In 20 years of being a personal trainer, every bootcamp I have ever seen made me cringe.
The Fact of the matter is that I have never seen a fitness boot camp that didn’t tear up peoples bodies or actually produce real, lasting results. I see people who stay in these fitness boot camps for years and never lose that “last ten pounds,” gain proper strength, or end up looking and feeling like they had hoped for. The one thing I see them gain, were injuries.
Here are the 3 main reasons to avoid boot camps exercise classes:
1)Fitness Boot Camps Push You Further Than Your Body Can Handle.
Lets take a look at Sally. Sally is 55 and works in Santa Fe and sits at a desk 8 hours a day hunched over a computer. Sally is fairly active. She takes moderate walks and hikes with her dog. She goes to Santa Fe ski and skis (when there is snow), and she eats “healthy”. But she is frustrated because she has been slowly gaining weight and the pain in her low back and neck has been getting worse and worse. She has made the effort to put herself on a program but she doesn’t know all the aspects that are required, she doesn’t know how to put it all together, and she doesn’t have the support system in place to see her succeed. So a friend of hers tells Sally that her mother’s brother’s son’s girlfriend (who is 27 by the way) did a boot camp and now looks amazing, and it only took a couple of months.
Sally is PUMPED she Googles “Fitness Boot Camps”and calls the first company on the list. She is excited and signs up for the 5:30 am bootcamp and dreams of a day when she can look like she did when she was in her 20’s. After a long day at work, she is going to bed at 11:30 pm, and she forces herself to get up at 5am to workout. She gets to the class which has 24 other people along with her and only one instructor. After some light static stretching they are off! Running, squatting, trying to do pull ups, and something called power cleans. She is wrecked afterward and a kind of in pain, but Hey…. “No pain. no gain.” And Sally is proud of herself for doing “something.”
Wrong! Sally was not ready for this type of load on her system. Yes, she does some light activities (walks with her dog), but the majority of the time she is sedentary. So to make her go from 0 a 1,000,000 is not the smartest thing to do. A proper progression is needed for each person.
2) Exercise Boot Camps Have No thorough Evaluation.
Just taking your body fat and signing you up for classes is not a thorough evaluation. Where is Sally coming from? What does she want? What can she safely handle? All this and more needs to be factored into a program designed for her.
Keeping in mind the above description, we know that she has low back pain (among everything else). Just from that one symptom, there could be numerous causes that need to be considered. Her lumber discs could be compressed causing a bulge, herniation or worse prolapse. She could have her arteries, veins and nerves compressed from a tight Ilio-Psoas and fascia Illiaca. Her lumber erectors and thoracolumbar fascia could be tight and not moving. She could be dehydrated etc, etc, etc. When evaluating somebody, a personal trainer has to keep in mind HOW COMPLEX the body is! Because each of the 24 people in Sally’s boot camp class need something a little different…….Segway
3) Exercise Boot Camps Have No Individual Adaptation.
To “just move” around is not enough. There is a popular phrase that says “you just gotta get out and move!” Well, sure you have to move. Movement is required! But if you want to achieve a specific goal, then a plan needs to be put into place. Just like any other goal.
First and foremost, your program needs to have a good solid structure. If you don’t have that structure in place, then loading your body in all these “fancy” and “new” workouts will eventually lead you to an injury. Once your structure is in place, then you have to have a program that directs you toward what you want. If you have a goal to lose weight (like Sally) then that is a different program than gaining strength and/or gaining flexibility. Be wary of the Boot Camp class that promises it all!
So when Sally and her 24 other Boot campers are running around doing exercises she may be hurting her back more, while some others may need to work harder, and a select few are getting exactly what they need.
Why SolCore Fitness Boot Cam….”Structured Group Class” is the perfect class.
So after that big long ramble about the danger of boot camps, you might be surprised to learn that as soon as I moved to Santa Fe, I started a Group Exercise Class. I, too was a little surprised. But the time was right. You see, 5 years ago (15 years into my Health and Fitness career) I saw the light. Well, I saw a short, energetic Frenchman, Guy Voyer (who I affectionately call “A Genius Nomad”) and he opened my eyes up to what a “Balanced body” really is and what it means to provide a “Holistic” fitness program. I have now seen how having a balanced body is the foundation for obtaining any fitness goal safely, to be able to continue the activities that you love, and oh yeah- TO FEEL GOOD!
This “Boot Camp” will not wreck your body…just the opposite.
Through the utilization of this philosophy, I learned of Biotensegerity (balanced body) and the techniques to “educate” your body to be balanced and maintain it. I had an “Ah-Ha moment” about three years ago- I could very easily take this information and apply it to a three month program in a groups class, that could start laying the foundation for people to get out of pain, improve their posture, increase their strength and body awareness. So, about a year ago (after diligently experimenting with the structure of the program) I started these group classes, and I can happily say that it was a success.
I recently just had my monthly consults with my group class members and the feed back has been amazing. I had one member who came to me because she couldn’t even sit at her desk anymore because of the intense hip, upper back, and neck pain. And now in her words she is “significantly better than she was a year ago.”
I talked to another member who is just now finishing her first three month cycle and she is reporting that her posture is significantly better than when she started and that her body is so much more “aware” than before.
There are a lot of stories such as this from my members. If you are looking to get ride of back pain and improve your posture then this is the class for you, I GUARANTEE IT!
Don’t wait! The quicker you start the quicker you realize that you DON’T have to live with pain and you CAN keep doing the activities that you enjoy. Use this link to request a free consult for the classes. https://fo176.infusionsoft.com/app/page/class-landing-page.
Registration ends November 14th and class size is LIMITED to ensure that individual attention can be given to each member.
If you are currently in my classes now or have gotten great results for consistently being in my classes, tell people about it in the comments section below. I’m just a biased business owner…. YOUR story may inspire somebody to commit and change their life. Thank you!
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