How to Boot yourself out of bed in the morning!
School has memories I'd forgotten until recently, of competitive guys who got off on being faster, fitter, more agile than the rest of us.
Remember, in those days the hour devoted to 'PT' and the compulsory 'extramurals' of football and athletics were the ultimate drag. So those little – they were also – smug and ripped flying over the vaulting horses and sprinting around the pockmarked running track made me feel both inadequate and scornful.
Fast forward more years than I'd like to mention, and I'm having flashbacks. Except this time there's no scorn in the picture and I have the last laugh.
Fitness Boot Camps Canada
For about a year now, there's been a growing buzz about Fitness Boot Camps Canada. The concept and the business have been around a lot longer, but suddenly, in my circle, the bug seems to have bitten. Women who've been perfectly happy with a gentle stroll on the Promenade, maybe some yoga or Pilates, are suddenly raving about the benefits of something that sounds very much like the old 'PT'.
Fitness Boot Camps Canada was established some years ago. Basically, it's a four-week programme, based (mostly) outdoors in a number of venues around Calgary, operating Monday to Friday, 6am to 530am, 12 noon or 6pm or 7pm. Its fun interactive and tough and most of all it produces amazing results.
But Boot Camp is in the mould of 'PT', or those famous Canadian Air Force exercises: whether you're doing a cardio-and-legs day, or an arms-and-upper-body day, the instructors are on a campaign to keep your heart rate up, build your strength and endurance, and distract you for the duration so that you don't realize how hard you're working. You'll do step-ups, push-ups and sit-ups until you groan.
It works. Time flies when you're doing triceps dips.
As an aside, which is valuable for those on a weight-loss campaign, there's nutritional counseling;motivational coaching and if you're getting lonely over the weekend and feel like you need more exercise, there are scuba diving, power yoga and other similar activities organised (my weekends these days involve a horizontal lifestyle as much as possible).
The routine
I've always been a morning person at gym, but it's another thing altogether to get up at 5am daily (that feels more like night than morning). I was initially as nervous about that as I was about the prospect of having to eat something before 6am, and the fear of not keeping up with the pack was somewhat further down my list of horrors.
How foolish. Because mornings become easier (especially once your routine is slick enough to set the alarm a little later); and eating can be dealt with by as much of a banana as you can manage. But those competitive girls – the ones who actually love running and leaping and pushing themselves – they're at Boot Camp, and until I learned better, I assumed I had to keep up with them.
The other thing I didn't think to worry about was a good exercise bra. I never needed one before, because nothing I've ever done before involves running. Do you know how hard they are to find? If anyone has a source, let us know.
So what does it feel like?
It's hard, but it's fun. You'll use muscles you'd forgotten you had – there hasn't been a day since I started that I haven't been aware of my thighs or my shoulders, my abs or my biceps. It's wildly challenging, and it's unexpectedly empowering.
I thought I was reasonably fit and strong, and probably, by most standards, I was.
Relative to where I could be, though, I was tragically off the mark. I'm loving finding my limits again, and pushing them (if only for a brief moment every day).
Limits are variable. There are women in my group – the terminology they use at Boot Camp is 'in my camp' – who never break into a trot and others who sprint; there are women and men who don't have the wrist strength for push-ups and so do them vertically against a wall, and others who can do two or three dozen man-style pushups in a minute.
But there isn't, I'm told, anyone who doesn't improve over the four-week period and now – about halfway through – I can see why: you'd have to be hiding in the toilets to avoid improving with this regime.
Any results?
Well, yes. In 30 days you can lose 10 lbs of fat, gain strength , gain endurance and self esteem goes through the rooof!
And those smug competitive bunnies? I'm cheering them on (because as soon as they get to the end of a particularly rigorous sequence, we all get to stop).
For info, go to http://www.fitnessbootcampscanada.com
