CAUTION: today as I was using the straps, I was face down in plank with my feet in the straps, and as I started moving my feet for swimmers, one of the holders started to slide, it hadn't caught the strap. Luckily I wasn't in a move where I was leaning back, letting the strap hold my weight, but I still had to quickly put down my knees and deal with it. If I put my nail under the part you push to adjust it, it holds, but this is only my 5th time using the straps, and I'm afraid that on my 10 or 11th time, that trick won't work anymore. It happened a few other times during the workout, so I started checking it before committing my weight to it on any of the moves. I emailed Nordictrack, but don't expect to hear from them soon. Their email system also wouldn't let me email customer service since I don't have a serial number, so I had to email sales and pray they pass it on to the right department.
Very dangerous, so use caution & make sure your strap catches!
I hope they fix this soon.
Anyhow, did week 5, and it was definitely more Insanity like. You spend more time in Plank this time, and he adds a few exercises and kettlebells!
The KB is used three times: he has you do a one leg squat with one leg in the straps, and as you go up & down in your squat, you bring the KB to a straight arm up & down. #2: he does some KB swings. #3: bicep curls with a hold in the lowest point of a squat.
My HR was very high, I didn't have my KB inside with me so I did the exercises without it and still got a good workout! The jumping jack portion is cut shorter & is about 1/2 way through the workout rather than at the first, and again there is a lot of jumping.
Today I did the workout as written since I'm feeling better, and really noticed it's harder than I thought. I'll have to do weeks 1-3 fully over the next few days to see how I feel about those now that I feel like I'm getting lung capacity back.
I still love this, and once I checked the clip thingie and made sure it was strong, I enjoyed the alternating pull backs with the strap, the lean forward alternating punches, the swims, the pikes with a pushup.. I'm really loving this. The warm up is completely annoying to me, but mostly because he rotates you ankle,then your knee, then your hip, then your shoulder, then your elbow... it's just slow and tedious. The tedious part is only a few minutes, and I should probably just skip over this part. Instead, I had the Insanity infomercial on (it's OK 'cause I already own it so I won't be tempted by it) so I did the warm up watching Insanity.
Anyhow, week 5, SO much better. I guess weeks 1-3 are building up to this, and I'm excited to see what the next workouts are like. I think people that like Insanity (Sancho!) will want to do 1-3 once to figure out some of the moves, but will start to like this set at week 5.
Still don't think it can compare to P90X since the programs so far are not at ALL similar.
Oh, I skipped week 4, it was "recharge" and I didn't need to recharge yet. I think I will start at week 1 again tomorrow, but honestly, I may just do week 5 again 'cause I enjoyed it so much more!!!
Those of you who have received it I hope you jump in and tell us what you think, and I also hope you have more luck with the lock thing than I do. I'll tell you guys what Nordictrack says, but I really hope it's an isolated problem and no one gets hurt by it if it isn't
ETA: Yes,
Suegy, the exercises are all 60 seconds. The exception is when you are using just one side (ie one legged squats) then it's 30 seconds one side, 30 seconds the other. HTH