"I tested 10 E-Books on Fat Loss , Fitness and Body Building valued at over $750.00 ...See my results here!"

New Project

2. Craig Ballantyne, Turbulence Training

craig
  • Great For:
  • Fat Loss
  • General Fitness
  • Lean Muscle
  • Time Required:
  • 1 hour x 3 days or more
  • Where:
  • Gym or Home Gym.
  • Dumbbells preferred
  • but not necessary on Deluxe Program
  • My Rating
  • Body Building - 7.5/10
  • Fat Loss/Cardio - 9/10
  • Nutrition - 7.5/10
  • Overall Value- 8.5/10

The Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), and author of many articles in magazines such as Men's Health, Men's Fitness, and Maximum Fitness.

Content

Turbulence Training is primarily a fat loss and strength conditioning program that works on circuit style superset weight training and body weight training mixed with high intensity interval training for maximum fat loss. These circuits are done with little rest so combined with interval style cardio the idea is to create 'Turbulence' in the body to get significant fat loss. In other words the opposite of slow cardio.

The main e book itself is written in a question and answer style format followed by the workouts ranging from get off the couch basic circuit style training progressing to advanced superset free weight and body weight workouts combined with HIIT cardio (Short Fast Sprints and Rests).

The format of the E Book Turbulence Training is mainly in a question and answer format. He covers off most common questions on Cardio, Nutrition and the Exercises he performs and generally why. That probably covers the first 40% of the ebook followed by the Routines and Workouts themselves of which there are 5 levels plus bonus workouts. They all also come with workout sheets to print and record your sets in terms of the progression made.

Craig believes Resistance Training is an essential component of fat loss. It essentially increases the metabolism and continues burning calories long after your workout as opposed to slow cardio that only burns the calories while your training. Variety is a also a key principle for fat loss in Turbulence Training so workouts need to be changed up every 4 to 12 weeks in order to avoid the body adjusting a to a routine and then reaching a plateau. The resistance training sessions are completed normally in only 40 minutes leaving 20 minutes for cardio interval training. Resistance exercise examples include incline dumbbell presses, chin ups (he works the beginners up first) and lunges plus many many more. There is quite a number of exercise in each of the level workouts and they are always changing apart from the key major compound exercises. Again Craig is a big fan of compound exercises.

From a cardio perspective only HIIT (interval sprints) are recommended in Turbulence Training some 3 to 4 times per week maximum along with the resistance training.

Nutrition is also discussed in a question and answer format and includes 25 tips on nutrition for fat loss. Turbulence Training doesn't go into a lot of detail but does list the good and bad foods, the number of times to eat per day, the crabs , protein and fat mix you should aim for and type of foods to eat. It keeps this part pretty simple which I liked and tells you what you need to do to ensure your losing weight. As with most of the others Nutrition its pretty straight forward unless your talking about getting to an ultra lean sub 10% body fat level and in those cases you may need to go into more detail.

All in all Craig is an excellent trainer and in terms of muscle growth and nutrition and cardio he is in a similar vein to Sean Nalewanyj however his resistance TRAINING METHODs are less about all out body building and probably more a mixture of body building and strength and conditioning techniques. In saying that Craig does include a free Mass Building Bonus Routine, also an Abs Routine and some others.

I personally found some of Craig's Intensive Resistance TRAINING METHODs without weights the most interesting. The exercises were supersets with no rest and to be honest the first time I tried this one in particular I could hardly finish the 3rd round or 20 minutes or so. It gave me one of the best ab workouts I had ever had and is probably best described as a HIIT Resistance Workout. Example exercises included Burpees and some calisthenics type movements and some excellent pushup variants which I had never heard of that worked the abs very directly whilst still doing your chest. The whole routine had your heart rate up most of the time and breathing pretty heavily.

I was a little skeptical at first at seeing another circuit style program but once I tried Craig's program I found that his advanced programs included all the key body building free weight exercises that are core for strength and hypertrophy combined with lots of body weight exercises that were very effective. The whole program is in a superset style (alternate muscle group exercises without rest) and is well thought out ensuring as much quality exercises is jammed into the shortest period.

This program is my second pick behind Sean Nalewanyj in overall value and may in fact be better for those that seek fat loss as their main goal and are less interested in muscle building or free weights.

Craig Ballantyne, Turbulence Training $39.95 (Basic Edition)

Craig Ballantyne, Turbulence Training $97.00 (Deluxe Edition)

If you can afford the deluxe edition I would recommend you buy that version especially for Home Gyms. The Deluxe includes 5 additional books on Bodyweight Exercises which you don't need any equipment for. I use one of these workouts once per week currently for an aerobic and strength dual workout and I find it works my abs like nothing else. These are lots and lots of great workouts included in this Deluxe Edition that makes it worth the extra money.