Okay, here’s a true story that just happened to me tonight. Well my girlfriend got Insanity in the mail last week. She was excited to start it today and was wondering if I wanted to do it too. I said sure. For those of you who don’t know what Insanity is it’s a new at-home workout put out by Beachbody. I would even go so far as saying that Beachbody might be the leader in at-home fitness. For those of you that are do-it-yourselfers this experience changed my view on going it alone.
Insanity starts with a fit test. Earlier in the day, my girlfriend did hers while I was busy working from home. Then this evening she had to work so I figured I’d get my test in and make sure I beat her scores. I don’t pretend to be in great shape. To give you some background, I try to exercise 2-3 times per week and it mostly consists of pick-up basketball and then sporadic running. I have pretended to be an athlete my whole life. I use to play 3 sports in high school and went on to play 2 in college but this was all many, many moons ago. My point is that I’ve been through a lot of different types of workouts with no real problems. Today was different.
The fit test consisted of 8 exercises in which you do as many reps as you can in one minute. The Insanity workout is described as max interval training. Instead of doing a few minutes of low intensity then 30 seconds of high intensity, it does a few minutes of high intensity followed by 30 seconds of low intensity training. I made it through the fit test which grueling doesn’t begin to describe. Then I was doing the stretching/cool down at the end. I stood up and felt like I was going down. I’ve never fainted before but I didn’t think I’d be able to stay on my feet.
So I sat down and it wasn’t helping. I really didn’t know what to do. Is it better to stand, sit or lay down? Should I have my head up or between my legs? I had no idea. So I sat down first. It wasn’t helping, I was actually feeling worse. So I put my head down and that just made me feel like throwing up. I can’t remember ever getting sick from a workout. Then I laid down.
The scariest part for me was that I was home alone. I figured I was fine it’s just really weird to feel worse than you ever have before. I don’t even know how to describe it. I didn’t know what to do. First, I called my girlfriend but she was busy and I didn’t want to bother her. Then, I called my mom, not because I’m a momma’s boy, because she’s a nurse and I wanted to know what to do to feel better. She said lay their with your feet up, drink water and check my pulse. She said my pulse was fine but the water was on the other side of the room and I definitely didn’t feel like moving. So I laid there for like a half hour and finally got up to get some water and have something to eat.
There is probably a good explanation for what happened and I’ll probably talk to someone to help figure it out or maybe someone will read this and give me some advice. I know for sure that next time, yes there will be a next time, I won’t be home alone. In fact, I’ll have an expert around. As I lay on the floor it made me think of all the d0-it-yourselfers out there. It’s a lonely feeling. What do you do when you don’t have help? Who do you call?
You build your investment portfolio from the ground up yourself or you put together your own financial plan. Then 2008 and the market tanks. What do you do? Do you chase returns? You can’t call the writers of the books and blogs that you read. The investment companies give you an 800-number. Does that really help? You’re all alone feeling the pain or maybe you just have the woozy, light-headed feeling and you are about the pass out or throw up. Who do you turn to? Are they qualified to help or just shooting from the hip? I know next time I do Insanity it will be with my girlfriend around, she’s a personal trainer. I also know that because I work in the financial world I have people I can go to with questions. Who I go to depends on the question. I have a fairly extensive background in exercise, working out and playing sports, so I never expected this to happen. But it did. I’ll learn from it and do my best to make sure it never happens again. It was a horrible experience with even worse feelings. Good thing I know someone who can help. Do you? E-mail me, follow me on twitter and follow my feed.
Update: I think I figured it out!
Related posts:
{ 2 trackbacks }