Hi everyone,
I finished round 1 of P90x last fall and just began doing a modified insanity course (1 week insanity, 1 week of insanity alternating with my fav tony horton workouts) since it seems fun. I am about two weeks in. Shaun T is always saying check your heart rate to see if it is in the safe zone even though part of the point of this workout is to work at max intensity. So I scoured the documents for this info but I guess I am blind. What is the appropriate heart rate % that I should be trying to stay within?
Thanks!

I have had the same question and just from searching the websites and other forums it seems the number is to work above 80% of your max.

Several websites that advertise the Insanity workout for sale quote what I have pasted below. They all seem to have this from some advertisement marketing deal. It is word for word the same on several different websites.

Not sure this really answers the question with specific detail. If someone finds a specific number from beachbody let us know.

"INSANITY uses MAX Interval Training which replaces your moderate intensity exercise with maximum-intensity exercise, and your short intervals of intensity with short periods of rest. Adding high-intensity exercise, during which your heart rate is raised to 80 percent or more of its maximum capacity, forces your body to use fast-twitch muscle fibers not normally engaged in cardio exercise. These fast-twitch fibers continue burning extra fuel even during lower-intensity exercise.

INSANITY’s high-intensity activity is likely to have you working out at over 85% of your maximum, instead of the lower rate recommended in other programs. As a result, you’ll experience faster increases in fitness and more efficient burning of carbohydrates and fat—as much as 1,000 calories per hour."

This is what really confuses me about Insanity because it seems illogical in some respects.

I did a write-up in April 2009 called Heart Rate Training Zones so I know a little bit about this.

I also wrote up a High Intensity Interval Training article way back in February 2008.

Now both of these discuss heart rate zones and the huge issue is recovery time if going at 80% plus.

It just does not seem healthy and while you can get excellent results even professional athletes do not do HIIT training for more than a few weeks at a time otherwise you end up actually having muscle fatigue and loss of mass.

Glenn

I also forgot to mention to RCWSO, yes the quote you have is 100% marketing material and can be found on the shopping cart pages of insanity at beachbody.com