Our “boot camp” class on Saturday! Yes, my interpretation of boot camp was to wear a frilly pink tennis skirt with a top that made Gym Buddy Jeni ask, “Are those feathers?!” Also, Lindsey (to my right) pointed out that she and I look more like jolly pirates than soldiers. I love us.
Boot camps, the real U.S. military kind, frighten me. My first boyfriend was a boy with more piercings than appendages, who liked to punch brick walls until his fists bled, and ran with the cross country team as his warm up for daily double-digit runs. I tell you this not to brag about the fact that I know what it’s like to kiss someone who could spit with his mouth closed but to show you that whatever he was, he was not a wuss. And yet when he enlisted in the army straight out of high school and went away for basic training, he came back to me a broken man. We broke up not long after and I credit the military for some of that. He was different. Harder in some ways, more vulnerable in others, but not at all the person I remembered.
I figured he’d been gone for a few months running around with a backpack, doing push-ups in the mud and getting yelled at. But he quickly disillusioned me and I’ve never forgotten what he said next: “The army doesn’t care about push-ups. The whole goal of boot camp is to break you down so they can build you back up into the soldier they want you to be.” What does that mean? He continued, “They want you to be in as much pain as possible. Physically they make you run until you puke. But even worse is the mental stuff. They make you watch videos of real people getting blown up so that you won’t lose it if you see it happen in real life.” And with that he refused to tell me anything else.
I was reminded of this when I came across this post “The Problem With Boot Camp Training” by Michael Allen Smith. Smith, like my ex, is an alum of the U.S. military and because of his experience with doing the real deal he makes some very good points about why boot camp fitness classes – the fastest growing type of fitness class in 2011 – are a bad idea. He writes, “Basic Training was never about turning lumpy out of shape middle aged people into warriors. […] the function of Basic Training is not about designing optimal athletes or getting lean. It is about building soldiers willing to kill or be killed in defense of their country.”
This functional misunderstanding of the purpose of boot camp is the reason why boot camp training is a problem, Smith contends. He points out that thanks to the military’s rigorous pre-screening standards “soldiers are ALREADY LEAN AND HEALTHY before they ever started Basic Training. And it wasn’t Basic Training that made them lean and athletic. For most soldiers it was youth. (emphasis his).” He adds that people who fail basic training are simply removed from the program. Personal trainers who teach boot camp style classes are not getting a select group of the athletic young and neither can they fail people (unless they want to lose money). “Training an overweight woman in her 30s that just had a baby as if she were an 18 year old infantryman doesn’t make sense to me,” he concludes.
Then Smith adds one last thing that surprised me. “Something I’ve noticed about the type of person attracted to Boot Camp style training is they often have some self loathing issues. They hate their body. They feel their past failures with other programs were their fault. And as a way to undo their past sins, they will pay some personal trainer to put their body through grueling military style workouts as a form of punishment.” As a girl who just did a boot camp style workout on Saturday and loved it (thanks Turbo Jennie!) and who, admittedly, has struggled for most of my life with “self-loathing issues” I had to sit with this one for a while.
He may have a point. But I also think he’s missing some pieces. A big one, for example, is the fact that many (most?) boot camp classes really have nothing to do with military style training anymore. The trend may have started with drill sergeants and push-ups but these days “boot camp” is simply an umbrella term for anything, well, hardcore. At my Y alone, we have high-intensity interval style boot camp (what I did on Saturday), strongman boot camp that involves tire flipping and heavy ropes, circuit training boot camp that incorporates weights and cardio and the regular boot camp class that encompasses everything from sprints to basketball drills to using kettlebells in the pool (yes, seriously, you can use kettlebells in the pool!). On TV I’ve seen wedding boot camps, bikini boot camps and boot camps for kids.
But in the end, I agree with his point that we don’t need to kill ourselves with crazy intense workouts to be healthy. In fact the research has repeatedly shown that moderate consistent exercise increases health in every measure but too much or too intense exercise, as described in this recent study of marathoners, weakens us and makes us more likely to get sick. And of course I have learned this myself with my struggles with overexercising. A recent, powerful, comment from Tanya last week on one of my old over-exercising posts highlights the unique impact this has on women in particular:
“After two years of fighting my body to perform, I started noticing problems. Unusual tiredness, head aches, brain fog, confusion and memory loss. I couldn’t put on weight and I also couldn’t lose it either; severe acne that would leave scars and the most frightening for me was when my periods completely stopped.
I went to the Dr. and asked for tests to be done. I had fought so hard and for so long that FSH (hormone responsible for egg release from the ovaries) had failed. My estrogen and testosterone levels had bottomed out, and I also had high prolactin levels due to an underactive thyroid. Like you, I had never had an underactive thyroid until exercising. [Charlotte’s note: One of the worst effects of my compulsive over exercising was discovering after gaining 10 pounds in one month that I had suppressed my own thyroid.] So for me to see the test results, I was flabbergasted. To top it off we also found tumours sitting on the pituitary gland, which had been aggravated further by the exercise regime I had given myself.
Since then, I am still finding more problems. Early onset bone loss and to this day my period has not returned. It has been two months since I have been to the Gym (which is VERY unusual for me) and I feel very uncomfortable. One month ago I started to notice the scales elevating in weight – But I know within myself now that my body would not be able to cope with the added stress now or in the near future.
I’m now getting ready to receive treatment to get the HPA axis of hormones back into order. BUT I can’t do that without rest, proper nutrition and very “light” physical exertion (casual walking). I’ve been told anymore than that could cause a spiral back to where I started again.
There is a difference… Do you exercise to live, or do you live to exercise? Without our health, exercise means nothing.”
Am I saying that all exercise is bad? Of course not. Exercise is fantastic for you and I love it. And I still love boot camp classes. All I’m saying is that it doesn’t have to be hardcore or make you sore to be a workout. You don’t have to push 100% all of the time. This is something I’m still learning myself. As I was writing this post, I got a text from my friend Tyler (of garage gym fame) that I think sums all of this up perfectly. He is recovering from a bout with mononucleosis and was able to do a whole workout today for the first time in months. A hardcore fitness fanatic like me, he has had to reevaluate. He writes, “My mindset has changed. I believed I was entitled to health because I tried to live healthy. And now I’m beginning to understand that these judgments of myself and expectations of how I want it to be are what lead to my misery, not the malady itself. Today all I am is grateful.”
What do you think of boot camp style classes – do you think Smith is right about the self-loathing thing? Anyone else have the mentality that if you’re not sweat soaked and completely spent then it wasn’t a “workout”? Anyone have a first boyfriend story to share??
I disagree with what attracts people to boot camps. I’m not one for dancy workouts, I just want to go in, get my exercise in, and be done. I have fun feeling strong and that I can do whatever pushups, and I just can’t get into “fun” workouts. I feel silly, it just doesn’t fit into my personality. But if you told me “do 25 pushups, crunches, assisted pull-ups, burpees, repeat” I can get into it. I like dance. I have fun with dance. Fooling around and doing crappy ballet moves, rolling on the floor doing shoulder stands, then doing a cha-cha is great fun. I just don’t want to be doing lunges to a meringue beat. I KNOW that “boot camp” workouts aren’t bootcamp, but I have an idea about the coaching style for the class, and it so happens to coincide with the type of class that I like. Even my step classes were more “military” than dancy. I liked that about my instructors.
And I can totally dig the exercise =/= health comment. For a few years, my period stopped because I exercised too much. Some of my friends suggested that was the reason, but I blew it off, because I ate a lot, I wasn’t super muscular nor skinny, didn’t exercise for more than an hour, and I didn’t feel like I was exercising THAT hard. I also wasn’t experiencing any other issues that others who exercise too much complain of. But when I took a week off, miraculously, my Aunt Flo visited me. I may not have been exercising too hard compared to real athletes, but I was exercising too hard FOR ME (I usually had my heart rate at around 85% of my max).
I agree!!! Not all of us like frilly, moderate workouts. Especially if we are those that make the effort to drive/commute to a place that will hold intense workouts….hey some of like working out at home (Insanity and etc..I do this also) and some of us like the actual setting of working out in a session. However, Bootcamps are just labeled as that…a bootcamp style HIIT workout. I feel rewarded being able to push myself to be stronger and feel great with my endorphin high after. Not all of us want to shake it to Zumba (even though I can shake my ass) thanks.
I can really relate to this story, as mine is similar. I spent a couple years over-exercising to the point where I wrecked my metabolism. I went from having always having an overactive thyoird (sleeping problems, anxiety, easy to maintain a very thin weight) since my early teens to depressing it to the point where I was borderline hypothyroid (tired all the time, hair loss, weight gain).
It is a very real danger for people like me who love to exercise and are prone to over doing things. I also aggravated a pre-existing problem (bunions) to the point where I will probably need corrective surgery on both feet. And I have a lot of problems with my hips that I didn’t have before. They crack and ‘pop’ and …um, hips on a 25 year old aren’t supposed to do that!
I am pregnant now with my third child and have scaled way back on the exercise. I feel a lot better. I am really hoping the pregnancy will ‘reset’ my metabolism . I won’t mess it up again!
Ive never done bootcamps but have had two friends need surgeries from bootcampage in the past 2 weeks~
Im soft of core and shall remain so 🙂
Yet another great one. I never thought about boot camps this way, but thinking back, yes, this is a lot of what I see in them, people pushing too hard too fast.
I also have a lot of experience with the over-working out part. I experienced the weight gain, sluggishness, brittle everything (body and personality). To some extent I am deal with heading towards that trap again, but am realizing it and working to stop this forward disaster.
I read this article yesterday and it really pissed me off, especially the bit about how it attracts “self loathing individuals”.
“Boot camp” has become an umbrella term for a fast-paced workout characterized by such exercises as push-ups, burpees, sprints, etc, and also noted for its lack of such moves as air punches and swiveling hips. The biggest difference between military and recreational boot camp is that it only occurs for a short period of time once or twice a week, as opposed to it being your entire life.
The folks I attend boot camp with are the party animals of the gym; nothing self-loathing about them. We want an environment where we’re encouraged to push ourselves to our limits for one hour, then we can enjoy the fruits of our efforts (and maybe an extra cookie or two!) until the next time.
And honestly, if even yoga can apparently wreck your body (see link), I think we all just need to remember the mantra of “Moderation is best!”
Really though, I struggle with the moderation, since the vast majority of my friends do the “work hard, play hard” life. It’s hard to take the middle road when so much of life is a competition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wreck-your-body.html?pagewanted=all
I read the “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” on Saturday… and I think it’s not an issue of how YOGA can wreck your body as much as not being in tune to your body can wreck your body… Everything that was said would be true of any other physical activity… if you don’t listen to your body and when it tells you that it needs rest, needs attention, etc… then bad things will undoubtedly result.
(In the military – they actually do a complete physical – with blood tests – to make sure you’re healthy enough BEFORE they will allow you to exercise in boot camp)
I currently attend a boot camp 6 times a week. At 53 years old, it is a challenge. But I believe there must be huge differences between different boot camps. The one I attend has instructors who are very willing to give you modified versions of exercises if you want/need them. They encourage you to push yourself, but are mindful of not causing injuries.
As for feeling no soreness, it seems if you don’t feel a little sometimes you are not doing anything new with your muscles.
I like boot camps simply for the challenges, and for little bursts of lots of different things, usually with little or no equipment involved -something different. I like it…makes me feel all uberfit…
The last week or so I’ve been dealing with a random onset of bursitis in my knee…I can’t workout until it’s healed, and it’s been odd to step away form the fitness for a bit without an option. I think I dove in hard core after 10 days off over the holidays and aggrivated my old injury. I am using this as a reminder to that I’m not an elite athlete…just trying to stay fit.
It’s hard to just keep the moderation in there…
I think (maybe) you know my thoughts on boot camp workouts.. and the military 😉
but I’ll say it anyway:
I think, regardless of how well boot camp workouts mimic those of people actually IN the military, that people often associate those two things. When they hear boot camp workout – prior to signing up – they think of Renaissance Man… or the marines… or the army… They think of that drill instructor yelling at them… They think of the Biggest Loser (which has been said by many to be a form of boot camp workout). They think of punishing themselves to get the end product – that body they want/crave.
On a sidenote: the military itself draws in people that are predisposed to having self-loathing inclinations… hence the higher rate of eating disorders in the military than in the civilian sector. People with those personality types are both drawn into that kind of life… and are then rewarded (in a way) – fueling the problems…
Another sidenote? My run time and my situps got worse during my basic training… due to the fact that the boot camps you see on TV aren’t quite like those you actually go through…. it’s more mental than physical (just my thoughts)
Excellent post, Charlotte!
I had a similar experience with ashtanga yoga years ago (ashtanga yoga is very popular in Finland). I was in a relateively poor shape when I took this 3-day intro course in ashtanga yoga. After taking a couple ashtanga yoga classes for four or five weeks in row I started having overtraining symptoms.
The problem wasn’t that I’m inflexible, I just didn’t have the strength that was required for ashtanga yoga classes.
My biggest struggle has been learning to listen to my body – and it’s been very frustrating, because my body doesn’t seem to like sudden changes in training intensity – I get an immediate backlash if I train too hard.
Interesting timing, as I’m just now in a “get more intense” phase in my own exercise routine. However, a slacker by nature, I don’t think I’m in any danger of overdoing it. My natural laziness kicks in well before any over-training symptoms do.
But it’s good to know that there’s such a thing as too much intense exercise! Should I ever inadvertently wander into that territory, I’ll be sure to come back and reread this for a dose of common sense.
I think he may have missed the mark on his first point. The only boot camps I have seen are basically circuit training. The issue may lie not with the class itself or the people in it, but with the trainers failure to scale the workout for those attending. However, he may have a point with the self-loathing thing.
You are right about real military bootcamp. My husband has PTSD from his. I have to be careful about waking him up or he will think he is back there.
Funny, I was just thinking about the whole boot camp concept over the weekend!
Bottom line, I don’t like it. It seems very short sighted, not a sustainable lifestyle. Sort of a stop gap, panicky kind of thing. Anyway, just a thought. I suppose there are many paths to the top of the fitness mountain, but I don’t know if the boot camp concept is a good one or not.
I agree with Dr. J entirely (hard to believe that Dr. J, but I do)!! A person needs to ask themselves if it is a sustainable lifestyle which will enable you to keep exercising with healthy joints and otherwise good health for *decades*. We all need to think longer term. I would never do a boot camp because there are too many jerky movements that could hurt joints. I love my healthy joints. 😀
🙂 Marion
I agree with TS. I’m not into dancy workouts of any flavor. The idea of any class that has “dance,” “hip hop,” or “beatz (yes, with a z)” makes my skin crawl. I’d rather do a back to basics workout that focused on running, push ups, and sit ups. I think this is what “bootcamp” has come to mean in recent years, and I see no correlation with self- loathing.
That being said, there was a time when I was younger when I would have fallen into the self-loathing category and used working out to channel that loathing at myself. But that was a long time ago and I have actually come to appreciate a good workout for how it makes me feel. But it took a LONG time and a lot of work.
As for goofy boyfriend stories, Bear and I have been together since we were teenagers and we’re both in our thirties now. So I don’t remember too many of the boyfriends before him. And he would kill me if I wrote about any of his weirdness here. 🙂
I definitely crashed and burned this marathon cycle because I didn’t respect the off season. However, I learned a lot from the experience, so it wasn’t a total loss, heh.
I did one boot camp class and found it to be a fun change of pace, but right now, I’m too into races to ever consider that my main form of exercising. (Maybe I should do THAT during the off season rather than marathoning, heh) It was definitely a great workout, but they stressed just doing things at your level and encouraged people, not yelling and demeaning… I don’t think most (civilian) bootcamps are about that… (I could be wrong though)
When I was younger, I daydreamed about going into military boot camp just so they could kick my ass and get me skinny. Sick, huh? Young me thought some pretty weird stuff…
I take a boot camp class three mornings a week but it’s quite a bit different from what you describe. Our trainer has us start with stretching and foam rolling for 10 minutes, then we move into 30 minutes of muscle work. He’s told us that 30 minutes is all we need to get the work done and any more would cause injuries. We then finish up with another set of stretches and foam rolling. Every fourth week is a recovery/deload week, where we focus on mobility and flexibility with lots of stretches and foam rolling. His outlook is to make sure no injuries occur while we’re getting the training we need. I’m glad I’m taking this style of class, rather than what you describe because I think the military-style is just too hard core, especially if you’re not used to working out much or have chronic issues or injuries.
How different is the person described as self-loathing than the one who wants to better themself? Yes, they’re extemes, but I think rooted in the same place.
I personally like the naysayers when it comes to exercise programs. My hope is that it discourages some from trying the “hard core” programs that they likely aren’t ready for, and reminds the ones that perhaps are ready for them not to push themselves to the point of injury. Anything that forces you to think about your intentions is in the end a positive.
I think it all comes down to the mentality of the person working out, as well as that of the instructor. Places like Barry’s Bootcamp in L. A, where you get a t- shirt if you vomit during a session, are dangerous IMHO. But if you have an instructor who will challenge without pushing too hard, it’s fine, as long as you’re not overdoing it. For myself, the times I’ve considered Bootcamp workouts are when I’m feeling bad about my body. So I probably wouldn’t do too well in that environment.
As for yoga, I think we westerners often have the wrong mentality: we see someone in a full backbend, our competetive nature kicks in, and so we try to do the same, without understanding the proper alignment or listening to our bodies.
I’ve never taken a boot camp class so I don’t have a personal opinion there, but I do agree we don’t need ultimate intensity to be healthy. You can in fact do more damage going too hard too consistently. I wish I didn’t have the mentality that if I’m not about to die it wasn’t a real workout, but I do. This is probably why I should stay away from boot camp. My first boyfriend cheated on me with someone who had been my best friend since we were 5. How’s that one? 🙂
Add me to the list who disagree about the self-loathing angle of boot camp, Charlotte. Maybe it’s the way my gym guru runs her class — starting off by saying she doesn’t expect us to do every last sit-up or push-up, and that if we do two before losing form, we should do two and then move into the default position. Yes, in our boot camp, form is what we’re after. Not numbers (although we do have the option to have our body fat tested every six to eight weeks, and we run through the two-minute timed drill for push-ups and sit-ups every quarter).
Why I keep going back is because it makes me feel strong. When I can do five dive bombers where before, I could only do four. Those are the things I strive for, and maybe it’s the flip side of self-loathing, but I sure don’t hate myself because I can only do four dive bombers — or, on the weeks when I’m not feeling it, less. I don’t hate myself because today, I went home without taking class. It was a day where I needed to feel pampered, not tough. Some days are like this.
Nope. I focus on the success and the progress. There’s enough negativity in the world — and my life — right now.
I’ve got my eye on the good. And boot camp brings me the good.
I had a stupid boyfriend. I wasn’t slutty enough for him, my hair wasn’t dark enough for him and I didn’t smoke. Wait….I must have been the stupid one. Oh thank God I am 41 and not 16.
Karma bit him in the A$$.
Thanks to him I started working out ALL of the Time. I think he somehow pushed me into something that I was kind of a natural at. Maybe I should be thankful for his stupidity and mine.
Great Article!
S
As a boot camp addict for almost two years now, I cannot agree there is anything bad with it. We are there four days a week for 30 – 40 minutes per session, each session concentrating on a different muscle group and one day of all over cardio. Our trainer pushes us to do our best, but not to overdo to the point of injury. I’ve had shin splints and had to do an entirely different workout than the rest of the group while they healed, but still got my butt kicked–in a good way! Like Susan Helen Gottfried said, I love feeling stronger and knowing that last week I may have only squeezed out 10 reps of an exercise and this week I did 12.
Earlier this year, I had emergency surgery (non-exercise related) and had to put boot camp on hold. I tried alternate workouts; yoga, running, plyometrics, zumba. Nothing worked as well at keeping my body in shape and my mind sound and sane as when I was in boot camp on a regular basis. I also find that boot camp has quickly become an easy habit for me to keep. It is short and sweet. Even if I don’t want to wake up at 6AM and be at the gym, I know that by 7AM, I’ll be finished and it’s behind me. I’ve never regretted going, but I have definitely regretted NOT going.
The buns and guns of steel I get as a result aren’t too bad either!
It all boils down to how you define “boot camp”. I agree that a focus on 100% high intensity all the time is TERRIBLE. I did P90X. I did Insanity. I finished them both, and I did them back to back. I absolutely HATED the last two weeks of Insanity. It is not a misnomer. To do that high level of intense workouts day after day after day kills your body.
My current routine is about 3-4 days of weights (30-45 min at a time) and 3-4 days of moderate (if even that….maybe light?) cardio. I haven’t done anything more intense than riding the recumbant bike for cardio in over 5 months. I haven’t seen the scale budge.
It’s about doing what your body wants. If it wants chill exercise, give it that. If it wants intense, sure. just not everyday.
I’m replying more to your friend’s text than your post, but since developing a chronic illness, my outlook on exercise has completely changed. Not only was I completely unable to do anything for a long time, but right now, 20 min of a light workout at the gym can leave me exhausted and in horrendous pain for days. I love pushing myself when I work out, and feeling like I am working as hard as I can, but right now, that isn’t what is right for my body. I need rest- and right now that is more important than anything. So my doctor told me to limit my exercise to walking (with some abs/core work), so I would be able to get some movement in, but wouldn’t be tempted to go past where I should stop.
My entire way of thinking about my body has changed. Sure, I still have body-image issues, but I would say the majority of the time, I think of my body more as a machine- my focus is on eating well, taking care of my body, and trying to help it do its job. I no longer feel so defined by my physical body, and that helps a lot with the body-image stuff. My body is sick. My body is sometimes (like now) out of shape. My body is a beautifully complex machine. But my body is not ME
First Boyfriend and Boot Camp story all rolled into one: my high school boyfriend was a STICK when he left for bootcamp, and I was sure that he was going to break himself in half over the course of the training. But he actually came back 20 pounds *heavier*, from the muscle gain plus the “beef up or else” food plan they had him on. He proceeded to lose over half of it very rapidly once he got home because–although not intentionally restricting his diet at all–he wasn’t choking down their greasy food anymore. It was an interesting process to watch, and possibly a good example of bodyweight set points.
On exercise intensity–I did an intense cardio class at my gym a week or so ago, and was amazed at how much it kicked my ass. Me, who does over 4 times that much exercise every.single.day. It showed me that even though I’m super rigid about my specific workouts and how long I spend on each machine, I’m not specifically pushing myself, I’m just going at a steady but not punishing pace until my time is up (not slow-poking it, but my legs aren’t a speeding blur either). Fitness and/or weight loss aren’t even the point of all that time I spend on the damn activities, it’s really just an OCD thing, I have to put in the time “or else.” I realize that but changing the pattern is still hard.
Really great post, as usual!
You are so right on about not getting crazy with crazy bootcamps. I love a good jump start program, but some people definitly take it too far. Get on a good regiment and stay focused is clearly the best way to health and fitness success.
Everyone is drawn to different types of workouts and get inspiration in different ways. I would HATE a boot camp workout (never done one, never will) because I love to work out on my own and find that I can usually push myself to work a little harder. But some people need to have a “pusher” to get them to put in that extra bit of work. And that’s great if boot camps work for them!
I think the problem with them is that so many people join who have very little fitness built up. Numerous friends of mine who haven’t worked out since high schools have joined these type of classes. Most have either gotten injured, incredibly ill or just given up because they felt they were “losers” who couldn’t complete a single session! None of those outcomes is desirable, and none will create a life long exercise habit. Maybe there should be some sort of warning or prerequisite for these types of classes!
I don’t really have an opinion on boot camp classes but I will say I think the name is overused. Gyms and trainers use it to conjure up an image of hard workouts that get you in shape fast. Are they hard? Do they work quickly? It all depends on the person. And, like other commenters said, they might work for some.
However, I’m currently in a position due to an injury that I might have to take 3-4 months off from exercising and I’ve already had to scale back my workouts significantly. I am FREAKING OUT. I’m trying to be okay with the fact that this is what my body needs right now but it’s hard to get out of the mindset that working out hard 5-6 days a week is what I HAVE to do.
I have not tried bootcamp, because I like my workouts to have good music and an element of fun. If I want to do something punishing, I’ll clean the bathroom.
I don’t think I have self loathing issues per say, but I do like a hard workout and I like to have other people involved to keep me accountable and tell me when I’m slacking. I am on my second round of bootcamp and 545am 4 days per week and I love it. I haven’t dropped a tone of weight, but I have increased muscle tone and can do faster intervals for longer. I need to focus on the kitchen to get to my weight goals.
My bootcamp is not run by drill instructors who make us cry or try to break us. Brian is great and will modify execerises for injuries, he is also understanding of the fact that I need some tough love and will hand me extra weights if I’m not trying as hard as I can. Overall, I have been very happy with the experience.
The british military run something called British Military fitness in most bog parks in the UK and they are awesome. They definitely go easy on us though lol.
Let us not compare boot camps with military training. They are far too different. As I recall, I enjoyed the time I joined a boot camp. They teach me discipline which I treasured. They can do well to you unlike what is stated above. Don’t be so mean; you are scaring those who want to enjoy boot camps.
What this all boils down to is whether you’re overtraining or not, no matter what your workout includes, whether it’s bootcamp, yoga, weightlifting, running- anything. What is overtraining? Sustaining a workout schedule that outpaces your body’s ability to rebuild and recover. What happens when you force yourself to exercise more than your body can handle? Your body breaks down and you become weak and sick. Different people can sustain different exercise loads under different circumstances.
Factors that affect your ability to recover are:
1.)Age
2.)General Health & Genetic Factors-
3.)Nutrition/Calorie Intake/Hydration Status
4.)Amount of Quality Sleep
5.)How Fit You Are/How Long You’ve Been Training
6.)Overall Training Load/How Your Training Is Organized
For an exercise program to be effective without having detrimental effects on your health, all of the above factors need to be in balance with each other. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach here, as it is highly variable depending on the individual. This is where we need to listen to our bodies and when in doubt, consult true fitness professionals and our doctors.
Many people who are very driven but aren’t familiar with proper training principles will work out extremely hard every single day, never miss a work out even if they’re sick (and even if they become repeatedly sick as their immune system deteriorates), and train the same muscle groups/exercises repeatedly without giving them time to recover. Many times these people are stopped before they can reach true overtraining by injuries like tendonitis and muscle strains and tears, or an illness that really knocks them on their butts like a really bad flu or pneumonia. (the truly stubborn ones will keep on training though the pain however until they are crippled). If you keep on overtraining past that point, your health and exercise performance declines precipitously.
Great post! I have been working in the exercise field for nearly 19 years, and it’s been a metamorphosis of sorts. It started with dating a boy in high school (here’s the bad boyfriend story), and he made some comments about my weight. It turned into a dysfunctional situation where I dieted, started exercising obsessively, and reported my calories in to him at the end of each day. I was soon in the clutches of anorexia which eventually transferred into bulemia. I majored in exercise science, and nearly flunked out of college due to skipping most of my classes, so I could exercise most of the day. I started my fitness instructing career then, and I’m ashamed to say that my disorder carried over into my teaching. I loved “killing” my class and felt downright hauty if they complained of being sore for a week. I tried to “weed out” the less fit, so I could do what I wanted. I ran 50 miles a week, ran marathons, taught multiple classes in a day, and lifted weights to the point of not being able to walk up my dorm steps. If I didn’t feel like puking during a workout, it wasn’t a worthwhile workout. Now, nearly 20 years later, my outlook has changed. I’ve been to treatment for the bulemia, and I’ve had my share of struggles with injuries. It’s put exercise into perspective for me. As fitness professionals, we are educated about DOMS, about starting exercise programs slowly, and about showing modifications so all can feel successful. Even though I know that not all Boot Camp workouts are the same, I see how many facilities run them. The instructors positively glow when their pariticipants groan about how sore they were last week. (I get it. I’ve been there.) The reality is, however, that if your client cannot get off the toilet for 4 days and avoids any sort of stairs for a week, we are not educating people as we should. In addition to my exercise science degree, I have become a nurse. It is shocking to me that the fitness industry has perpetuated the “no pain, no gain” mantra. Biologically, our bodies are not designed to exercise to the point of muscle trauma. Also, there is more research being done about extreme programs and rhabdomyolysis. (http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/exertional-rhabdomyolysis-when-too-much-exercise-becomes-dangerous?ACE_ACCESS=e5721b2d766a65611025b9560b0d56f4) Also, for gyms that offer multiple Boot Camp classes each day and utilize different instructors: who regulates the classes? We know that it is unhealthy for participants to lift the same muscle groups 2 days in a row; are we educating? In addition to that, are we teaching participants about the benefits of NOT exercising at a high intensity every day? It’s difficult when there are 20 instructors at a gym, and only 5 of them are educating according to research rather than “educating” because of personal preference or insecurities. Boot Camp classes have their place on a fitness schedule, but it needs to be done responsibly. Also, on a side note, it breaks my heart that there are few up-and-coming instructors who are willing to teach anything other than circuits or boot camps. I can’t help but wonder if it’s because teaching choreographed workouts requires time, commitment, and a different skill set. Those workouts are still demanded by gym members, but it’s hard to meet those demands without available instructors. Okay…I’ve rambled. Thank you for sharing your insight!
Then the Madness physical fitness DVDs might be the ideal option, if you are currently in shape and you really want
to take your workouts to the next level. If you require to, the workout
is supposed to be intense and of course you can constantly slow down or stop and
take a short break. One other unfavorable testimonial stated that there were a great deal of the exact same moves from one DVD to
another and that the workouts were too comparable so there was no need for several DVDs.