TurboJam: Best best best cardio video EVER

I am serious.  The end.

Okay, a little more info.  TurboJam is a series of vids distributed by Beach Body.  The instructor is Chalene Johnson.  My one complaint about Ms. Chalene is she is into so many things, it is hard to keep them straight.  She invented TurboKick, the pre-curser to TurboJam.  Then there’s PiYo (pilates/yoga fusion).  Hip hop hustle.  ChaLEAN Extreme (another Beach Body enterprise that I bought recently and am SUPER impressed with.  These are high quality programs).  Plus, she designs her own workout clothes.  Plus, she totally kicks butt.  Plus, her program is gonna be bigger than Zumba, you mark my words.

First.  Chalene came to my attention through the lovely Charlotte over at The Great Fitness Experiment. Charlotte kept talking about this weird program she does at her Y called Turbo Kick and Hip Hop Hustle.  Huh?  Wha?

Okay.  Go here and check out the HHH video.  TELL ME you do not want to get up and dance with her?  There are other videos on YouTube if you’re addicted.  Alas, there are no HHH classes in my area (yet.  I have plans.)

So TurboKick is like a blend of dance cardio and kickboxing/martial arts. TurboJam is the Beach Body version of Chalene’s TurboKick classes.  Confused yet?  That’s okay, confusion burns calories.

All I can say is I had a ball.  The DVD comes with a brief instruction where Chalene teaches you the moves and proper form, which is genius.  I hate doing a workout video and hearing the same explanation on how to do a move each and every time I do the program. The DVD also has a brief cardio workout (20 minutes) where you can practice the moves before going on to the longer 45 minute Cardio Party.  Also included is an ab workout (haven’t done this one yet) and a strength training workout.

And I gotta tell you… are you ready?  In terms of my calorie burn, the Turbo Jam videos BLEW the Jillian Michaels videos out of the water.  Of course, your body may be different, but on the 30 day shred videos, I burn around 125 (depends on which level I’m doing) for 30 minutes.  I burned 143 cals doing Chalene’s 20 minute cardio program, which is really like an introduction to the moves, not the real workout.  The 45 minute cardio workout burned over 300 calories!!  I forget the exact number (it was around 330 or 340) but I know that Jillian’s 45 minute workouts (Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism and No More Trouble Zones) only burn around 225-245 for me.  The strength training is really good also, but I wasn’t wearing my HRM for that one.

I love Chalene’s funny, bubbly, goofy personality.  She’s definitely a motivator and takes her job seriously, but the actual working out part she makes as fun as possible.  She reminds me a lot of the dance teachers I had growing up and I just loved that about the workout.  Also, my abs were sore for 3 days largely thanks to her wheel move — it involves standing in a squat with your hands up like someone told you to stick ‘em up.  Then you crunch from side to side, targeting the obliques.  YOWZA.

This was the TurboJam DVD I used but there are tons more available on the Beach Body website.  Seriously, this lady is one busy mama.  Her blog is here.  I wanna be just like her when I grow up.

After I crunched and burned my poor abs, I was really tight along my obliques and the sides of my hips.  I’m always pretty tight there from running.  Luckily, the antidote was waiting for me in the mail.  Stay tuned for another workout video review tomorrow!