When I Say Turbo, You Say Fire!

The Hubs and I greet each other in funny ways. He’ll say “Hideyho Neighburrito”. I’ll say “DJ” and he’ll say “Pump this party.” We are so weird. Anyway, I thought I would divulge that little nugget because I was going to start out the post with “Hideyho” but I thought some background information was necessary.

So last week I told you all about my awesome elbow injury! Well, not to worry, it has not slowed me down one bit! Well, it’s slowed me down a little. I can’t lift any weights but I’m still able to do a lot of cardio. In fact I’ve been doing TurboFire! I know you probably think I’m crazy because it’s full of punches and other arm movements that you think would be ridiculously bad for me to do with my elbow but because this type of fracture requires movement, I actually think that TurboFire helps. Although, let me preface this entire post by saying that I am scaling back my intensity slightly in the sense that I normally use full range of motion with my arms and that just isn’t possible at this time. I also am extra careful not to do anything that could potentially cause me to fall and aggravate my injury further.

All that being said, I find my injury to be a blessing in disguise because I’m actually using a lot of the modifications AND since the schedule for TurboFire extends way beyond when I should be fully healed, I’m excited to see how my cardio, strength, endurance and flexibility increase from before injury to after injury. So even though I’m not using TurboFire for weight loss, I am using it to improve my fitness level back to where it was before my injury. How awesome is that!? 

So let me back up a bit and tell everyone who is unfamiliar with TurboFire that it is a program based on kickboxing and some dance, strength and flexibility. It’s intense cardio training and the program recommends that you have a base level of fitness before you get started.  The program incorporates High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).  HIIT involves pushing yourself to close to your max for a short period of time and then recovering and repeating this interval several times.  Most of the HIIT classes range from 15 to 25 or 30 minutes.  The idea is that you only need to do short workouts because HIIT gets your heart rate up higher, faster.  HIIT has been shown to boost your metabolic rate and improve cardio performance.

I bought TurboFire waaaaay back when I purchased Jillian’s Body Revolution. I had to choose between the two programs and I chose Jillian’s because it was new to the market. Good thing I did since I totally would not be able to do Body Revolution right now with my injury.

So, I’m in my third week of TurboFire and here are the workouts DVDs I’ve done so far: 

• Fire 30 (30 minute kickboxing class)
• HIIT 15 (15 minute HIIT workout)
• Fire 55 EZ (55 minute kickboxing class)
• Core 20 (20 minute core class)
• Stretch 40 (40 minute yoga-based stretch class)
• Fire 45 (45 minute kickboxing class)
• HIIT 25 (25 minute HIIT workout)
• Sculpt 30 (30 minute sculpting class with resistance bands)
• Abs 10 (10 minute ab workout)
• Fire 45 EZ (45 minute kickboxing class)

Thoughts So Far: I really love my Turbo Jam DVDs so I was really excited to try Turbo Fire because I heard it was more intense.  I love that there are so many DVDs with so many different options and the HIIT workouts are really intense.  The regular kickboxing DVDs are on par with some of the Turbo Jam DVDs but that could be because I always use these gloves when  I do Turbo Jam.  They are each 0.75 lbs and they up the intensity of the workout.  I have not been using them with Turbo Fire because of my elbow.  I think I’ll use them when my arm is healed and see how the classes compare.  

I also LOVE the flexibility DVDs because so many programs don’t spend enough time on this and it’s really important to overall fitness and to staying healthy to be able to continue with the program.  I liked the toning DVD that I did but unfortunately I can’t do anymore at this time so I’ll have to reevaluate at a later date!

Readers, have you ever tried Turbo Jam or Turbo Fire?  Do you like kickboxing?  Have you ever exercised through an injury?

OH!  And I have the winner of the Be More Yogic Giveaway!

Vicky H!  

The Detox, i am a new yoga teacher and other than practicing on the go, it be nice to get ideas to create a nice class based on what I am learning

Congrats Vicky!  Send me an email at myownbalance at gmail dot com to claim your prize! 🙂

* Please note that I was not compensated for writing this post. I purchased TurboFire with my own funds and I’m talking about this because it is a subject I’m passionate about!