Insanity Max 30 Review: Heart Rate Test
Insanity Max 30 Results: Real Heart Rate Data
Insanity Max 30 results depend on how much time you actually spend at a high heart rate. I tested a full 30-minute workout using a Polar chest-strap heart rate monitor and compared the results to a HupSix workout. Here’s what happened.
This is the full test shown in the video below.
The Numbers
Insanity Max 30: ~56 to 57 cardio minutes in 30 minutes
HupSix: ~61 to 62 cardio minutes in 30 minutes
Yes, Insanity Max 30 is cardio. But look at those two numbers side by side. Most people would assume a workout built around burpees, planks, and non-stop calisthenics would crush a workout like HupSix. It doesn't. And the reasons why tell you a lot about what cardio training actually is.
What Does "Max" Actually Mean?
The workout is called Max Insanity 30. I assumed max meant max heart rate. My max heart rate used to be 159. It's now 169 because I've been doing HupSix consistently. That's cardio working the way it's supposed to work. It's literally making my heart stronger.
During the Insanity Max 30 session, I peaked at 156 bpm. During a recent HupSix workout, I hit 176 bpm.
In the video, Shaun T has participants run to a chalkboard and write down when they "maxed out." At 5 minutes. At 10 minutes. The problem is nobody is wearing a heart rate monitor. Nobody knows what their heart is actually doing. From what I could see, maxing out in this workout means your body hit a wall physically, not that your heart rate peaked. That's a really important distinction.
Do You Need Extreme Moves to Get Real Cardio?
No. You don't.
Cardio is about getting your heart rate into the right zones. That's it. Strength training is when you're building muscle and lifting weight. Cardio is a heart rate game. All those burpees and planks and punching the air are exhausting, but sometimes all that complexity actually gets in the way of a good cardio workout. The moves break rhythm. They interrupt sustained output. And if you're not in great shape already, they can get you hurt.
I followed the modifier in the blue shorts through most of this workout. The reason is simple. The moves come at you so fast, with no real instruction beforehand, that I had no idea what was coming next. That's an injury waiting to happen, especially without a proper warm-up. There is no real warm-up in this program. Even the warm-up is intense.
Interval Training vs Steady State Fatigue
With HupSix you learn the move, you practice the move, and then you go full out to a song. That built-in structure, the learning and practice phase, actually allows you to push harder when it counts. You also rest between rounds, not every 10 minutes like Insanity, but between each set. That's interval training. What Insanity Max 30 is doing is closer to steady state exhaustion.
With HupSix, everyone is moving to the same clicks, doing the same exact reps at the same time. That consistency matters, especially in a group. With Insanity, one person might be doing 10 burpees while someone next to them is doing 5. There's no way to know if anyone is getting the same workout.
The Music Problem
Insanity Max 30 runs one long track for the entire 30 minutes. One song. Mentally and physically, there's no connection to the music. It just drones on.
Research shows that being connected to music and moving in time with it actually lowers the perceived effort of a workout by around 15%. That's why people finish a HupSix workout and say it wasn't that hard, and then you look at their heart rate data and they were in zone 5 the whole time. People smile in zone 5 doing HupSix. That almost never happens in extreme programs like this one.
Why Most People Quit After 4 or 5 Weeks
Read the comments on Insanity Max 30 videos. The pattern is consistent. People do it for 4 or 5 weeks, see some results, and then stop. Nobody asks what happened after that. The answer is they burned out.
There's a difference between cardio activities and cardio training. Going for a walk is a cardio activity. Playing tennis is a cardio activity. Cardio training means getting your heart rate into the vigorous zones consistently and repeatedly. The vigorous zones, zone 3, zone 4, zone 5, are not just twice as beneficial as moderate effort. Long term, they're 4 to 8 times more beneficial. But you have to keep doing it to get there.
The best cardio training system is one that's challenging enough to work and enjoyable enough that you actually do it every other day for the rest of your life. That's the test any workout has to pass.
The Bottom Line
Insanity Max 30 is cardio. Shaun T is clearly trying to get people results and I respect that. But the lack of a real warm-up, the speed at which moves are thrown at you, and the physical toll it takes make it hard to sustain. Most people won't still be doing this six months from now.
You don't need to do this to get great cardio. You also don't need to fall back on a light walk. HupSix sits in that middle ground. It's doable. It gets your heart into the right zones. And people actually keep doing it.
If you want to see what that looks like, go check out HupSix.
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