Insanity – Core Cardio & Balance DVD Workout

On Monday night I tried out another Insanity DVD! It’s been a while since I busted out my Insanity DVDs and Shaun T looked like he was missing me. I decided to give the Insanity – Core Cardio & Balance DVD a shot.

Before I get into the details of this DVD workout, here’s the good stuff..

Time: 37:30
Calories Burned: 355
Avg. Heart Rate: 153
Max. Heart Rate: 179

The DVD started with a warm-up. This warm-up was unlike the other Insanity DVD workout warm-ups because it was less intense. I’ve stated in some of my other reviews that the warm-up normally seems like it could be considered the main workout..it’s that tough. In this DVD, you actually get a good warm-up and it’s not over the top. Shaun T leads you through 6 exercises which are each about 1 minute long.

WARM UP

1. Switch Heel Kicks (imagine jumping rope and kicking your heels out in front of you)
2. Mummy Kicks (with your arms straight out in front of you, palms down, cross arms so that you’re switching which arm is on top and which is on bottom. Kick your feet out during the arm motion)
3. Football Shuffle (shuffle feet to the right, then to the left)
4. Log Jumps (imagine jumping over a log, switching feet each time. Keep core tight and land softly)
5. High Knees/Power Jacks (8 high knees followed by 8 deep squats into a jumping jack position above head)
6. Fast Feet/Hooks (8 seconds of fast feet followed by 8 hook punches)

STRETCH

The stretch portion lasts about 4 minutes long.

WATER BREAK

The water break lasts 30 seconds.

WORKOUT

1. Moving Ski Hops (4 ski hops to the right, 4 to the left. Keep knees together as if you were skiing) – 1 minute
2. Hit The Floor (shuffle to the side, touch the floor, repeat to other side) – 1 min 15 sec

LEVEL 1 DRILLS (each drill lasted about 1 minute long)

1. Push-ups & Mountain climbers (4 push-ups followed by 8 mountain climbers, jump and reach for the sky)
2. Heisman’s (a classic Insanity move. Jumping from one leg to the other, raise your knee up and to the side)
3. Switch Kicks/Hop Squats (8 high kicks in front of you followed by 8 hop squats)
4. High Jumps – (Focus on jumping as high as you can. Jump and reach for the sky)
5. Moving Plank Walks (In plank position, move right leg and right arm to the side followed by left arm and left leg. You’ll move to the right 4 times, and back to the left 4 times for one about about a minute)
6. Elbow Jabs/Suicide Drills (8 elbow punch jabs followed by 4 shuffling to the side and touch the ground – back and forth)

BALANCE DRILLS

1. 4 & 4 Hops (Hop 4 times on left leg followed with 4 hops on right leg) – About 1 minute
2. Jab Punches/Jump Squat Turn (8 jab punches with elbow followed by a squat jump to turn 180 degrees to repeat punches)

HIP FLEXOR BURNERS

This was one of the hardest parts of the workout. You start balancing on one leg with your knee parallel to the ground. Simply raise your knee up and down to just touch the ground. Don’t let your foot rest on the ground. Immediately after this, you lift the same leg up so it’s parallel to the ground and pulsate it up and down and keeping your elbows up. This is where it starts to BURN BAAAADDD! Immediately following this exercise without resting your same leg, keep leg up so your thigh is parallel to the ground and kick your foot out. You’ll do each of these rounds for 30 seconds…making it 1:30 per leg. BE PREPARED FOR BURNING HIP FLEXORS!

WATER BREAK

The water break lasts 30 seconds.

OBLIQUES

You’ll then work your obliques with oblique knee lifts. Using your right arm and right leg, raise your leg as high as you can to the side so it touches your elbow (or as close to it as possible). Continue this movement for about a minute on each side.

SHOULDER BURNERS

This is the last part of the workout and it’s KILLER. I couldn’t get through the whole thing without letting my arms rest for a couple seconds. This is one continuous workout that will leave your shoulders crying and shaking! Do all these exercises in a deep plie squat.

1. In plie squat, raise arms to the side and pulsate up and down in a small movement. This lasted about 45 seconds.
2. In plie squat, bring arms to the front and then back out to the side. Repeat. This lasted about 30 seconds.
3. In plie squat, bring arms above head and back down to side. This lasted about 30 seconds.
4. In plie squat, bring arms out to side and make circles with your arms. This lasted about 30 seconds.

STRETCH

You’ll then have a quick 2 min stretch to cool down.

DONE!!!!

Overall I enjoyed this workout more than some of the others I’ve tried. Even though Shaun T keeps saying that it’s a workout for “recovery week”, I still got a great workout. The warm-up in this DVD was my favorite so far. It wasn’t too intense and I didn’t feel like I needed to warm-up just to do the warm-up 😉

The hardest parts of the Insanity DVD were for sure the hip flexors and shoulder burners! Dang I was cursing out Shaun T during those 😉 There were several times during this workout that I felt myself just DRIPPING with sweat. Even though this is supposed to be a “recovery” DVD, it’s still intense and put me through a tough workout.

Again, here were my statistics (based on my Polar heart rate monitor)

Time: 37:30
Calories Burned: 355
Avg. Heart Rate: 153
Max. Heart Rate: 179

As always with Insanity workouts, I was a sweaty mess by the end!!!

If you give this workout a try, leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of it!!! GOOD LUCK!