Thursday, January 3, 2013

Asylum: Volume 2: Back & 6-pack

This evening, I popped in the fourth workout in the Asylum: Volume 2 series, Back & 6-pack. At forty minutes, this workout is the shortest of the set, save the Off-day Stretch.

This workout definitely worked my core, however, I didn't feel it was quite as challenging as the other three workouts I had done. This was probably because lots of time was given to Shaun T instructing. Many moves could be done with either hand weights or using a chin-up bar. This meant that Shaun T had to show you each move twice, significantly slowing down parts of the workout.

This workout utilized a good deal of equipment such as the resistance loops, weights, and the jump rope. The rope was used during a jumping sequence in the warm-up folded up and held between two hands to help keep form. This is the second non-traditional use of a jump rope in Asylum. The other case was using the rope for stretching in the Upper Elite workout.

This series of exercises involved lots of plank work and some smaller moves on the floor that were similar to what was in the Asylum: Volume 1: Back to Core DVD. There were segments of strength moves like planks and t-stands interspersed with moves like floor sprints and ski abs (from Insanity). I was pretty excited to see ski abs return from Insanity. I recall that in Insanity I could barely do this move more than once or twice and had to take breaks. This time, I made it all the way through the entire set without stopping. These workouts definitely give you a sense of accomplishment when you can see your progress this way.

One of the hardest ab sections of this workout was the final set of ab moves, which seemed Pilates inspired. The move had you holding a c-sit position for five seconds, followed by a one leg raised c-sit for five seconds, followed by a v-sit for five seconds with arms lowered and then with arms raised, followed by lowering of the legs for five seconds. This entire rotation was done multiple times. It was a challenge to hold my legs in a v position as they were very fatigued from yesterday.

This workout was certainly less intense than the others, but I think this was good as my body is feeling pretty punished from the past few days. I think that this workout could have been more of a challenge if we had moved through the exercises more quickly with less instruction. I'm entertaining the idea of fast forwarding the DVD through these pieces next time to make the workout more continuous. On the other hand it is good to get to rest one's muscles between sets, so perhaps these breaks serve a purpose. Another option would be to do a cardio workout on days when I have the Back & 6-pack Asylum DVD on the schedule.

Tomorrow, I will be doing the much deserved stretch DVD. I'm looking forward to thirty minutes of stretching in a way I did not think possible. Saturday will be the big day -- I'll be doing the Championship along with the fit test. I'll let you know how it goes.

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