Basic Training

Bored with your daily routine, you’ve been taking it easy on yourself at the gym for a while now and you haven’t lost an inch or dropped a pound in weeks. Snap out of your workout funk: report to Boot Camp.

Intense and unrelenting, Boot Camp Workouts are inspired by the punishing routines Navy SEAL’s endure during basic training. The workout is adapted to suit a range of fitness levels—we aren’t all SEAL recruits after all—and personal trainers act as “drill sergeants” during hour-long sessions that typically take place outdoors and early in the morning.

“A boot camp workout is very back-to-basics training. They are old-school workouts similar to something you may have done in high school gym class,” explains personal trainer Cat Smiley (www.catsmiley.com). Owner and director of Kick Ass Workouts, Smiley runs eight-week-long boot camps for the public along a stretch of private beach in Whistler, B.C throughout the year.

For those who skipped P.E. class, that means a workout that’s heavy on jumping jacks, lunges, squats, timed sprints, running laps, sports drills, sit-ups and push-ups—about 300 to 400 a session.

“The average person comes to boot camp unable to do one full push-up and by the end of 21 days they can do up to 10 or 12,” says Smiley, who is also the author of The Original Boot Camp.

Running with tires and making it through an obstacle course are other ways in which boot camps boost intensity, challenging cardiovascular capacity and strength.

“[A boot camp] is fitness with an adrenaline approach…it’s really about getting out there, cutting to the chase and getting results,” offers Smiley.

Results don’t come without effort, however. Most boot camps require a genuine commitment on the part of participants—Smiley’s eight-week course runs three days a week and absenteeism or tardiness is a punishable offence.

“If you’re late, you get extra laps or a dunk in the lake,” she laughs.

Personal trainer Roger Nahas is a co-founder of the Toronto-based Best Body Boot Camp (www.bestbodybootcamp.com), which runs several sessions throughout spring and summer in and around parks around the city. At $225 for a full month, the sessions run 60 minutes long and take place three times a week.

For Nahas, who has been a personal trainer for eight years, the boot camp workout offers an economical opportunity for all fitness levels to workout with a personal trainer.

“We are pushing people harder than they ever would push themselves on their own,” he says, adding "as a trainer in the gym I noticed that many people weren’t training themselves hard enough. Many people stay with the same routine for years without challenging themselves.”

You don’t have to be in fighting shape to take part in a boot camp. Both Smiley and Nahas say that most sessions are populated with mixed fitness levels, sexes and ages and fitness fanatics and beginners are accommodated in the workouts. No one is expected to become an Iron Man competitor overnight and variations are offered on most exercises. “If you can’t do a full push-up you can do a half-pushup or do a push-up against a picnic table,” says Smiley

While the physical challenge is considerable in any boot camp—that’s the point—both Smiley and Nahas point out that the pay-off is significant.

Nahas has had people lose up to 16 pounds after a month of training. “People get hooked and come back for more. Dread is common at the beginning of a boot camp, but after they see the results, people often sign up again or use it to kick-start their own fitness routine.”

While body fat may be reduced, Smiley also sees her clients gain a great sense of accomplishment after going through the process.

“It really triggers people to seek greater challenges in their entire lives. They think, if I can get up that early and do that than I can do anything. It tweaks the way you think about yourself. The physical benefits are secondary to the emotional and psychological effects.”