Glad to hear the shoulder is better.

Unfortunately I've been a pile of shit lately.

I started Tapout XT about a week and a half ago. It kind of hits the middle between the cardio heavy Insanity and the more strength training oriented p90x.

I'm 45, a freshly quit 25-year smoker, had knee surgery, torn rotator cuff, and my back is a wreck. Needless to say I can't keep up with these yahoos in the videos. And it is definitely kicking my ass. But I'm doing what I can and sticking to the schedule so far....at 11 days into it.

It's no picnic, but gonna try to stick with it.

my first attempt at insanity....I tried to keep up. I'm 47. I can't. hell even the dudes & gals on the video have to take breaks. I pushed myself way too hard, maybe helped hurt my shoulder. Shawn T says over and over...."remember this is interval training, you have GOT to recover, it's important". I couldn't recover in his 30 second breaks.
so...this time I'm taking a different approach. I know what my heart rate should be. I do a ten second check during the break and multiply by 6. if it ain't where I want it to be I pause the video for another 30 seconds and then go.
I had to get over feeling like I'm cheating. I ain't 21 anymore. I get the whole workout in, it just takes me a little longer....

Insanity seems too cardio based for me. I've been through P90X and am in the second phase of P90X2. I have Insanity as well and will probably never use it more than a supplement, I want more strength routines in my workouts.

What do you think of p90x2? How different is it than p90x?

I think I need the Cardio. I'm not looking to get ripped. I need to be in better shape. Plus there is no way in **** I could find the time for P90X.

My buddy has P90X and I think I'd like to get to a point where I could find a blend of running Insanity, and P90X. But I have a long way to go first.

So how was the rotator cuff ordeal? I have a complete tear, scheduled for surgery next Friday.

I'm on my third day of insanity and it's kicking my ass. I'm keeping up really well until the last 5-10 minutes and then I'm just so gassed I can barely keep going, which I guess is kind of the point. How light is the cardio recovery day? Will my calves get a little break? I walk about 10 miles a day at work after I do the program in the mornings and I'm not sure my legs are going to hold up without a little break during the week.

You should stretch your calves separately from the videos. They don't do a very good job of stretching them.

Ive noticed that. I'm going to have to do a little more stretching before I start each day.

Recovery isn't bad...after the stretch from abt the 8 min mark, it gets a lil rough....Just stick with it, the 2nd and 3rd weeks will ease on your calves.


I found a hybrid P90x/Insanity routine I was doing for a cpl weeks I finally got tired of the turd on P90x running his pie hole and went to Insanity in the AM's/Cardio weights in the evening.

I have that problem, too, but I can tell you one thing that's really helped is the XBox Kinect and the YourShape 2012 game. I burn just as many calories with it as I do an Insanity workout, but it turns the workout into a game of sorts.

It also helps you finish your workout. I often find myself quitting 5 min or 10 min early with standard workouts because I feel like, oh, I got enough in for today and I'm tired.

With the game, though, if you've got 5 min or 10 min left in a given workout you won't want to quit because then you won't get the credit for completing that "level" and you won't be able to move on to the next one. It changes the mind-set to think, hey, I might as well finish this last 5 or 10 min and complete this thing. Just like when your thumb hurts after hours of video gaming but you just don't wanna stop...sort of does the same thing, but with your whole body.

It's really worked well for me. I find myself doing the Insanity warmup just because it does a really good job of that, and then I turn it off and switch to Xbox for the rest of my workout.

I typically burn between 750 - 1000 calories per workout following this method.