Jackie Warner’s Skylab Workouts on “Workout”
Jackie Warner’s SKYLAB project is designed to help people overcome their struggle with obesity. On Bravo’s Workout reality show we catch glimpses of the SKYLAB workouts and process.
But does / will SKYLAB really work? What follows is a quick pro/con assessment from what’s been revealed so far on the show:
SKYLAB PROS
- Includes mental, physical and emotional elements - frank, emotional discussions take place to uncover self-esteem and insecurity issues that cause clients to over eat for comfort. Clients are challenged mentally and educated to make smarter decisions. Physically they are pushed to get more from their bodies.
- Includes both personal and group support - SKYLAB clients meet in groups and with trainers.
- Consideration is given to selecting a trainer that can best work with the client - Getting the right trainer with the right client is both art and science but can make or break the outcome. In the show Jackie places photos of clients and trainers on the floor. I can’t think of a better way to facilitate the process of aligning client and trainer.
- Food is provided - This is a powerful way to simultaneously help clients make immediate progress, leapfrog their weak decision making abilities and provide experiential learning. With each meal these clients learn and experience what a proper food choice looks like, tastes like and feels like. Plus, they are eating the same food and supplements Jackie Warner does.
SKYLAB CONS
- Workout intensity - Jackie Warner’s approach to fitness is all about intensity. Exercise intensity certainly gets results, however it also increases risk of minor and serious injury to the client.
Is Proper Progression at SKYLAB?
Fitness professionals manage risk of injury to clients by applying the proper “progression” of frequency, time, type and intensity of workouts. Proper progression allows the client to gradually increase their fitness and tolerate greater exercise stress with reduced risk of injury. It appears the workouts being delivered to the SKYLAB clients may be too intense…
A Viewer Opinion
A comment from one of the readers of this blog illustrates a number of concerns about the intensity of the SKYLAB workouts:
Horrible show! As a personal trainer i cringe when i see the horrible training that goes on in this tv show. It’s bad, really bad. It’s the reason personal trainers have no credibility in the professional world.
No trainer in their right mind would have unfit, overweight clients do jumping jacks on a hard surface. Or inch worm push ups when they can’t keep the form not even remotely right. Or have unfit clients run suicides.
For anyone trying to pick up tips from this show, please don’t. And anyone thinking about paying $400.00 a session with her, you’ve got to be out of your mind.
So Does / Will SKYLAB Be Successful?
Factoring the pros / cons above - the answer seems to be it’s got great potential if the client exercise injury does not become an issue. What do you think?
Want To Try SKYLAB?
On the SkySport & Spa Website, there is a public “retreat” version of SKYLAB project. It’s promoted as follows:
SkyLab is the ultimate, life-changing opportunity. During this all-inclusive, intense retreat in Northern California, you’ll live, eat with, and workout with Jackie Warner, celebrity trainer and star of the hit Bravo TV show Workout. She will teach you, train you, tone you, inspire you, and give you the discipline and motivation to lose weight for good.
In addition to breaking your sugar addiction, you’ll sweat and work like never before, all under the ever-present and constant watch of Jackie and her team of trainers. Not only will you learn to live healthy and hot in the real world, but you’ll lose substantial weight, reshift your energy, and change the way you relate to the world around you.
This is an experience that will be like no other. Jackie’s effect on people’s lives is unparalleled…and she’s ready to change yours today.
Also from the website a sample schedule of what to expect from SKYLAB:
A Typical Day at SkyLab (*schedule subject to change)
- 6:30 am – Jackie’s personal energy shake, delivered right to your door
- 7:00 am to 9:00 am – two-hour intensity workout
- 9:15 am to 10:15 am – snack and free time
- 10:30 am to 12:00 pm – life goals and healthy eating seminars
- 12:15 pm to 1:15 pm – lunch
- 1:15 pm to 2:30 pm – free time
- 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm – two-hour intensity workout
- 4:30 pm to 5:15 pm – yoga/stretching
- 5:15 pm to 6:45 pm – snack and free time
- 6:45 pm to 7:45 pm – dinner
- 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm – group therapy (conquer your emotional relationship with food!)
Too Much?
Wow - 4 hours of intensity exercise. For people with an already high level of fitness this could work, but for obese, deconditioned or those new to exercise this sounds like an accident waiting to happen.
Fortunately - the SKYLAB program requires a signed permission form from your physician for acceptance. It pulls no punches either - again from the SKYLAB info on the website:
Permission form must clear participant to engage in strenuous activity and a reduced calorie diet. Form must also indicate any physical limitations the participant may have, including but not limited to knee, back, or shoulder injuries.
What Do You Think?
So for those of you interested - the cost is $7,000.00 and you can get $1000.00 off the May 31st session here.
Meantime - for those of you who have read this far… Would you try SKYLAB?
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I originally started watching WO because of the time I’m spending in training and at the gym. I stayed, sucked totally in by the drama (both there and in my gym, LOL). One thing I’ve learned, she and several of her trainers really aren’t very good! I was shocked.
I must say I totally agree that no obese person should be put through high impact routines like that. I say that as a boot camp addict who did speed and agility training as well, and paid with aggravated joints.
My previous trainer (also ISSA, ; P) did much what these trainers do. Now that I’m with another (with NASM), I see a world of difference and now know what defines a great trainer from an adequate one.
So many thoughts. At this stage of the game, no I would not do Skylab because of the price, short duration, and well, frankly, crappy training program and poor understanding of the obese body and its needs during weight loss. The facility’s understanding of nutrition for the overweight is poor, in my estimation.
However, I can see how someone would choose to do this, like a paid vacation for a few days of Biggest Loser-like camp. But people do such things when they are desperate and undereducated on the topic of training.
Well, I can speak more accurately than the “Laura” before me (I am a different Laura…), because I actually did attend the first SkyLab week from May 31- June 7, 2008.
It was not a “paid vacation” or a “Biggest Loser-like camp”, and definitely not for “desperate” or “undereducated” people.
However, in our group of 12 participants, most of us were in good shape, already having a solid base of exercise and good nutrition, and not one of us was obese.
It was held at a very upscale resort, and the accomodations were the best I’ve ever experienced, but the daily routing, while very enjoyable to me, was certainly NOT for sissies.
If you want to leave your troubles behind and get yourself in better health, and enjoy a new level of fitness, this is for you. No matter how good your personal trainer is now, there is nothing like getting away from the daily grind for 7 days of intense exercise, delicious food, and comraderie.
It’s the best money I’ve ever spent, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat!
It’s best not to review movies you haven’t seen and/or books you haven’t read…..
I can speak more accurately than the “Laura” before me (I am a different Laura…), because I actually did attend the first SkyLab week from May 31- June 7, 2008.
It was not a “paid vacation” or a “Biggest Loser-like camp”, and definitely not for “desperate” or “undereducated” people.
However, in our group of 12 participants, most of us were in good shape, already having a solid base of exercise and good nutrition, and not one of us was obese.
It was held at a very upscale resort, and the accommodations were the best I’ve ever experienced, but the daily routing, while very enjoyable to me, was certainly NOT for sissies.
If you want to leave your troubles behind and get yourself in better health, and enjoy a new level of fitness, this is for you. No matter how good your personal trainer is now, there is nothing like getting away from the daily grind, for 7 days of intense exercise, delicious food, encouragement and camaraderie.
It’s the best money I’ve ever spent and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Laura McB, if you consider her workouts intense, than your idea of a good workout differs from mine. I require from my trainer I high level of expertise that by mere example Warner and staff lack.
If you did not attend the SkyLab week, and you did not participate in four intense hours of exercise plus one hour of Yoga each day, for 7 days, then how can you intelligently comment on this experience at all?
Laura (not McB),
You posed a thought to the other Laura “if you consider her workouts intense…” Have you actually worked out with Jackie or any of the trainers that actually work at Sky Sport or are you basing your opinion on the show?
If the latter is the case, then I hope you are intelligent enough to realize that “reality” TV is very far from reality and that everything is stated, cast, and edited for the highest drama possible.
Also, before you judge someone’s capabilities and expertise, I strongly suggest that you engage in the activity with the person(s) in question rather than watching and commenting. I can promise you that every person who attended the real SkyLab retreat (not the one staged for the show) found the workouts to be very intense, safe, and effective and the nutritional advice to be solid. Best of all, everyone took the new knowledge they gained about both fitness and nutrition back home with them so that they could continue their journey.