BOOT CAMP: Session 1

Quote of the day:

“If you keep doing what you have always done you will get what you have always gotten. “~Annonymous

Eating Tips:

Focus on the 10 Power Foods which fill you up and help build lean muscle:

Plain or Low fat Yogurt, Eggs, Nuts, Kiwi, Quinoa, Beans, Salmon, Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes and Berries.  Eat 1 gram protein per pound of body weight to build lean muscle mass (approx). 

Session 1:

Tuesday was our very first boot camp and it was uncharacteristically cold for Charleston or maybe we are just spoiled and when our weather has the audacity to turn from Indian Summer to true fall we are shocked despite the fact the rest of the country is already in sweaters and socks. The inaugural boot campers approached the field and I was excited to see friendly faces including two family members who shall remain nameless. Think Post Baby Family Member and Resulting Baby who by the way is absolutely beautiful. Actually on that note the “Post Baby Family Member” was my inspiration for starting my boot camp. I can recall the frustrated feeling I experienced after having my babies as I looked in the mirror and saw a shell of a body with traces of the old me. I felt used. I wanted myself back. I remember when I had my three babies and gained excessive amounts of weight the first two times. I managed to pack on 55 extra pounds with my first and second sons and laugh at how I was in denial about just how much weight I had really gained. In fact I came across an old photo of me from a Thanksgiving, in what I thought was an edgy maternity top back when the lacy lingerie style was in, and although I am convinced the camera angle was less than flattering , there I was literally bulging out of my lacy top looking like an overstuffed turkey. Thanks Pea in A Pod. So as my anonymous family member approached the field where we were going to workout I was transported back to the days when my post baby weight abounded and decided to do something about it and I got excited because I knew what she didn’t, that if she did my boot camp twice a week consistently she was going to drop the pounds quickly. It was time to get to work.

I had carefully selected my play list because everyone who knows me knows that I’m the whitest white girl who loves hip hop and having moved back from Atlanta to Charleston I had to remind myself I was no longer in the hip hop capital of the world. My audience may not share my fondness for the music I associated with working out. I mixed up some strong female artists, Keri Hilson, La Roux, Fergie, Rhianna and threw in some tried and true male artists like Diddy and Luda. (I even shared my birthday story in which I celebrated it last year with Luda in Atlanta at his restaurant-more on this later). I hit play on the I Pod and my first class began.

My clients were all in remarkably good shape and very lean so what was left to be seen was their cardiovascular endurance. I had a few runners and some yoga and Pilates devotees so it was quite a mix. The workout I designed however was strategically all over the map and high intensity so there was very little recovery time for these lean girls.

As La Roux belted out Bulletproof (she’s been there done that) we moved through 12 timed exercises using both body weight and free weights. The girls who arrived bundled up didn’t look cold anymore. I explained that we were doing “hidden ab” work by using our core on each exercise. There was a lot of squatting and lunging so I warned them that the next day would pose a challenge in walking down the stairs. I was focusing on the two parts every woman is obsessed with: abs and butt. Everyone seemed to be working hard but handling it well and then we moved to our second segment which we kicked off with lunges. Down the length of the field and back. One of our recruits’ daughters joined her in lunging which I found adorable because it takes a village to work out. They seemed mildly annoyed when I told them they were doing two sets of lunges; however I knew what they didn’t which was the lunges were easy compared to what lie ahead-the Crab Walk. Yes, you heard me correctly. The dreaded Crab Walk circa Eighth Grade Gym Class. Hey, I was wearing a stopwatch so I was going to exploit my power. Plus, it’s a great Tricep move. As long as you keep your hands facing forward and don’t cheat.  The precious little girl mentioned above decided to assist her mother in getting the most out of her workout by lying on her stomach as she” crab walked” thereby adding a whole new balance component. The recruits laughed as they ambled in the grass on their hands backwards occasionally collapsing but smiling all the while. (or was that me because I had the stopwatch?) They were troopers.  Afterwards I threw in some cone drills channeling my inner football coach and then we moved on to abs.

Thoughts on abs, I’ve always been told that in order to have great abs you have to burn through the layer of fat  on the surface so that you can see the muscle that lies below. This must be true because I know quite a few people who work out 7 days a week but still feel insecure about their abs. A great way to burn through this fat is jogging or running. It’s free and it works. It will rev up your metabolism like nothing else (Yes I am a runner and therefore I believe that it is superior to any other form of cardio period end of story you will not convince me otherwise unless both my legs are broken). If you focus on increasing cardio on your “off” strength training days and EAT RIGHT you can eliminate that unwanted padding on your stomach and once you build muscle it will finally show and VOILA-you have the abs you have always wanted. We worked through our ab segment focusing on crunches (which I had done the day before and still felt sore) and still my recruits fought through. A tip on most ab exercise to make them more effective: keep your shoulder blades off the ground as this forces the contraction during the crunch. As I watched Post Baby Family Member diligently fight through her crunches (please note Resulting Baby slumbered in his stroller several feet away) I recalled my first attempt at abs after having my second son and I could not complete one single sit up. Not one. It was as if my brain could not transmit the impulse to the muscles to contract. I knew what I needed to do but could not execute the move. Kind of like a sci fi movie. I felt proud of Post Baby Family Member who was able to do most of the crunches which I believe may stem from her days as MVP in soccer back in high school. On a serious note, whenever you physically cannot perform an exercise or you do so to fatigue you experience one of the most beneficial effects of exercise-humility. When I first began working out after having babies I had to fight to complete each move but in doing so I was stripped of my ego. And it is when you are stripped of your ego that you leave yourself open to new experiences because all the noise in your head and junk in you mind is cleared out. I think experiencing humility is probably the driving force behind my love of exercising. After all, it is during the quiet moments when you can hear the most.

The recruits were warm, glowing and relieved we were nearing the end of our workout. I instructed them to do one cool down lap encouraging some active rest to bring down their heart rates and even wiped the grass off their backs as they struggled to get up. 

In closing, our first day was fun and challenging and I look forward to tomorrow. These recruits were so good however I had to step up our workout  a notch so stay tuned………………..