Insanity vs Insanity Max 30: Which Should You Do?

Editor’s note: Updated to reflect BODi’s current subscription-based access — both programs are streamed through the BODi app rather than sold as separate DVD sets.

If you have been on your bodybuilding venture for a while and you are looking for something that is going to challenge the socks off you, I have just the thing for you — two things, actually, because we’re looking at Insanity vs Insanity Max 30.

Both workouts were created by Shaun T through Beachbody. If you are not familiar with Shaun T, some of his other workouts include Focus T25, Insanity: The Asylum, and Hip Hop Abs — his list goes on and on. Both of the workouts we’re looking at here are his creation, and he’s known for being a great motivational instructor whose students get real results.

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The Strategy Behind Each

Insanity

The main science behind the Insanity workout is that you burn calories like crazy with high impact HIT workouts to get your heart rate rocking during a workout. Doing Insanity is one of the hardest cardio workouts and will burn a lot of calories and shape your body, but you won’t get an over-muscular look from it — due to the high pace of the moves, you’re doing cardio-based work that gets your heart rate up and burns calories.

Being an interval-based cardio workout, the moves target different areas of the body at once — one move might work your upper body while others work your core and lower body. Interval training means you go hard for one interval, get a short cool-down period, then go again. The entire workout lasts about 20-60 minutes. An example of part of a workout: four moves that last 30 seconds each, followed by a 30-second break — giving your heart time to rest before you raise the rate again, which is a healthy way to build up the heart muscle for endurance.

The Insanity Workouts

• Dig Deeper & Fit Test
• Plyometric Cardio Circuit
• Cardio Power & Resistance
• Cardio Recovery & Max Recovery
• Pure Cardio & Abs
• Cardio & Abs
• Core Cardio & Balance
• Max Interval Circuit
• Max Cardio Conditioning & Abs

You won’t use any weights, so there’s no other equipment purchase to make.

Insanity Max 30

So how does Insanity Max 30 differ from Insanity? The most obvious difference is that each workout is 30 minutes in length as opposed to 60 minutes for Insanity. You won’t be using any weights with Max 30 either — the workout is around 30 minutes so there are no cool-down periods, but you get 150 new moves.

The strategy with Max 30 is that you go as hard as you can until your body won’t let you do another move. You have a calendar where you write that time down, then get back to the workout. Your first max-out time might be only 5 minutes into the first workout — that’s okay. Now you have a goal to shoot for. Next time you do the same workout, you might not max out until the 7-minute mark, then the 20-minute mark. As you progress through the program, you may never have another max-out at all. The idea is to always be pushing yourself to reach that next goal.

Insanity Max 30 Workouts

Month 1: Cardio Challenge, Tabata Power (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off), Sweat Intervals, Tabata Strength, Friday Fight Round 1.

Month 2: Max Out Cardio, Max Out Power, Max Out Sweat, Max Out Strength, Friday Fight Round 2.

Meal Plans For Each Program

Insanity comes with a nutritional guide and a meal plan designed to keep your body fueled for those really intense workouts — enough nutrients to keep up the strength to do the workouts while turning fat into muscle, plus access to online help.

Insanity Max 30 works on a portion-control plan — you get a “No Time to Cook Guide” in the package that guides you on what to eat and how much, even if you decide to dine out, so you’re aware of the portions you can eat and still stay on track.

So What’s It Going To Be?

The major difference in these two workouts is the duration: Insanity is 60 minutes, Insanity Max 30 is 30 minutes. That difference also means that with Insanity, you’ll be burning more calories and doing more cardio overall.

Insanity Max 30 was created for people who have limited time to spend on a workout but still insist on great results and are willing to work for them. Both workouts are great for athletes in their off-season. It really comes down to asking yourself how much time you want to spend on your workouts daily, and how fast you want to see gains — those two questions should give you the answer.

I really like Insanity Max 30 and the idea of pushing myself to the max for just 30 minutes a day, since I have very little time to spend working out. You have to be really dedicated to do either of these programs — they’re both extreme, and you’ll get great results, so good luck with your choice.