These days, with new technology and advancements in science, everything from sending a message to traveling the world can be done more quickly. Getting in shape is no different. Still, no diet or exercise brings success without a little hard work and sweat.
Insanity, a sixty-day workout video challenge, gives aspiring beach bods more than a little perspiration. Insanity consists of ten intense workouts that each last anywhere between thirty and ninety minutes. The trainee starts out by completing a fitness test that gives him or her a starting point to look back on when performing the rest of the workouts.
Shaun T, the video instructor, teaches the viewer difficult workouts, like the power jump, which is a complicated jumping jack, and the switch kick, which is a crab walk made difficult. In each of the videos, the viewer is given intervals in which to perform various tasks at his or her own pace. Still, no matter how slowly it is performed, if done right, insanity will give anyone a workout and quick results. Tim Kotnour, father of Drew Kotnour ‘18, took the sixty-day challenge and had major success, but results like his only come to people who don’t give up halfway through.
For those people who prefer to train outdoors and away from the TV screen, many gyms are offering a new program called Bootcamp. In this program, trainees are to do their workouts outside, and they do traditional things like jogging and jumping-jacks with a gym trainer.
“It’s much more athletic,” says Laura Allen, owner of Sweat Gym in College Park. “There’s no part of the body that isn’t working.” Just like in insanity, Bootcamp workouts consist of interval training with 30-60 second fast-paced intervals with small breaks in between.
These and other new workouts like P90X and Zumba remain popular because people see their hard work paid off, even though it takes a lot of effort.
Whether it’s insane indoor training or a military-style outdoor class, simplicity is out of the question with today’s new workouts. So, if a search for inner peace is the goal, maybe a yoga center is a better place to look.
