You may have read the title of this article and said, “Duh.” I mean, who’d be stupid enough to think they could go from being a couch potato to a marathoner without at least a few months of training?
This logic also applies to half-marathon, 10k, and even 5k races. There are scads of websites devoted to helping people build up their bodies to the race they want to run.
We know this. It’s obvious.
Well, then, answer me this question:Â Why is it that I will turn people on to a high-intensity program like Shaun T’s Insanity or even his 25-minutes-a-day program, Focus T25, and they’ll do day one and then quit because … “it’s too hard”?
OF COURSE IT’S TOO HARD! YOU ARE OUT OF SHAPE! YOU HAVE TO WORK UP TO BEING ABLE TO DO IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH!
(I don’t mean to shout, but this attitude gets me riled up!)
If you were to decide that you have a goal to run a 10k (6.2 mile) race, you wouldn’t schedule the race for next weekend, would you? Hell no! You’d schedule it for 3 or 6 months down the road. Then you’d start training by running short distances, gradually increasing your mileage until you were ready to successfully complete the race.
That is the same approach we need to take to a high-intensity training program.
Take it slowly at first. Add extra breaks. Pause the DVD. In fact, I recommend that — at least at first — you do NOT pause the DVD. Just let it run. Take a break and jump back in when you are ready.
Don’t be discouraged if you can’t complete an Insanity routine. I’ve been doing Insanity for more than 2 years now, and I still cannot make it through even one of the DVDs at full intensity without stopping. I get closest to that with the “Pure Cardio” DVD, but still haven’t made it yet.
I remember the first time I did P90X’s infamous “Plyo X” workout. What a killer! But you know what? The day I was able to make it all the way through that workout without modifications and without stopping gave me a great feeling of accomplishment. It let me know that I really was getting into shape.
You are not going to go from couch to marathon overnight. Don’t expect that with your Beachbody program, either. In fact, I would suggest that any workout that a couch potato can complete all the way through right away is not really much of a workout. Stick with the stuff you can’t do now, because that is the only way to make yourself stronger and better.