I'm ten days into the Asylum workout, and I thought I would put together a quick post about my perceptions so far.
1. There's much less aerobic workout in Asylum, and much more strength training. This means that I may have to kick up my running a notch to keep my wind during Mid-Atlantic.
2. There's nowhere near as much structure to the workouts. With Insanity, it was very structured. The warmup was pretty much always the same. The stretch was pretty much always the same. Then you went into 3 sets of 4 different exercises, with each exercise lasting 45 seconds and a 30 second break between sets. Once you were done with that 10 minutes of work, you went on to another round of 4 different exercises. The only real difference between Phase One and Phase Two was that another round of exercises was added in. Once that was done, you went into a cool-down stretch and you were done. Asylum doesn't have anywhere near that structure. Predominantly it's a series of minute-long exercises that aren't repeated again. The only workout (so far) that has been structured is the strength one.
3. There's also much less explanation of the different workout positions in Asylum. In the Insanity workouts, Shawn T would spend a little while demonstrating proper form and technique before starting a new exercise, which, quite honest got a little old after watching the video for the 6th or 7th time. In Asylum, he doesn't do much of that. He may demonstrate it once, but that's not done for every exercise.
4. There's nowhere near as many breaks in Asylum. The workouts start, and you'd better be ready. You may get two or three 30-second break during an entire 45 minutes.
5. One of the things I like best about Insanity is that it doesn't depend on any equipment. As long as you have a space to jump around, you don't really need anything else. In fact, I did most of my Insanity workouts in a space about 6 feet X 6 feet, and never really felt all that cramped. Asylum, on the other hand requires several pieces of equipment. A jump-rope (which is useless indoors unless you have 10 foot ceilings) and an exercise ladder come with it, but you also need hand-weights (or exercise bands) and a chin-up bar to really get the full effect. I use pretty much everything except for the jump rope, but find the equipment cluttering up my house most other times. I really need to find a place to keep all this stuff out of the way.
So what's the conclusion so far? I've been impressed with Asylum, but I'm still a fan of Insanity. There's something about my personality that works best with the structure of Insanity. Also, I've had to do the Overtime workout in Asylum about 1/3 of the time to feel like I've really worked out, but I've definitely pushed myself in the workouts. I feel stronger even though it's only been 10 days, and I may regret not having the cardio work that Insanity offers, but, in general, I like what I've seen so far. After Mid-Atlantic, I may do one of the Insanity/Asylum Hybrid workout schedules that's available online.
1. There's much less aerobic workout in Asylum, and much more strength training. This means that I may have to kick up my running a notch to keep my wind during Mid-Atlantic.
2. There's nowhere near as much structure to the workouts. With Insanity, it was very structured. The warmup was pretty much always the same. The stretch was pretty much always the same. Then you went into 3 sets of 4 different exercises, with each exercise lasting 45 seconds and a 30 second break between sets. Once you were done with that 10 minutes of work, you went on to another round of 4 different exercises. The only real difference between Phase One and Phase Two was that another round of exercises was added in. Once that was done, you went into a cool-down stretch and you were done. Asylum doesn't have anywhere near that structure. Predominantly it's a series of minute-long exercises that aren't repeated again. The only workout (so far) that has been structured is the strength one.
3. There's also much less explanation of the different workout positions in Asylum. In the Insanity workouts, Shawn T would spend a little while demonstrating proper form and technique before starting a new exercise, which, quite honest got a little old after watching the video for the 6th or 7th time. In Asylum, he doesn't do much of that. He may demonstrate it once, but that's not done for every exercise.
4. There's nowhere near as many breaks in Asylum. The workouts start, and you'd better be ready. You may get two or three 30-second break during an entire 45 minutes.
5. One of the things I like best about Insanity is that it doesn't depend on any equipment. As long as you have a space to jump around, you don't really need anything else. In fact, I did most of my Insanity workouts in a space about 6 feet X 6 feet, and never really felt all that cramped. Asylum, on the other hand requires several pieces of equipment. A jump-rope (which is useless indoors unless you have 10 foot ceilings) and an exercise ladder come with it, but you also need hand-weights (or exercise bands) and a chin-up bar to really get the full effect. I use pretty much everything except for the jump rope, but find the equipment cluttering up my house most other times. I really need to find a place to keep all this stuff out of the way.So what's the conclusion so far? I've been impressed with Asylum, but I'm still a fan of Insanity. There's something about my personality that works best with the structure of Insanity. Also, I've had to do the Overtime workout in Asylum about 1/3 of the time to feel like I've really worked out, but I've definitely pushed myself in the workouts. I feel stronger even though it's only been 10 days, and I may regret not having the cardio work that Insanity offers, but, in general, I like what I've seen so far. After Mid-Atlantic, I may do one of the Insanity/Asylum Hybrid workout schedules that's available online.
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