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I am not a fan of the gym. I hate sitting on a stationary bike and peddling to nowhere, and I really detest lifting weights or pushing on exercise equipment bars. This lack of gym-motivation has led me to having a gym membership twice in my life that I used for a few months, then continued paying for over a year without every going.
Recently, I got back into biking. It’s more fun when you have someone to bike around the neighborhood with, and you’re actually going somewhere when you do it. But it’s not enough, and it’s not taking the weight off because I’m not doing it often enough to get the benefit - plus, biking doesn’t give you a FULL body workout, and I want to build muscle tone in my arms and chest as well as my legs/thighs.
Over the weekend I was reading a local neighbourhood newspaper and ran across an advert for a Fitness Bootcamp (Fitness Rangers). It’s led by two former frat boys (oh my!) who are now professional fitness training/coaches/instructors. They have been featured on Good Day Sacramento, and by the Sacbee as well. And so I signed up.
The class starts in September, is 6 weeks twice a week in the evenings, and it’s an intense workout including running, push-ups, pull-ups, calisthenics, and some other things I can’t pronounce. The nice thing is that they do a lot of this activity at midtown parks, so you’re getting a hard workout in while running through the Fab-40’s, or while smelling the roses of McKinley Park.
The only thing I’m concerned about is their military-esque style of motivation. I don’t like being yelled at - who does. In fact, one of the things in the news article was that they tend to have more females in their classes than men because, and I quote them here, “men don’t like to be yelled at.” I don’t know if that implies that women DO like to be yelled out, but it’s their quote, not mine.
They advertise that it’s a very supportive environment for all body styles/fitness levels, so I’m going to give it a try and see what happens. I might end every session throwing up in the rose garden, but I’m darn well going to lose some weight and get my body back in shape.
I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has done these type of fitness bootcamps before and what your experience was…
August 11th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
um this sounds kinda painfull….
August 11th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I think that’s what I need - someone to whip my body into shape. I lack the motivation so why not pay someone to motivate me?
August 11th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Hmm… hot sweaty frat boys making hot sweaty men stick their legs in the air… too bad no communal shower
I would suggest watching a few hours of Gomer Pyle and take on Jim Nabor’s persona… although he still insists that he’s not gay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomer_Pyle,_U.S.M.C.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
BTW, I didn’t screw up the URL, but the parser didn’t like the period at the end
Let’s see what it does with two periods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomer_Pyle,_U.S.M.C..
August 11th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
While I’m sure it will be fun to see frat boys in gym clothes, as long as I start the path to being in better shape, they can yell all they want. I really want to force myself to do this and feel better about my body
August 11th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I’ve never puked in the McKinley rose garden but I’ve come close: That’s where I got married. As for working out, the workplace gym is sufficient for me, once in the habit, but those four words severely understate the difficulty. I can see how getting yelled at would help, even by frat boys, a type I’ve detested since high school.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Woo Hoo!! Congrats on taking this step! Don’t drop out of it no matter how gruelling (did I spell that right? looks wrong… anyway…) or how much they yell.
Let it motivate you further to prove to them (and more importantly yourself) that you CAN do this!!! You’ll be much happier for it. 
And remember the old saying, “that which does not kill us…” 
You’ll be so much STRONGER (and HOTTER than you already are!!) especially since you’ll FEEL so much better. Can’t wait to hear about your progress, as I’m sure you’ll be blogging about it to keep us all in the loop.
LABOY!
Ra
August 29th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
First, congrats on taking the first step to sign up. Next, don’t forget to show up! Ha! I am sure you wil be fine. Like Rachelle says, Stick with it! I have a couple of friends that do it each year and you can really see the results. I’m too much of a wuss to do it but I wouldn’t mind being screamed at once in a while.