Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Boot Camp Day 1

I went to my first day of bootcamp today!  Thanks to my super-awesome friend who gave me a free month.  I'm doing this one: Fit Body Boot Camp - Unstoppable Fitness Formula.

http://www.fitbodybootcamp.com/huntingtonbeachfitnessbootcamp/

They are a chain (franchise), and I'm going to my local chapter.

They are open 6 days a week, and run anywhere from 3 (Saturday) to 10 (Mon-Thurs) workouts a day.  Each day is a specific workout - Monday is legs and Abs, Tuesday is Biceps and Triceps, Wednesday is Back, Shoulders and Core, etc.  And they introduce new exercises each week, so the workouts are constantly changing and challenging the muscles in new ways.

Today I went to a morning "Biceps and Triceps" class.  It was a blast.  They have 10 different exercises, 3 sets of each, with cardio intervals in between.  The exercises include fun things like ropes and TRX training. 
(If you're wondering what TRX training is, it's this:
 
It's one of the things I miss most with my home workouts - there's just something so playground-fun about TRX training.)

There were 2 trainers rotating around to keep us on track, yell at us if we were slacking, check our form, etc. They were totally doing a good cop/bad cop thing - one yelled at us and the other cheered us on.

Here's my take:
  • The number of people and self-selection of weights means that the workout is as hard as you make it.  I saw a couple of people who were taking way more breaks than they should have been to get a really good workout.  (Near the end, we were doing sprints across the parking lot outside and had to pause to let a car go by.  I was the *only* one who ran in place while waiting, until bad cop yelled at everyone else to do the same.)
  • The workouts are 45 minutes long, and you're really going that whole time (assuming you don't give yourself extra breaks!).  The "warmup" is really pretty intense - you really jump right in, and there is no cooldown or stretching.
  • The soft/bouncy mat surface is excellent.  There is a lot of jumping, but it felt pretty easy on my knees.  Of course, we'll see how I feel after 6 days in a row, but this is a good start.  
  • BUT, 45 minutes to work biceps and triceps?  I have never worked a single body part so thoroughly, so it'll be interesting to see what that does, but it also doesn't seem that efficient to me.  SO, we'll see how I end up feeling about that after doing a full week (and my whole body).
Overall, this workout is different enough from what I've been doing that I'm going to take a good set of before pics.  I'm curious if the super-thorough working of each muscle group will give me different muscle tone than I have now.  I'm also excited to be doing this just because it's going to be with a friend - that part will be fun.  At this point I think this is probably not for me long-term - it just takes too much time - basically an hour including drive time and a little extra stretching - vs. my 1/2 hour workouts at home (yay Beachbody! and especially 21 Day Fix Extreme).  But we'll see.  30 days is a long time, and I just finished day 1.

6 comments:

  1. Have you heard of Grumpy Cat? He is my spirit animal, at least at work.

    And apparently, for exercise.

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RmfLCkpHigo/U-4axw3ciyI/AAAAAAAAAQM/6j_clEg_w1Q/s1600/cat.jpg


    Glad you had fun though! And I've been reading all your posts... I'm behind on commenting.

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  2. I do like exercising. But boot camp sounds too hard!

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  3. It is intense. I think this particular boot camp moves so fast, and has so few trainers for the number of participants, that it's only good if you have a decent amount of exercise experience. I finished day 2 today, and both days there were a few exercises where I needed help on form, remembering what to do, etc. But a new lady today really needed help on *everything* and was getting it mostly from other participants.

    Leg day is tomorrow, and my legs are already tired from 2 days of burpees, squat jumps, etc. We'll see how that goes!

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  4. OMG - just did day 3 and it was *awesome.* I met up with one of my friends, so it was cool going through it with him. There was a specific trainer, Steve, who *really* pushed me, corrected my form to a T, and helped me on one exercise that was just super hard for me - so that I got more reps out than I would have without him. Overall he just made it a much tougher workout. It was leg day, and honestly - I was a little wobbly getting out of my car afterwards! I love that it pushed me that hard!

    SO, still: super intense and I think it can be *rough* for someone who hasn't lifted weights before. BUT, so so awesome for me.

    Tomorrow is a full-body workout. I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to go - after 3 straight days I am going to be *tired.* BUT, my friend is going again at the same time, I know I won't be able to go over the weekend, and I know it'll be a good workout, so we'll see... :)
    And at the end, Steve said I was fun. :) hehe. I'm a fun person to train.

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  5. Day 4: full-body workout - I went! And I had a great workout. But I had to modify quite a bit. I did 8/11 exercises just as prescribed - no breaks, really pushed myself, good form, etc. 2/11 I modified or took breaks - man those were *hard*. And 1/11 the trainer helped me - thank you trainer! :)

    I'm thinking later today or some time tomorrow I'll do some nice relaxing stretching yoga. Not my usual flow, but true relax/stretch.

    What I've learned: The really big one is that I've gotten a lot stronger and I need to lift heavier weights! I bought 15 lb dumbells because it was clear the 10s weren't heavy enough for me anymore, but really I should get some even bigger weights (and maybe a bar). If hubby gets into working out at home, I can totally do that, because he'll need heavier weights too. But if not, he might get a little annoyed at the home gym collection in our bedroom... I've also decided I'm ready to do P90X3, probably post-10k, or possibly borrow P90X from a friend who has it.

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  6. I have never been to a boot camp class before but have recently been interested in going and after reading your blog will definitely look into classes in my local area. Its great that you got a free pass for a month. I hope you enjoy it and feel the benefits from it.

    Catarina @ Wild Fitness

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