“Insanity The Asylum will take you from average to elite in just 30 days.” –Beachbody, Insanity the Asylum

What’s your favorite sport?  Track/Field? Baseball? Wrestling? Basketball? Speed Skating?  Football? Surfing?

Game day uses these sports (as well as Swimming, Soccer, and Tennis) as inspiration for tons of unique exercises.

You don’t have to be a pro at any sport to try Game Day but you do need to be mentally prepared for an advanced and intense cardio workout.

Here’s a peek at the Insanity Asylum program by Beachbody:

Let me explain to you why Game Day is my favorite Insanity The Asylum workout…

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Instructor-Shaun T

Category-Cardio+

Equipment-agility ladder*, pull-up bar**, mat

*If you don’t have an agility ladder you can tape off an area on the carpet that’s roughly the same size and do all of the exercises in the boxes of tape, OR if you’re on a tiled floor you can use four 12 x 12 tiles in a row as your ladder

**You don’t have to have a pull-up/chin-up bar. There’s an option to do a push-up move instead.

TIP-If you get a pull-up bar make sure you purchase a pull-up assist band, too

Length-60 minutes

HRM-530 calories

Choreography-Simple

My rating– A

The Important Stuff about The Asylum Game Day

The Asylum, Game Day will be easier to do if you have slightly more room than I usually recommend.  You need enough space to run around the agility ladder and jump back and forth over it.  But you only use the ladder for a few moves.

Shaun T’s team on this video is a group of amazing athletes.  Try to keep up with them.

A lot of the exercises on Game Day look easy at first but they will challenge you, I promise.

Game Day is a group of exercises that are styled after drills from specific sports.  Shaun T will announce what sport he’s pulling the moves from before each section.  Don’t be intimidated when he mentions a sport you’ve never played.  (Most of us weren’t on the high school wrestling team.)  Rally your inner athlete and try every exercise.  They’re all fun.

Shaun T does an awesome job of cheering you on and helping you find that last bit of energy you need to get through each set.  Listen to him.  His enthusiasm is contagious.

You WILL catch your toe on the ladder.  It’s frustrating but it’s going to happen.  You can bend down and straighten it every time it happens or just keep going and ignore it.

You get a lot of short breaks to catch your breath and get a drink.  You’ll need them.

Read to the end of this post for tips on every section in Game Day as well as links to a few places you can compare prices for Beachbody’s The Asylum program.

Warm-Up

The warm-up is 3 moves using the agility ladder.  Each move is repeated for one minute.  You get to go at your own pace.

In & Out Agility Drill

Agility Split Squat Touch

Your thighs will be on fire and it’s literally the second move of the video.  It doesn’t get any easier.  But you got this!

Agility Dual Hip with a Jump

I’m not a big fan of tuck jumps 2 minutes into a video but nobody asked me.  Don’t complain.  Just do them.

Stretch

This stretch isn’t as good as the ones Shuan T does after most of the Insanity warm-ups but it’s a nice break for 2 minutes before the main workout starts.

Main Workout (The Exercises in The Asylum Game Day)

Track/Field

1 Mile Run

You basically run in place for about 6 minutes for this first exercise.  Listen to the prompts.  Every few minutes you change form to simulate different running styles/environments.

The one-arm burpee is kind of wonky for me because it slows my pace and I suddenly have to find my balance but it’s fun.

Listen to Shaun T, he’ll get you through the 6 minutes.

Break

100 Meter Agility Dash

You need your ladder for this one.

I can’t use the wide spaced squares on the ladder like Shaun T.  I go in and out of one box instead.

Competitive Long Jump

I’d recommend you try to alternate the foot you’re jumping off of every time or when you finish you’ll feel off-balance.  You should also alternate which side of the ladder you run up after each rep.

Don’t feel like you have to jump as high as Shaun T.  Just do the move and don’t stop.

Basketball

Fake Out Lay Up

This is a pivot move on one foot with a layup jump over the ladder.

You don’t have to use the ladder to do this move.  It’s hard to do it at the pace Shaun T calls out the cues.  Just do your best.  It’s hard.  He tells you when to switch feet.

Daikeler Jump Shot

These don’t look hard but it’s impossible to go as fast as you think you can.

Shaun T tells you to do 20 per side but I don’t even think he could pull off that many (he doesn’t actually do the move for more than a few seconds so who knows).

I usually do 15-17 per side.

Water Break

Wrestling

Mounted Matt Maneuver

This is an interesting move.

There are 3 parts to it: a modified bear crawl push-up, a modified side plank, into a modified tricep push-up (refer to the photos to see the modifications).

Your shoulders will be on fire.  Try to keep going the full 2 minutes at a slow and steady pace.

Break

Soccer (38 minutes left)

Soccer Kicks

Every time I do this video I forget how hard this exercise is.  You jog forward and do ONE straight leg kick and then jog back where you came from.  Next you jog up and do TWO kicks.  You repeat this pattern until you’re up to 8 kicks on that leg.

You do this exercise as a group so it’s easier to push yourself since you’re part of the class.

Before you move to the next leg you have to do the hardest part of this segment which is the ball juggle.  You emulate the movements of juggling a soccer ball with your feet.  SO hard!

Look at Shuan T’s team during this part so you don’t feel like you’re the only one dying.  Notice him point out that ‘no one ever stops’ as he’s standing still.  Ha!

Break

Tennis

Forehand/Backhand

Get your ladder out for this move.

It’s easy and a nice break after those soccer kicks.

Volley/Overhead

Keep your ladder out.

This is one of the exercises that’s uncomfortable to do on your non-dominant hand (unless you play tennis all the time, in which case this will be one of the easier moves).

Water Break

Speed Skating

Speed Skater Sprint

You fold your ladder in half for these (or just use two floor tiles).

When you watch Shaun T demonstrate this exercise you’ll immediately envision yourself as Apollo Ohno zipping back and forth.  You will quickly discover you are not Apollo. 

You won’t be able to go nearly as fast as you think you can.  It’s ok, just keep moving.  Bend at the waist and keep your back flat.  Your head stays still and up.

There’s a slower coast move in between two sets of sprints.  This exercise goes on forever.  It’s hard.  You’ll be happy to say goodbye to speed skating when this one ends.

Water Break

Swimming

100 meter Breast Stroke

You’ve probably seen this move before.  It’s genius.  You get on your belly on the floor and move your arms and legs like you’re swimming.  (The trick is to keep your limbs from touching the floor.)

Some people will find swimming on dry land very hard and others will think this is one of the easier ones.  I thought it was easy until I had to do it for 2 minutes.

Your back and shoulders will ignite.  Instead of stopping just slow down and try not to let your arms touch the floor.

This exercise will also fire up your hamstrings.  If you wake up tonight because of a cramp in your hamstring you can thank Shaun T and this move for it.

Break

Surfing

This section has more swimming on the floor and you jump up into surfing position when Shaun T yells at you to do so.

I start to get a little irritated that he’s not doing more of the exercises at this point but that’s just me.

Water Break

Football

Get your ladder ready for Lineman’s Drill.

Shaun T cues you through different shuffle moves around the ladder. 

You’ll be happy that you’re done swimming until you do this move for 30 seconds.  It lasts for 2 minutes.  Don’t give up.  Let Shaun T pump you up.  He’s good at that.

Break

Rock Climbing

Guess what?  You get to do some push-ups in this section.  Try not to cry.  You’re almost done.

Mountain Climber Jacks

You only need two squares of your ladder.  First you do Mountain Climber Jacks in high plank for a minute.  You’ll be in high plank with your toes in one square of the ladder.  When you jack your feet out your toes will straddle the squares..

It’ll take more space than you realize to do Mountain Climber Jacks.  You may have to move your ladder around.

Next there’s a move on the pull-up bar.  Don’t worry if you don’t have one.  There’s a push-up option on the floor that’s just as good.

Rock Climbing Switch

The Rock Climbing Switch is a pull-up with a hand position change at the top of the move.

I use an assist on the pull-up bar (that’s a strap that attaches to the bar and has a hook at the bottom to put one foot in) and can still only do 4 sets of these.  I just don’t have the upper body strength to do this well.

Rachel, from Shaun T’s team, does this exercise on the chin-up bar with no assist.  She’s awesome.

Water Break

Rock Climbing Push-Up

This exercise is really hard.  You’ll keep out your ladder folded up to use 2 squares.

Get in high plank with your toes in a square of the ladder.  You’ll do a jumping jack with your hands and feet and drop into a push-up with each rep.  Try to make it a tricep push-up when your feet come together and a regular push-up when they jack out.

You’ll be burned out at this point but this is where it counts.  Do as many as you can.  Don’t give up.

Rock Climbing Switch/One-Leg Lat Push-Up

Now you go back to the pull-up bar for the Rock Climbing Switch again for 2 minutes.

The floor option is a One-Leg Lat Push-up.  (Alternate lifting one leg with each lat push-up).  I usually skip the pull-up bar on this set and do the lat push-ups instead.  How can 2 minutes feel so long?

Water Break

Baseball

You have less than 10 minutes left at this point!

There are 2 exercises in this section and then the stretch.

The Pitch

The Pitch is the name of the first exercise.  You pretend to pitch a ball and then get down and do one mountain climber on the floor to switch legs.  Then you’ll stand and be in position to throw a pitch on the other leg.  Make sure you lift your leg high for each pitch.

This wouldn’t be that hard if it wasn’t for 2 minutes.

Batter Up

You’ll want to smack Shaun T when he shows you this last move.  You get to do a tuck jump for this thing he calls Batter Up.  He says your goal is to do 50 of these but of course he’s not doing them.

Fifty is impossible.  You can realistically do 25-30.

You did it!  You’re all done!  You’re an official Badass!

Cool Down/Stretch

The stretch is not nearly as thorough as it needs to be for this workout.

I’d highly recommend you do more stretching on your own focusing on your hamstrings (remember all that swimming?), hip flexors, calves and shoulders.

Now What?

Insanity The Asylum, Game Day is my favorite routine in The Asylum series.  It’s fun, unique, and a very effective cardio workout.

It used to be possible to purchase Insanity Asylum as a stand alone set on Amazon but you can’t do that anymore. Like all the new Beachbody programs you’ll need a membership to Beachbody on Demand to do the Insanity Asylum workouts.

In my opinion, the membership is worth it’s cost. (There’s a FREE trial period so it’s worth testing it out.) Read more about the membership before you sign up.

Thanks for reading!

Have an amazing workout!