Turbo Fired? Stop The Insanity!

Nathan M.

I did Insanity and really liked it. I did some of p-90x and kinda liked it. I want to get turbo fire. What do you think. I'm getting lazy and working too much I need to get motivated again.

Seth Estrada 

Nathan, once an athlete, always an athlete ‎[Nathan was previously a very highly-trained athlete, and is also a bit of an endo-morph]. You've built up certain types of internal resistance to training stimulus that can only be overcome with more intense training, i.e.; olympic lifts, fartleks, etc. While videos such as p-90x and Insanity are a decent holdover for you, I'm of the opinion that you'll enjoy the benefits of a more rigorous resistance training routine a little more in the long run.

The key to unlocking athletic conditioning from shorter, at-home workouts is to incorporate as much of your bodyweight as possible, from as many angles as possible. In your case, without a pull up bar, glute-ham-developer machine, or hyper-extension bench, you'll never give your upper body the focused attention it deserves.

Here's what I suggest if you need to train from home, but want to bring up the resistance:

AMRAPS + Power Tower + Kettlebell

1. An affordable power tower will cost you between $90-$175, depending on where you buy it, and will last for about one year of continuous, one-person use. 
2. A good, heavy kettlebell will cost about $120 and will outlive you, provided you don't drop it off a very tall cliff. [Even then, it might just wreck the canyon wall on its descent and still be usable]
3. AMRAPS are a form of high intensity training we use a lot at Atomic Boot Camp- in fact, we love AMRAPS so much, we use it for nearly every workout. AMRAPS is a training style, a form of knowledge. And knowledge is, of course, always trying to be free.

AMRAPS = As Many Rounds As Possible [in a given amount of time]

So if you know you have only 15 minutes to do a workout, set up a challenging circuit that you know is within your reach [never set a rep-goal outside of known limits when doing AMRAPS, as you'll gas out and ruin the rest of the work out] And hammer it for the full 15 minutes.

For example; 25 full range sit ups, 15 bar dips, 5 pull ups, 100 meters sprint, 15 heavy kettlebell swings- done for quality, As Many Rounds As Possible for 15 minutes straight, with no rest.

So now you've completed your workout in record time, with no driving, no parking, no waiting for machines, and no goofy-looking fitness models in the background of the video. Even if it took you an additional 15 minutes to decide what you want the workout to consist of, you would still spend less time than watching a boot-camp style calisthenics video, and get a lot more muscular development in the fast twitch fibers, [the ones your body, as an athlete, is dying to revive] while still breaking the same sweat and burning a metric tonne of calories.

Good luck my friend!

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What About Paleo?

Aaron E.
What do you think of "paleo-like" diets? What exercise style do you recommend?

Seth Estrada 
I think Paleo type diets are great. Of course, The Zone diet is also great, in that it now has numerous studies linked to it's core principles. Either way, the case each school makes is very similar. That said, numerous generations have lived very healthy lives in agrarian societies with diets based primarily on fruit, grain, and lacto-ovo protein, with a smattering of red meat for the special occasion.

For exercise style, again, it totally depends on the end goals of the person. High Intensity interval style training, AMRAPS, Tabata, and Fartleks are all extremely effective, but so is rest-based density training and Olympic style lifting. For most people, more important than style is consistency. My reasoning for saying so is as follows:

If you are consistent in your workouts over many many months or years, you become less of a 'flight risk' on the nutritional side. You won't want to willingly jeopardize your results for the momentary pleasure a doughnut might give, for example.

Also, the longer one stays consistent, the better he'll understand which is the most effective program, training partner, exercise location, long-term exercise modality, and injury-prevention technique for his own body.

So as a rule, you can always work out [even in captivity], but you can't always control what you eat. So focus on the workouts, and sort out the nutrition as you go.

So if you got to this point, obviously you read the whole post- Thanks! I've kept this blog 100% ad-free, so if you found any part of it useful, all I ask in return is that you please hit that Facebook Share button, or maybe share it on Google+, Twitter or Digg- it's really easy, and it helps more people benefit from the tips, tricks, and fun we're having over here. Thanks again!