I completed the Insanity challenge awhile ago, but I never wrote about the results of that little 60 day experiment. Primarily because I felt like I had failed. This is the concluding post for my Insanity workout review.

The Final Week

Okay, so here’s what happened. About halfway through the LAST week of Insanity, I twisted my body in a weird way during one of the exercises and ended up hurting my side “a little bit.” It still hurt the next day, but I only had three days left so I continued to press play. Somehow I made it to the second last day of the program. On that second last day I remember reaching for a box of tea that was sitting on the top shelf in my office kitchen. I couldn’t do it. Even after jumping up and down a couple of times, I still couldn’t quite reach it. Not because I was too short, but because I couldn’t lift my hands over my head. So, I folded and went to the doctor.

At the doctor’s office, I was informed that I had a serious muscle spasm and I was instructed (with a stern look) NOT to exercise – I felt like she really knew me. Don’t worry. I obeyed her instructions (although it pained me immensely to “give up”) and thought I’d stall the final workout for 2 days from that day.

Two days later, the pain was still there. It was also still there a week later when Greg and I had our ski trip planned. I was in so much pain when I work up that morning we even considered cancelling the trip and doing it another day when I felt better. In the end we decided to go, and although I was a royal wimp in the beginning, by the end of the day we really started to have some fun. Also, although I was terrified of making whatever I’d done worse during the trip, when I woke up the next day the pain was almost gone.

Apparently exercise (the one thing the doctor told me NOT to do) was what finally stopped the spasm. I exhausted the muscle by holding my core, and it just let go on its own — having said that, I can appreciate how jumping around doing Insanity for one more day would probably have been a bad idea.

So, after getting back from skiing I gave myself a few more days to recover, and then I repeated the final week of Insanity start to finish (you knew I would). The ending was bitter sweet.

What the Insanity Workout Taught Me

I certainly gave it my all for the duration of the program, but I wonder at the program’s sustainability. It’s an interesting experiment, but I found that the most notable result was that I went from being hungry all the time, to being STARVING all the time. I think that there are probably better, healthier, methods of getting into shape.

These beach body contests certainly serve as excellent motivation for getting started, but when they interfere with your ability to do what’s right for your body they become problematic. And I know that I’m not the ONLY person who has not only injured themselves doing one of these programs, but continued to “persevere” through the pain for the sake of a gold star.

Despite everything, I’m glad that I did it. Mostly because I still have gotten over my childish obsession with gold stars.