Day 4 Insanity The Asylum: Vertical Plyo Workout

Day 4 of Insanity The Asylum was the Vertical Plyo workout and this was the hardest workout I’ve done all week. If you think you’re in as good of shape as Shaun T, this workout will make you think twice. This workout could have easily been called “Cardio Suicide” because you will have to kill yourself multiple times in order to make it through this workout. It honestly made the P90X Plyometrics workouts look like play time for the kiddies and the regular Insanity series look like your average run-of-the-mill cardio routine.  Side note: I wonder if Tony Horton would tell the peeps to get multiple buckets nearby for this one…

If you made it through this with full intensity the whole time, I’d say that you’re either: A) An Olympic athlete B) On steroids C) Shaun T or D) All of the above…haha This workout was ridiculously hard. When I say ridiculous – you might be thinking…ahh that’s so cliché, all of these workouts are tough. Yeah, you’re right – they are all tough, but the burn from this one is like getting dropped into a fucking volcano and trying to jump your way out.

Yes, I did have to take some short breaks to get a quick swig of Gatorade and water, but I battled til the last breath – or as The Clipse would say, “til the casket dropped.” This was the toughest workout I have ever done on DVD and it had the hardest warm up I have ever done as well. Some of the exercises in this routine were completely unexpected, but there are no breaks. The tip of the day in this one is: “you gotta go down to go up” in regards to your jumps. Shaun wants you going down with good form so that you get good jumps and maximum burn in the plyometrics sequence.

Day 4 Insanity: The Asylum: Vertical Plyo Workout

Warm Up: Jump Rope Series

Split Squat Jump Rope – I actually struggled with the first move out of the gate. I do have a jump rope, but wasn’t very effective with this move because I would need to make my rope larger so that my legs get proper range of motion. For this one I set my jump rope down and basically mimicked the girl without a rope in the video. I think I got better range of motion than her though – and more of a burn too…haha

Right Leg Jump Rope – For this one you basically just keep hopping with your right leg forward. Your leg will start to burn here, I guarantee it. Shaun T says that you might experience some “lactic acid” but you need to focus and keep pushing through with good form. I didn’t feel any lactic acid, but I did feel my leg muscles fully engaged and they were burning.

Left Leg Jump Rope – For this one, you just slide your left leg forward and your right leg back and do what you just did for 30 more seconds. You need to focus on breathing, landing, and keeping your core tight.

Adductor Jump Rope – As you drop down, your knees are touching (slightly bent) and you jump rope with your feet together. Your butt is down and you’re supposed to shoot for 90 degrees. Your legs will be on fire at this point – if they aren’t either you’re Hulk on crack or your aren’t doing the move correctly.

Adductor Tuck Jumps – For these, you keep your arms in the middle of your body and jump up. As you land, you touch down right arm to the left toe, and then hop back up, land, and touch down left arm to right toe. You keep pushing hard, and landing with your knees bent, but touching just like you did with the jump rope.

Ladder Hop Squats – These look simple, but at this point, the lactic acid will be ready to pwn the shiz out of your leg muscles. This is the move in the warm up where you need to buckle down, focus, and dig as deep as you possibly can. I’ll admit that towards the end of this, I had to take a quick 3 second break, but I got right back in it because I was pissed at myself for having to even take the mini break. When I got back in it, the burn was still there strong as ever, but I kept pushing, pushing, pushing, and almost died…haha For this move though, you use your ladder, and basically squat down to touch your finger tips in the center of each square of the ladder. You move up the ladder with your hop squats, then back down the ladder for the allotted time. Trust me, these will kill. Even Daniel had to take a break while focused on camera with Shaun T – that’s how tough these really are.

Hop Scotch Jump Rope – Did you really think the warm up was over after that? Well, I honestly kind of did until Shaun T screams that “we’re going into hop scotch” and I’m like oh shit, I keep forgetting that I’m still in The Asylum. You do two hops with just your right foot, then two hops with both of your feet down, then switch and do two hops with the left foot, and then two with both feet, and keep cycling back and forth. AHHHHH!!!!! Shaun T says, “If you’re tired, you mind as well throw in the towel now, because it’s not getting any easier” – at that point, I’m sure if the crew members each had towels in their hands, they would have thrown them in…haha

Double Jumps Jump Rope – I absolutely suck at doing the “double jumps” with my jump rope. I did manage to get some doubles, but they were mostly really high jumps and rapid rotation with singles. If you don’t have a jump rope, I recommend just doing power jumps as fast as you can with good form and jumping as high as possible. I jumped high, tucked my legs, and my god, WTF am I doing to myself? Haha

Wide Spider Lunge – Umm, yeah that’s right, you still aren’t even done with the warm up because you get to do the Wide Spider Lunge. These weren’t too tough and I actually felt like I was getting some wind back, but my legs were still en fuegisimo a.k.a. on fiyah! For these, your fingertips face out, and you bring your right foot up to the right, then back, and left foot up to the left. You really work your obliques and it’s tough to push through, but you gotta be “in it to win it” as Shaun says. He also rips on Mike a little bit for not pushing hard enough.

Ladder Rotational Jumps – You jump up, touchdown in the ladder, and then do a 180 degree rotation and touchdown in the same box. You spin another 180 degrees and jump forward and work your way up and down the ladder. Your first half you go clockwise, and second half counterclockwise… Still the warm up… straight up relentless.

Water Break – You earned a few water breaks by the time you survive the warm up, but since you’re in The Asylum, you get a nice long 30 second one. Enjoy your 30 seconds of bliss. Shaun asks, “How we feelin y’all?” and waits for someone to respond, but there is not even a peep from any of the crew members… no sound – absolutely classic.

Stretches – LMFAO, he starts out the stretching by saying, “Sometimes I say you get 30 seconds, but if I turn it into 10 – that’s your problem!” This made me laugh. Anyways, for the stretches, you work the inhales, exhales, plie, core, hamstrings, and other muscle groups. I made damn sure I got a good stretch, because it already felt like I did a tougher workout in this Vertical Plyometrics warm up than the Insanity Fast and Furious 20 Minute workout…haha (It seriously was close).

The Asylum: Vertical Plyo Exercises

Standing Long Jump – For this exercise, you need your ladder, because you need to do a standing long jump over the full length. If you cannot jump the full length of the ladder, you can modify and overlap a square to make things easier. I was able to jump the full length without problems and good form. After you clear it, you sprint back and do another long jump and keep the process going. Halfway through you switch sides and sprint back the other direction. The main section of the workout has officially begun!

Split Squat Back Fly (with Band) – I’m kind of upset that they didn’t recommend buying a green band with this workout. I wish they would have just included it because I would have paid the extra money for one. Anyways, I was kind of lucky that I had a light band around from P90X than I was able to get to work for this exercise. And man, it’s way tougher with the band because you get resistance in your back and shoulder muscles while maintaining the plyo. Oh and I forgot to mention that you need to do the split squats in and out of the ladder while moving up and down – to keep yourself under control.

Back Fly Tuck Jumps (with Band) – You do a high jump while tucking your knees, but while you are in the air, you do the back fly with the band. These are like rapid fire jump knee tucks, but with a band to work your arms, back and upper body while in the air. I was so dead by the time this move ended, but there was way more in store.

Low Stance Jacks (with Band) – Shaun T says to take your heavier band and wrap it around your ankles for resistance. You use your adductors to stay under control, keep your knees touching and feet together when you land. When you jump for the squat, you spread your legs and are getting owned with resistance from your band. I tried using the band I had and it didn’t work amazingly well, but it still gave me added resistance which I was thankful for – I didn’t want to be left out. These are basically just like stance jacks – right arm to left side and left arm to right side, but adding the band – beastly.

Single Leg Jump Rope (Active Rest) – There are no breaks in this workout, but there is what Shaun calls “active rest.” It’s basically a slower, easier exercise designed to keep your heart rate up, but give you a little break. For this “active rest” we get to do single leg jump rope – so one leg at a time… It is tough to push though, but you gotta do what you gotta do (i.e. dig). You switch legs halfway through.

Resistance Power Jumps – Before this move, Shaun says, “If you have any doubts, you need to go do Relief” – this had me cracking up again but since I couldn’t really breathe, I didn’t laugh out loud – mentally I was laughing though. I just pictured some people shutting down shop to go do relief. I still haven’t found out what “Relief” is, but it sounds like it might be some simple stretches or something. He also said to “check your heart rate all the time” – I don’t have a heart rate monitor, but I pretty much know when I’m in a state of cardiac arrest, so no need.

Resistance Power Jumps (with Band) – For this move, you are instructed to take your biggest most powerful resistance band and wrap it around your ankles. Not only that, but you do “power jumps” with the resistance band to work your adductors. You stay behind your ladder and try to get 2 ladder legs wide. You touch the floor when you drop down, and my god, it would not surprise me if someone fainted, ate dirt, and/or died during this move if they didn’t know their limits and overshot. I pushed through as well as I possibly could, but took a couple mini breaks so that I could survive.

RPJ’s with Band (in the Ladder) – Next you move and do these Resistance Power Jumps for another segment of time while landing in the ladder for maximum control. These are not something to play around with – they are tough, hardcore, and extreme – you need to stay controlled.

Resistance Plyo Push Ups – You are supposed to use your less extreme resistance band for these as well. You position your hands in the ladder, and then go down into a wide push up spreading your hands and feet. You then return to arms tight to your body and legs together doing another push up, then hop back out, and continue the process for the time. So basically you go from tricep push up on the inside to wide push up on the outside. My resistance bands didn’t work well for this one, so I ditched them altogether and just regular plyo push ups and still barely made it. Shaun T said, “this is a motherfucker right here” and it got bleeped out (which I liked because it fired me up even more). Anyways, I couldn’t have summed up this exercise any better myself.

Plyo Push Ups (Feet in the Ladder) – After you are done with the regular resistance plyo push ups with your hands in the boxes of the ladder, you crawl forward with your remaining energy and put your feet in the ladder and do the same thing. Really the only change is that your feet now need to be in control and you need to focus on them more so than your hands.

Resistance X Jumps – As soon as you can stand up from the last move, you are expected to do X Jumps with the resistance bands. You are still supposed to have a band around your ankles, and one for your arms to pull when you jump. You go down, then jump up making your body into an “X” and then land fully composed. Shaun says, “you’re seeing Shaun T get murdered right now” and if he’s getting murked… I honestly have no further words to describe it. Anyways, Ariel fights through like me – I did use a band up top, but didn’t have one for my legs.

Mountain Climber Switch Kicks – I remembered these from The Asylum Fit Test #1 – so I knew what to do. The only major problem was that unlike the day of the first fit test, I was really fucking tired. So I sucked it up, focused on good form, got my kicks and knees up, and pushed as hard as I possibly could. You start out doing these behind the ladder, and Shaun T says that you should check your heart rate before doing these. The name of the game with these, is to do the actual move correctly – not some half assed leg half up type shit. For the next 30 seconds, you move inside of the ladder, and if you touch the ladder, you need to drop down and do 20 push ups. Unfortunately, I nicked the ladder and was only able to do 10 push ups before the time ended.

Low Squat Jump Rope (Active Rest) – Here’s another example of an “active rest” but you need to still jump rope. You basically do squat jumps with the jump rope and land softly. The name of the game with this particular move is to stay as low as possible with proper control. Shaun T says to act like there’s a bench under you and you need to sit on it – that’s how low he wants you to get.

Rotational Jump Squat Agility – You start out going clockwise – you jump forward into the ladder, then jump back, then do a 180 across the ladder, jump in, jump out, and 180 back. You continue this for the entire time and it actually isn’t too tough. I would characterize this as a continuation of the active rest, even though it’s still tough. Alisha tells Shaun T to “come on” and he pushes with her until the finish.

Decoy Split Jumps – For this exercise, your right leg is back, your left is in a box of the ladder, and you jump. As you are mid-air, you bring your right leg forward and kick your left leg back. But before you land, you swing them both back “quick” so that it’s a “decoy” and not the actual thing. These were difficult and having my right foot forward was tougher for me than my left forward for some reason. Maybe because my right foot is more dominant, I’m not sure. This is a great exercise for sprinters to explode out of the blocks. Halfway though you switch (as usual) to work both legs and both sides of the body equally. Mike from the crew spazzed on that one and I believe Mandy showed a modified version.

Scissor Jump Agility – Shaun says, “Listen, this one is a beast” before explaining the move (and at this point in the workout), I’m like what could possibly be any more beastly than all of the moves leading up to this one? Seriously, if you weren’t expecting every move to be a beast by now, you aren’t too good at pattern recognition. This move was definitely a “beast” though and it ended up being a personal favorite. You start down in the ladder with your feet in consecutive squares, and touch the rung of the ladder while you are down low. You jump when Shaun says to “jump” and you cross your feet mid-air (one front, the other behind) so that it’s like a scissor. You do 10 reps, then 5 push ups, then 10 reps (other foot in front), then 5 push ups, then 10 reps (back to normal), 5 push ups, then 10 reps (switching feet), then 5 more push ups. I somehow had myself believing that this was going to be the final move of the workout (because of Shaun’s added hype) – but to my demise, it wasn’t. I made it through just fine, but it was effing wicked. I just noticed that there are police sirens going off in the background after you finish this move…haha (or maybe it was a real ambulance coming to pick up Alisha coming to pick up one of the cameramen who had a heart attack just watching).

Mini Water Break – Okay you do get a little mini-water break after the last move, so get something in your system. I drank like half of a Gatorade in like 10 seconds and was expecting some cool down stretches, but none showed up…haha

Double Jumps Jump Rope – You do double jumps with your jump rope for a full minute. As I did earlier, I couldn’t fully manage to do all of the double jumps. I maybe did a few total, and then had to just keep pushing as hard as I could with single jumps. I’m not good at getting my arms to move fast enough for the double – need to practice. I can jump high enough and have good coordination – I’m just not very good with the dubs and rope. I landed as softly as I possibly could and pushed through it, but my legs were dead. Martin was spazzing at the end of this one.

Single Leg Power Jumps – You need to know your limits with these last moves so that you prevent injury. For these, you basically do power jumps with one leg at a time. You stay controlled the entire time. You jump with one leg and land with that same leg. You do one leg for a full minute (30 seconds out of the ladder and 30 seconds in the ladder). After the first minute, you switch to the other leg and work it for another minute. On my last leg, I could honestly barely hold myself up without buckling but I somehow made it.

Lateral Jumps – For the final exercise, you hop laterally (side to side) across the full length of the ladder (back and forth). You get down low, bend your knees, and spring side to side. I had to fold my ladder one run down in order to clear it because I was so damn tired and didn’t want to injure myself. Shaun wants to see your ups on this final move and it was really the perfect ending to the hardest workout ever put on DVD I’ve ever done.

Water Break – How convenient, a nice water break after the workout is over…haha If Shaun wouldn’t have been yelling at me the entire time through my speakers, I don’t think I would have been able to make it.

Cool Down: Do I have a pulse? Definitely nah

Although I’m pretty sure I had no pulse, I had to do the closing stretches. For the cool down, you do the inhale up, exhale down, stretch it out, and I honestly could barely stand up for the stretches. However, I do know that stretching after an intense workout like this is absolutely vital – so I made sure I followed the proper protocol. Your hamstrings and calves need to be stretched out good.

By the time I finished the stretches, I honestly didn’t even know what to do next. I drank the remaining water that I had and just laid down on the ground and looked at the lights in my basement for a couple minutes. I totally zoned out and wasn’t sore, but I was exhausted. I think Shaun T was so tired, he didn’t even really know what to say at the end so he went with a combination of the classic closing line: “My name is Shaun T, keep digging deep, peace out!”

Water never tasted so good, and finishing a workout never felt so good.

Final Thoughts: Vertical Plyo a.k.a. “Shaun T you lost your mind”

When Shaun said, “Look, I know you’re probably saying, Shaun T you lost your mind, but you know what, that’s why I’m in The Asylum right now, cuz I need to lose my mind to help you gain a new body, so keep it up” – I definitely laughed. That summed up the exact way everyone felt who finished this workout. This was the toughest workout I have had all week in The Asylum program.

In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb, snap it off, and threaten to stab anyone with the sharpest end who says they know of a tougher cardio workout on DVD…haha (kidding… but you won’t find anything tougher).  Anyways, since this is only the first week, there may be something even tougher in store, but really I don’t think it gets much tougher than this. I can slightly remember the Day 41 of Insanity Max Interval Plyo – which at the time I dubbed the “hardest Insanity workout” at the time – but that day doesn’t really match up to THIS session in terms of intensity throughout.

If I had to rank the workouts I’ve done thus far in the first 4 days, I would put them in this order: Day 4 a.k.a. Vertical Plyo a.k.a. TODAY, Day 2 of The Asylum: Strength, Day 3 of The Asylum: Back to Core, and Day 1 of The Asylum Speed & Agility.  Maybe I’m being a prisoner of the moment right myah, but it’s really hard not to be with the craziness that ensued in this workout.  Maybe the first day was tougher than I thought, but I know that I got the top 2 positions in terms of difficulty in the first four days correct… (as if that really matters)…eL Oh eL.

Although the toughest mental challenge with a workout I’ve ever had involved me running my first marathon this past year, this was definitely a second. If you are “in it to win it” and aren’t lollygagging, taking excessive breaks, and are pushing hard for the full 40 minutes, you will feel like you survived something special…haha

Thank the Lawd for a rest day manana! Thank the Lawd! Lawd have mercy for the peeps in The Asylum!

Similar Posts:

• Day 9 Insanity The Asylum: Vertical Plyo (Again)
• Day 26 Insanity The Asylum: Vertical Plyo Workout (Last Time)
• Day 20 Insanity The Asylum: Vertical Plyo Workout (Dead Legs)
• Day 16 Insanity The Asylum: Vertical Plyo Workout (Ready To Puke)
• Day 6 Insanity The Asylum: Speed And Agility Workout (Again)

Tagged as: adductor jump rope, day 4 of the asylum, insanity, ladder hop squats, right leg jump rope, rotational jump squat agility, shaun t, split squat jump rope, the asylum, vertical plyo workout