DOING MULTIPLE TURBO DRILLS IN A TURBO KICK CLASS – Anaerobic Turbo Drills

To do MULTIPLE Turbos or Not, That IS the Question….

The argument that doing multiple “Turbo’s” in a LIVE Turbo Kick class has always surfaced and it goes back and forth.

For those of you who aren’t sure what a “Turbo” is, it’s typically a  2-3 minute drill in the middle of the trademark kickboxing class and format called Turbo Kick (It’s also in the home video kickboxing version of this class called Turbo Jam and Turbo Fire). A  siren goes off, and during the Turbo, you should push your intensity up near MAX HR, called Anaerobic. Basically, if you are sucking air and your body is feeling like you can’t push anymore- then you hit MAX.

BUT, do people ACTUALLY push themselves that hard? I’ll dive into that later.

I’ve been a Turbo Kick Presenter and Master Trainer for 15 years.  Started as one of the first Promotions Director’s for it in 2000. Chalene Johnson is the creator of this format which started in Orange County, CA back in 1997. It’s a pre-formatted class in which she’d create the music, a template of sections for a complete class and the choreography to match perfectly, just like it was a dance routine, but you were dancing with punches and kicks. 😉

I have been fortunate to have a very long career as a Presenter/Master Trainer and hold the record for certifying (training) the MOST amount of instructors in the companies history. Chalene has since sold the company and formats to Beachbody in August of 2012. This is actually a critical part of my life grooming me for my next life in Coaching. Little did I know that the 10 years I worked with her recruiting, onboarding, training, mentoring, and grooming the 60 plus presenters we would have representing the company, would be exactly the skills and experience I would need to grow the most powerful and largest network marketing downline in Team Beachbody’s organization with a culture of Beachbody Coaches helping others achieve success in fitness and a business with it too.

How many TURBO sections should you do then in a class to be effective?

First of all, the company’s guidelines promotes and films 1 Turbo in the 1 hour of class. For mass distribution of this format to have guidelines, a template, and continuity of a Turbo class being taught by a LIVE instructor in “East bum, USA”, the material has to be duplicable. Consistent. This is so the instructor can interpret the need and the experience of their classes. They can follow the class given to them just as planned with the 1 Turbo, and that might be all they need to do. That’s the standard issue.

HOPEFULLY, that’s effective enough for them as they teach fantastic form and push their participants through intensity of that 2-3 minute drill that shows up 30 minutes within the 1 hour long class structure.

So what’s TYPICAL for instructors then?  Typically, instructors will repeat this Turbo section again during the 1 hour class.  Typically, and instructor will use the first Turbo as a practice run. The intensity may not be there. They explain more and teach more technically to help people know how to complete it when it’s GO TIME. If you were to think of on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the hardest intensity, they would do this first Turbo as a dress rehearsal of about 6-7 on that scale.

Following recovery from that section for at least 30 seconds or more, the instructor will repeat the siren’d section called Turbo, and now have the class push to their fullest intensity. They should be able to complete the moves with more intensity since already having an opportunity to review the moves prior to the “real thing.”  THIS is the moment they should be pushing up to 9-10 on that scale of intensity.

Typically an instructor will do the first Turbo, then complete the Recovery section, repeat the Turbo, then move into the finale.

Is it WRONG to do MULTIPLE Turbos in a class then?

Not wrong at all, depending on the instructor. The instructors job isn’t to be a show pony, monkey, or the entertainment of the day. The instructor’s role is to ensure the class is provided a class that meets their needs, pushes them past their comfort zone, but is safe and effective. Depending on who attends class that day, you can have someone who has never done a group exercise class to someone who could steal the microphone from the instructor and teach on their own.   Teaching to such a wide range of experience, age levels, fitness levels, and attention levels 😉 is a craft the instructor should continue to develop. Anyone can put music on and just announce the next move and have the class follow. BUT, an amazing instructor is continuing to perfect how to effectively teach an amazing class all while helping everyone in the room feel successful and safe in their form, their intensity, their camaraderie, and more.  That’s a WHOLE other topic. 😉

Doing MULTIPLE Turbos should ONLY be performed if the instructor is skilled enough to keep the participants safe in their form and technique and additionally, their intensity. More to that later.

The science behind “TURBO” is pushing the body to an anaerobic state of intensity.

YIKES- what does THAT mean? In layman’s terms, when you push your body to a maximum level of work, your muscles aren’t using oxygen to get through that intensity. Oxygen is used up more quickly than the body is able to replenish it inside the working muscle. As a result, muscle fibers have to derive their contractile energy from stored substrates like Glygogen (stored carbohydrates), ATP (Adenosine Tri-Phosphate), and CP (Creatine Phosphate).

You are actually training the “FAST TWITCH” muscle fibers (the explosive power part of a muscle fiber). That’s the benefit of Anaerobic training is you “cross train” your muscle fibers using both the slow twitch and the fast twitch, developing a muscle much more, thus burning more calories when at rest AND creating a body with beautiful shape to the muscle.

To do multiple Turbo’s where the participant is effectively reaching this max each time, isn’t wrong. It’s a great way to train and can help people get fantastic results faster. ** (make sure you see the disclaimer below)

HOWEVER, in all my years teaching, I don’t even know if I can tell you that I have seen someone push to their MAX on each Turbo. On average, a participant never reaches 9-10 in the Turbo section. They hold back just a bit in reserve.  Participants in a group class are always just a little bit fearful of the unknown. They don’t want to fail, so they hold back some intensity to save up for what’s left or what’s unexpected in the class.

**When you effectively follow the rules of anaerobic training, doing multiple Turbo’s can be effective. The general guidelines of anaerobic training for a H.I.I.T. (High Intensity Interval Training) workout, are as such:

• Pushing Intensity Levels up over 84% towards Max HR
• The length of the drill is no more than approximately 3 minutes; as your body can’t sustain anaerobic activity much longer.
• There is enough “recovery time” to decrease the HR and allow the muscles to replenish and recover.

So if the instructor is EFFECTIVELY doing the above, doing multiple Turbo sections in a 1 hour class can be effective.  A critical piece that the instructor needs to ensure they do, is allow recovery after the Turbo section.  More importantly, a working recovery.  Working recovery means you continue to keep the class moving and cueing instructional breathing.   The class needs to use their larger muscles to recover moving at a slower pace than the Turbo section and allow deep inhalations through the nose and exhalations through the mouth.

So it’s not WRONG to do multiple Turbo’s as typically, the average participants aren’t pushing their intensity.  Additionally, if the instructor has enough recovery time before you do a Turbo again, the class is shocking their training.
As a reminder though, the standard issue from the company has 1 Turbo in the 1 hour class. That is the standard guideline from the company. It’s completely up to  the education, experience, and instruction level of each instructor to gage what is needed, effective, and safe for their classes.

Something else to consider is that “Turbo” is a pre-formatted class where the guidelines of the company to teach a LIVE class need to be adhered to.  The companies policy states that, the class can be modified providing the music of the Trademark class is being used and the class still looks and feels like a Turbo Kick class. If the class is stripped from the template the company has issued for this format, and doesn’t follow a pattern for group exercise safely and guidelines, that is where there’s an area of concern.

Doing multiple Turbo sections can surely liven up the class. It does put a shock value and makes the experience a lot more “crazier.”
Do multiple Turbo’s at your own risk and ONLY if you are effectively follow through, recovery, and following an instructor who matches the above.

#Anaerobic Turbo Drills

#TurboDrills