I’ve been checking out at home workout programs for a little while now. I’ve completed some of the most popular including P90X, P90X+, and Turbulence Training. I thought it was time I share some of my ‘research’ if you are considering any of these programs.

At Home Training vs. Personal Trainer
Training at home can be fairly cheap as long as you stick to a few basic core items like a pullup bar, stability ball, and dumbbells. At home training costs can range from $40 to $200 one-time for a program and equipment – much cheaper than hiring a personal trainer and gym membership.

Hiring a personal trainer can be an expensive financial undertaking. You expect since you are going to be paying $25-$50 a session you would get a bit more than you do when you work out with your buddies. You expect to be pushed and coached and coddled when things are rough. Most of all you expect to find the experience challenging and arduous but rewarding. Most of all, when hiring a personal trainer you want results that are superior to those that you can get on your own.

Those were my expectations when I hired personal trainers in the past. I moved from one trainer to the next trying to find someone who actually took the training professionally. I wanted a short term game plan. I wanted a long term game plan. I received no game plan from my trainers, and that was very disappointing.

I’ve yet to find a personal trainer at a gym who had a comprehensive system laid out and in place for me for the next three to six months. I’ve never been given concrete plans and goals for my fitness levels prepared by my trainers. None of my trainers EVER tracked the weights, reps, or exercises I did during the session – even after I asked them to. Furthermore, I felt the routines were simply whatever they could come up with out of their heads during the session. No progressions of movements from stable to unstable, no interval cardio days, no increases in weights or intensity (because they had no clue what to increase as they did not write anything down). I simply felt like we were going through the motions. Ultimately these failed experiences led to my search for what I knew I needed.

I think this is where a lot of these trainers lose their clients and it’s where they lost me. I realized these trainers are lazy. They have no interest in spending the time it takes to properly asses and plan a proper program for their client. For tips on hiring a professional personal trainer, please check out 10 Signs You Need a New Trainer. I am sure you can find a proper trainer following the guidelines in the article. Great trainers do exist! Just make sure you ask some important up front questions before hiring them. If you want to pursue at home training, please read on.

At home training can be very successful if gone about in the proper manner. Shake weights are not going to drop 50 pounds off your gut – and if you bought some of these, please stop reading now and leave this website. This guy below has been using them religiously.

For the most part you can avoid all infomercial gadgets as they aren’t an end all workout program. However, P90X and Turbulence Training are different – you get World class trainers in your living room on your schedule. These programs are not gadgets. They are a mix and the best of at home training and personal training combined.

At Home Training: P90X vs. Turbulence Training vs. Body for Life
I consider myself an at home workout connoisseur and I’ve tried and recommended just about every workout program there is. I’ve done P90X two times, P90X+ one time, Turbulence Training once, and Body for Life several times over a span of 10 years. I even have a copy of Insanity sitting on my shelf that I haven’t reviewed yet. I turned to at home workouts from my personal trainer since I worked out every day anyway and had a good understanding of proper workout planning and design. I felt at the time an at home training program would be inferior to a flesh and blood personal trainer, but I would save a bit of money and maybe experiment with new workouts.

In the midst of all of this at home training, I decided to become certified with the National Academy of Sports Medicine as a personal trainer. I wanted to learn more about the science and strategy of training. The honest reality is, I didn’t need to get certified since working out was a hobby to me, but it did open my eyes as to how great some of these workout programs are. The more I learned from my NASM training classes, the more I realized how well organized and systematic some at home workout programs are and are not.

1 of 3 is Eliminated
Let’s just get this one out in the open, Body for Life is old school. I know the title implies this article will be a comparison of these three programs, but Body for Life just isn’t in the same class. Think Chevy Cavalier or Ferrari. Ferrari please.

Body for Life relies on 1990′s gym training principles that are not an efficient use of your time. You most likely will not have the required equipment either to perform the routines suggested in Body for Life at your home gym. One more sore point with Body for Life – Off day… I don’t agree with the idea you can let loose for an entire day without consequence. While the idea sounds great, it does not work – especially for those struggling with eating disorders. I would look forward to off day and go berserk. I would eat bad all day long. Then Monday would come around and I would wonder why I had not lost any fat. Hmmm.. too many beer’s and burgers? Probably so.

A better approach is the 90/10 rule. Eat well 90% of the time with 10% designated as less than perfect meals. Body for Life does however give you an orderly system to approaching a new healthy lifestyle.

Now that we’ve eliminated Body for Life (sad to see it go, but progress you know), we can look at the true comparison between P90X and Turbulence Training. The systems that Tony Horton and Craig Ballentyne have developed are cutting edge in the field of exercise movement. Little time is wasted and the end result is a far superior calorie burn and workout than you will ever get from Body for Life. Less time and more calorie burn. There is also a lot of variety in both programs that keeps your mind from becoming stagnant and indifferent when performing the movements.

Professional Training Programs In Your Own Home
As for P90X and Turbulence Training, you truly can not get a better workout even if you hired a professional trainer to work you every day. I would wager in most cases you would get lesser of a workout from a trainer in person. Why do I say this? I hired personal trainers for around 3 years of my fitness evolution and looking back I can say it was money wasted. True you get a live person to chat with about your days events, but you can do that with your wife or friends or cat. Read above why I think you can do better at home (unless you get a professional trainer who tracks, assesses, and plans your workouts on a regular basis).

So why is training at home with Tony Horton on DVD or Craig Ballentines workout plans better than a flesh and blood personal trainer? Simple: Both P90X and Turbulence Training (of which there are many flavors for all different types of needs and people) are systematic in their approach. Turbulence Training includes a preparation phase to get your body in basic shape for the first phase of training. P90X has fantastic static and dynamic warm up moves. Tony walks you through each movement and even gives you alternative movements if you are unable to perform the proper form of the given exercise. You work through a progression of workouts over several months. P90X lasts three months, and the Turbulence Training program I did was six months long.

You are guided along the way with both and given increasingly more challenging workouts.

Train for Real Life, Not Mr. Olympia
Both programs improve your ability to be active in your real life. You won’t be in elite professional athletic shape, but you will get in the best shape of your life. Why is training using dynamic movements (real life movements) important? Many injuries occur to people doing yard work, lifting heavy objects, playing flag football with your kids, and many other regular day activities. Training your body in a manner that mimics these movements is essential to avoiding injury. The great thing about both of these programs is they are focused on movement. You don’t do traditional body building movements such as a bench press – you do one legged pushups or plyo pushups or pushups on a stability ball. These dynamic movements strengthen your core, synergistic muscle groups, and primary movers.

Final Verdict: P90X or Turbulence Training? Both!
Which At Home program is better? Neither! They are both great programs and you will get great results if you stick to them. The two primary keys of success in fat loss are believing you will be successful in losing fat and CONSISTENCY! Just hanging in there day after day, even after a bad day of eating is the key. Don’t quit just because you had a minor setback. Stick with the programs and you WILL see results.

P90X and Turbulence Training are fantastic workout programs designed by master trainers. You simply can’t go wrong choosing either one. Both progress you on a consistent path towards more stamina, repetitions, and endurance.

I would recommend starting out with P90X (there is even a Power 90 that is the precursor to P90X if you are just starting out I would recommend) and moving in to Turbulence Training. I believe P90X is a more well rounded program for intermediate workout enthusiasts and it will give them a good base to work from when moving in to the more advanced Turbulence Training.

I use both programs today. In fact, I pop in P90X on Yoga Thursdays and do Turbulence Training the remainder of the days of the week mixed in with Spin class, jogging, or interval running on cardio days.

Christian Henning, NASM-CPT