As you know, the hype around Asylum has been intense … made even more INSANE by the Asylum Challenge featuring the best of the best, the cream of the crop … teamRIPPED … vs. team XcellentFitness, who are already working on their list of “X”cuses LOL!
Now that I’ve had a chance to go through all of the Asylum workouts a couple times, I want to give y’all the breakdown. And since these involve a lot of sports-specific drills, it takes a couple times (or more) to get the technique down and to get coordinated enough to execute the agility drills with speed! Once you get the hang of it though, you’ll feel like Adrian Peterson — a perfect blend of power, strength, speed, and agility! Look out!
Speed & Agility:
This workout is INTENSE (you’ll hear me say that a lot LOL!). It’s all about quick feet, control, and coordination. You have to execute moves using the rope ladder, so you don’t just get to move around. You have to move around FAST and UNDER CONTROL. It took me a time or two through the exercises before I could really up my speed. Getting the feel for moving quickly with precision takes practice — but it makes us more athletic. I can’t help but feel like Adrian Peterson when I’m slashing and dashing through the drills in this one!
Strength:
This workout has lots of lifting and resistance, but not like a P90X lift workout. The heart rate is still through the roof as you do this workout, but you are also burning the muscles with dumbells, pullups, and pushups. But the ultimate killer in this workout is the “rock climber switches”, which come late in the workout, when you are already dead tired! You are expected to hold yourself on the pullup bar, in the “up” position (like at the top of your pullup – as opposed to the hanging position). And from there you switch your grip between the hand positions. BRUTAL!! That one humbles me! But it also gives me a reason to come back and try it again, because that’s how I’ll get better!
Back to Core:
You will feel the burn on the backside of your body in every muscle group from your neck to your knees. The bands will toast your upper back / traps in a barrage of pulsing moves. You have to do every move with precision to maintain form, and the muscles will SCREAM for relief! This is a good one — not so intense as far as heart rate, but a great muscle burn in the areas that we often don’t hit very hard with our lift routines.
Vertical Plyo:
Wow! Heart rate and calorie burn will be off the charts when you do this one! It’s a total blast. Tons of variety. Tons of jumping. I loved this!
Relief:
There is an Asylum workout that doesn’t leave you in a puddle of your own DNA! It’s “Relief”! Designed as a recovery / stretch workout that you can do once a week as part of the schedule, or more often if you need to work out the soreness and improve your flexibility (like me!).
GameDay:
Imagine being in mid season of your favorite sport. You’ve been practicing hard all week, and now it’s time to compete! This workout is the longest (1 hour), burns the most calories (I burn about 1300 with it), and it will literally leave you in a pool of sweat on the floor! Just for example, there is a “swimming” sequence where you are in the superman position, working your arms in a breast stroke motion, and I was sweating so much that I literally felt like I was really in a pool! LOL! And then during the surfer sequence, I was doing the board jumps and the carpet was so wet that my shoes were slipping and squeaking … ON CARPET! This is the “mother” of all workouts in my opinion! But I don’t dread it or fear it. I relish it because it’s so FUN!
Overtime:
A quick (15 minute) extra session with some good plyo and strength moves to really wipe you out, just in case you had anything left at the end of your regular workout! I like adding this to the “Back to Core” routine to make a 1-hour workout, and since the “Back to Core” is the “easiest” cardio workout of the Asylum series, it’s a good place to put it.
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
