity of Insanity and applies it to sport specific functions.  You get to train like a pro athlete and take your fitness to the next level.

INSANITY: THE ASYLUM Volume 2 keeps your progress accelerating after Volume 1. It’s the next 30 days of pro athlete training designed to give you the elite mindset, skills, and body to dominate any challenge that comes your way.

ORDER ASYLUM VOL 2 HERE!

What is INSANITY: The ASYLUM, Volume 2?

It’s the next 30 days of elite sports training. You’ll build on what you started in Volume 1, get even more ripped, and take your performance to a level that’s almost superhuman.  Shaun T trained you inside the Athletic Matrix to amp up your agility, speed, and power. Now Shaun takes your skills to the next level with his INSANITY: THE ASYLUM Volume 2 workouts—the next 30 days of pro athlete training designed to get your body leaner, faster, and stronger than ever. So you not only defeat the competition. You CRUSH IT!

DO I NEED ASYLUM VOL 1?

In a word, YES!  Asylum Vol 1 is the foundation.  You not only get the Agility Ladder and Rope, but you learn how to go from average to PRO.  The first 30 days of Asylum Vol 1 will make sure that you are ready to go from PRO to ELITE!  Putting 30 days of Asylum Vol 1 and 30 days of Asylum Vol 2 together, will give you the best 60 day program that you could possibly do, in my humble opinion.

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

STEP 1:  GET ASYLUM VOL 1 :  You will want to make sure you have the 30 day Asylum Vol 1 program FIRST.  This will teach you they moves, get you accustomed to the Insanity “DIG DEEPER” style of training and make sure that you are ready for VOL 2.

ORDER ASYLUM VOL 1 HERE!

STEP 2: GET ASYLUM VOL 2: This is where you will go from Pro to ELITE.  This is where you will learn to Crush your Competition.  This is where nothing stands in your way!

ORDER ASYLUM VOL 2 HERE!

ORDER ASYLUM VOL 2 HERE!

Here’s what you get with INSANITY: THE ASYLUM Volume 2:

7 new all-star workouts and more:

• X Trainer. Challenge your speed, strength, power, and agility with this action sequence that will have you swimming in a pool of sweat.
  (50 minutes)
• Upper Elite. Develop a superior upper body with Shaun’s dynamic training sets—intimidating your opponents before the game even begins. (60 minutes)
• Ab Shredder. Leave your entire body trembling with this ab-torching workout. No sit-ups or crunches—just the insane shred moves of pro athletes. (20 minutes)
• Power Legs. Gain an elite competitive edge by punishing your entire lower body with this maximum muscle-recruitment workout.
  (55 minutes)
• Back & 6-Pack. Build a lean, strong center with this 360-degree workout. These core-crushing moves will help you blow past your limits. (40 minutes)
• Championship + Bonus! Fit Test (Sudden Death OT). Get ready to pursue THE ASYLUM Volume 2 Championship. And this time, get put to the Fit Test at the END! (60 minutes)
• Off-Day Stretch. Relieve your aching muscles, improve your flexibility, and refocus your mind—so you’re ready to crush it in your next competition. (30 minutes)
• Agility Tutorial. Get a step-by-step breakdown of Shaun’s 8 mind-twisting agility moves, so you’ll be a pro when it comes time to hop in the ladder. (25 minutes)

Plus, get these game-changing tools:

• The Playbook. Map out your next 30 days of extraordinary body transformation with this step-by-step smart guide.
• Get Shredded Volume 2. Don’t just train elite. EAT ELITE. Here’s more of what you loved about THE ASYLUM Volume 1 meal
  planner—Shaun’s favorite recipes.
• 3-Step Quick-Start Guide. This will have you jumping out of your seat to Push Play. It’s the fastest way to join Shaun T and the rest of Team ASYLUM.

And even more tools to accelerate your progress:

• 30-day THE ASYLUM Volume 2 Wall Calendar. Stay committed to seeing exceptional results by crossing off each day’s workout as you go.
• 60-day THE ASYLUM Volume 1/Volume 2 Hybrid Calendar. Double your championship efforts with this 60-day schedule of THE ASYLUM Volume 1/Volume 2 workouts.
• 24/7 Online Access. Chat with Shaun T and a motivating online community committed to helping you achieve excellence.

Exclusive FREE bonus workout:

• Get the free bonus workout DVD Pure Contact when you order through your Coach or Team Beachbody. A $19.95 value—yours FREE!

ORDER ASYLUM VOL 2 HERE!

If you read my other posts you will probably know that I believe that “abs are made in the kitchen”…meaning you can do ab routines all day long but you need to get your body fat % down low enough so they show. That being said, you still need to make sure you are working your abs at least 2-4x per week. I usually do 3x and each workout is usually only 10-20 mins, depending on my mood. If you work your abs everyday you can actually hurt your results if you don’t do it correctly. Most people with ripped abs do 3-4x per week and get great results so that’s a pretty good rule of thumb.

Switching up your ab routine can be as simple as using a different workout from a different fitness program. Most of my favorite come from Tony Horton’s One on Ones and other Tony Horton programs but there are a bunch in the team beachbody catalog to choose from. Here are some of my favorites that you can use instead of ARX, ab ripper X, to keep things new and fresh so you can improve your core strength and continue to get great results.

1. Killer Abs (18 min). This is from volume one of Tony’s One on One series. Killer abs takes moves from AB Ripper from P90 and Ab Ripper X from P90X and combines them into a great, quick ab routine. I like this one a lot.

2. Ten Minute Trainer ABS (10 Min). Think you can’t get a great ab workout in 10 mins? Think again. This is one of the toughest 10 min workouts you will ever do. It combines a lot of ab exercises together so you can get the most out of your tim.

3. Abs Core Plus (18 mins). This one is from P90X+ and it has grown on me a lot. I like it because it combines ab moves on the floor, standing, weights, and with the pull up bar. It is fast paced and tough. It works your full core.

4. ARX MC2 (45 min). If your looking for a good, long ab routine, then ARX: MC2 from Volume 3 of the P90X: One on One series is great. It gives you a sneak peak at P90X2: ARX2. Great workout.

5. Insane ABS (30 min). Insane Abs is from the deluxe upgrade workouts from Insanity. It’s great because it’s totally different than other stuff you have done.

6. 20/12 Abs (10 min). This is from the 10 min crusher pack workout from Volume 2 of the One on Ones. Again it’s great becausse its only 10 mins but it combines 20 reps from ab exercises on the floor with 12 reps exercises from the pull up bar. An ab killer.

7. Ab Destroyer (20 min). This is my new ab routine that I made up myself, combining some of my favorite moves I have learned over the last couple of years. This is available to only the people I coach (join my team), that have purchased something through me or my site. I am in the process of making a youtube instructional video all about it. Stay tuned.

8. Back to Core (40 min). This is a completely different core routine from Insanity Asylum that I really like. It’s great because it works the lower back and helps with one of my weaknesses. Totally different type of core routine.

The great part about all of these routines if that they are all unique and hit your abs in slightly different ways. This helps with keeping your results coming with your core strength and your fitness in general. If your are sick of the same ab routine then try switching it up with any of these. I promise you won’t be disappointed. P90X2 combines a ton of core exercises so I am also excited to add that to the list soon.

Have you tried any of these? Do you have a favorite Ab routine I should add to the list?

As a P90Xer, I have learned the benefit of both weight training and cardio.  I wouldn’t consider every dropping one completely.  But I do believe that in order to become a more fit individual, you definitely need to include some sore of weight training into your exercise routine.  There are many known benefits of weight training and I believe that it has gotten a bad stigma because of the bodybuilding world.  Women jumped on the cardio junkie bandwagon of the 1980s because they were afraid that if they lifted weights that they would get bulky and too muscular.  That isn’t the case.  There is a time and a place for weight training in your fitness schedule as well as your cardio sessions.

Which Burns More Calories?

I can’t accross and interesting study that compared to the two.  Here is what it said…

A strength training session in which you burn, say, 300 calories burns more calories than a cardio session where you burn 300 calories on the treadmill. Impossible? No it’s not. At least, if you take into account the raised calorie burning after training.

Yes, we’re talking about elevated post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC: the phenomenon whereby your body burns more oxygen, and therefore also more calories, after a training session. Sports scientists only started studying this effect in the nineties, but the results of their research indicate that, for people who want to control their weight, strength training is a good alternative to endurance and cardio training.

This is also known as the After Burn effect.  A idea where your body continues to burn calories much further beyond your workout.  As a matter of fact, this effect has been shown to be seen in HIIT versions of cardio  as well.  TurboFire is even based on this effect.  This makes logical sense though.  After you break down the muscle your body needs to repair.  This causes many things to happen with your body in order to do that, thus causing your body to take calories and use them to repair muscle.

How Does This Work?

In 2005 researchers at Shippensburg University in the US published the results of a human study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. For this they had got eight women, average age 31, to undergo two training sessions. On one occasion the women did weight training [CT]. They did three sets of leg-presses, knee-extensions, leg-curls, biceps-curls, triceps-extensions and bench presses with 65 percent of the weight at which they could just manage one rep. Between each set the women rested for 30 seconds, and after each exercise for two minutes.

On the other occasion the women ran on a treadmill. The researchers increased the intensity slightly every three minutes until the women were running at 85 percent of their maximal heart rate [TM]. The women stopped running when they had burned as many calories as they had done during the strength training session.

During the first hour after each training session the researchers measured how much oxygen [and therefore calories] the women burned.  In the first hour after both training sessions the women’s oxygen expenditure was higher than before the training session. In the first half hour, oxygen expenditure was significantly higher after the CT training than after the TM training.

The respiratory exchange ration [RER], this is the ratio between inhaled and exhaled oxygen, is what is responsible.  The lower the RER, the more calories you burn from fat and the fewer from carbs. So the women derived most of the energy for their EPOC after the strength training session from fat.

The researchers suspect that strength training uses relatively large amounts of energy that does not come directly from combustion processes, and which are therefore not visible if you just measure oxygen use during a training session. Restoration of the unnoticed energy reserves only shows up, in terms of oxygen expenditure, after the training session.

Pretty interesting findings right?  This shows that strength training does have an added benefit, and why most extremely fit people train with weights.  Of course it depends on what your goals are and what look  you are going for.  I do believe that everyone, even endurance runners, could benefit from some sort of weight training.

A program like P90X takes this concept and adds muscle confusion to it so you can continue to make your muscle guess, so you can continue to get stronger and see greater results.  Weight training is an essential part of this.  The pace of P90X also makes this workout burn up to 600-800 calories.  It’s a fast paced workout that will give you all the benefits of weight training with the heart rats of cardio.  This is why it has worked for countless numbers of people, including me!

Should I Add Weight Training?

In my humble opinion, yes you should.  We all know that cardio burns calories and is great for shedding body fat.  But weight training does as well and that’s why you should definitely have BOTH in your routine!  There is a reason why P90X2 doesn’t have a true cardio workout.  P90X2 is the cutting edge of fitness and is going to blow people away.  They have taken this concept and created an amazing program.  But even Tony Horton does cardio as well.  On the flip side, Insanity’s Shaun T (Mr. Crazy Cardio himself) saw the benefits of weight training by adding in a Strength workout into Asylum.  TurboFire has a resistance workout for this reason too!  You have to include a resistance workout into your fitness program to see the greatest results for your efforts.  So, don’t just choose sides.  Have both Weight training and Cardio in your fitness schedule.  You will see great results from the added benefits of both!

Source: Eur J Appl Physiol. 2005 Aug;94(5-6):500-4.
Source: http://www.ergo-log.com/strengthtrainingvscardio.html

Do you agree with these findings?  Let me know Below!  Cardio or Weight Training?

Vertical Plyo comes on day 4 of Insanity Asylum and for me this one was the “mother of all the workouts”.  The best way I can describe it is that it is a beast.  Once again you use the agility latter…letting you jump for height and distance, while at the same time making sure your landing with precision and coordination.  Something that athletes will find very familiar.   There are a couple of “oh my god, really?” moments during this workout.  If you used to Power Jumps from Insanity then get ready because in Asylum you do Power Jump with strength bands attached to Legs.  If you have done Plyo Push ups from P90X then come prepared because your doing Plyo Push ups with bands on your legs and arms in Asylum.  This workout gave me the biggest burn and the highest heart rate that I have experience so far with Insanity Asylum.  If you can get through Vertical Plyo all the way without stopping and with good form them you are in peak shape. So far so good!  Can’t wait for Game day!

Here are my day 3 and day 4 Insanity Asylum Videos, Let me know what you think!

Want to try Insanity Aslyum?

Asylum’s Strength workout is a cross training/circuit training type of workout.  He uses 1 set of dumbbells for each exercise.  Again I thought this wouldn’t work well but I was wrong.  I chose 30lbs to start with and definitely picked the right weight.  Most of the moves start easier then get progressively harder as you go through the routine.  There are many ways to modify each exercise depending on if you are using resistance bands, dumbbells or the pull up bar.  Being a “pull up” guy I decided to try out those variations and was very surprised that I struggled through some of the moves.  My endurance is not as high as I thought and it showed.  This is a great one for strength/power and I can see it find my weaknesses.  Can’t wait to try it again.  Insanity Asylum is impress so far.

Here are my day 1 and day 2 Insanity Asylum Videos, Let me know what you think!

Here is Keith’s Story in his Own Words:

I got married in August of 2008 at about 175 lbs and 15% bodyfat. I played basketball 3-4 times a week and was lifting 3-4 times a week. My nutrition was not perfect, but it was not unhealthy. I did not eat candy/junk food nor soda and overall tried to eat lean proteins and vegetables as much as possible.

Soon after my marriage, I got a new boss at work and work pressures became worse than ever. I was very unhappy at my job and that stress caused me to change lifestyle behaviors. I worked so much, I stopped working out all together; I ate ok, but had no idea my caloric levels and ate more lunches out at restaurants. And more importantly – I was drinking more and more on the weekends with friends to relieve stress.

Next thing I knew it was October 2010 and I was 190 lbs and 22% bodyfat and unhappy with the husband I had become. Worse than those stats were the lifestyle issues. I had back surgery in high school and had never had issues with it after that. Now, I had issues with pain down my leg and soreness while just sitting in chairs. On a trip for my wife’s 30^th birthday – I spent the entire weekend in bed on medication due to back spasms.

I had purchased P90X about a year prior and made it about 60 days through, but quit in phase III basically due to excuses – work was stressful and I was too tired when I got home to “push play”.

When November 2010 came around I had quit my job, taken a new job and moved with my wife to California. I picked back up with P90X as I was determined to turn all aspects of my life around. I picked up a few supplements from Beachbody, stocked up the fridge with healthy foods and jumped back in.

This time, I told myself it was about consistency. I knew somedays would be harder than others, but just stick with it. It took me more like 120 days to finish. I had a week vacation, got sick 1 week, and took an extra rest week. But I finished, and even on those off weeks, I focused on my food.

I had an app on my iphone to track my calories and nutrient splits and tried to eat whole foods – non processed foods that Shaun talks about on his site from healthy sources.

Now – I am 163lbs and 13% BF. I was only able to do 1 unassisted pull up when I started, now I can do 11 – I have never done that many! I have 0 back pain. It was tough to start P90X in pain, but I started slow and did what I could. I iced down every night. Now I am pushing harder and harder pain free and loving it.

I am starting Asylum on Sunday and my goal now is to maintain weight but build muscle so I reduce my BF% down to 10% – If successful, I will be sharing those images and journey with you all as well.

Thanks for letting me share this. I think taking these images was more motivational than anything. When I started and looked at myself in the mirror, I didn’t think I was that unhealthy – we can lie to ourselves.   Also – over the journey – I could not really tell that my body was changing. But now, looking at these side by side, it makes me realize how my work paid off. And its keeping me motivated to start next program.

Want to Get Results Like Keith?

Yes, I want to Try P90X and get Ripped!

It’s Official! Insanity: The Asylum has officially been released exclusively through coaches 10 days early! I already ordered mine and am super excited to take it for a spin for the next 30 days. Initial reviews from those “on the inside” have said it to be the toughest routine they have ever done. I for one love a challenge, so I want to challenge all of you to try it with me! Members of my team will be able to be apart of the action and participate in my Asylum promo that I will have going on this month. If you want to be join the Asylum action then sign up for me as your coach HERE!

Maximize your sports performance in just 30 days.

Start your winning streak with INSANITY: THE ASYLUM™. Shaun T takes your skills and fitness up to elite status with sports-specific training and progressive drills inspired by pro athletes. During this 30-day program, he’ll push you to build your speed, coordination, agility, and power. You’ll be ready for game day—every day.

Why is it effective?

Shaun T built INSANITY: THE ASYLUM on three cross-training cycles. During Cycle 1, he’ll push you to master a series of core sports exercises. Once you’ve gotten those under control, the real fun begins. As you step up to Cycle 2 and Cycle 3, Shaun T challenges you to dig even deeper with more complicated sports moves and progressively tougher drills. This combination pushes you to use more muscles and develop skills that give you a measurable competitive edge.

What makes INSANITY: THE ASYLUM unique?

Elite athletes use proven sports training drills to sharpen their game-day skills and get into astonishing shape. Now with INSANITY: THE ASYLUM, you can too.   With its included Agility Ladder and Speed Rope, you’ll train with more focus, concentration, and skill—just like an elite pro athlete. After 30 days, you’ll get faster, stronger, and more agile than you ever imagined—enabling you to perform any sport or activity with eye-popping speed and skill.