You probably know by now I’m an advocate of the DDPYoga fitness system. I first picked it up in August 2013 after listening to Diamond Dallas Page talk about it at length during a profanity-laden episode of the Steve Austin Show.

However, after hundreds of workouts, I only picked up a heart rate monitor for the first time this year. It was the Fitbit Charge HR, and it has dramatically changed how I do my DDPYoga workouts.

Why wear a heart monitor?

The main principle of DDPYoga is engagement, or dynamic resistance. It’s a tensing of the muscles so that the more you flex, the more blood you pump to your muscles. The more blood you pump to your muscles, the faster your heart has to beat. And the faster your heart beats, the more fat you burn.

If you are operating at your maximum heart rate for up to 25 beats per minute less, you’re engaging in aerobic cardiovascular exercise. Think running, walking, biking, skiing, or doing DDPYoga. With this type of exercise, you are burning fat as your fuel source.

In anaerobic exercise, in which you exceed your maximum heart rate for a long time, you burn sugar as your fuel source, and that requires more recovery time. Think sprinting or weightlifting.

Dallas implores people to be wearing a heart monitor at the start of each workout so that your body is in its optimal fat-burning zone. If you exceed it, he recommends heading into the Safety Zone position for a few seconds so you can lower it.

So how do you know what your fat-burning zone is?

DDPYoga uses the 180 formula developed by Dr. Phil Maffetone.

Take 180 minus your age. Then, modify that number according to the rules listed on his site.

I follow 180 minus my age, minus 20 to know what my target heart rate zone is.

180-26 = 154. 154-20 = 134. So my target heart rate zone is 134-154.

How did the Charge HR help?

When I first got my Charge HR device, I did the quick and basic Energy workout to get a gauge on how it worked. Remember, I hadn’t ever used a heart rate monitor in 18 months of DDPYoga practice.

Initially, I was underwhelmed. My heart rate hovered around 100, which wasn’t close to the 130s I needed to reach just to be on the lower end of my fat-burning zone. “Maybe this thing just needs to get used to me working out,” I thought. After all, everybody’s different, so maybe there was some kind of calibration phase it needed to go through.

Later on, though, it dawned on me that I might not be fully engaging my muscles to make use of the dynamic resistance upon which DDPYoga is based. I made some adjustments, and found out that my heart rate was indeed going up throughout my workouts. With effort, I can make my heart rate soar. Not as easily as they do in the video above, but it works nonetheless.

If you’re having trouble getting into your fat-burning zone doing DDPYoga, try this guy’s video:

Four months after starting to use a heart rate monitor for DDPYoga, I’m seeing some results of using my heart rate monitor. The wrap and burn stretch on the Strength Builder (and Mix Tape) workouts on the DVDs has gotten me into the 130s, and the Mix Tape in general is the workout that keeps me the most engaged with my highest heart rates. I’m also still surprised to see I have consistently high heart rates when I’m doing Broken Table crunches. For a move that doesn’t seem like much, it sure shoots that heart rate up.

However, I still can’t find consistency in when to expect my heart rate to go up and when it won’t. For example, I noticed a drastic increase in my heart rate when working outdoors than indoors. This was especially apparent when I was doing punches a few weeks ago in the park and noticed my heart rate soaring into the 140s, a number not typically seen in my living room during the same exercise.

What to know about customizing the heart rate on the Charge HR

You have to customize your heart rate on the Charge HR if you want to follow the DDPYoga method of calculating it.

1. Open up the Fitbit app.
2. Go to Account.
3. Go to Heart Rate Zone.
4. Select that you want to use a custom zone, and then enter the Upper Limit and Lower Limit.

The caveat is that even though you select custom zones, Fitbit will still use its default zones when plotting your graph of heart rates throughout your workout. It will show you your custom zone with the graph, but it doesn’t really explain much (like what your zones are).

Tell me what you think

Now, it’s your turn to sound off with your experiences to one or any of these questions:

1. What are your experiences like with using the Fitbit Charge HR for DDPYoga?
2. How does the Fitbit Charge HR compare to other heart rate monitors for DDPYoga?
3. What DDPYoga exercises do you find help you get into your target heart rate zone?
4. What other fitness activities do you do with your heart rate monitor, and how does that compare to when you do DDPYoga?

A year after being inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame as Karate Black Belt of the Year, I’m headed back to teach a free DDPYoga seminar.

After doing the program for the past 20 months, I’ve decided to become a certified DDPYoga instructor. This seminar is a win for both of us – I get teaching experience, and you’ll get a kickass workout!

What’s DDPYoga?

Diamond Dallas Page created this style of yoga to help heal injuries from high-impact sports. As he went along, he found how it could help others.

What can DDPYoga do for a martial artist?

Flexibility has never been my strong suit. Most people are surprised when I tell them that despite the fact I’m a black belt, I can’t touch my toes. They’re taken aback when I tell them I only need to be able to kick to the groin at the highest.

But, I can’t tell you how good I feel when I do a DDPYoga workout that really focuses on the hips and knees. I feel loose and ready for a hard practice or competition.

What can I expect at the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame?

As Dallas likes to say, I hope you’ll be “sweatin’ and swearin’.”

Martial arts instructors love putting their students through bodyweight exercises. Many encourage their students to go for runs or do weight training.

With DDPYoga, there are no weights involved. We won’t be running in circles around a gym. You’re gonna stay in one spot and you’re gonna sweat your butt off like never before.

After moving through Insanity at my own pace since the second week of July, I finally completed the last session today. I’ve provided my results below, comparing the first Fit Test to the last.

(Move – Fit Test 1 / Fit Test 5)

Switch Kicks – 40 / 65

Power Jacks – 40 / 54

Power Knees – 67 / 100

Power Jumps – 13 / 40

Globe Jumps – 5 / 12

Suicide Jumps – 7 / 20

Pushup Jacks – 20 / 30

Low Plank Oblique – 34 / 62

I’m very satisfied with myself on my progress. I felt like I was in pretty decent shape before starting this, but if these are exercises are any measure of fitness, I think I did pretty well.

I’m glad it’s over. Not because I didn’t like the program, but because I have other interests I’m pursuing (which I will announce within the next week, I hope).

Until then, I’ll say that I firmly believe in staying fit as a martial arts instructor. However, dedicating so much time to this workout meant subtracting time from practicing my forms or doing my own research. I may write a future blog on the benefits of Insanity for martial artists, as so many moves can be effective training methods for strengthening your legs and core.

Additionally, I would substitute some moves out because they physically hurt me to perform. In addition to the aggravated hip I’ve mentioned in several posts, I seem to have placed some strain on what feels like my deltoid, making pushups difficult for the second half of the program. For pushup punches, specifically, I rooted myself in a strong stance and performed regular punches instead.

The only real disappointment for me was that I don’t feel like I carved the abs I felt like I was promised. Maybe I wasn’t performing the exercises just right. Maybe I ate too much – burning all those calories left me pretty hungry at times. Despite coming out of Insanity without a six-pack, I do feel like my physique has changed. I’ve noticed definition in a few areas I don’t think I had before, and I genuinely feel better about my physical stature.

If I chose to do another home fitness program like this, I would do it in the winter instead of the summer. I like to go for a run or bike ride under the hot sun and come back completely drenched. I missed out on the hottest days of the year by being inside and doing this program. Insanity provided no shortage of sweat, though.

For now, I’ll put more focus into my martial arts training. Maybe I’ll pop a DVD in when I need to spice things up a bit.

After a Friday night spent resting on my cherished off day from Insanity, I knew I wanted to tackle today’s Fit Test. You’ll remember from the last time I did the Fit Test that I felt incredibly weak and nauseous.

So far, this fourth Fit Test has been my most impressive to date. Not only did I complete the test, but I did the Max Interval Circuit as suggested (something I wasn’t able to do the last time). Then I tacked on another 20 minutes or so of martial arts practice because I’ve been slacking this week. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.

Here are my results from today’s Fit Test:

(Move – Fit Test 1 / Fit Test 2 / Fit Test 3 / Fit Test 4)

Switch Kicks – 40 / 51 / 66 / 53

Power Jacks – 40 /42 / 49 / 51

Power Knees – 67 / 80 / 85 / 95

Power Jumps – 13 / 25 / 26 / 30

Globe Jumps – 5 / 7 / 8 / 10

Suicide Jumps – 7 / 10 / 15 / 17

Pushup Jacks – 20 / 20 / 21 / 25

Low Plank Oblique – 34 / 44 / 50 / 60

Several things were different about this workout for me.

First, I didn’t improve on the switch kicks. I’m okay with that because my hip has been bothering me all weak. I noticed a painful sensation when practicing one of my tai chi forms earlier this week, and I want to do what I can to protect the hip. Since I know kicks hurt it, I tried to avoid going all out and made sure my kicks didn’t go above the knee.

(Side note: Tonya claims to have gotten 110 or so switch kicks. I don’t mind Tonya (unlike these people), but I wish she’d been told that two switch kicks = one rep.)

Two, I powered through some of these sets. Keep in mind that during the previous three fit tests, I used the entire minute to get as many as I could. Today, my main goal was to just beat the number I got last time and use whatever time I had left (if any) to rest. I achieved 30 power jumps in about 30-40 seconds. To keep that number in context, I spent a full 60 seconds getting 26 last time. I’d followed Tonya’s example of going balls to the wall right away. Once I hit 30, I just stopped. The same can be said for pushup jacks. I was able to get 25 in well under a minute.

Three, I made some adjustments to the interval training. I’ll be fair and I say that I didn’t do all 59 minutes of interval training. I wound up skipping the warm-up, feeling justified that I’d just completed 25 minutes of the Fit Test and had no need warm up any further. I also adapted some exercises that I was completed burnt out on from the Fit Test and incorporated some karate forms in there. While I wasn’t performing the exact moves that Shaun T was shouting out, it’s not like I was sitting and waiting for the next exercise.

Just two weeks left to go on my Insanity calendar.

I’m happy to report I managed to improve results in every one of the eight maneuvers that comprise Fit Test 3 in the Insanity fitness challenge. You may remember how I was somewhat disappointed that I only got seven out of eight in Fit Test 2.

Here are my results:

(Move – Fit Test 1 / Fit Test 2 / Fit Test 3)

Switch Kicks – 40 / 51 / 66

Power Jacks – 40/42 / 49

Power Knees – 67 / 80 / 85

Power Jumps – 13 / 25 / 26

Globe Jumps – 5 / 7 / 8

Suicide Jumps – 7 / 10 / 15

Pushup Jacks – 20 / 20 / 21

Low Plank Oblique – 34 / 44 / 50

My only goal in the pushup jacks was making sure I’d at least add one over the last Fit Test.

I also started performing the switch kicks at a lower height. My hips aren’t extremely flexible, and doing too many kicks at waist level means my hip bones grind together and result in an uncomfortable ache. Doing these kicks at roughly the height of my knees likely resulted in that higher score.

Another exercise that bothers me is the Level 1, 2 and 3 drills. Instead of sprinting with the mountain-climbers, I’ll just hold the plank position.

The Fit Test is an extremely tough workout. So tough that I decided to forego Shaun T’s prescribed circuit training afterward and save it for the following night. Instead, I sat in a chair with my head in my hands trying to make sure I wasn’t going to throw up.

It should be noted I completed this Fit Test during my sixth week of doing the program. I’ve decided not to do these workouts on days when I have martial arts practice, when is one or two days a week, depending on my instructors’ availabilities.

What has your experience with Insanity been? Are you sticking through it? Gave up after a month? Let me know by leaving me a comment.