Boot Camp - Shmoot Camp

Along with Zumba, Boot Camp appears to be the "cool thing" in fitness these days. My girlfriend Katie is a regular at her gym's Boot Camp, and my mom has been urging me to attend private boot camp sessions with her as well..."Cheech, you will LOVE it!", she says to me. I always respond with, "Mom, who the frick LOVES boot camp!?"

But for some reason, Captain Fitness had it out for me on Friday. On Saturday, my dad & I were scheduled to run our 7 mile run together at Lake Miramar. But on Friday, he texts me and says, how about we do 10 miles instead!? Instead of texting him, I immediately called him, to which he responds, "I knew that was the way to get an actual phone call from you!" HAHAHA! I was shaking in my heels (I was at work) at the idea of running 10 miles, but I don't know how to back down from a challenge. However, it turns out he was just joking. We were sticking with the 7 miles. I escaped the big one!

So I continue with my day on Friday, and as I was running errands with the kiddos on Friday afternoon, I was chit-chatting with Katie. We were talking about our solo plans to workout that evening. And then comes the question I have been WAITING/DREADING her to ask of me for the past 5+ months..."Why don't you skip your gym plans, and come with me to my Boot Camp!?" UUUUUUGH! I gave a couple of excuses about not wanting to pay for it, but she had free passes! WAAAAAAA! I REALLY did NOT want to do this! But, again, I don't know how to back down from a challenge. I accepted. I was nervous. I know I run a lot. I know I go to a hard-core strength training class about 2x a week. I know I'm a very active person. But, I also know what these peeps do in Boot Camp, and I did NOT think I was ready for it! Before we got off of the phone, Katie told me not to wear anything "showy" (like knee-high argyle socks), and then hopefully I would just blend in with the crowd and the trainer wouldn't pick on me. Even-though I was nervous, I decided to put my game face on, and I told her, "OK, it's just an hour. I can do ANYTHING for just an hour."

So I show up to Boot Camp, and of course, I am the largest person in the room. I realize I am slimming down, but that doesn't seem to matter...in almost all of the fitness classes I take, I still seem to be the largest person in the room. Whatever.

We started off running in a circle around the gym. (I can do this for DAYS!) Then the running graduated into random drills...we did bear crawls, we did those side-ways-running-where-you-cross-your-legs-over-the-other-like-football-practice things (that was fun, I had never done that before in my life), we did jogging with high knees, and then they did these things where you are in push-up/plank position on the floor but you move your body across the gym floor by walking on your hands side-ways...I couldn't do it...I did lunges instead (before the class, Katie told me that if there wasn't something I could do, to just break out in a lunge, LOL! That was the only time I did lunges). All of that took place in about 15 minutes...I then asked my friend if the hour was over...I was done. It was exhausting. But that was just the warm up.

Then we did jumping jacks, which are always my least favorite thing since having children (bladder issues...if you fellow mamas know what I mean), and then we moved on to the most challenging part of the night. Half of the class was rowing with resistant bands for 1 minute, while the other half of the class was doing push-ups non-stop for 1 minute. After the 1 minute was up, you switched with the other half of the class. We did 3 sets of these. Push-ups are not my thing. I LOATHE push-ups. I can row all day long, I love it. I loved every one of those 60 seconds. But then came push-ups. After like 3 girl-push-ups I collapsed to the ground. The trainer had some kind of radar or something! He stopped what he was doing with the rowers, and he came and got in my face, "How are you doing!?" he asks!!! "Ummm, apparently not so good." (crying inside). I continue fighting for every weak attempt at a push-up. My girlfriend looks at me while we are doing push-ups and she says, "Oh crap, you have been made." HAHAHA! And sure enough, I had. :0( From then on, when I was rowing, he was correcting my posture, when it was time for more push-ups, he was correcting the position of my rear, when it came time for high-jumping before a resistant-sprint he got in my face and asked me, "Is that as high as you can jump!?", and at the end when we were working on abs, he of course had to come over and correct the position of my feet. Meanwhile, I didn't notice him correcting ANY OTHER PERSON in the class! Oh well. To be honest, he wasn't REALLY mean about it, and what did I expect!?...IT'S BOOT CAMP! I probably would have been disappointed if he didn't get in my face a bit!

All-in-all, it was a crazy good workout! I was super happy that I did it! And most importantly, despite all of the corrections the trainer was doing for/with me, I was quite impressed with my Boot Camp ability. There were a select few people that seemed to be "perfect" at Boot Camp, but generally speaking, everyone else had their strengths and weaknesses. Most everyone struggled just as I did, and I saw others with worse form than I had...the trainer just wasn't picking on them.

After Boot Camp, we headed to the jacuzzi for awhile, and then jumped in the indoor heated pool. It was an incredible ending to my day. I had so much fun, and I definitely plan to return. :0)