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Shape Up with Ever Mainard: The Insanity of Home Workout Videos

You know what’s a really great way to embarrass yourself while you workout alone? Workout DVDs. Every time I see an infomercial filled with a studio of ripped and jumping people I think, That could be me, and I go out and get it.

I love at home workouts: I can workout in the comfort of my living room and no one will see me stop to catch my breath or skip a burpee. On the down side: It is my living room, I stop too many times, and I always skip the burpees. Ladies?! Why am I not loosing 40 pounds in 30 days like the DVD promises?

I had been sporadically doing Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred and I was killing it. If I felt too lazy to go to the gym or if I was bored at home I could just pop in the Shred and have a workout done in 30 minutes. The workout is easy to follow and you can work your way up from beginner to advanced. Plank your way to the top, baby! There’s also the added bonus of Jillian shame encouraging you that haunts you the rest of the day.

Those of you who have done the shred know what I’m talking about. I can still hear, “You want arms like this?! You gatta work!” every time I tie my shoes. It’s comforting, really. It left me with a feeling that Jillian is always watching me. Did I eat a doughnut when no one was watching? Nuh-uh-Jillian saw. Jillian sees all and she’ll let me know next time I do her workout.

Recently, I’ve been doing Insanity. Insanity is a workout series by BeachBody where a man named Shaun T pushes you to do another mountain climber/push-up combo. It was exhilarating! I couldn’t keep up but that’s okay-I felt encouraged to come back and push through my failures. I feel so weird typing that, but that’s really how I felt. DEAL WITH IT. I felt like a caveman afterwards. EVER STRONG! YOU WEAK! Then I killed an elk with my bare hands to feed my family for a month. Just kidding, I didn’t feed my family with it.

I also sprained my ankle doing this workout. That was a very lonely and awkward way to find out how uncoordinated I am. Have you ever fallen down in your own home with no one else around but the dog? I have and it’s humiliating. One minute I was jumping over an imaginary river and the next minute I’m laying in said imaginary river. It was a very dramatic three seconds of pain induced fear. Where’s my life alert!?

Don’t think that the irony of the name doesn’t get passed me: “You mean, I’m supposed to do these same tapes over and over again and expect change?! Why, that’s insanity!” Any Einstein heads in the house? I can’t help but laugh because that’s literally been my life when it comes to weight loss. Like, literally. (Please tell me you know that I’m kidding)

I’m excited about adding Insanity into my workouts. I’ve been doing a lot of weight training to get my guns buff (gross) and these workouts provide just the right amount of HIIT (high intensity interval training) to shred that fat.

If anyone out there has also been doing the Insanity training I’d love to hear your thoughts! Tweet at me: @evermainard and let’s get this asylum pumping. (I’ll see myself out.)

p.s. Super sorry about not using MyFitnessPal, just got a new phone (jealous?!) and forgot to download the app!

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