Insanity Cardio Recovery
Despite the name, this workout is not exactly about recovery. In fact, my entire body was trembling after the first time I completed this workout. After pushing yourself to your limits with the other Insanity workouts, cardio recovery exists to help you prepare your muscles for recovery while continuing to push them to their limits…
Insanity Cardio Recovery Workout #
The warm-up for this workout is primarily breathing exercises. This is likely because a huge portion of the actual workout is made up of stretching. That said, the workout begins with a bit of plank work.
Exercise List #
- Plank work – starting from an upright position, drop to the floor and jump back into plank position. Jump forward so your feet and hands are back together and return to an upright position. Repeat.
- Plank pulses – very similar to the exercise above but you are in plank position, raise one leg and repeatedly pulse it up and down. Repeat but with the other leg.
- Wide downward dog – start with a wide stance, hands and feet on the ground and your body forming a large upside-down V. Hold this position until given the cue to move on.
- Hamstring stretch – from a wide stance, drop your upper body to the floor, pull your chest toward the right leg and hold. Repeat on the left side.
- Squats – here you perform standard squats, but very slowly. Much harder than it sounds.
- Squat, hold and pulse – at the end of the squats you just performed, hold in the lower position for a bit before pulsing up and down. Finish by once again holding in the lower position.
- Lunges – standard lunges, performed very slowly the way you previously did with squats.
- Lunge, hold and pulse – same as the squats above: hold lower lunge position, pulse and then hold in the lower position once again.
- Plie yoga stretch – from a wide stance with feet turned out, lower your body into a squat. Hold your arms in an outstretched position and lean to the right, putting your palm on the floor and connecting your shoulder with your knee. Hold in this position, return to upright and repeat on the left side.
- Quad strengtheners – start on your hand and knees and lift your knees off the ground with your toes. From this position, lift your right leg and pulse it up and down. Come down and rest for a bit and then repeat on your left side.
- Oblique work – same starting position as the quad strengtheners but instead of pulsing your leg bring, your knee up your side toward your shoulder. Rest and repeat on the other side.
- Table top balance pose – start by balancing on one foot. Lift the other leg into the air, positioning it parallel to the ground. Stretch your arms out in front of you (also parallel to the ground). Hold and then repeat on the other side.
- Knee to chest stretch – start standing upright, lifting one knee and bringing it to your chest. Wrap your hands around your knee and hold it up using your biceps. Repeat with the other leg.
- Knee to oblique stretch – same starting position as the knee to chest stretch above, but pull your leg out to your side, supporting it with the arm on the same side. Hold your opposite arm out to help you balance. Repeat with the other leg.
- Hamstring stretch – reach down toward your feet, rounding your back. If you can, plant your palms on the floor close to your feet. Hold.
- Hip openers – In a squat position, place your hands on your knees. Lower so that your elbows and knees come together and push outward to open your hips.
As I said before, this workout is primarily a bunch of stretches to help you recover from the previous gut wrenching workouts. I was left a rubbery mess once I finished this workout for the first time, but in a sick way it kind of feels good.
Hopefully this description has been informative.
Otherwise I would encourage you to continue reading about the other Insanity workouts by following the links below: