On the weekend of May 1st I did a Turbo Fire workout with Chalene Johnson. Well, me and 1,000 other people, all of us crammed into a the vast ballroom under the Hyatt in Los Angeles. Debbie Siebers warmed us up, Brett Hoebel got us going, Leandro Carvalho made us shake our booties, and then Chalene Johnson came out on stage to lead us through some fifteen minutes of Turbo Fire exercises, a live preview of her soon to be released master piece. What was it like? What did those fifteen minutes feel like? Read on, and find out from somebody who has discovered first hand.

First word to come to mind: fun. It’s a combination of the energy, music and the moves. Chalene was a small figure on the distant stage, and there must have been some 400 people between me and her, but her energy and enthusiasm was contagious. Small, exuberantly blond and bursting with energy, she pumped us up, told us to get ready, and then explained that she would lead us once slowly through the routine, and then when the klaxon alarm went off, we were to repeat it at 110% energy. And that’s precisely what she did. She talked us through each routine, some eight moves strung back to back, and then all of a sudden the klaxon would ring, Chalene would stop, look at us, and go, “Uh oh. You ready? YOU READY? Here we go!”

And then we were off. What had seem easy and luxurious in the rehearsal suddenly became a frantic, electric affair as we through ourselves into the routines, all 1,000 of us. Each bout lasted about one minute, and were composed of plyometrics (jumping), brief isometrics (holding positions in deep squats), and mixed in with lots of punches and kicks. It was High Intensity Interval Training, which means that for a brief moment you go all out, leave nothing back, and then you recover for a beat, and then do it again.

What made it infectious and fun was the music. Chalene Johnson is famous for composing the soundtracks to her own workouts, to sitting down and spending hours if not days mixing and sampling the best beats, adding sound effects and making it so that each punch, each jump is matched by its own sound, is performed to the exact right rhythm. It’s exhilarating to hear a huge CRASH every time you blast a fist down toward the floor. And that klaxon-I know people are going to come to relish and dread the sound of it in the workouts.

“I want to know what works, ” said Chalene Johnson. “I want to see the 65 year old woman in the back, can she do this, how is she going to modify this? Can she get the same results as me-but at her level? I want to see the 25 year old girl in the front who was a former cheerleader-I want to see if she gets the same thing out of this workout. I want to make it work for everybody. How do we find the perfect music that gets everybody eked up? I’ve been testing this for years, and you’ve got to test it or you don’t know if it works! So when I say anybody can do this? I’m saying it because I know it.”

Author Bio: Learn more about the Turbo Fire workout by visiting our blog, where we go into greater depth with more reviews, product info and advice, all for free. Also, be sure to check out Body Gospel, the new Christian workout that will have you taking care of your temple as your praise God, both due out this summer!

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: turbo fire,chalene johnson,turbo fire workout,turbo fire exercises,turbo jam,hiit, interval training