Boot Camp
Fitness Classes for Everyone
Fitness classes abound and it has never been easier for movement-hungry people to find a workout experience that appeals to them.
How To Create a Workout Community
As we return to the group exercise studio, it’s good to remember how a workout community not only brings us together, but helps us thrive.
Sample Class: Park Workout
Take your boot camp class outside with this simple plug-and-play park workout, a mix of high-intensity cardio and lower-intensity resistance.
The Group Dynamic
clients: Ben, Pat, Jacob (trainer), Jeanine, Tania, Jennifer | personal trainer: Jacob Trione, CEO and Founder, Triaffect Fitness | location: Clear Lake City, Texas
Creative Ideas That Inspire
TabataRide, offered at various JoyRide® locations and based on Tabata™ workouts, is an indoor cycling class that offers high-intensity interval drills that include 20 seconds of top effort and 10 seconds of recovery, repeated for 4 minutes. This is followed by 1 minute of rest before repeating the cycle. The high-energy, super-athletic classes at this studio are designed to “torch calories and boost endorphins.” In addition, the instructors strive to provide authenticity, joy, humor and positivity.
Combined Training for Fitness and Weight Loss Clients
In today’s marketplace, knowing how to offer combined training is a must-have skill. People want it all—cardiovascular, strength and flexibility training—in just 50 minutes.
Sample Class: Tabata-Inspired Blast
The high-intensity interval training wave is still cresting, thanks to its positive metabolic effects and its ability to elicit results. HIIT raises the anaerobic threshold and creates excess postexercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), or oxygen debt. Simply put, metabolism stays elevated for longer after an intense workout than it does after low-intensity exercise.
Creative Ideas That Inspire
Cardio Sweat Party, at Power Studios in New York City, was designed by Michele Gordon. It combines kickboxing with dance, athletic drills and upbeat music for a 55-minute, high-energy experience. Classes are open to all fitness levels, and each class begins with a dynamic, kickboxing- based warmup before moving into three to four segments of choreography. In between the choreographed moves, rounds of squats, lunges, jacks, burpees, mountain climbers and other athletic drills round out the experience.
Sample Class: Body-Weight Barrage
When was the last time you taught a class based solely on using the body as a "machine"? Body–weight exercises are often undervalued and underused. Many people want to advance rapidly, and they end up neglecting important functional (and foundational) movement patterns. Body–Weight Barrage blends popular strength training moves with cutting–edge training methods in a way that challenges clients at any fitness level without using barbells, dumbbells or any other equipment.
Power Up to Prevent Injury
Participants rarely think about injuries until after they happen (hopefully not in your class!). But someone who needs rehabilitation may face a delay in meeting fitness goals. Another issue: Our group fitness studios are filling with people of many different ages and abilities.
Boot-Camp Methods
According to Greg Justice of AYC Health & Fitness in Kansas City, Kansas, “the key to metabolic resistance training—or boot-camp workouts—is that it uses a perfect blend of both anaerobic and aerobic exercises to build muscle and burn fat as efficiently as possible.”
In broad terms, according to Justice, a successful boot-camp instructor can implement four basic types of interval/circuit training methods:
Reboot Your Boot Camp
Why do people come to your boot-camp classes instead of booting up their Blu- rayTM disks? There are a lot of reasons: Variety, camaraderie, encouragement and motivating music are all essential elements of a perfect experience. There’s nothing worse than a bummer boot camp, and you work hard to keep participants motivated and on track to reach their fitness goals.
Safety Considerations for Outdoor Exercise Classes
Over the past few years, boot camps and outdoor exercise classes have been gaining popularity. According to the “Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2013,” published in ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal (2012; 16 [6], 8–17), boot camps ranked number 16 in popularity for 2013. Outdoor activities also showed up in the top trends, ranking 13.
Building a Successful and Sustainable Boot Camp Business
Running a successful business is much like being an athlete. You’ve got to attack the task with dedication, commitment, passion, integrity and respect for the road ahead and the people who are part of it. Just as you keep clients by training them to run faster and jump higher, you’ll build a long-lasting boot camp by starting out great and just getting better.
Boot Camp, Nutrition, Core: Trainers Find Purpose
How good does it feel when your clients start seeing results? An educated personal trainer who knows how to put together the perfect program is a metabolic magician. When clients see and feel they are manifesting their goals, the impact of your program design is apparent. The best personal trainers work at their craft, constantly learn new concepts and upgrade their expertise. This pays off with powerful, purposeful, client-focused sessions that make a lasting impression.
Organizing Your Boot Camp Business Launch
Before creating The Original Boot Camp, I spent many sleepless nights trying to figure out how to launch what would become Canada’s first fitness boot camp. Since I had no other business models to learn from, our operations procedure was based on trial, error and many sleepless, stressful nights of research. I’m happy to say my company has turned six-figure annual sales and found hundreds of contented customers since its 2001 debut, in addition to creating an incredibly rewarding career for yours truly. But man, I wished someone had told me back then what I’m about to tell you now.
Business Strategies for Boot Camp Owners: Getting Started
Boot camps offer an amazing opportunity to clients and trainers.
For clients, boot camps provide a playground of back-to-basics exercises, team spirit and camaraderie as they tap into their inner soldier and push their limits, both physically and mentally.
Getting Permits for Outdoor Fitness Programs
Finding Locations
On any given day, you can find an outdoor fitness class operating at your local park. But it wasn’t always this way.
The Best Boot Camp Moves You’re Not Using
It’s 8:00 o’clock Saturday morning at San Diego’s Mission Bay Park. You might expect a quiet morning with a few “early-bird” families strolling along the park’s winding paths. However, the park is far from quiet. Cast your eye around and you will likely see a group of sweaty individuals working for the weekend. Some groups stay put, while others travel along the bay’s expanse. The 2005 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, Todd Durkin, MA, and his team chant loudly as they sprint by a group of women performing squats with strollers nearby.
Sample Class: Zoomer Boot Camp
Active Baby Boomers, or “Zoomers,” are a largely untapped market for boot camp–
style classes. Zoomers were at the heart of the running and aerobics crazes of the 1980s and still want to maintain a high level of fitness. At the same time they may be cognizant of previous injuries and current limitations.