Boot Camp
I’m enrolled in a boot camp program at my club. It’s an hour on Mon/Wed/Fri and combines cardio, core exercises, stretching, weight training and even some balance work. It’s trainer-led, and although anyone could do everything on their own, there is something to going through it with a trainer and other participants that keeps you a little more focused,on track and pushing on through the “burn”.
Here is a typical hour at boot camp - there is no rest between exercises:
- 5 minutes of marching, lunging and stretching to loosen up.
- 5 minutes of jumping jacks and pushups - gets the pulse up.
- 10 minutes to jog a mile.
- 10 minutes of big-step lunges with 10-pound dumbbells on shoulders. This is often done up a hill that I’m guessing is maybe a 15-20 degree incline.
- 5 minutes of 100 foot “sprint-down”, “side-step back” (sometimes “skip-down”)
- 10 minutes of shoulders, biceps and triceps. Sometimes with dumbells*, sometimes with rubber tubes. Sometimes sitting on a workout ball, squatting against a wall, or standing up.
- 5 minutes of jumping jacks, sprints, skipping, or squat jumps.
- 5 minutes of side-steps with a rubber band around your ankles.
- 5 minutes of abs, planks and stretching/cooldown
*A word about the dumbells. The men in the class only use 10-pound dumbells, which at first I thought would be too light to do any good. But, when doing sitting shoulder presses or tricep work, its plenty. We do the following non-stop: 12 reps-12 pulses-12 reps-12 pulses-12 reps. The pulses are where you hold it half-way up and just move it up and down about 3 inches.
It’s a very good workout, and I am usually dripping by the end of it. The trainer will rotate exercises, throwing in work on the chest, hamstrings, calves, etc, so that by the end of the week we’ve pretty much worked everything. Most of the exercises work multiple muscle groups. On Friday’s, we lump the aerobic stuff into one 2 or 2.5 mile run.
Any comments or feedback would be welcome.
Sounds like a great circuit training program! Really really good for torching fat! I aim for something similar in my RT workouts, I do 45minutes, 3 circuits, no rest inbetween exercsies but 3 mins at the end of each circuit. feels great, as im sure yours does too!
Ive seen my best gains while doing this kind of thing.
Doing it in a group is great, because you never really go at your own pace, so you are always out of your comfort zone, which again, is perfect!
Clean eating and this will have you ripped in no time matey!