Boot Camp - Part Deux

I've been trying to figure out the best deal and the best program to keep me motivated for exercising and getting in shape this summer.  I just finished 30 days of boot camp with "The Sarge," which I really liked because it was challenging, no frills, kept a good pace, and because the sarge made it really difficult to be a slacker.  Unfortunately, my $30/30 days Living Social offer ended last week, and when I went to sign up for another 2 months, I realized that the minimum you can do is 3 months, AND it is $199/month.  No way no how could I make that work.

Soooo, I started researching temporary gym memberships and even thought about how I could visit 30 gyms in 30 days on free one day passes.  Yeah, that was a little insane.  Lucky for me, a Groupon for eight weeks of boot camp came out last week, and I bought it.  This time it is through SalFit, and I went to my first session today.  One plus side is that The Sarge's program started at 5:50 a.m., which meant I had to get up at 5 a.m. to get to AU in time, but this one starts at 6:30 a.m., which gives me a glorious 40 minutes of extra sleep!  

SalFit boot camp takes place at Meridian Hill park and presented the first occasion for me to visit that park so early in the morning.  Who knew that this place would be BUSTLING?!  I mean, I almost thought it was Sunday afternoon drum circle it was so packed.  There was at least one other boot camp taking place, people doing yoga, others walking dogs, and at least one personal training session taking place.  The mood alone helped me to feel more awake.

My first impression of this camp is that it isn't as intense as The Sarge's program.  There were 50 people instead of 15 and the instructor yells at you, but because there are so many people, it is easy to slack off in the shadow of other people and not get noticed...which I'm slightly ashamed to admit I did today.  But hey, I figured today was more or less my observation day.  I'll give it more on Thursday.

I will say that after doing this for a few weeks, it seems like boot camp in general has at least two favorite moves that they like to do in sets of 20:

1) Burpees -- seriously, even after doing Jillian Michaels videos for YEARS, I've never done so many burpees as I've done in the past 5 weeks

2) Up and down plank

It's not just that these are frequently used, the instructors seem to like to force you into muscle failure...okay, not seem to, SalFit actually has a megaphone and yells "I want to see you get to muscle failure."  Unless I made that up.  I don't think I did, though.  

Boot camp has been the perfect segue out of the master's program since I felt like I was in my own sort of intensive training as I prepared to show I had the chops for a PhD program.  I don't know if I will continue to do it in California (in fact, that is seriously doubtful since there is a group of grad students that hike once a week and do yoga once a week, and I might prefer a more chill workout once I'm out there), but this has been a good activity for me in the interim.