Turbo Fire vs. Shaun T’s Insanity Workout Review
I know there are questions out there about the differences between Shaun T’s Insanity home fitness workout program and Chalene Johnson’s new Turbo Fire which is scheduled for release in June. Afterall, both of these Beachbody workouts are based on the science of HIIT (high intensity interval training).
I decided not to take on Insanity when it was released last year. Insanity was developed as an extreme cardio program to challenge top athletes. I did not feel that my fitness level was quite where it should be to take on Shaun T’s class. I always say you should determine your current fitness goals and take on an activity that helps you reach your goals.
This summer, I plan on taking on Chalene Johnson in Turbo Fire. Insanity is a 60 day extreme program that should be followed by a break to allow the body to recover. Turbo Fire on the other hand, is designed to be used alone or in conjunction with a strength training program such as P90X or ChaLean Extreme.
Chalene included a “modifier” in Turbo Fire to allow all fitness levels to enjoy the benefits of her HIIT cardio program. If you cannot do what Chalene is doing in the class, that is ok. Just follow the “modifier” who will show you how to modify the exercise.
The basic Turbo Fire program is designed as a 90 program. The Deluxe version will take the fitness schedule out 120 days. And, if you combine Turbo Fire with a strength training program, you will actually have a year long workout schedule planned out for you. How cool is that?
I look forward to adding Turbo Fire variety into my workouts. After you work out with P90X for a while, the limited cardio routines (Plyometrics, Kenpo X or Cardio X) start to get just that…routine! When I started working out with ChaLean Extreme, I found the same problem. I needed more variety with cardio workouts.
The basic program had two cardio workouts (Burn Intervals and Burn It Off). I ordered the seven extra workouts for ChaLean Extreme just so I could have the added variety. That added three new cardio workouts (Fat-Burn Challenge, Get-Lean Intervals, and Exteme Intervals) to the mix, but now I want more.
What I love about the promise of Turbo Fire is it is purely Chalene Johnson but without the “dancy” choreograpy found in some of her earlier programs such as Turbo Jam. This is the athlete. This is the coach. This is the personal trainer. This is Chalene Johnson.
Modifying Beachbody Workouts
In every Beachbody workout program, you will hear the trainers tell you to modify your workouts to fit your current fitness level. You may be able to carry out perfect form and keep up with the trainer for one exercise, but have to work slower or do less reps with another exercise. You might have to use bands if you do no have weights or even do the exercise without weights to compensate for your fitness level or to accommodate an injury.
Fitness is about listening to your body. It is about properly fueling your body and getting the most out of your strength, endurance, aerobic capacity, and flexibility. Improvements in these areas are proven to improve your health and quality of life as well as help prevent future injuries and illness.
You will always hear me say that you need to find an activity you like and will do consistently. Consistency was my mountain. You can read about my story to learn more about my personal struggle with consistency.
I am writing today to tell you about another type of modification. You have probably noticed that some Beachbody coaches do “hybrid” workouts. All this means is they are mixing up different workouts. I do this as well to keep things interesting. Variety helps keep muscle confusion working on your behalf.
If you are new to Beachbody workouts, I highly recommend going through the entire program as written in your guide. Follow the eating plan as well as the fitness calendar. It may be hard, but you will learn how to eat like an athlete to fuel your body for a fit and healthy lifestlye. You will also gain consistent habits and learn how to incorporate all aspects of fitness into your life, including cardio, strength training, core, and flexibility.
Once you have finished a program like Tony Horton’s P90X or Power 90, Chalene Johnson’s ChaLean Extreme or Turbo Jam, Debbie Sieber’s Slim in 6 or Shaun T’s Insanity…you may be ready to mix up your own hybrid. I highly recommend subscribing to Tony Horton’s One on One workouts if you are a P90X fanatic. Many people like to combine P90X for strength training and Insanity for the cardio challenge.
I like mixing up ChaLean Extreme with One on One or Brazil Butt Lift workouts. I still like throwing in one of the P90X dvds and getting a little crazy with the crazy man himself. What am I doing right now?
I am generally following the ChaLean program but I am working it around my work schedule. Not everyone has a 9-5 Monday – Friday job, so the standard schedule is harder for me. I thought I would start including a weekly snapshot of what workouts I did for the week, since I generally do not write a new review of a workout I have already written about.
This will give you a good idea of what I am doing to stay fit. As always, it will help me stay accountable and consistent. This is what I did this past week:
Sunday – Rest day. Spent the day riding motorcyles with friends.
Monday – Yard work. This is not my favorite form of exercise. I would have to put it at the top of the list for my mother though. She stopped gardening after six hours in the yard only because she ran out of daylight. Arrrrgggh!
Tuesday – ChaLean Extreme Burn Circuit 2
Wednesday – ChaLean Extreme Burn Circuit 3
Thursday – Rest day. Chicken pizza.
Friday – ChaLean Extreme Burn It Off! and Burn Circuit 1
Saturday – Today’s plan is ChaLean Extreme Recharge and I’ve Got Abs in the morning. In the evening, I plan on pressing play with ChaLean Extreme Burn Circuit 2.
Sunday – Sunday’s plan is ChaLean Extreme Burn Circuit 3 in the morning and ChaLean Extreme Burn Intervals in the evening.
Stay fit. Fuel your body. Keep pressing play. Ask questions. Share your experiences.
Raising the Intensity of Slim in 6 & Other Beachbody Workouts
After doing 90 days of Tony Horton’s P90X Extreme Home Training System, you’d think that I’d be ready to take a break. The fact of the matter is that once you start seeing your own results, you get hooked on Beachbody workouts. I’m in the middle of Debbie Sieber’s Slim in 6 slim training workout program for weight loss at the time of this writing.
Each new workout in the Slim in 6 program challenged me in the beginning, but I knew that if I wanted to continue seeing the results I wanted that I had to raise my intensity level. It’s important to keep your heart rate in a working zone throughout your workout. That’s where you burn fat and calories. So what did I do? I put on some kickboxing type of hand weights. You can get a pair right from the Beachbody store. Chalene Johnsons’s Turbo Jam workout comes with a pair of these weighted gloves. You’ve probably seen her use them in the Turbo Jam infomercial. The gloves help increase the intensity and increase the burn.
Other things you can do to increase the intensity of a workout if you have extra energy on a particular day or if you don’t feel like you’re working hard enough to get the results you want include adding movements that raise your legs or knees higher, going deeper into lunges and squats, and/or raising your arms above your head. You can also do more reps than they are doing on the video. For example, I can do far more push ups from my P90X experience than the number Debbie’s team does in Slim in 6.
What’s my point? Every workout program has to be personalized. And, you’re the only one who can do that. If you’ve read any of my articles on P90X, you’ll notice that I often had to modify the other way. Heck, I still can’t do even on pull up, but I’m still working on it. I did what I could with each P90X workout and kept it as intense as I could. I often had to modify until I got stronger or had more endurance. As I look back, it must’ve been a pitiful sight to watch me do my first couple of rounds with P90X Yoga X!
I like the intensity of the P90X training program and the personality of Mr. Tony Horton who is the fitness expert, trainer, and author of the program. To stay in touch with that energy, I subscribed to Tony Horton’s One on One program which allows me to get a new P90X level training program every month. Each workout focuses on one area such as cardio or abs or delts. The workouts are shorter (20-40 minutes on average) than they were in P90X. The P90X workouts were about an hour long….unless you did the Yoga X…a grueling 92 minutes!
If you’re a graduate of P90X, here are a few options for keeping your workouts new and challenging. Try the One on One automatic shipment or try P90X+ which was developed for P90X grads who just couldn’t get enough of the X. You can also try Tony’s 10 Minute Trainers which are intense short workouts that you can fit into those tight schedules. But, if you want to try an intense workout, and you’re up for a 60 day cardio challenge, you might be ready for Shaun T’s Insanity.
I’m not ready for a cardio program that intense, yet. My personal coach is doing this program and loving it though. I’m ok with not being right there at the starting line as Insanity takes its hold on the world. It was just released this month, so extreme fitness fanatics everywhere are ordering this program. Shaun T’s program has a unique offer with the program if you’re one of the few, the proud…oh, wait a minute – that’s the Marines…if you’re one of the insane, crazy people who think they can do this heart pumping, sweat pouring 60 day program. If you graduate the program, you’ll get a cool Insanity T-shirt if you send in your before and after pictures. How cool is that?
You know what’s really cool about Beachbody workouts? You’ve heard me say this before. There is a Beachbody workout that is right for everyone, every body, every fitness level. Beachbody’s philosophy is to get you moving and help you live a healthy and fit life. So, what are you waiting for? “Change your body. Change your life.”
Insanity Released. I’m Not Ready – Are You?
It’s really awesome that Beachbody has so many workout programs, each designed with particular fitness goals and fitness levels in mind. I wrote about this in an early article when I told you that after doing Tony Horton’s P90X Extreme Training System for 90 days that I started Debbie Sieber’s Slim in 6 program and fully expected to blow it away. Although I gained strenth and built muscle mass during P90X, I wasn’t quite ready for the continuous cardio training of my current program. My fitness goals changed, so I changed up my workouts to reach those goals.
Well, Shaun T’s much awaited high intensity max interval cardio program called Insanity was finally released by Beachbody. I’m not quite ready to take on the challenge of this cardio explosion…read more
Plyometrics Jump Training Not For Everyone
I talked about interval training in an earlier post and Shaun T’s upcoming Insanity program that incorporates MAX interval training. Well, I thought about interval training a lot today as I worked my way through the P90X Extreme Home Fitness Plyometrics DVD.
I remember being overwhelmed the first time I pressed play on plyometrics day. It was day number two. I was feeling my workout from the previous day (Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X). I hoped I had what it would take to do the whole 90 day program. Tony Horton started talking about something called “plyometrics” or “jump training.” He went on to say that plyometrics was designed to increase speed, strength, and sports performance. Ok, I thought. I can handle that.
I didn’t make it through my first plyo workout. I wondered if I had made a mistake. I decided to take Tony’s advice and keep pressing play, give it my best and…forget the rest. Then, he’d really push me harder by saying you can do anything for thirty seconds. Believe it or not, that was enough to keep me going. I’m much better at plyometrics these days, but there are a couple of moves that are still very difficult for me, and I can always count on a workout that maintains a high heart rate.
The plyometrics session is just over 58 minutes. It’s no joke! It works in a series of four exercises that repeat themselves followed by a short (30 second) active break. The first three exercises are usually 30 seconds long and the fourth one is 60 seconds with a higher intensity. Once you work through one series of exercises two times, a new series is introduced which kicks up the volume a little. Sweat pours off every square inch of your body.
Plyometrics follows the philosophy of all Beachbody workouts. It uses real people in the DVD, not perfect models. There’s always someone in the video you can watch as a mentor. Some participants are extreme and can jump high and wide. Other participants are more like me and typical family members – giving it their best and forgeting the rest.
The hardest two exercises in plyometrics for me are the Jump Knee Tuck and Rock Star Hop. The Jump Knee Tuck requires you to jump vertically, pulling your knees in towards your chest. It sounds easy, but the execution if far from easy!
The Rock Star Hop is a variation of the Jump Knee Tuck. You don’t bring your knees to your chest in the jump move. Instead, you kick your feet to your butt like a “rock star” strumming down on an electric guitar. I’ve got to say that the Rock Star Hop is more entertaining whether you’re doing it or watching someone else do it.
Plyometrics jump training may not be for everyone, but if you want to get some high intensity cardio interval training, you’ve got to add plyometrics to your routine. If you have any questions about plyometrics or any of the P90X Extreme Home Fitness DVDs, don’t hesitate to ask. My best advice for plyometrics? Don’t give up before the miracle and keep pressing play. You’re going to grow to love this extreme workout.
Interval Training for Serious Fitness Results
You know what I love about the Beachbody workouts? They’re centered around “interval” training. I first learned about interval training in high school when our softball team would practice. Our workouts were interlaced with high intensity and low intensity cardio and strength training. Sometimes, I thought my coach was trying to eliminate the weak members. I wasn’t going to be weak! I didn’t understand at that time that she actually understood the performance progress you can make in a short period of time with this type of training.
The Air Force must’ve know this secret as well. Often times, we’d jog in a single file. The person at the end of the line would have to run to the front of the line until he/she caught up and overtook the leader. Then, that person would fall in line and bring it back to a jog as the new leader. The new person at the back of the line would begin running to the front and so the exercise progressed until a sufficient amount of real estate had been transversed. Sure did get your heart rate up!
Now, I find myself thinking about interval training again. The P90X Extreme Home Fitness program uses 13 DVDs to whip your body into shape. Each video incorporates a variety of exercises that moves you through high intensity, max rep exercises and then, to a lower intensity set. You move from one body part to another without much rest in between. Most exercises are 30 seconds in duration…and as Tony Horton says “you can do anything for 30 seconds”!
Beachbody will soon release a high intensity conditioning program that uses what they refer to as MAX Interval Training. The name of this program is INSANITY, and it is the product of professional trainer Shaun T who is well-known for his Hip Hop Abs and Rockin Body workouts. I’ve seen the previews for this program!! This is an advanced program that I predict will make some NFL players wonder if they can make it through. What am I talking about? It’s the insanity of the whole thing that will motivate NFL players and other serious fitness fanatics to both start and complete the program. As for me, well…I’m not ready for Insanity, yet.
Shaun T has just entered the ranks of the elite, the extreme, the drop and give me twenty, drill sergeant, challenge my body fitness training. Tony Horton and Chalene Johnson have a new partner in extreme fitness.
