Uncensored Q&A with Craig Ballantyne

Craig Ballantyne is the author of Turbulence Training, a fat-loss system designed specifically to help busy men and women get better, faster results in the least amount of time.

If you need help getting in shape for the summer and you don't want to give up your summer nights and be a slave to the gym, Craig has some great ideas you can use to burn fat and build muscle.

Christian Finn: For those readers who don't know much about you, who are you and what do you do?

Craig Ballantyne: I'm a strength and conditioning coach and fat loss expert living in Toronto, Canada. I write for Men's Health (I have two pieces in the North American June 2007 issue if you're interested), Women's Health, and Oxygen magazines. I have a Master's Degree in Exercise Physiology from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

In the past, I've worked with many busy men and women and young athletes (including a stint helping the Canadian National Rugby Team prepare for the 2007 world cup). Most of my current time is spent helping my online clients through www.TurbulenceTraining.com and www.TTmembers.com.

With Turbulence Training I've put together short, quality fat-loss workouts for men and women to do at home with minimal equipment. The programs use a lot of bodyweight exercises and dumbbell exercises, and the workouts change every 4 weeks because I truly believe variety is one of the main principles for success when you are trying to change your body in any way.

I still spend a lot of time with my head in the research and spend a fair bit of time in the gym training and consulting.

Christian Finn: What's the best piece of training advice you've heard or read lately?

Craig Ballantyne: I recommend quality of training over quantity of training when it comes to fat loss, but only in the last 7 months have I really applied the lessons to my own training, and I have to thank Jason Ferruggia and Jim Wendler for getting my head on straight.

Like many of my clients, I find that when I have extra time to workout, I want to do "more, more, and more" because I think that will give me better results.

However, I find my workouts go best when I stick to 3 times per week. Keep it simple. Don't try and do any fancy schemes or do more than my body can handle. Heck, I often break personal records when I can only lift twice per week due to travel.

So no matter what your goal, focus on quality of training, not how often and how much you can train.

Christian Finn: What about the worst?

Craig Ballantyne: Most of the worst I advice I read is in the nutrition field. From "negative calorie foods" — which is impossible, by the way — to fancy, expensive, post- workout drinks, the nutrition recommendations I come across everyday make me shake my head.

Like training, it’s the simple things that work, when applied consistently.

Adding one magical amino acid to your post-workout drink is not going to do what the "guru" claims it will. That's the bottom line.

Instead, you need to build practical and possible habits that you can follow to help you eat whole, natural foods while avoiding junk 90% of the time.

Christian Finn: Describe the sort of training you do now.

Craig Ballantyne: I go Monday, Wednesday, Friday, doing mostly full-body workouts. On Monday I bench heavy and squat moderate and do lots of upper body pulling. On Wednesday, I do Olympic lifts, kettlebell snatches, and bodyweight exercises. On Friday, I deadlift heavy, and do accessory work for my bench press. I do a lot of light activity on my off days.

Christian Finn: What do you think about the so-called "functional training" and "core stability" workouts that seem so popular right now?

Craig Ballantyne: I don't really like those terms, that's for sure, since they can't really be narrowed down to a single definition. They don't really mean anything, because people use them to describe everything.

I think people should focus on getting strong in basic exercises, becoming more mobile and athletic, and train with proper form at all times.

In the gym, nothing irritates me more than watching trainers have a client do some type of squat on a balance implement when the client can't even perform a proper squat standing on the floor. But then again, many times the trainer can't squat properly either.

I think the only reason "core" training got as popular as it is, is simply because "core training equals ab training" in most people's minds. And any excuse to do more ab training is welcomed by the majority of people in the gym.

But in reality, every exercise, when done properly, is an ab exercise. You and I both know how much the abs should work when squatting, rowing, and even bench pressing and when doing dumbbell curls. If you are training hard, you can't avoid working your abs hard in these movements.

Christian Finn: Do you train men and women any differently?

Craig Ballantyne: I used to say "no," but now I think I do, mostly to work around a woman's pre-conceived notion of strength training, but also because I think we can get all the metabolic boost from strength training with only a small volume of lifting.

So women do less volume, unless they need more. I find that we don't lose any results by letting a woman do one hard set of free weight exercises rather than three hard sets. We still train with low reps though.

I also use bodyweight exercises as much as possible with women because they don't have the same "fear" of bulking up when we do this. Therefore, we can do more volume with less hassle.

In the end though, what I say goes with the client, but I've found I've been able to make some adjustments and everyone stays happy.

Christian Finn: Turbulence Training is probably the training program that you're most famous for. How did you develop Turbulence Training and how has it evolved over time?

Craig Ballantyne: It all started back in 1999 when I was finishing up my Master's degree in Exercise Physiology here in Canada. One of my research studies was on Androstenedione, the hormone used by Mark McGwire in his infamous home run chase season of 1998.

It was during the analysis of this study, while I was spending 12+ hours in the lab each day, that I came up with the Turbulence Training workouts — by necessity — since I had no time for my traditional long workouts. So I put my training and coaching experience together with the research studies I had conducted and read from 1994-1999, and came up with the high-intensity, short workout approach to building muscle and burning fat.

Since the first TT workout in 2000, I've been refining the program to include more dumbbell exercises, more bodyweight movements, and a wide variety of interval methods. And still now, eight years later, I'm coming up with new workout strategies to keep things fresh for my readers.

Christian Finn: Any new projects on the horizon?

Craig Ballantyne: TurbulenceTraining.com is my main focus. Because I'm a big believer in the power of Internet Social Support for weight loss programs, I spend a lot of time each day on the Turbulence Training discussion forums. People with common goals can really support each other and make a difference in the results of a total stranger halfway around the world, even if you aren't an expert. It's just that support of checking in, giving a valuable tip here and there, and showing people that someone, somewhere cares about their success is all that we need to succeed.

And we're doing some cool video stuff on that site and YouTube as well. People really appreciate the video because I can show them more details about an exercise or technique that pictures just don't do justice.

Christian Finn: If you had to give someone a single piece of training advice about building muscle and burning fat, what's the most important thing you could tell them?

Craig Ballantyne: Focus on intense, quality training and let your nutrition do the rest — no matter if you want to build muscle or burn fat. Remember — training is simply applying a stimulus to your body... and in response, your body adapts. And intense workouts are the most time efficient way to get that message to your body's muscle!

All you need is about 2% of your week to be engaged in hard exercise. Get a little additional low-intensity activity on everyday of the week, and learn how to eat right for fat loss. To do that, you need to set up nutrition routines you can stick to... each day, try to improve your nutrition habits.

Aim for consistency in exercise and nutrition and you'll improve everyday, without being a slave to the gym.

Christian Finn: Imagine you're working with a major film star who has eight weeks to lose 30 pounds of fat and build some muscle in preparation for the lead role in the latest Hollywood blockbuster. What do you do with them?

Craig Ballantyne: I would have control over every single thing that they eat. That's the biggest ticket to success here. No booze, no excess sugar, and just giving them enough reward to stick with the program.

If this guy is a typical overweight, sedentary individual, we'll have no problem achieving getting rid of 20 pounds of fat through nutrition.

As for exercise, we need to be consistent, and stick with our intensity principles. We would do three hard workouts per week using strength training followed by interval training. I've outlined my basic philosophy above, with the program being centered on basic movement patterns done with free weights.

Everything is done in supersets in the workout to get more done in less time. For example, we might do a squat and superset it with a pressing exercise. I also like to pair free weight exercises and bodyweight exercises in supersets, for example, a dumbbell split squat paired with a decline pushup.

We'll do 3 superset pairs, each for 1-3 sets, and stick to 8 repetitions per set. Then we'll finish the workout with 6 hard intervals of 30-60 seconds (with 60-120 seconds rest between each). This way, we are in and out of the gym in 45 minutes.

On "off" days, we'd still get at least 30 minutes, if not 60 minutes, of low-intensity exercise. But it wouldn't just be slow cardio. Instead, we'd focus on low-intensity bodyweight training. For example, if the actor can do a maximum of 25 bodyweight squats, 15 pushups, and 5 chin-ups, we would use easier versions of those exercises in circuits.

Here's a sample 6 exercise bodyweight circuit that we'd do at least 3 times, doing 10 reps per exercise.

Wall Squat
Kneeling Pushup
Beginner Inverted Bodyweight Row
Step-up
Stability Ball Leg Curl
Mountain Climber

After that, we might cross train with a variety of cardio exercises to avoid overuse injuries that occur when you repeatedly do the same activity and nothing else.

So that's pretty much it. If he (or she) sticks to their nutrition, we're as good as gold and the actor will be ready just in time.

Christian Finn: Thanks for the interview Craig!

Turbulence Training
Do you want to have a great body to show off at the beach or at a wedding this summer? Do you want to achieve your goals in less time than ever before? And do you want to exercise at home with as little equipment as possible?

If you want to reveal your abs using simple workouts that can easily be done in the comfort of your own home, Turbulence Training will help you get in shape in less than 3 hours per week... without endless hours of cardio, fancy equipment or expensive supplements.