Boot Camp, Part Deux

I realized I haven't done a workout post in ages so I thought I'd update you all as to what I've been doing for exercise lately, other than chasing babies around all day.  As you may recall, at the end of last year, I joined a boot camp style workout studio for a month on a Groupon, and not only did I not die, but I loved it!  (Check out this post, and this one.)  The only problem was the monthly membership fee was not sustainable for me - same thing goes for CrossFit.  So I recently bought another Groupon for a month of boot camp at a different studio in the city, and have been attending Believer's Fitness Boot Camp in Mt Washington for the past month.  No surprise here, but I am of course LOVING it.  Here are my thoughts on the past month.

STUDIO:  The space is bigger than the last place I went but set up very similarly.  It's a big open warehouse type building.  The floor is artificial turf, and all the equipment we may need is lined up around the exterior so there is plenty of wide open space for all the running drills we do.

WORKOUTS:  Are 1 hour sessions and are different every single day - love this!  Much like my last boot camp experience, you never know what you're walking into on any given day and that excites me to no end! Hahaha, I can't wait to get to class to see what kind of torture we're in for :) 

There is a basic formula though.  Each class starts with a warm up that lasts about 10 mins.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the warm up board one day but they go something like this:

Run 2x (length of studio) at 25%
Skip 1x
Heel walk up/Toe walk back
Cradle walk 1x

Run 2x at 50%
Mountain climbers 25x
Arm circles 10x each arm
Jump squats 25x

Run 2x at 50%
Grapevine 1x
Side shuffle 1x
Lunge forward up/backward down

Run 4x at 75%

Then, we get into the meat of the night's workout.  All workouts are based around High Intensity Interval Training.  We would usually do 45 seconds work/15 seconds rest.  Sometimes the ratio would be 1 min work/15 sec rest.  Most of the time, the coach would set up stations around the gym with different exercises we would be doing, but sometimes we would just run back and forth across the room, stopping at either end to do the exercises.  The interval sessions usually lasted 25-30 mins and were intense! 

Exercises for each station included things like:  Plank variations; Squats, lunges and leg work with weighted medicine balls; High knees ladder running; Jumping over obstacles; Suspension cable leg and arm work; Free weight arm/leg work; Ab work on the ball; and much more.  This past Monday we spent the entire night sprinting and lunging back and forth across the room, stopping for a minute on each end to do either core work at one end, or arm and leg work with the weighted medicine ball at the other.

The night usually ended with some core work, followed by some stretching.

 

 

VERDICT:  Boot camp is my jam, for real.  Its basically the part I loved most from CrossFit and utilizes many of the same elements of CrossFit, except for the heavy lifting (which was my least fave part anyway!).  I love super high intensity workouts and I love that every day is different.  I literally feel like a kid walking into a candy store every night! 

 

I'm not sure if I would financially be able to swing a membership here either, plus my Nanny Family is moving next month, so the studio location will be much further out of the way, however, I'd like to see if there is some way I can continue boot camp sessions at some point on the regular. 

 

I've talked about the benefits of HIIT on here before and really do believe they enhance your performance - in terms of speed, strength and endurance - more effectively than doing solid state cardio or lifting.  I suppose I'm just going to have to continue buying up every Groupon in sight for every studio in the city of Baltimore!

 

As far as running, I've only been doing it 1-2 times a week in between these sessions (low mileage/3-5miles) and just realized last week I have a race on Sunday!  Eeeeeek....cue panic.  I'm running the Baltimore Women's Classic 5K this weekend which is always a good time (It's one of the largest female-only 5ks in the nation).  This is the race for which I coached a training group last summer.  I was going to coach again this year but just didn't have as much free time in the evenings.

 

I PR'ed my 5K time at last year's race, however I was doing speed work all summer with the training group at the track, and that obviously isn't the case this year!  So as far as time goes, I'm going to run until I feel like I'm about to die...and then just keep going until I see the finish line.  Isn't that what the 5K distance is all about?!  I'll let you know how it works out :)

 

Pinterest

I'm highly considering a pair for the race...

 

 

That's all I got for now.  Happy Thursday to you all!

Have you ever done boot camp style workouts?

Do you incorporate HIIT into your training?

Is your 5K racing strategy similar to mine, ie. RUN TIL YOU DIE?!