Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Sample Boot Camp - 4/4/11

Lifetime is offering Boot Camp classes for free this week for people to try them out. Kristie and Chris invited me to come out and try it and I thought it sounded like fun, so I did. Here's some background. My trainer, Gilles (who is not going to be my trainer in the future, unfortunately) recommended against doing boot camp classes until I get my form and my stability muscles all worked out. I believe him and I don't think I'll be doing this regularly, but it was really fun to try. He was totally there last night though, so I had to be all "Boot camp? After you told me not to? No way, man. That's crazy talk. I'm here for...Schmoot Camp." It was awkward. But I'm glad i tried it, because it confirmed for me that I have a lot of strengths (namely power) and a lot of weaknesses (cardio and muscular endurance, specifically on pushups) and it helped me realize that I will be better served by doing the work to get my foundation stronger and then going and doing the boot camp thing.

So, that said, here's what we did last night.

Those two big circles on the right are big tractor tires. The red dots are cones and the smaller circles are weight plates (45 for boys, 25 for girls). The course is maybe 30 yards long, I think. I'm really bad at estimating distance. We were split into two teams of four (the other team had 5 because they can't follow instructions), and then sub-split into guys and girls. The two guys took one tire and did two flips each and then switched off all the way down and back. I think the women did the same thing. The other team took plates and held them straight overhead and jogged to the cone, set the plate down, then did lunges back. The other guy on the team then picked up a plate and ran it out to the next cone and lunged back, and so forth. While the one guys is running and lunging, the other is back at the start, doing bicycles or doing raised-leg crunches with the weight plate.


After we finished flipping the tires, we switched places and did the other side. We just lunged out and then ran them back until the tire flippers were done. We took a bit of a break and switched back. This time, we had to flip the tire until the guys on the other side got all the weights moved out and then back. That took much longer. Honestly, flipping the tire was the easiest thing we did. I think it was harder for other people because they're smaller in relation to the tires. Being a big dude helps in some situations, for sure. After the other side finished, we switched over and had to take the plates out and back. The lunges really started getting to me after a while. I can do them just fine for a while, but that was a heck of a lot of them. Bit of a break for some water.

This one is sort of self-explanatory, except that it also involved the weight plates again. You start at the bottom and lift it over your head. Jog out to the first cone, set it down, do 10 burpees (without pushups) then pick it back up and run to the start. Turn back around and go to the next station and do 20 twisters with your plate. Twisters are like v-ups because your back and feet are both off the ground, but you add a weight and you're twisting your torso from side to side. We did 20 of those on each side. Then up with the plate and back to the line, then back to the next cone. Put the plate down, and do "No Hands" pushups. I haven't even seen these before, but i can see what they're doing. You go all the way down to the ground and rest your chest on the plate, then lift your hands up slightly. This absolutely forces you to go 100% of the way to the floor, obviously. So we did 30 of those. I got a little ways through it and had to drop to my knees to finish the rest. I can pound out a decent number of pushups with good form (a good number being like 30, maybe) but after all the other stuff we'd already done, I was simply not getting anywhere with them. Even from my knees I had to keep stopping and resting. It took forever and completely wore me out. Then up with the plate and back. Repeat the same three exercises, only with 40 burpees, 50 twisters and 60 pushups this time. Even the burpees weren't that bad. I had to do five and then breathe for a while and then do 5 more, but I was hanging in there, pounding them out pretty well. It was just the darn pushups that got me. this is where being a big dude really bites you.

So anyway, that's it. No idea how many calories I burned, unfortunately, as I forgot my HRM in the car, but Kristie said hers said she burned over 600, so I'm guessing I was around 1000 due to my greater weight. That may be all the way wrong, but it doesn't much matter in the end since I don't count calories in anyway. I just know I was all the way worn out and it felt pretty darned good.

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