I will miss boot camp

Boot camp technically ended on Monday but I made up two days that I had missed, making this morning my last class. We took body measurements of our neck, chest, waist, thighs, etc. but after a month I didn't have any shape difference. I'm not surprised. I was working out before I even started the session. However, I did notice improvements in the exercises we did for our fit test. For example, on the first day, I could only do 16 burpess and by the end I could do 20 in a minute. I went from holding the plank position for 92 seconds to 107 seconds. I also improved my full sit-ups in one minute by about 25 percent. It's incredibly rewarding to have that tangible evidence of progress.

Boot camp was a very different sort of fitness from what I am used to. It was short circuits, explosive movements, a lot of variety. It's not like doing the same machines at the gym repetitively or plodding along on the treadmill for 30 minutes or even yoga with the exact same exercises every single class. Boot camp was new and challenging in a way that my body responded to really well. I loved how so many exercises tested my core area without it seeming like mindless, dull sit-ups. My abs have never looked better.

Here's an example of what we did today. There were four stations. We did two exercises for 30-45 seconds at each one and then rotated the circuit twice. At the first one, we alternated holding a weight and mimicked the wood-chipping form. At the next station we laid on the floor and raised our legs to make circles one way around a raised bar and then the opposite direction. At another station, we balanced in a bridge position with our neck and shoulders on the ball and then raised and lowered heavy weights over our head and back to our knees. Then we held that position and did tricep extensions. At the next station we kneeled on a bosu ball for decline pus-ups and then hopped with rotating feet to stomp against the ball. That was one circuit group.

Then we were given new exercises and had to repeat each station twice with two movements at each one. tT made the time fly by. It was a perfect combination of cardio and explosiveness with weights and muscle burning. We also did jumping jacks and ran around the building space for more direct cardio. That's just an example of one day and we never had two days that were the same. We'll see how many benefits and tips I can take from this class and carry them over to my gym routine.