Turbo Fire yay, Insanity neh?

heathersmilez

Ok, I’m going to start what may appear like a duplicate post but I swear it’s not.

There are so many opinions on beachbody DVD’s and trust me, I read through several threads before posting so I wanted to get a one final question out there before purchasing Turbo Fire. I want to make sure it’s not like Insanity and not weight focused like P90X and CE.

Quick Summary:

- I did Turbo Jam for 4 years, love it!

- Just joined a gym Dec 31 b/c of a $99 annual deal and b/c TJ just wasn’t burning enough calories (400 max for 50 min Punch Kick Jam)

-I bought Chalene Extreme for $25, 2 years ago but just cannot get into it b/c it’s so weight focused not cardio and so I’m not burning enough calories (I understand weights are essential to increase metabolism, reduce fat etc but cardio is necessary as well).

- Got a copy of Insanity from my sister (she paid $30) at Christmas and really despised it, it was painful to watch and participate in. I love working hard but it hurt my lungs.

- Just found TurboFire for $50, original set with the bonus DVD’s so 15 in all + all the other fun stuff like the band and nutrition plan but my concern is, I understand only 2 work-outs a week are HITT and there is a lot of stretching DVD’s instead. I Love TJ’s Fat Blaster so if the HITT DVD’s are like that, sounds super but why so much silly stretching?

Obviously you can see I love my sales, $50 for Turbo Fire is super since its $120+ retail BUT, $30 is usually my cut off. At $30 I wouldn’t have even bothered to ask for opinions just to be honest.

My Fitness goals: I am a healthy BMI, weight and body fat but I need to continue to maintain and possibly build lean muscle (will the weighted gloves help from TJ?) and burn lots of calories to loose 10 lbs.

Thank you

SuzanneRogers

Stretching is so you don't hurt yourself from all the punches, kicks, jumps for High Intensity Training workouts.. Trust me do the stretching or you might hurt yourself. Follow the schedule and you will burn a on of calories, while working out and continue burning hours later. Music is great! If you love TJ you will be addicted to TF.

Yes use the TJ weighted gloves for more burn. I used them and they will work your arms and shoulders.

heathersmilez

Then is the 'stretching' more so lower level HITT, pretty much original Turbo Jam or is it actually stretching with no heart rate increase?

kimi233

The "stretching" is after every exercise IF you decide to do it, the HIIT depends on where you are at in your schedule, you should never do the HIIT work outs back to back!! There is a "rest" day, but no day that is dedicated to only stretching. It may be added after a work out. If you love Turbo Jam, don't even think twice about spending that for the entire set on Turbo Fire!!!

HollyMac20

Done all the workouts in question (except ChaLEAN X, but I have to P90X) and have a few points to offer, of course it is all my opinion...

LOVED Turbo Jam. The program that got me addicted to Beachbody.

Insanity: It is hard, it is tough, but it get results. It isn't a workout for the weak at heart. Part of Insanity's gig is that you push to the point where you lungs hurt and you feel like you can't go any more. The next workout, it is a little better and a little better. My legs hurt, shin splints, the whole works, so I just spaced out the workouts. Eventually everything got better, you just have to earn it. No other workout like it, if you want to burn calories.

TurboFire: If you ask me, is harder than Insanity. There are no breaks, she goes from one set to the next to the next. You will enjoy it, but it is a hard workout. Very high intensity cardio, with jumps as well, so your legs will still have the high impact. Take TurboJam and add crack, and you have Turbo Fire. I love it, I am sure you will love it and there are A LOT of workouts in the set. 30, 45, 55, 60 minute workouts. There is a 10 minute stretch that is at the end of every workout you can choose to do, I would and do about 50% of the time. The movements are so fast (much faster than Turbo Jam), that you can tighten up the next day.

For $50, that is a deal and you will love it. Get it.

tammilk

I've been doing Turbo Fire since the summer after i completed a full 90 days of P90X because i wanted more cardio. i LOVE it. I also use weighted gloves now to increase my burn and to give my arms and shoulders more of a workout.
I mix P90X and Turbo Fire right now so i get the mix of cardio and strength training that i want. Turbo Fire has really increased my stamina. I play soccer on the weekends and we play 90 minute games and since starting Turbo Fire i have seen a great improvement in my endurance! i LOVE Turbo Fire!

Oh and the routines are fun and the music is so catchy!! Its just a FUN workout!

sirabe

You make me want to get Turbo Fire.

HollyMac20

I've been doing Turbo Fire since the summer after i completed a full 90 days of P90X because i wanted more cardio. i LOVE it. I also use weighted gloves now to increase my burn and to give my arms and shoulders more of a workout.
I mix P90X and Turbo Fire right now so i get the mix of cardio and strength training that i want. Turbo Fire has really increased my stamina. I play soccer on the weekends and we play 90 minute games and since starting Turbo Fire i have seen a great improvement in my endurance! i LOVE Turbo Fire!

Oh and the routines are fun and the music is so catchy!! Its just a FUN workout!

I have gotten the best results mixing the two. It is amazing what the strength training does for you!

pallasathina

May I ask where you found Turbo Fire for $50? I've been wanting it.

hpsnickers1

Check this out. It is a very, very long post but I found a wealth of information. Be prepared to read for a while - I posted this on my wall yesterday:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/113609-relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner?hl=relatively+light

Very, Very interesting. I know this has nothing to do with your post but you mentioned being at a healthy weight, BMI etc. and trying to lose 10 pounds.

heathersmilez

@ kimi233 thanks for clarifying the amount of stretching involved

@ HollyMac20 harder than insanity? Oh god! Thanks for your opinion of both. I’m impressed you were able to burn 545 calories in 45 minutes of Turbo Jam today (yea, you are on my feed) at your level of fitness (in that you are fit and healthy, not overweight thereby burning more calories than a healthy individual). No matter how hard I worked out it never got past 450 cals and MFP’s estimate was low as well so it’s not just the HRM possibly undercounting since it is a watch-style rather than chest band.

@ hpsnickers1 thanks for the link, yea I read that post and took it to heart a while back. Basically it’s hardest to lose weight when you are already healthy. I gained 8 lbs on my honeymoon cruise (yup that’s 5000 calories being eaten a day, it is possible when you realize afterwards those 2 caesar salads I was eating daily had probably 1200+ calories. That was my first gain in about 15 years and having lost some weight 4th year of university I was heart broken. I haven’t been able to shed more than a couple lbs then gain them back since b/c I’m sitting at what would be my ideal weight at my height with a BMI of 21. I will probably re-read that thread again so thanks for reminding me.

telcochik

I'm going to weigh in on this topic since right now I'm doing a combo of TF and Insanity and before that I completed the full 20 week TF program. Suffice it to say, I've found my soulmate workout and it's Turbo Fire. Before TF I thought Insanity was really hard. In fact, I could only get through the first 30 days before quitting because I couldn't even think about doing more than 30 minutes of Insanity at a time. Since coming back to it after TF I've changed my mind about not being able to do the second 30 day schedule. What I found is that my cardio endurance has skyrocketed from Turbo Fire. My jumps are better, my ability to push through the pain is better, and I actually completed Insanity Max Cardio Interval without dying.

On the other hand, when I'm doing an Insanity workout I'm totally missing Turbo Fire. For me, the music, the movements, and Chalene's energy are totally lacking in any other program I've tried thus far (including Turbo Jam). I kind of agree with HollyMac that the TF workouts are harder than Insanity because Shaun includes scheduled water breaks while Chalene does not. In Turbo you don't stop until you have to.

I tell everyone, men and women, who want a cardio challenge to try Turbo Fire. In my first 20 week round I lost 18 lbs and 8 inches. I'm about to start my second round in another week and am going to add the weighted gloves to push myself harder.

Sharon

hpsnickers1

I went on a cruise back in December 2001 (right after 9/11 - scary). They definitely like to feed you.

glfprncs2

I'm a P90X (3 times) grad, Insanity grad, ChaLean Extreme grad, and a Turbo Fire grad. I can honestly say that Turbo Fire is my FAVORITE workout of the bunch.

For me, I need to strength train, but it's not my favorite thing to do. I generally am combining Turbo Fire with either P90X or ChaLean Extreme. Anyhow, here's my take...

Turbo Fire is NOTHING like P90X or ChaLean Extreme. The focus is cardio kickboxing. It's similar in nature to Turbo Jam, but I like to think of it as Turbo Jam on crack. It has great music, great cuing, and provides an incredible calorie burn (I generally burn 100 calories every 10 minutes). I actually burn more calories doing Turbo Fire than I did in the Insanity workouts. This is probably because Insanity has more of a plyometric, lower body focus, whereas Turbo Fire combines lowerbody, core and upperbody moves together.

Even at the end of my 60 days of Insanity, I had to take breaks. I can get through full Turbo Fire workouts without feeling as though I have to find my left lung somewhere on the floor. Yes, I get winded, yes my heart rate gets to 85-90% max, but I don't feel as though I'm about to die (which is how Insanity left me). I did NOT like Insanity. I appreciated the program for what it was, I did get into great cardiovascular shape, but it took its toll on my body. I was pretty wrecked at the end of 60 days. In shape, but just wrecked.

I workout early in the mornings twice each week just so I have more time for my family during those afternoons. So, my workout starts at 4:00 a.m. I actually look forward to Turbo Fire at 4:00 a.m. Yes, I said I look forward to her workouts at 4:00 a.m....I like them that much.

Also, there's really only 2 stretch workouts...stretch10 and stretch40. Stretch 10 is supposed to be done post workout each day, whereas stretch 40 is more of an athletic stretch/yoga, so is done once each week as a recovery workout.

sirabe

Man, after reading this board. I had to order it. I can't wait to get it.

HollyMac20

@ kimi233 thanks for clarifying the amount of stretching involved

@ HollyMac20 harder than insanity? Oh god! Thanks for your opinion of both. I’m impressed you were able to burn 545 calories in 45 minutes of Turbo Jam today (yea, you are on my feed) at your level of fitness (in that you are fit and healthy, not overweight thereby burning more calories than a healthy individual). No matter how hard I worked out it never got past 450 cals and MFP’s estimate was low as well so it’s not just the HRM possibly undercounting since it is a watch-style rather than chest band.

@ hpsnickers1 thanks for the link, yea I read that post and took it to heart a while back. Basically it’s hardest to lose weight when you are already healthy. I gained 8 lbs on my honeymoon cruise (yup that’s 5000 calories being eaten a day, it is possible when you realize afterwards those 2 caesar salads I was eating daily had probably 1200+ calories. That was my first gain in about 15 years and having lost some weight 4th year of university I was heart broken. I haven’t been able to shed more than a couple lbs then gain them back since b/c I’m sitting at what would be my ideal weight at my height with a BMI of 21. I will probably re-read that thread again so thanks for reminding me.

Hope this all helps you make your decision. I love Turbo Fire, don't get me wrong, it just is a lot harder than Turbo Jam. I did Punch, Kick, Jam the other day and it felt like I was in slow motion.

My burn yesterday was from a kickboxing class at my local gym. It is cardio kickboxing, using free standing heavy bags. Super fun and you get some agression out. I used the MFP calorie count for my calorie burn. I had a HRM for a long time and I bet it would have read close to 1000 calories for the workout. In November, after completing my 10K, I got my BodyBugg and have leanred a lot out my calorie burn. My burn during the class was around 500, but I continued to burn at an increased rate for the next hour or more! That is something the HRM misses. My general burn rate is about 1.5 calories/min. During my workout, I might peak at 10 cal/min. But I continued to burn 6 cal/min+ after I was done, cooling down, driving home, cooking dinner, etc. Kind of like a working that keeps on giving :-) It is that whole "after burn" theory.

Enjoy Turbo Fire Sirabe!