Latest from Growth Focus

Week 7 of the Turbulence Training Transformation Contest is almost over

Almost 7 weeks have passed of the Turbulence Training Transformation Contest and it keeps getting better and better.

This morning I weighed in at 93.4 kilo - that’s down 4.7 kilo in almost 7 weeks. Not close to my target of losing 18 kilo in 12 weeks, but if I keep losing weight at this rate, then I’ll break into the 80’s at the end of the contest - and if I really push it I should be able to get to 88.1 kilo which is 10 kilo lost in 12 weeks.

I already lost 12 kilo between X-mas and the start of the contest, so these 4.7 kilo so far are not retained water - it’s pure fat loss.

And the fat loss is actually bigger since I’ve grown plenty of muscle through the Turbulence Training exercises.

There are several very significant changes that I’ve seen so far:

1) I walk and sit upright now, head high, chest out - and without slouching back seconds after taking my focus away from keeping the good posture.

2) I can easily bend forward and let my fingers touch the ground

3) My shoulder, neck and back have become significantly stronger. They used to be achy and fragile.

4) I’m able to run again - previous attempts at getting back to running have always ended abruptly due to shoulder, neck and back pain.

5) My usual jeans are size 38 and 40, but at the moment I’m wearing an old pair size 36 and I’ve managed to slip into some even older size 34’s. This week I went out and bought two new pair of jeans - one size 35 and one size 33.

6) I’m able to progressively add more weight to the exercises each week.

All in all I’m pretty pleased with Turbulence Training - there’s a lot of variety and different types of 4-week workouts available and new workouts come out every month so there’s no way I will ever get bored.

The biggest thing though is the forums - post on your good workout and nutrition days or when you reach milestones and you’ll get plenty of pats on your back for your efforts - post on your bad workut and nutrition days and you’ll get plenty of supportive comments - and if you stop posting to your workout posts then you’ll get a few people checking in on you to see if you’re alright. Especially the people in the transformation contest is good at this.

A week from now I’ll be done with 4 weeks following the 2K9 program and will be moving on to a final 4 week program. At the beginning of the competition I figured I’d go for an abs centered program to get some good “after” shots, but since I’m not lean enough around my midsection yet there really is no point in developing bigger abs since they won’t be visible anyway. So I’ll most likely be going after heavy whole-body fat burning workouts rather than isolation exercises.

Saying goodbye to yet another kilo

Went below 96 kilo this morning - so less than 16 kilo to go before I reach my goal.

Had a great TT workout yesterday and is heading for the gym again tomorrow.

It’s a bit weird going to the gym and being the only one in there doing Pushups, Planks, Side Planks, Bird Dogs and Stability Ball exercises - it seems that everybody else is “stuck” doing either machines only or dumbbell/barbell only exercises.

I’ve been following Turbulence Training for 2 weeks now

I’m done with my second week of the Turbulence Training Transformation Contest.

I’m down 1.9 kilo in those two weeks after cleaning up my eating a bit and leaving behind the gym workouts I got from my instructor on the first day in the gym.

My goal when I started was to shed 20 kilos in 12 weeks. So far I’m behind schedule but I’m confident that I’ll catch up as I move into some of the harder programs.

I’ve only been doing the Beginner workouts so far, but I’m tempted to switch to the Intermediate workouts next week. It’s one week ahead of time, but I’m feeling confident that I’ll be able to do it.

Another reason is that I also want to fit in 4 4-week plans before the end of the competition, but the competition is only 12 weeks - not 16.

I want to focus primarily on fat loss in the beginning and then focus more on getting lean near the end of the competition.

So far I’ve been very pleased with Turbulence Training and I think it’s a program I’ll continue to follow.

The amount of different training plans available is too much for me to wrap my head around, but once I reach a certain fitness and strength level then I’ll for sure dig into some of the advanced workouts.

The best part of Turbulence Training is imo the forum - in the Transformation Contest part of the forum you have a bunch of members, former contestants and even current competitors taking an active part in supporting you and giving advice - and the rest of the forum is just the same.

Btw, there’s still time to join the competition if you’re up for it.

The last day to enter if you want to complete a full 12-week Transformation is Tuesday, May 26th, 2009. You can still enter AFTER that date, but you must finish no later than Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 - From the official rules

First week of the 5th Turbulence Training Transformation Contest

A week ago I signed up for the 5th Turbulence Training 12 week Transformation Contest.

So far I’ve been through 4 great training days with Turbulence Training.

Maybe it’s because I’ve only done two different Beginner Workouts (which is only 2 sets of each superset), but I’m in and out of the gym faster than anybody else.

It feels great to leave home, drive to the gym, change, go through the resistance training, do 20 minutes of interval training and be done showering within an hour.

When I move away from the Beginner Workouts to workouts with 3 set of each superset then it will take a bit longer, but my guess is that I’ll still be the fastest in and out of the gym.

The first time I did each exercise I brought both the exercise plan and the illustration of the exercises with me, because I had no clue what DB Row, 1-Leg Hip Extension or any of the other exercises looked like.

Right now I’ve learned the exercises from the Beginner Workouts so I don’t need the illustrations, but I guess the illustrations will come into play again once I move on to new workouts.

I set a goal to lose 20 kilo in 12 weeks, but so far I’m behind schedule with a minimal weight loss of .8 kilo in the first week.

I’m going to increase my rest day activity by doing some bodyweight exercises and will probably also incorporate 1 or 2 fasting days per week into my schedule.

My initial experiment with combining Eat Stop Eat with resistance training worked well (but that was before I even started with  the Turbulence Training workouts) and there is a lot of people on the TT forum who have been combining Eat Stop Eat and Turbulence Training with great success, so I don’t think it will be a problem at all.

I’m using FitDay to track my weight and to some extent my diet and I’m keeping a contest journal updated daily on the TT Forums - and then there is of course my already published Before photos which helps me keep on track.

First TT workout tonight

Will have my first TT workout tonight - planned to have done my first on Monday, but that failed, then planned to do it yesterday, and failed again, but tonight I can’t see anything getting in the way.

I did something really scary this Monday.

I had my “before” pictures taken.

Not a pretty sight, but a piece of the commitment and motivation puzzle.

And I didn’t even keep them a secret ( you know, keep them secret and only publisize them if I ace the competition) - they are out there for everybody to see and that adds a tremendous amount of motivation.