Turbo Jam is not an energy-boosting spread for your toast. It's an exercise video series that promises to blast calories, sculpt your body and help you lose weight. It is used in fitness clubs around the nation.
Exercise Moves
Chalene Johnson designed Turbo Jam's exercises to work your arms, shoulders, abs, thighs and rear. If you're one of those not-so-coordinated people who feels lost when trying to follow an exercise video, Johnson provides instructional cards that teach her 11 elite signature moves so you know what to expect and how to do it before you start watching the video. It still takes practice, but the cards give you a quick reference and the verbal cues offered throughout the videos help keep you from getting discouraged before you really get started.
Turbo Jam Eating Plan
Turbo Jam follows the Body For Life eating program. This plan is based on recommendations made by scientists at Georgia State University and recommends eating about every three hours to speed metabolism and sustain uniform levels of energy throughout the day. Portion control is stressed and planning meals ahead of time is suggested. Here's a sample for one day:
- 7:00 a.m. - Six egg-white omelet, 1/2 cup (dry measure) oatmeal, prepared with water
- 10:00 a.m. - Nutrition Shake
- 1:00 p.m. - Grilled fresh tuna with broccoli and roasted new potatoes
- 4:00 p.m. - Nutrition bar
- 7:00 p.m. - Eye of round steak with sweet potato and green beans
- 10:00 p.m. - Cottage cheese with blueberries
This eating plan avoids skipping meals or eating only three times a day. Eating too little while leading an active lifestyle can train your body to make do with less energy (calories) but this also trains your body to more promptly store unburned calories as body fat.
20 Minute Turbo
The 20 minute workout is choreographed to music with cues which make it fairly easy to follow even for a first timer. In addition, there is a "Learn" option that teaches basics and offers tips to prepare you to reap the maximum benefit from the routine. Exercises include:
- Hooks
- Uppercuts
- Jabs
- Crosses
- Bob and weave
- Pump move
- Back kick front knee
- Football drill
- Knee ups
- Jump rope moves
- Lunge blocks
This video also includes warm ups and a cool down, and offers modified exercises for those at various fitness levels.
Cardio Party
The motivating music and choreography makes this exercise routine fun, but it's not easy. It's broken into segments with headings giving a heads up of what to expect next and it also provides a countdown timer so you know how much longer a segment has to go. This video also offers modified exercises offering low impact variations.
Ab Jam
The Ab Jam video gives you a 20-minute ab workout. Like the other Turbo Jam videos, this one also presents viewers with high and low impact modifications for each exercise designed specifically to flatten your stomach. The routine starts with 10 minutes of standing ab exercies followed by 10 minutes of floor work.
Lower Body Jam
Lower Body Jam is a 30 minute workout designed to target hips, thighs and buns. It comes with a Beachbody resistance band which helps to burn fat faster while toning and building lean muscle.
Turbo Sculpt
The Turbo Sculpt workout can be summed up as: high repetitions/low weight workout for the entire body.
Sneak Peek
If you'd like to preview the type of exercises available through Turbo Jam, you can see a variety of short video clips on YouTube:
Do Your Research
Turbo Jam enjoys great reviews, but recent customer complaints deal with customer service issues. Many have complained about being charged twice, and other complaints deal with delivery issues. Before making an infomercial purchase, call the Better Business Bureau where the advertiser is based and ask for the company's complaint record. This information will either give you the go ahead or save you a lot of frustration. You can also buy the series on Amazon.com or eBay to avoid potential Beachbody customer service issues.
