Asylum versus Insanity for marathon/half marathon training

First of all, sorry everyone for not posting updates for a long time. Life has been keeping me busy; but the good news is that I’ll be able to post more in the coming months. First of all, some new hybrids are will be posted soon (ones that some of you requested months and months ago). So stay tuned for those.

I got an email recently about what is better for training for a half or full marathon: Insanity or the Asylum? Here was my response to the email:

“Hi <_____>, I am glad that you like my site. I have had much more improvement following the hybrids that use Asylum than I have with my Insanity hybrids. I haven’t posted this yet; but I just did a half marathon where I PR’d by almost 10 minutes using a hybrid of Asylum vol 1 and 2 combined with running. Asylum is harder so it really pushes your fitness to a new level and really benefits athletic performance. Without a doubt I suggest using the Asylum for your training. I will say that Insanity does help during light or recovery weeks.”

To expand upon this a bit, The Asylum (vol. 1 and vol. 2) were designed for improving athletic performance. Shaun T isn’t kidding when he says that this program is made for elite athletes and if you are not an athlete, you will be one after completing volume 1. The number of elite athletes using the Asylum is growing steadily (see some of my earlier posts). I can personally attest to this since I have joined an elite rowing group in sunny, southern California and we as a group have started using the Asylum at least once a week in our training. I will say that one of the members of the team who is going to this year’s world championships really really loves the program. While we’re here please root for Rachel Stortvedt (She’s on the right in the picture I linked to) as she competes in the lightweight women’s quad the the World Championships in Chungju, Korea.

Sorry about the rant….back to why I support ‘The Asylum’ for training….so in comparing ‘Insanity’ to ‘The Asylum’ I believe that the increase in difficulty provided by Asylum will lead to greater gains in any type of running race you do (5k, 10k, half, full marathon). Workouts like ‘Vertical Plyo’ and ‘Power Legs’ really work on the fast twitch muscles in the legs and strengthen them in a way that you can run faster during your races. Also, since these workouts are 40-60 minutes long it also improves your endurance (and slow twitch muscles) which will help you maintain speed for longer periods of time. On top of those two you have ‘Speed & Agility’ and ‘X-Trainer’ which both work purely on speed (but also on endurance since they are long workouts with almost no break).

There really isn’t a workout in Insanity that compares to these four workouts found in ‘The Asylum’. Many of you who have done ‘The Asylum’ know that once you finish vol 1 or vol 1 and vol 2, the workouts in ‘Insanity’ seem easy and therefore may not help you actually improve your fitness.

For these reasons, I really support the use of Asylum in training; but until you are ready for the Asylum, stick to Insanity because it will get you ready for the Asylum.

Happy Training

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I almost forgot to mention that I also just finished my first round of Les Mills Combat. Here’s my ‘After’ Picture. I definitely recommend this program to anyone who is loves martial arts of any kind.