Workout DVD #9: Turbo Jam Cardio Party 2

45 minutes

Day 17

Yesterday I didn’t work out – I still had the blahs. Today, however, I felt full of energy – like I had recharged myself again during my tiny hiatus. I didn’t have a workout from Netflix though as my Hubby decided to re-queue stuff and push my workout selections into next week! I now have 3 movies to enjoy with him instead.

Dying to get back into a sweat I dug through my collection of workouts and found a definite favorite: Turbo Jam Cardio Party 2. The Turbo Jam workouts are extremely popular and I have loved Turbo since doing it as ‘Turbo Kick’ at my old gym. The gym version is even tougher, with the music faster, turbo longer, and the duration 15 minutes extra. But that aside, Chalene Johnson does a killer job with the at-home Turbo – production, team, personality – everything. I can’t fault this DVD!

Turbo Jam works your body in amazing ways – the most noticeable for me is in the abs – rock hard baby! Well, they still are – they are just covered in flab at the moment! Turbo is an ab workout without you even realizing it. You don’t have to lie down and crunch till the cows come home to get some abs going for you, just put on Cardio Party 2 [or any TJ DVD] and you will know your abs have been attacked from all angles after about 20 minutes: crosses with a zig zag and a knee over and over will make your obliques shout for a break, believe me!

Netflix – can you please sort yourself out and get some Turbo Jam in your catalog? I guess it is not part of Chalene Johnson’s marketing plan to use Netflix but it sure would make me happy! There are so many Turbo Jam workouts out there and I have so few… No, I will not spend a load of money getting any more of them – I have 5 already!

So if you are unaware of Turbo Jam go check it out. It is a fun way to exercise, for sure and although it is cardio kickboxing there is not that much kicking involved, but a heck of a lot of punches and rotations. The DVD runs for about 30 minutes until ‘turbo’. That’s when the workout takes it up a notch for about 90 seconds. Turbo is like double speed; it is hard to keep up with but that is half the fun. At the end of turbo your heart rate is going through the roof and you are sucking in wind, and everything is… great! Actually the best part to me is about ten minutes later, in the finale, which is your last chance to ‘give it all you’ve got’ and your second wind really comes into play.

All in all I can’t recommend this workout more highly. I love it!!!

Here are today’s stats:

2/23/08

45:30 [workout time]
29:10 [in aerobic zone 60% -80% Target Heart Rate]
145 bpm [average heart rate] – high as this is a high intensity workout!
177 bpm [highest heart rate] – that’s from the ‘turbo’
355 [cals burned] – not bad for 45 mins inc. warm up and cool down