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Review: INSANITY Max 30 - Sweat Intervals


Happy Monday, everyone!  It's already May, and Mother's Day weekend came and went.  It felt really early this year, but then again, everything feels like it sneaks up on me these days. 

I spent the weekend with my in-laws and niece and the extended version of my nuclear family, and by that, I mean all my sisters and their families.  It's always a good time having a bunch of kids under 5 (and mostly under 3) running around my parents' house!  And of course, I spent lots of time cuddling my little one, who was getting over a bug and let me snuggle him and cut his nails without a fight!  I called the easy nail clipping my Mother's Day gift.

Anyway, it's back to reality.  I've been reviewing the Insanity Max 30 program, and I'm getting really close to the end of the first month, doing the workouts consecutively but not on this schedule since I didn't want to give up running.  More on that later this week. ;)

I did Sweat Intervals all four times (as prescribed on the calendar) before getting to this review to make sure I captured my feelings about it over time.


At the beginning of Sweat Intervals, Shaun T says, "This workout is called Sweat Intervals, and you're about to find out why."  At the end, after the stretch portion, he then says, "...come back; don't be afraid."  Each time I popped this DVD in, though I was afraid, though.  To start off, after the regular warm-up, there is no actual water break, just a brief stretch.  Then, the actual workout starts.

The first portion involved moving jabs, push-up punches, and squat lunges.  You can see a lot of the cast "maxing out" already, which makes me feel better about feeling like death.  I can outlast many of them by this point, but it really varies by how I'm feeling that morning.  The breaks come about every 5 minutes, and they are much needed by then.  One comic relief in this workout is the appearance of Shanita, one of the original Insanity cast members that I briefly made fun of here because she's always quitting.  However, I don't blame her for pooping out early in this video!

As the workout goes on, you end up doing things like wide pike-ups (this is usually when I "max out," only about 11-ish minutes into the workout), ski abs, hop-hop runner... it feels like a lot because my quads usually feel heavy and don't really have a chance to fully recover.  I guess I'm not supposed to be fully recovering during such a short workout.  And just when you're kind of dying by the end, squat obliques, hit the floor, and cross-jabs are thrown in. 


This is definitely one of the more difficult workouts on Month 1, although they are all hard.  I just get an extra pang of dread when this one comes up.  Also, you're supposed to do the Ab Attack (10 minute that I mentioned in my first post afterward.  I think I actually followed through with this half the time due to time constraints that I had on those particular days.  Yes, I still battle time issues even with such a short workout... blah!

I have two more workouts to review before I get to Month 2, again, trying to go through them a few times before recording my thoughts.  I'm pretty freaked out about getting to the next set of DVDs, because as I said, these Month 1 ones are already pretty difficult!

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FTC Disclaimer: I purchased this product and was not compensated to provide a positive review.  I am not affiliated with Beachbody in any way.

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