No fitness professionals pretend to offer the demanding routine of the armed forces’ actual physical training, but many are emulating a few of the military’s tactics in America’s war on obesity.
The product of this amalgamation of gleaned wisdom has been gaining more and more popularity under the banner of boot camp-style training.
“Everything we do is slightly different,” said Rod Clayton, owner and personal trainer for Basic Training Fitness, which offers classes through the Triangle SportsPlex in Hillsborough. “It’s almost always body-weight exercise, where one’s own body weight is the resistance. Much of it is really play: we’re moving the body, we’re running, we’re climbing, and we’re jumping. We also do some plyometrics, which uses explosive body weight exercises.”
“It’s simply exercises that are based on those used by Navy Seals,” said Kelly Sikes, Triangle SportsPlex’s executive director of sales and fitness development. “It’s a great idea, and I guess it’s a little like the P90X workouts … on steroids.”
Confound The Enemy
Like the P90X system, military physical training tends to confuse different muscle groups through widely varied exercises, introducing new moves and routines so as to keep the muscles guessing, thus shocking the body off of its comfortable plateaus.
What’s new to fitness center menus is old news on military training sites, however.
“I ran across an old book about Navy PT Training and started doing it, and I had a great time,” Clayton said. “I got a couple more friends doing it, and it was recommended that I start a class … about 10 years ago. The first class, we maxed out.”
The workouts are based on exercises from BUDS — Basic Underwater Demolition Seal –the Navy version of boot camp for specialists, Clayton said. He also incorporates from other Special Forces operators, like parachute jumpers, who’ve given us ideas on water exercises we can do.
“We’re always looking for new ways to challenge people. I’ve been in fitness for more than 20 years, and this is probably the most effective workout I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Clayton strongly emphasized the difference between military-style workouts and actual military training, renown for its rigorous methods of focusing the mind and reshaping the body.
“This is nothing at all like that. This is purely about fitness,” Clayton asserted. “We try to concentrate on the positives without any harassment or negative things.
“We do get some people who come in and expect a military-style program, and it’s not that. We even get some folks who tell us, ‘Hey, you need to yell more.’ I suspect many of our people would leave if we did.”
Clayton re-emphasized that the image of the derisive drill instructor does not translate into fitness center settings.
“No, because, after all, they are paying us,” he said, chuckling. “This is a workout, not a true boot camp.”
Too Early
Jordan Albertson, of UNC’s Ram’s Head Recreation Center, said the notion of a pre-dawn run with 40-pound packs isn’t on the agenda through UNC Recreation’s boot camp fitness workouts, either.
“With our program, it’s not the time of day,” Albertson said. “We did offer a boot camp style workout at 6 or 7 a.m., and it was really poorly attended.”
“It’s more about the style of the workout,” he added. “I’m sure that someone who had been in the armed forces would say that this training is not much like their training. … It’s just a lot of back-to-back exercises without much rest.”
“Hey, we’re not here to kill you or make you sick,” Sikes said. “We’re here to make you better and to push you to where you don’t think you can go.”
With the derisive element excised from exercise, “boot camp” style fitness has become wildly popular over the past decade.
“It actually still seems to be gaining popularity,” Albertson said. “The program filled quickly the first time I taught it, and this semester it filled up super quick.”
One of the major reasons for the popularity of the basic training-style workouts is their efficiency.
“In four weeks, people will drop 5 to 6 percent body fat, lose up to 10 pounds, and reduce their mile time sometimes by two minutes, according to www.WebMD.com.
Human Nature
Another reason for the popularity with fitness centers and instructors is the low overhead involved. Whereas some fitness regimens use weights, equipment or large amounts of space, boot camp workouts use participants’ own body weight as resistance and competition with fellow participants as motivation.
“It’s human nature to challenge yourself against other humans,” Florida fitness coach Tom Rayhill told WebMD. “Not everybody is athletically inclined, but by hanging out with those more driven people, you’re naturally going to want to do better.”
Still, without a challenge, the system falls flat, results fall short, and popularity falls off. As such, workouts must be sufficiently rigorous.
“Typically, the people coming in are already in pretty good shape, and that’s how we market it,” Albertson said. “We tell people it’s going to involve tough workouts. It’s a fairly advanced class. It works out the entire body. There are a lot of body-weight power exercises involved, and that drains the system a lot.”
“It’s a hardcore course,” Clayton said. “We bill it as being for people of medium to advanced fitness. It’s not for the faint of heart, and we see everyone from cancer survivors who are battling back to athletes who’ve been to the Olympic trials.”
An elevated challenge makes for an elevated sense of accomplishment and self-esteem.
“I think the challenge itself is the reason for the popularity,” Clayton said. “We started our class before the real boot camp craze, and what we’ve heard from the start is that participants found themselves doing things they didn’t think they could do.”
“We get a lot of triathletes doing all-season training,” Clayton added, “and it’s the perfect complement. We also get a lot of former athletes who’ve been sitting at a desk for too long and need a program to get them motivated again.”
Tours Of Duty
Trainers see participants translating that sense of accomplishment into other areas. Rayhill said the classes also offer a way to reconnect with others from within lifestyles that are increasingly separated.
“Most of what we do all day is very isolating,” Rayhill said. “We’ve got iPods, cell phones, and computers. We’re not connecting with other people. No computer can make you feel better. No, not like the connection to other people.”
For those interested, basic training style classes are offered locally through fitness facilities including UNC Recreation and the Wellness Center at Meadowmont, as well a three-month tour of duty running from November through the Holiday season into January at the Triangle SportsPlex in Hillsborough.
“It’s in keeping with the idea of ‘maintain, don’t gain, ‘ through the holidays,” Sikes said. “People can get off schedule during that time of year, so we offer a choice of just one month (December) or for all three months.”
The SportsPlex classes will be offered twice weekly during the mornings and twice more during evenings, with an 8 a.m. Saturday session as well. The program, administered by Clayton’s Basic Training Fitness ( www.basictraining.biz) begins Nov. 2 and runs for 12 weeks. The cost for SportsPlex members is $60 per month or $160 if paid in full in advance. Non-member rates are $75 a month, or $200 if paid in full in advance.
“Our motto is, ‘don’t limit your challenges; challenge your limits, ‘” Clayton said. “That’s really what it’s all about. The challenge is not just physically, but to mentally go past where you thought your limits were.”
However shocking the tactics may be, most fitness experts are agreeing that the results have been nothing short of awesome.
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