The most crucial piece of equipment in the game is the P90X Recovery Formula. These workouts are going to flat-out kill you, and leave you a wrung-out rag the next day. If you want to bounce back like a champ and hit your second, third, twenty-seventh workout hard, then you need to make sure you replenish your energy reserves. This is the only supplement that Shaun T himself outright recommends. Trust me, you don’t try the INSANITY Workout without it. If there is one thing that will make a huge difference in your results, this is it.

The next thing you’ll need is an excellent yoga mat. While some hardcore warriors will want to pulverize their joints as they exercise on raw concrete, the smart money is on using a yoga mat to protect and cushion your joints from the constant plyometric pounding they’re going to take. Think about it: have you been jumping and exercising at maximum intensity these past few years? No? Then your joints are not yet conditioned to take this kind of pounding. Avoid pain and knee/ankle injury by grabbing a high-quality yoga mat. A carpet won’t cut it either for a completely different reason: all that sweat has to fall somewhere, and after a week your carpet will be all stunk up.

A heart rate monitor. While this is especially vital if you have any heart conditions or cardiovascular problems such as high blood pressure or the like, a heart rate monitor is also crucial for those who want to track their progress. Use one of these to measure your cardio improvement, and ensure that you are always right in the right zone as you work out. The best for your buck is the Bowflex Strapless Heart Rate Monitor–that’s what Shaun T himself uses in the workout.

Last but not least is an excellent pair of cross trainer tennis shoes. After plenty of research, I totally recommend a pair of ASICS. Check out the link for more info on them. You will be doing a lot of plyometrics and cardio work that will have you not only leaping but moving rapidly from side to side, sprinting on the spot and doing a number of push-ups, stretches and more. These radical shifts in direction will place a lot of stress on your joints, especially your knee and ankle joints if you’re not careful, and so you need to invest in the best cross trainer’s you can get your hands on. Regular running shoes simply won’t cut it.