2022 Insanity Workout Review. Is it still worth your effort?

Insanity is one of the first big hit home workouts, but make no mistake: Insanity remains the undisputed calorie-burning king. But it’s not for everyone. In this Insanity workout review, I’ll show you how it works and whether it’s the right program for you.

INSANITY is a 60-day, high-intensity home workout program by Beachbody on Demand. INSANITY does not require equipment to complete each 15-60 minute workout. The high-intensity cardio, core, plyometric, strength, and recovery workouts can burn 800 or more calories per session, leading to a lean and toned body.

What To Consider Before Committing To A Highly Intense Diet And Exercise Program

Before we get too far, Insanity is the quintessential home workout program and is worth a go for anyone looking to tighten up, tone up, shed pounds, and get into seriously great shape fitness-wise. You don’t have to look much further to find reviews with high marks.

Verified purchasers on Amazon boast very high scores. Most of the 4100 or more reviewers give it a perfect score. So jump over there to take a look as well. Click here to check out the Amazon reviews for other opinions too.

Note About Insanity Workout Prices:

Prices on Amazon are significantly higher than Beachbody on Demand subscriptions. Amazon products are also only available on DVD so you will not have the option for streaming to any device. Do the 14-Day FREE trial and then subscribe for 60% off. This will save you a lot.

Insanity is one of the few Beachbody on Demand workouts you can access without a subscription. So if you are looking for a “one” program that gets it done, Insanity is your “go-to.” Period.

You’re looking in the right direction if you want to lose fat and gain muscle definition. But you have to make sure you can tough the program out.

You should be in pretty good shape, to begin with before even considering anything like this.

Any kind of heart problem is an immediate disqualification. Rigorous activity puts a lot of stress on your circulatory system. If you have a heart problem, you should do a more moderate cardio program, like maybe Piyo.

How about your joints, ligaments, and tendons? Can they handle daily intense exercise in the 60- minute range? That’s what you’re looking at regarding demand on your bones.

If you are in good overall health, your body should be able to handle this type of regimen. But how about your lifestyle? Can you devote an hour almost every day to exercise? If you skip too many exercise days, you’ll either have to accept mediocre results or restart the program to get to where you want to be.

It’s not just time, either. You have to have the motivation. These programs aren’t walking in the park. You gotta push yourself to get the results promised. It helps to have an exercise buddy. A little friendly competition can be a powerful motivator.

Let’s not forget about the diet. Some people do. But they don’t get the results you will if you stick to the diet with these programs.

If you say yes to the following questions, you are a good candidate for a super-intense exercise program.

• Is your heart healthy?
• Can your joints handle the stress of high-impact exercise?
• Do you have an hour a day to work out?
• Can you push yourself harder than you ever have before?
• Can you stick to a pretty strict diet that limits fat and carbs?

What Is The Insanity Workout?

Insanity is a very intense 60-day diet and exercise regimen for people who are in good shape and want to lose some additional fat shed some pounds, and gain lean muscle definition. It combines HIIT exercises with bodyweight resistance to burn fat and tighten up muscle.

If you’ve looked into Asylum, also by Shaun and Beachbody, you know what intense cardio is. But insanity goes beyond even Asylum in terms of exercise intensity and results.

It’s available exclusively from Beachbody on Demand as a DVD set or streaming subscription. If, after perusing this review, you decide to do Insanity, I’d recommend subscribing to Beachbody and streaming the workouts.

You’ll have unlimited access to the other 40-something Beachbody programs, recipes, online and phone support, and many other helpful benefits that are only available to members.

Here’s what you get with Insanity:

• Unlimited access to all the workouts
• The eating plan
• Easy start guide
• A fit test that you can do whenever you want to
• Workout calendars
• Access to the Insanity music playlist on Spotify

That’s all you need, other than the time, determination, and a towel. No weights, resistance bands, or any other equipment is needed.

The Insanity Workout In Detail

There are a couple of places to get a copy of the Insanity workout. Amazon still sells DVD versions of the workout, but they are very expensive in to a Beachbody on Demand subscription.

A Beachbody on Demand subscription will cost you roughly $20-30 to complete the entire 60-day workout. Plus you can access many more workouts for a small monthly fee.

You can get a massive subscription discount not found anywhere else but here.

Or if DVDs are a must, then Amazon is likely the only choice.

Now we’ll look at all the features of insanity and how they can help you get incredible results.

Insanity Elite Nutrition Plan

This is just as important as the exercises. What surprised me at first about it is the caloric intake. You aren’t as limited as you would be in any other diet. You’re allowed to have plenty of calories because you will be burning them like crazy. This is great because you won’t feel like you’re starving all day long.

The crux of the Insanity workout nutrition plan is the ratio of protein, carbs, and fat.

40 percent of what you eat will be protein from meat, fish, beans, and Shakeology drinks if you choose to use them. The nutritional guidelines don’t require the shakes, but they are a great way to ensure that you get the protein you need while also getting a range of micro-nutrients. Protein is essential for building muscle.

Carbs will make up another 40 percent of your diet. I’m glad Shaun didn’t make this a low-carb couple of months. He could have; many fat-loss programs do. But he left plenty of room for carbohydrates because they are the best energy source for the workouts. Still, most of the carbs you do get will be complex.

Surprisingly, 20 percent of what you eat will be fat. That may sound strange for a program like this. But fat is a great source of energy as well. You’ll get plenty of heart-healthy fats and oils. You’ll get these from natural sources, like meat and nuts. There isn’t any room for snacks and junk food, so any fat you get will come from actual food.

What this fat does is act as a long-term energy reserve. But the intensity of the workouts at all stages of the program ensures a quick release of this fat. And once the body starts burning fat as an energy source, it keeps doing it. That’s where your metabolism comes into play.

Do you see why following the Insanity eating plan is essential?

Unlike many other Beachbody on Demand fitness programs, this one’s eating plan isn’t structured in any special way. The plan doesn’t change much throughout the length of the program. That’s good because it simplifies things a bit.

But it would seem that you’d miss the benefits of fine-tuned metabolism that the programs with specially tailored eating plans have. I guess the workouts more than makeup for it. You’ll see that when we look at real-world Insanity results.

The High-Intensity Insanity Workouts

That’s right: super duper. These workouts are so brutal that no program that’s copied it has survived to this day. This is not a new program that I’m introducing you to. It’s an old one that remains the best calorie burning program that Beachbody on Demand has, and it’s probably the best in existence.

In fact, there may never be another as intense as this one. You can only go so high before you hit a ceiling where no one is going to want to do it. That is the space the Insanity workouts occupy.

Insanity Workout List

One of the best things about Insanity is that there is literally no equipment required outside of the Upper Body Weight Training workouts from the extended plan. And to do that you only need a couple of dumbbells. A mat is optional for all of the workouts.

I’ve listed the workouts for both the base program and the deluxe. Think of the extended plan workouts as addons to the base. They are made for fine-tuning your physique and for those of us who like even more pain.

Insanity Workout List (base plan)

Insanity Workout	Workout Types	What The Workout Targets	Workout Length (minutes)
Fit Test	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight	Determines your fitness level	30
Plyometrics Cardio Circuit	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight	Intense lower body and legs	40
Cardio Power and Resistance	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight	Upper body	40
Pure Cardio	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight	All-out cardio	40
Cardio Abs	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight	Core strength and definition	20
Recovery	Cardio, Bodyweight, Abs	Recovery and preparation for the week	35
Max Interval Circuit	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight	Intense cardio intervals and total body	60
Max Interval Plyo	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight	Explosive leg power	55
Max Cardio Conditioning	Cardio, Bodyweight	Extreme cardio conditioning	50
Max Recovery	Cardio, Bodyweight	Cardio, strength, and mobility	50
Core Cardio and Balance	Cardio, Bodyweight	Break between month one and two	40
Fast and Furious	Cardio, Bodyweight	High-intensity condensed workout. No breaks	20

Insanity Workout List (expanded plan)

Insanity Workout	Workout Types	What The Workout Targets	Workout Length (minutes)
Fast and Furious Abs	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight, Core	45-minute ab workout condensed into 15	15
Sanity Check	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight	Shows how best to perform each exercise	26
Max Interval Sports Training	Cardio, HIIT, Bodyweight	Elite athlete-style interval workout	55
Insane Abs	Core, Bodyweight	Intense ab workout	33
Upper Body Weight Training	Upper Body, Shoulders, Arms, Back	Complete upper body workout	48

Insanity Workout Fitness Test

This will be the first thing you do. It’s designed to show you where you are as far as your fitness level goes. More than that, it tells you if you’re ready to begin Insanity. What if the test tells you you’re not ready? Honestly, I don’t know.

The Beachbody site says nothing about it, and I couldn’t find any reviews from people who were told that they can’t hack it. If you went with the membership instead of the DVD set like I recommended, you’ll be able to pick a different program that isn’t as strenuous, like Insanity Max 30. Then you can condition yourself until you’re ready for some total insanity.

Anyway, you’ll repeat this test every two weeks. If you follow the program faithfully, you’ll be amazed at your progress by the first time you retake the test. You’ll have much more endurance and probably more strength.

And you’ll be lighter and slimmer. If you stick to the diet and don’t cheat on the workouts, you’ll be noticeably slimmer by the end of your first week. That’s a promise right from Shaun himself.

How tough are the workouts?

I remember when HIIT first became a “big thing.” I wondered what took it so long. It’s simple and very effective. You exercise as hard as you can for a short period, then get a shorter rest period before starting the exercise again, and so on.

The vigorous exercise pushes your heart rate way up and keeps it there to burn calories, and the short rest periods ensure you don’t keel over from exhaustion. But a lot of fat burning takes place during those rests. Your heart never returns to baseline. The calories keep getting torched.

The first part of every workout is HIIT, but much more intense than you’ve probably ever done it. You’re going to be keeping up with the pros. There are modifiers to help with some exercises that might be otherwise hard to do, but they are Insanity modifiers.

There’s not much slack to be found here and don’t count on modified exercises to see you through the program. They won’t.

The exercises are tough and unrelenting.

Almost all of the HIIT workouts are compound. You’re not going from working your abs to your arms, then from your arms to your shoulders. You’ll be working for multiple muscle groups simultaneously.

Note:
I exercise a lot and do so consistently. When I started my first round of Insanity, I was sure that it would be a cake walk. I was wrong. The Plyometrics workout left my legs more sore than I can remembers. Walking was hard for a couple of days.

Not crippling hard, but it hurt to stand or walk. So depending on how much effort you put in, and how good of shape you are, get ready to be sore.

This is the main reason this program is only for more advanced exercisers. There is nothing to get you used to or ease into the intensity. It starts hard and stays hard.

After a blistering HIIT session with 30-second rests, we move into the second half of the workout: strength training.

But can strength training be effective without resistance? Remember there are no dumbbells or resistance bands used in this program. Shaun uses your body weight as resistance. This is the best approach for such a hard workout. You aren’t going to be wanting to stop to switch dumbbells.

You’re not going to miss the dumbbells, either. Insanity isn’t meant to bulk you up. You’ll look more muscular, but that’s because your muscles will be more defined. Your body weight will provide all the resistance you need to get that definition. The advantage here is that the HIIT continues throughout the strength training. Fat doesn’t stand a chance.

The Insanity Workout Calendar

You follow the Insanity workout schedule for 60 days. The schedule allows for one rest day per week and one cardio recovery day.

The first half of the program schedule is thought by some to be easier than the last month. The truth is that it’s not. The workouts are shorter on average in the beginning. The length of the sessions runs from 15 minutes to an hour. Most of the shorter workouts are clustered in the first four weeks.

Weeks five through eight feature longer, perhaps more intense workouts. The funny thing is that people who make it to the last half almost always finish. Most other programs are the opposite: most dropouts occur past the halfway mark. This may be a testament to how early on you can see results.

The Plyometrics Cardio Circuit combines intense lower-body HIIT with hard cardio. Cardio Power and Resistance works the upper body similarly, adding power moves for strength and muscle building. Pure Cardio is pure cardio with an Insanity twist. There are no rests in this 40-minute workout.

The Recovery workout isn’t much of a recovery, but it may seem like it compared to the usual.

Cardio Abs will make your core burn within the first three minutes. Expect power moves and a lot of jumping.

Each week generally starts with a focus on cardio. Toward the end of the week is where you’ll find the most insane workouts, like the Max ones.

Max Interval Circuit, Max Interval Plyo, Max Cardio Conditioning, and Max Recovery are built on the others, but they are brutal. And they’re longer. During the program’s second half, there are more Max days per week.

With the Core Cardio and Balance workout, you’ll mark the halfway point with a “break,” if you can call it that. That’s when you’ll gear up for month two.

Fast and Furious squeezes a 45-minute Insanity workout into 20 minutes. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment when you get through one of these.

The Insanity Deluxe package offers five additional workouts. Sanity Check is a tutorial showing you how to do some more complex workouts at a less-than-insane pace. Two more ab workouts can make the difference between great and unbelievable results. But be warned that these enhanced results require more effort.

You may voluntarily return to Max Interval Sports Training if you play any sports. It details pro athletes’ exercises to stay on top of their game.

The Upper Body Weight Training doesn’t require weights, as its name may imply. You use bodyweight instead. Exercises such as push-ups, and many variants, help tone your shoulders and chest.

Guests lead Insanity Pro Team workouts. They’re extras that focus on different body areas for enhanced results.

Insanity workout Results – Proof From Real People

So now that we’ve seen what you get with the program and have an idea about what it’s like to work through it, let’s see what kind of results people have had with it.

Debra

Debra first did Insanity in 2012, when she had just turned 50 years old. She lost 17 pounds that time. But she had an illness and ended up gaining it all back. But she didn’t give up. When she became a grandmother, she realized it was time to get back into top shape.

She went on to lose 45 pounds with Insanity the second time she did it. Sure, she had to repeat the program a few times to get to that lofty goal, but she made it. 45 pounds in 210 days is one heck of a result for any program. Debra’s persistence paid off, but a less intense program probably would have left her short of her weight-loss goal.

Tim

He had always been in good shape. But he gained 25 pounds after a couple of injuries left him unable to use his weights. Then life happened. He had a child and started a landscaping business, all while working a full-time job. There was no time for exercise, and the stress of life allowed some bad eating habits to enter his life.

Insanity helped Tim lose those extra 25 pounds that he had gained. What’s more, it got him into good enough shape that he was able to start competing in the Tough Mudder obstacle challenge! All it took was a determination to change and two months of Insanity.

Looking at Insanity workout results like these and the many others online proved to me that real people can spark real change with the mayhem that is Insanity.

Get instant access to Insanity and dozens of other great workout programs through a 60% off subscription to Beachbody on Demand. 14-Day free trials are available too.

Less Insane Alternatives

There isn’t anything this hardcore as of the present time. If you look for an alternative, it’s likely because you need something a little easier. That’s OK. Insanity isn’t for everyone.

There are two other programs on Beachbody on Demand that are somewhat similar. Both are Shaun T. products. Check them out.

Insanity Max 30

This is also a 60-day program that uses intense cardio to reduce fat and drop pounds. It doesn’t require any equipment either.

The main differences here are the intensity and length of the workouts. They’re all thirty minutes long and focus more on cardio than on strength training.

But what kind of results can you expect? You’ll lose weight and slim down, just like you will with Insanity, but not as much. You can always repeat the program for no additional cost, but it will take longer.

You’ll also get a more defined physique, but again, don’t expect the same results you would get from Insanity.

Here are the key differences:

• All workouts are 30 minutes long, instead of having a variable duration
• There’s more of an emphasis on cardio
• It’s better for intermediate-level fitness levels
• Results take longer to notice
• You’d have to repeat the program at least once to get results anywhere near Insanity.

Asylum

This program promises insane weight loss in just 30 days. It is related to Insanity, but there are a few key differences. Some people do Asylum after completing Insanity as a way to enhance their results.

Asylum workouts are modeled after the ones that professional athletes and Olympians do to stay in fighting shape. They run from 15 to 50 minutes long.

You need some equipment as well. The bare essentials are resistance bands, an agility ladder, and a speed rope.

The main claim of this program is weight loss. You’ll lose fat and gain some awesome muscle tone, but the loss in pounds is the star here.

Here’s what sets Asylum apart from Insanity:

• Includes more resistance in the strength training workouts
• Focus on weight loss
• Only 30 days long
• Requires some basic equipment

You may prefer Asylum if you want to lose as much weight as possible over a short period. But, this program is pretty hard to come by these days. Hard to find…and generally not available now. You might have to get a used copy of the program. You won’t regret it, though.

Insanity Workout in a few words

Insanity is a great program for people in good shape who are used to hard workouts and want to get into the best shape of their lives as quickly as possible.

It’s tough. But that’s what makes it so effective.

Getting into top shape means you have to go harder than ever, perform the most rigorous workouts and test yourself often to gauge your progress; insanity pushes you like no other program and puts you through the test every two weeks until you’ve hit your goal.

Thanks for taking the time to read through my Insanity Workout review. I appreciate your time making it all the way here to the end.

Are you ready for the Insanity workout challenge? Go ahead. I dare you. Don’t pass over this one – it is one of the best.

Take advantage of available discounts of Beachbody on demand and start Insanity today.

Insanity FAQ