Turbulence training

Turbulence Training Review

What is Turbulence Training?

Turbulence Training is a program that takes a fairly unique approach to weight loss, muscle building, and general fitness. It is nowhere near as complicated and lengthy as most of the other programs we’ve reviewed here on Health Ambition, but it strives for simplicity and brevity. That alone makes it a great choice in my opinion, but we’re going to take a closer look at it in this review…

The Mind Behind Turbulence Training: Craig Ballantyne

Craig Ballantyne

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach, and he has years of experience helping athletes get in shape. For example, he helped the Canadian National Rugby Team prepare for the 2007 World Cup.
He has also written extensively, including a chapter on coaching in the International Youth Coaching Association certification textbook. He has written for Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, Oxygen, Maximum Fitness, and other magazines. He is on the Training Board of Advisory for the Men’s Fitness magazine, as well as a monthly columnist.
As you can see, his bona fides are genuine, so it’s a good reason to sit up and take note of the Turbulence Training program.

A Look at Turbulence Training

Open the book, and you’ll find that it’s a simple manuscript. There’s very little in the way of art or graphics, so you’re getting only text. Definitely stops you from being distracted from the pith of the content.
The book starts out with all of the typical disclaimers, such as “check with your doctor before starting the program”. It’s safe to say that you’ll want to get a checkup, as the program is highly intensive and guaranteed to push your body. If you’ve got health issues, it’s important that you get checked out and cleared by your doctor first.
One of the things I love about the book is the fact that there’s almost no “fluff” text introducing the program, explaining the background, or any of the marketing-type content you find in other programs. The author jumps straight to the good stuff!

Good vs Bad Food Choices

This is a page filled with the good and bad food choices you can make. It lists good options like:

• Fruits
• Nuts
• Vegetables
• Lean proteins
• Fiber-rich snacks
• Whole, natural foods
• Green tea
• Water
• Low fat diary

Of course, it contrasts them with the bad food choices you could make instead, such as:

• Sweet treats and candies
• Chips, cookies, snacks
• Processed foods
• Coffee and soft drinks
• Starchy carbs
• Refined flour products
• Anything fries or fatty
• and more…

It’s simple, but it gives you a pretty clear picture of the foods you want to start eating in order to keep up with the fitness program laid out here.

Turbulence Training Guidelines

This section details a few of the guidelines you’ll want to follow if you’re going to be do the Turbulence Training program. It helps to make the program clear, and shows you just how detailed it can be. For example:

• Only perform a workout for 4 weeks before switching to a different one.
• After 12 weeks of hitting the Turbulence Training workouts hard, take a 1 week break to give your body time to recover.
• Train the regular workouts 3 days a week, and train intervals the other 3 days of the week.
• Alternate between the two workouts, ensuring that you get an even workout over the 4 weeks of the program.
• Follow the instructions to the letter in order to maximize performance. For example, if the book says to lift for 3 seconds and lower the weight for 2 seconds, do it!
• After each workout, ONLY stretch the muscles you worked out that day.
• ALWAYS warm up before each workout.

Doing Cardio Using the Turbulence Training Interval Method

The Turbulence Training method is based on intervals, meaning switching off between periods of high and low intensity.
For example, you start out by warming up for 5 minutes before you ever start working out. For the first minute, you start out east at 30% intensity. Once you hit Minute 2 and 3, you increase to 40% intensity, and finish the last two minutes at 50% intensity.
From there, you immediately hit 70% intensity for the first minute of your workout. Follow that with two minutes of low (30%) intensity, and repeat that high-low intensity interval three times. Finish off with a final high intensity interval (70%), and cool down at 30% intensity for the final five minutes.
All of this is your high intensity interval workout in just 20 minutes–excellent for people who have limited time and still want to get shredded.
Of course, the more advanced you are, the higher the intensity. The more intermediate and advanced work out at 80% intensity, ensuring better results in the same amount of time.

Turbulence Training Method Workouts

To perform the various bodyweight exercises, you follow a very specific pattern:

1. Warm up for 5 minutes. In the warm-up, you perform fewer reps of the same exercises you will do in the regular workouts. It basically prepares your body for the intense work to come. You DO NOT rest during the warm-up, as that ensures that your heart is able to oxygenate your blood by the time you get around to doing the main workout.
2. Follow the circuits. In every workout, you perform 4 circuits of 2 exercises each. Each exercise should take you between 15 and 30 seconds, and there is no rest between each exercise. Only once you finish the circuit do you take a 30 second rest if you are a beginner, but intermediate and advanced athletes don’t rest at all. Each of the circuits is performed three times, for a total of 12 exercises per circuit, or 48 exercises in each workout. All of this in 20 minutes!

It’s a bit complicated until you actually read through it and understand it, but you’ll find that it’s highly effective. The fact that you don’t rest means that you are able to get through your workouts in no time, and your body is pushed HARD for the 20 minutes that you are working out. It’s high intensity training, and it’s going to be exhausting yet excellent!

Exercise List

The book comes with dozens of amazing exercises that you will do in each workout, and it explains clearly how you can complete the exercises. It’s great for those totally new to the world of working out, and some of these exercises are new even to more advanced gymgoers.
For an example of how he explains the exercises, read below:

Prisoner Squat
• Stand with your feet just greater than shoulder-width apart.
• Clasp your hands behind your head. Keep your elbows back and shoulder blades pulled together to work the upper back. Start the movement at the hip joint. Push your hips backward and “sit back into a chair”. Make your hips go back as far as possible.
• Squat as deep as possible, but keep your low back tensed in a neutral position.
• Don’t let your lower back become rounded.
• Push with your glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps to return to the start position.
• Do NOT round your lower back. I am not letting my back round in the photo.

Each of the exercises comes with a photo to help you see how it is done, so anyone can get started with the workouts just by reading the PDF file.

What We Think of Turbulence Training

Normally, we do in-depth reviews of the products, which you can see by checking out our Venus Factor (add link) or Adonis Golden Ratio (add link) reviews. We add plenty of information to help you find out exactly what you need to know.
With Turbulence Training, however, the information above is all that we can share without compromising the copyright issues of the book. It is a fairly short book to read, as it’s focused ENTIRELY on providing you the information on your workouts.
However, I see this as a good thing. Not only is it highly focused, but it has eliminated all of the fluff. In my opinion, this is the best program I have seen.

We’re Not Fond Of:

​It’s a bit empty – The book sticks with large chunks of white space and text, with very little in the way of graphics and images. The images used are all fairly small and not top-quality, so it definitely looks like an ebook put together by someone with very little knowledge of layout and design. Seeing as the author is a fitness trainer, it’s definitely not a dealbreaker, but it would be nice to have a better-looking product.

We love:

The brevity. In reviewing so many fitness programs, I tend to see a lot of people ramble as they write. They talk about their fitness journey, try to bond with the reader through humor, etc. While it’s not a bad thing to do, it makes it tough to get to the heart of the quality content. With this book, it’s short, it’s concise, and it takes you straight to the good stuff: the workouts.
The workouts. I use high intensity interval training in my own workouts, and I know how effective they can be. It has been proven that HIIT workouts increase fat burning and weight loss, which is what the program is all about. It’s guaranteed to get results if you do it correctly, so it’s one that you can count on to be effective.
The explanations. Not sure how to do HIIT workouts properly? The book comes with a pretty simple step-by-step explanation of how it works. You learn what you need to do to get through the workouts properly, when to rest, how to do each exercise right, what form to maintain, how many reps of each workout, and more. It basically takes you by the hand and walks you through every single workout until you’re certain that you’re doing it correctly. For those who are new to working out, it’s definitely a program to follow.
The structure of the workouts. Instead of spending hours at the gym, these workouts are structured so that you blast through them and finish them in 20 to 30 minutes. You can do them at home as well as at the gym, or even at the office. They’re structured so that you never let your heart rate drop, meaning you burn an awful lot of calories each day!

Conclusion

I have never given a workout program a 5-star rating on Health Ambition, but I believe it’s time to break that tradition. This workout is complete, it’s concise, and it’s 100% focused on getting you in shape. It’s not about promoting the author, selling products, or encouraging you to join a new fitness program. It is aimed entirely at helping you to lose weight without any agenda on the author’s part, and you’ll find that it’s structured for anyone and everyone!

Final Verdict: 5 Stars

Buy it Now!