May 28, 2011

Working Out & Shit


I just finished a 4 week boot camp via Nashville Adventure Boot Camp. The picture above is from the last night of class. I'm the sole black t-shirt (of course I am).

My friend Claudia has done this boot camp before. When she won a free month for herself & a friend, she generously gave her friend pass to me. So for the entire month of May, Claudia & I trekked out to Lipscomb University & worked out for an hour, outside (cicadas be damned), 3 nights a week.

I was a tad hesitant to do this because of my knee injury, but shockingly my knee didn't give me any trouble. Josh was great & kept an eye on me & altered some of the more knee-central exercises. While my knee didn't give me any trouble, my calves did.

I had some pretty serious calf cramps for the entire 4 weeks that I did this class. In fact, they got so bad that I had to have my physical therapist check me out to make sure I didn't tear anything (I didn't). Because of this, I couldn't do my normal, weekly runs. I kept trying to, but my calves would lock up about a mile in & I'd have to hobble back to my car. Not fun.

Because I want to end on a positive note, I'm going to list my cons first:

Cons:

Cost
Duration
Equipment
Slow start
Too much emphasis on lower body, not enough on upper body

Personally, I can't afford to spend $200 a month on fitness, but if you can, mozel tov. On that point, this class is only 4 weeks long. I wish it were a little longer. You have to bring your own hand weights, which I find annoying. I don't mind bringing my own mat, towel, water, etc., but it would be nice for all of the equipment to be provided. The first few classes were purposefully easier in order to ease us into it. While I appreciate the sentiment, in a 4 week class, I want to hit the ground running. As someone who has spent years attending body sculpt classes at the Y, I am accustomed to full body work-outs. This class almost exclusively focuses on lower body (& abs). As a runner, my legs are good. What's not good are the wings hanging off of my arms & the chicken cutlets that hang over when I wear anything strapless.

Pros:

Josh
Class participants
Fun
Location/parking/facilities
Accountability
Different exercises - never boring
Challenging cardio
Encouraging, positive environment

Josh is great. He is the perfect combination of friend & trainer. I really appreciate how much he watched out for me & my knee injury. He was also quick to jump in & push me if I got partnered with someone below my fitness level. He realized what my strengths were & continuously challenged me to push further. Aside from one horrible girl who tried to kill me during a friendly game of 3-on-3 basketball, I loved all of the girls & had a lot of fun working out with them. Even at its hardest, I still had fun & looked forward to the next class.

The location of the class (Lipscomb University) is convenient for me & there is ample, easy parking. I'm always a better attendee when someone is expecting me to be there & doing this with Claudia kept me accountable, especially since the work-outs are so partner-driven. Although we met 3 times a week, each class was different & you rarely did the same exercise twice, which I appreciated. I really enjoyed the cardio portions of this class. I LOVE a challenge. The harder the better, so when you task me with running at full speed with someone running behind me, pulling me with a rubber band around my waist, I will try my damnedest to pull them off their feet (which I almost did multiple times, so much so that by the last week of class, Josh himself was the only person he'd let run behind me). On this point, Josh is very encouraging, as is the whole atmosphere of the class. It is a very positive environment.

Overall, I really enjoyed participating in this boot camp & if it weren't for what it did to my calves, I would probably do it again. But I am a runner & not being able to run for 4 weeks just doesn't work for me. I have yet to complete my final evaluation, but I can tell I lost weight. I recently tried on some summer dresses & I'm a full size smaller, so there's that. Also, you could cut glass on the definition in my quads right now.

I definitely recommend this boot camp. Although it may be more for those of you who have never done anything like this before. It's a good intro into the boot camp world. If you've done super hard boot camps before (Ali) & are already in good shape, this may not be the backbreaking work-out that you're used to. However, that being said, if you can afford it & need something to do 3-4 times a week, you will get a good work-out & you will see results.

I can't imagine what stone I left unturned in this super long post, but if you have any questions, please feel free to email me or leave your question in the comments section.

More info on Nashville Adventure Boot Camp here. More info on Josh Allen here. Also, like them on Facebook here.

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