So far so good

I'm about to begin my third week of the Turbulence Training Transformation program. In Week 2 I kept my weights the same on most exercises but did increase volume. We'll see what Week 3 brings.

I'm also doing kettlebell drills at least twice a week. On Monday, I did a 15 seconds on/15 seconds off thing, alternating 1-arm swings and high pulls, for 20 minutes. It was a good session though not nearly as intense as it would have been if I'd been doing snatches. Unfortunately I was having some slight hand pain and numbness--nothing horrific but enough that I didn't think I'd be able to keep good form on snatches. Not a big deal since my main concern was gluteal activation, and that's the same whether you're snatching a kettlebell or swinging it.

I also did swings on Tuesday in place of the bodyweight tabata intervals Craig Ballantyne prescribes at the end of Transformation Workout 3. No particular reason, other than that it just sounded like more fun than squat thrusts and front squats. Okay, it did cross my mind that maybe all that hip flexion wasn't the best idea given that I was about to go teach spinning. But really that was a rationalization. If I'd felt like doing squat thrusts I'd have done them :)

Wednesday was a rest day of sorts, meaning that I went to ballet class but didn't do anything in addition. Well, I trained clients, but didn't do a separate workout of my own. Thursday I had ballet class again, and I also did a kettlebell workout that was all get-ups, pull-ups, goblet squats and swings. I used 20 kg for the swings (5 sets of 25) and it felt pretty good.

In other news, I think I need to lose a few pounds. It's the darned pointe shoes. When all your bodyweight is pressing down on about 1 square inch of satin you really don't want any extra!

It's funny: vanity used to be my big motivator. Now, not so much. I really don't care whether my jeans are a size 0 or a size 2 or even a size 4, as long as I'm healthy and able to do the stuff I like to do. It's nice to be able to say that after so many years of being hung up on looking a certain way.

Precision Nutrition: Initial Impressions

I ordered Precision Nutrition in December of last year and received my materials just in time for New Year's. I am so not a New Year's resolution kind of gal, but on the other hand January is as good a time as any to implement some healthy new habits and give up some old not-so-great ones.


In all honesty, though, my way of eating really hasn't changed much since starting Precision Nutrition. I didn't think it would, which is why the program appealed to me. I already have a lean body composition and am quite fit, especially for my age. So I didn't think I needed a drastic diet intervention, just a few tweaks and upgrades which I am still in the process of implementing.

The basis of the Precision Nutrition system is the 10 Habits. The Precision Nutrition materials even include a handy little 10 Habits cheat sheet you're meant to carry in your wallet until the habits become ingrained. The 10 Habits are:


(1) eat every 2-4 hours

(2) have an appropriate amount (20-30 grams for women, 40-60 grams for men) of complete protein at every meal

(3) have 2-3 servings of veggies (1-1.5 cups) with every meal

(4) avoid starchy carbs unless you've just worked out

(5) include heart healthy fats in your diet throughout the day, and supplement with fish oil.

(6) avoid calorie-containing beverages such as soda

(7) avoid processed foods

(8) plan and prepare your meals in advance to make sure they are PN-compliant

(9) eat a variety of foods, with an emphasis on what's local and seasonal

(10) allow yourself to break the rules at 10 percent of your meals


When you begin Precision Nutrition the emphasis is on mastery of the 10 Habits. Once you've got those down you can begin to fine-tune if necessary. But adherence to the 10 Habits comes first. Which makes perfect sense when you think about it, because if you're not following the 10 Habits how can you be sure whether you even need a more individualized plan to reach your goals? Why worry about macronutrient ratios and such if you don't have to?

None of this is much of a stretch for me. I admit I wonder how necessary some of these habits really are--I mean, why is oatmeal okay after a workout but not before?--but at the same time compliance is pretty easy for me because basically this is how I've been eating for years. I figured out when I was in my early 40s that I really don't tolerate wheat very well, and when I cut that out of my diet my starch consumption dropped dramatically. I did continue to eat oatmeal and rice, but while I enjoy these foods I've never eaten them in quantity. That being the case, it's not particularly hard for me to limit my starch intake to post-workout meals as per the 10 Habits. In fact, I often skip the starch even when it's permitted unless it happens to be what I feel like eating.

One thing I don't do is plan my meals too much in advance. Instead I tend to ask myself, "Okay, what do I feel like eating?" and then once I've figured out what I want I look for a way to make it PN-compliant. It's not hard because I've been building my meals around protein, veggies and heart-healthy fats for years.

I'm still trying to work out how much I really need in the way of supplementation. I've begun taking fish oil capsules along with magnesium and zinc at night to help me sleep. I also keep protein powder on hand, but this is not a new thing for me although it has never been a regular part of my diet. It still isn't, although that might change. Protein shakes are highly recommended in PN, with consumption ideally occuring during and/or soon after a workout when easily-digestible protein is particularly desirable to facilitate recovery. Personally I sort of hate to waste any portion of my daily calorie allotment on food I don't like, but on the other hand if I want to get stronger I think I probably need to get a little more, well, precise about my post-workout nutrition.

That's the thing about Precision Nutrition: you're not supposed to make things any more complicated than they need to be. You only need to go beyond the basics if you're not getting the results you want just by following the 10 Habits.

If the 10 Habits alone aren't doing it for you, PN makes some suggestions for individualization. The first and most obvious is to adjust calorie intake. PN recommends starting out with a daily calorie intake of 3000-3500 calories for men and 1500-1750 calories for women, with no allowances made for age, size or activity level. Apparently this one-size-fits-all approach produces positive results in about 85% of PN clients. But if you're one of the 15%, a formula is provided for calculating daily calorie needs based on body weight, goals and activity levels.

There's also an alternative formula that allows you to calculate your macronutrient needs, again based on body weight and activity level. If you use this formula you'll end up with a diet that's relatively high in carbs, low in protein and moderate in fat, which works well for carbohydrate-tolerant people who are highly active. But others will need to do some fine tuning based on their somatype and goals. Ectomorphs looking to gain muscle do well with a macronutrient split of 25% protein/55% carbohydrate/20% fat. They can have sugary simple carbs during and immediately after their workout, and complex carbs throughout the day at every other meal because they tolerate carbs well. Mesomorphs looking to build muscle while keeping lean get better results with a Zone-ish split of 30% protein/40% carbs/30% fat, again with simple carbs allowed during and after workouts. Complex starchy carbs are okay at breakfast and post exercise, but at other times should be eaten in moderation if at all. Endomorphs looking to lose fat do best with a 35% protein/25% carbs/40% fat split, with starchy and/or sugary carbs allowed during and post-exercise but not at other times.

But what if you don't know your somatype? It's not always obvious. Most people are a mix. And if you've been working out and eating well for a while things get even more confusing, because you might resemble one type but actually have the hormonal profile and carb tolerance of another. That's definitely true of me: at this point I look like a mesomorph with ectomorph tendencies, but my carb tolerance is closer to that of an endomorph. What PN suggests in cases like this is that you choose your macronutrient prescription based on your goals. If you want to prioritize fat loss, eat like an endomorph. If you want to build muscle eat like an ectomorph. But whatever you do, stay within your allotted calories for the day.

So, that's kind of a quick overview of the basic PN system. If you're the type of person who reads fitness blogs you've probably done something similar at some point, or at least thought about it. Maybe you've even decided all those meals are too much trouble, and you've opted to lose fat by fasting twice a week instead. Nothing wrong with that! There are many effective programs out there. The key is finding the one you can stick with. If PN seems like it might be the one for you I encourage you to look into it.

Turbulence Training Transformation Workouts B & C

Here as promised (threatened?) are my impressions of the second two workouts in the Turbulence Training Transformation program.

Workout B is mostly upper body. It kicks off with a tri-set of chin-ups (AMAP), spiderman pushups (AMAP) and vertical jumps (10 reps), then segues into dumbbell bench presses supersetted with inverted rows, dumbbell chest-supported rows supersetted with lateral raises, and finally barbell curls supersetted with lying triceps extensions. If you've been reading my rantings for a while now you know I'm not a big fan of single joint exercises in general and biceps/triceps work in particular, but I guess for a month I can suck it up and do it.

The most fun part of Workout B is the energy systems training at the end. Shuttle sprints! Whee! What you do is, mark off a distance of about 20 feet then sprint back and forth being sure to touch down at the beginning and end points. Keep doing that for 20 seconds, then rest for 40 seconds, then repeat until 8 minutes are up. Simple, but more challenging than it sounds because of all the stop and start and up and down and directional changes. Also excellent functional training for many team sports. And fun!

Workout C, like Workout A, is a fairly balanced total-body routine. It kicks off with a superset of barbell deadlifts (or dumbbell step-ups if you're working out at home and have equipment constraints) and stability ball pikes, 10 of each. The second superset consists of dumbbell split squats and decline close-grip pushups, while superset 3 includes dumbbell rows and 1-leg stability ball hamstring curls. There's just the three supersets, and that's actually a good thing because the energy systems work in this one consists of bodyweight exercises done tabata-style (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off). There are 8 squat thrust cycles followed immediately by 8 front squat cycles, and finishing with 4 sets of 10 jumps, with 10 seconds rest between sets.

My sense is that some women in particular might find this program to be a little upper-body intensive to suit them given that all three workouts include upper body work while only two include lower body and core-intensive training. My personal belief is that this is more of an issue from a psychological standpoint than a physiological one, meaning that while there is less lower-body training than upper-body training, there's certainly enough of the former to stimulate muscle development and produce beautiful results. That being said, if the routine feels too unbalanced to be enjoyable it might be better to do something else. My whole philosophy of training is: safety first, then fun, then effectiveness. Most people simply don't like to exercise or at least they think they don't. They worry about hurting themselves, or they have a low tolerance for physical discomfort, or they believe exercise is boring. But these obstacles can be overcome with the help of a trainer who's got half a clue, or even a good internet-based program such as Turbulence Training or Precision Nutrition.

By the way, just so you know, I am not an affiliate of Turbulence Training, Precision Nutrition, Dragon Door or any other commercial website. If I give a product or program a good review and you decide to purchase I will make nothing off the sale, so rest assured that I am completely disinterested. I mean, I'm interested but not in a commercial sense :) If that ever changes I will make a full disclosure, of course, but I really don't see that happening, not least because I am the laziest person on the planet when it comes to that sort of thing.

The Turbulence Training Transformation Workout: Initial Impressions

So far I've done all three workouts, or at least a half-caf version thereof. Craig Ballantyne actually recommends omitting the final set of each exercise during the first week of a new program to give your body time to adjust, and while I've never felt the need to do so in the past I think it's good advice and something I will probably incorporate from now on.

I should note that my warm-ups are not quite what Craig recommends. Since I've been having a lot of problems lately with my hips I generally begin every exercise session with foam rolling, paying particular attention to the right piriformis. I have an interesting collection of trouble spots, most of which I believe were proximately caused (now there's a phrase I haven't used in about 5 years!) by a bad break to my right ankle when I was 15. The bone itself healed better than anyone expected but the connective tissue damage did not. This is actually pretty typical: break a bone and you'll grow new bone and end up with something that literally is as good as new, but tear a muscle and you'll get scar tissue that is neither as strong nor as extensible. Damage to a ligament or tendon is even more problematic because there isn't as much blood supply to these areas so they're even less likely to heal well. Appropriate physical therapy can do a lot to preserve muscle and joint function, but no one thought to recommend that for me when I was 15. It actually wasn't until I started trying to dance again almost 30 years later that I began to recover a healthy range of motion in my injured ankle, and by then I'd had time to develop all sorts of other issues. Very few of these are apparent during bilateral movements--which is why I tend to gravitate toward unilateral training as much as possible. Feeble as it makes me feel, it's better for me.


(Okay, I admit it: sometimes I throw in some barbell exercises with heavy weight so I can impress myself and hopefully other people as well. I 'm petty that way.)


And someday I will learn to write a blog post that sticks to the point. Which in this case is that my warm-ups tend to be about activating my specific weak areas and inhibiting my overactive ones (as well as increasing core body temperature, elevating heart rate, increasing blood flow to the muscles, getting the synovial fluid flowing, etc.) Craig's warm-ups are good, but they tend to be a little heavy on the scapular activation (stick-ups, Y's & T's, prisoner anything) and a little light on the gluteal activation to meet my particular needs at this time.

Now, on to the actual workouts:

Workout A kicks off with a superset of barbell squats and 1-arm overhead presses, palms in. Here again I modified, replacing the barbell squats with dumbbell Bulgarian split squats. Partly this is because I was working out at home and don't have a squat rack, and partly it's because I think Bulgarian split squats are a better exercise for me right now. I did do all three sets of 8 reps but used relatively light weights for both exercises--20 lbs, I think.

The next part of Workout A is a tri-set consisting of reverse lunges with what Craig calls a half-rep. I've also seen this called a "stutter rep" or a "low end," but whatever you call it, it's painful. It starts like a regular reverse lunge, except that when you come up from the bottom of the lunge you only come halfway up. Then you sink down again before returning to your start position, and that's all one rep. I did 10 on each leg, using 20 lb dumbbells again.

The second exercise of the tri-set is a stability ball plank hold, and the final exercise is cross-body mountain climbers. Thankfully you're only meant to perform the tri-set twice, which I did.

Not so with the 4 exercise giant set that follows. Once was enough for this baby, at least on a deload week. The giant set kicks off with dumbbell romanian deads, segues into cross-body chops with a medicine ball, then finishes with stability ball jackknives--25 of them!--and side planks for maximum time.

But wait! there's more! The workout concludes with 4 sets of 8 double burpees, with 45 seconds rest between sets. In case you're dying to try this yourself, a double burpee is like a regular burpee only with two pushups and two jumps, and it's every bit as horrible as it sounds if not more so.

More on Workouts 2 and 3 later, when I have a bit more time to post.

Let The Transformation Begin!

The Turbulence Training Transformation, that is. The Transformation program is one of the two more advanced programs I acquired a couple of days ago, and it looks like a pretty good fit for me at the moment. There's a Workout A, a Workout B and a Workout C, each of which is meant to be done once a week, with at least a day off in between. The energy systems work consists of either "bodyweight cardio" or shuttle sprints, no cardio equipment needed, so it's a good program for home exercisers although if you want to do the shuttle sprints indoors you'll need a room or hallway at least 20 feet long.

Shuttle sprints, in case you haven't encountered them before, are a type of SAQ (speed, agility, quickness) drill. You simply mark off your distance, sprint from one end to the other, touch down, sprint back to the start, touch down, and repeat until you've gone the desired distance or time. These are excellent to do if you play any kind of sport that requires quick directional changes, and they're also a lot of fun, especially if you do them at home and have a cat or dog that likes to help. My cat Dino is a big fan of shuttle runs, although he prefers to do them at 3:00 am when Mr. Tactical Ballerina and I are trying to get some sleep.

On my off-days I will be practicing get-ups and swings. I've been dealing with some joint issues lately and I think these are the drills that will help me most, along with lots of foam rolling and omega-3 fatty acids to help with inflammation. I'm making other lifestyle changes as well, trying to limit my exposure to xenoestrogens so as to keep my hormones as balanced as they can be at my time of life.

Speaking of which, the closer I get to 50 the more important it seems to be for me to be active almost daily. Even on days when my hands hurt so much I can't grip a kettlebell for more than a few short sets of swings, I at least try to do that much because if I don't my hips and back won't be at all happy with me. Besides, I seem to lose fitness faster now when I take time off, and it doesn't come back as quickly as it once did. That's probably because I have a lot of days when I'm not feeling 100 percent. I try not to skip workouts unless I'm truly ill, but I find I often have to modify. But that's okay. It's not like I've got any fitness goals that I need to reach by a date certain. At this point I just want to feel as good as I possibly can.

Turbulence Training 3-for-1 Sale

If you're a Turbulence Training fan but not currently a member it might interest you to know that Craig Ballantyne is offering a sale on his Turbulence Training workouts for January 2010. Yep, that's "workouts," not "workout." For $19.95 you get access to two fairly advanced programs as well as one, Total Torso Training (or something like that), that's suitable for newbies who need to build a base of core stability and cardiovascular fitness before moving on to more advanced workouts. You also get 30 days' access to the member forums, which are great if you have questions about the workouts, or just want some social support. The only catch is that you do need to cancel within the 30 days or your membership will automatically renew at a cost of $19.95 a month. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing if you use the member forums, but if you don't you probably won't want to incur the extra charge.

I haven't read over the programs in any great detail, but they look like the usual good stuff from Craig. I am a big fan of his, not so much because his programs are the most innovative or effective in an absolute sense, but because they are easy to stick with. The exercises tend to be pretty straightforward old-school stuff that doesn't call for a lot of fancy equipment; in fact, if you've got a few sets of dumbbells and a stability ball at home you don't even need a gym membership. If by some chance you don't already know how to do the exercises, detailed instructions with photos are provided, along with video demonstrations you can download at the Turbulence Training website.

So far my only caveat is that if you decide to do the Turbulence Traning 2K10 Workout you probably should have some prior experience with kettlebells OR plan to modify. That's because Workout A of the program finishes up with 10 minutes of kettlebell swings, 40 seconds on and 20 seconds off. That kind of density is not appropriate for someone who's new to kettlebells. My recommendation for beginners would be to do 20 swings followed by one minute of active recovery, for 12 minutes, as per Enter The Kettlebell. Then when that starts to seem easy, either add reps or shorten your active rests. And be sure you've got good form! If anything other than your butt (and maybe your lats) feels tender after a swing workout, you're probably doing something wrong and should check in with a certified kettlebell instructor for some pointers. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm like a broken record. But you know I'm right.)

Update: But wait! There's MORE!!! (Am I having a RonCo moment or what?) If you order the 3 for 1 package you'll also get access to the Turbulence Training monthly workout for February, which just became available today. It looks to be an interesting one, with a new interval protocol involving 8 second sprints. Yep, you read that correctly.

There are some other bonuses as well, but if you've ever been a Turbulence Training customer in the past you've probably already downloaded them.

No steak knives, though, and no World's Smallest Juicer. Bummer.

Why Kettlebell Training Has Not Taken Over The World

If you're a fitness pro or kettlebell fan you've probably heard about the recent ACE study verifying that kettlebell training burns up to 20.2 calories per minute, which is roughly equivalent to the calorie burn you'd get from running 6-minute miles (fun!) or cross-country skiing uphill (whee!).

So why aren't more people training with kettlebells?

For much the same reason that more people aren't running at 6 mph or cross-country skiing uphill. None of these workouts is exactly entry-level. I know a lot of novice runners, but I don't know any who can sustain a 10 mph pace for more than a few minutes. Likewise I've seen enough kettlebell newbies to know that very few would be capable of doing the workout performed by the test subjects in the ACE study.

Let's take a closer look at that study. The test subjects varied in terms of age, gender, bodyweight and experience level, but none was a kettlebell novice. The workout protocol was lifted straight from Kenneth Jay's Viking Warrior Conditioning: timed sets of kettlebell snatches, 15 seconds of effort followed by 15 seconds of rest, repeated for 40 total rounds, or 20 minutes. The kettlebells used were 12, 16 and 20 kilos depending on the test subject's gender, size and experience level. Good times. And all in a day's work(out), if you've been training with kettlebells for a while. If you haven't and you were to try this workout, you'd end up with shredded hands and banged-up forearms at best, a dislocated shoulder or wrenched back at worst. It's not that kettlebells are inherently unsafe, any more than running is inherently unsafe. But just as running with a faulty gait causes injuries, so too does using kettlebells with poor technique. And just as runners who try to add miles too quickly end up with overuse injuries, so too do kettlebell users who try to do too much too soon.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from getting started with kettlebells. Rather, I'm just counseling the use of a little common sense. Keep your expectations reasonable, and don't plan on burning 20 calories a minute right away. Perfect your technique, then work on adding volume, always stopping one or two reps short of complete fatigue. Be patient and persistent, and before long you will be able to perform the ACE study workout and reap the calorie-burning muscle conditioning benefits of this amazing form of exercise!