GreenBody

GreenBody

Bootcamp and Personal Training for the Newly Initiated

9/25/12

 

101 days to Africa

For many weeks now, Deb and Greg have been attending a weekly bootcamp class on Tuesday nights at a local gym called GreenBody.  See www.greenbody.net. In addition, they have been training once a week with a personal trainer, who is also the owner of the gym.  Both bootcamp and the training sessions provide a much needed strength building element of training for the big climb. 

Bootcamp usually has four to six participants and consists of whatever the trainer determines to be the most appropriate exercises for the day.  Typically, we do circuits of three exercises and complete it three times with a brief rest period between circuits.  For example: 10 push-ups, 15 crunchies (think sit-ups with less strain on your back) and 10 lunges.  Repeat that circuit three times, take a brief rest, drink some water, and start the next circuit.  In every bootcamp session, there is typically a series of warm-up exercises, and then four or five circuits each consisting of three exercises, and then cool down stretching. 

Also included in the cost of bootcamp is a great chance to see your spouse, partner, friend, or classmate taking on challenging exercises and pushing himself or herself to achieve success.  To be certain, we are all at different levels of fitness and each have our own strengths.  However, bootcamp exercises are typically able to be accomplished at varying degrees of difficulty, and a person can move to the next degree of difficulty when he or she is ready to do so. 

The personal training sessions typically involve the use of kettlebells, while also incorporating other strength training exercises.  Kettlebells aren't bells at all except that they might ring against each other as you collapse to the floor under their strain.  Fortunately that has not happened to either of us thus far.  In fact, kettlebells are like cannon balls with a flattened bottom and a tea pot handle on top.  They vary in weight from 8 kilograms to well beyond what either Deb or Greg have dared to attempt.  To put them to their proper use, we select a weight that we are comfortable with and, while holding or swinging the bells, the trainer leads us through a series of exercises. 

In addition to whirling (in a controlled and safe fashion) handled cannon balls around, we also complete other exercises as part of the personal training.  Most of the exercises use our own body weight to create resistance and work the muscles.  Sometimes we use light weights as well.  We each have our personal favorites for exercises.  One minute we may be hanging from a bar and having to bring our feet (in theory) all the way up to touch your hands on the bar, and then the next we may be on the ground doing push-ups with one arm on a weighted ball and rolling it over to the other arm and repeating.  We could be outside throwing a weighted ball against the building wall or sitting in a "chair" with our backs against the wall and legs at a ninety degree angle and nothing but leg muscle holding us up. 

Regardless of whether its bootcamp or a training session, they are never easy but they are tremendously rewarding.  We are constantly challenged to push ourselves to new levels.  At times, the workouts provide Deb and Greg with a glimpse of the mental and physical challenges they will face when climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.  At other times, they give Greg a great glimpse at his feet as he is sucking for air and wondering what he did to deserve such treatment. 

This Tuesday Greg had to work at one of his many jobs (he has three now), which left Deb to attend bootcamp solo.  She was bummed that her usual workout partner was not able to join her, so she attempted to recruit some other people to attend in Greg's place.  Unfortunately, Deb's recruiting efforts were unsuccessful, but she was not going to let it deter her from going since it is the last week bootcamp is being offered at GreenBody. 

When she showed up, much to Deb's surprise she was the only one there.  This allowed Deb to receive personal one-on-one attention or what could also be called a personal "butt kicking" session. The bootcamp workout often times involve stations and the participants rotate from one station to the next with a short break in between.  For this workout, Deb got to do many of the stations one after the other since there was no one else there.  This left her legs feeling like jello, and she struggled to hold the plank position for the required time without having her stomach muscles fail.  Although Deb was exhausted at the end of the session, she also felt a true sense of accomplishment for all that she had done.   

We are far from our goals, but are happily moving along the path towards where we want to be to conquer the climb.  Are there target weights, stamina goals, underlying objectives and motivations?  Sure there are, but the best part about the experience to date has been tapping into the potential that lies within.