Boot camps' back-to-basic tactics are tough to beat

OrlandoSentinel.com
SHAPE UP
Boot camps' back-to-basic exercises are tough to beat
Linda Shrieves (Sentinel Staff Writer)

January 15, 2008

At 6 a.m., in a dim city park lit only by a street lamp, Justin Rowan and 24 other sleep-challenged individuals unfold their exercise mats and prepare to start their day with the toughest workout they can imagine.

It's one hour of running, stretching and old-school calisthenics -- push-ups, sit-ups, squat-thrusts -- that you may remember from middle-school PE class. But there's a difference. Instead of a gym teacher, they have a personal trainer-drill sergeant barking out orders.

"If this was easy," instructor Rick Stafford yells at the students who are struggling to hold mats over their heads, their arms trembling after 100-plus push-ups, "everyone would be doing it."

At a time when health clubs are experimenting with new ways to keep members challenged -- offering classes in Latin dance, Pilates and kickboxing -- there's a movement back to the basics. Call it throwback fitness, but "boot camp" classes are more popular than ever.

The boot-camp idea started more than five years ago, but the concept has continued to pick up steam. In its 2008 forecast, the American Council on Exercise noted that outdoor boot camps are among the popular "out-of-the-box" workouts that are gaining favor with Americans."I used to belong to a gym, I've had a personal trainer, I did martial arts," says Rowan, a 32-year-old investment banker. "I always tried to find activities with trainers or with a class that will force me to go. And this has held my interest longer than most."

Boot camps have become popular for one basic reason, says Mike Tormey, who operates a boot-camp fitness program in Windermere. "It's the workout that you can do anywhere," says Tormey. "It's the exercises that we used to do as kids. We don't need expensive equipment. And we don't need to spend a lot of money."Theoretically, students could take the class and then go home and do the military-style workouts on their own. But most don't, says Tormey."They come for the motivation," says Tormey, who started doing boot camps for kids three years ago and soon found the moms clamoring for them. "And people love the group setting. They come in and shoot the breeze, and they sweat together."

Cost of boot-camp classes averages $10 to $15 an hour, although some gyms, such as the YMCA, offer the class as part of the membership price. Compared with gym memberships, that may be steep, but it's cheap compared with having a personal trainer for $40 to $60 an hour.

"My students equate this to having a personal trainer," says Stafford. "Even though it is a group class, everyone gets time with an instructor. When they do the cost comparison to a personal trainer, we're extremely cheap."Stafford, a former Defense Department employee who once trained with U.S. Navy SEALS, opened Elite Fitness Concepts five years ago. Today, he offers boot-camp classes in five outdoor parks in Central Florida.In his boot-camp classes, there are no weights, no machines and no mirrors. Stafford's customers -- most of them in their 30s and 40s -- prefer the low-tech touch."They really got tired of gyms," says Stafford. "They don't want to work out in front of big mirrors. They know they're not in shape, and they don't want to be insulted. And they don't feel that they have to impress somebody around them by having a matching outfit. At 5 o'clock in the morning, no one cares what you look like when you're sweating."

"What I missed was good, old-fashioned exercise," says Cindy Murray, 46, who signed up for Stafford's first class five years ago, when he had two students meeting at a park in College Park. "And the outdoor location also appealed to me. We live in Florida, and I wanted to enjoy Florida's weather, not be stuck in a gym."

Stafford also forces the class to bond quickly -- by holding students accountable. Don't show up for class, your classmates will pay -- with extra sit-ups, push-ups or lunges.And that's a powerful incentive to crawl out of bed -- even for a 5 a.m. class, says Stephanie Quinones, 33."If one of us doesn't show up, the rest of your team suffers," says Quinones. "At the gym, if you don't show up, you don't show up. No one cares."In some boot-camp classes, yelling is part of the appeal.

At the Winter Park YMCA, members of Amy Mecca's boot-camp class -- who call themselves "Amy's Army" -- like it when the petite, muscle-bound Mecca yells at them."There's not too many people who can scream at you and you don't mind," says class regular Camilla Worrell, 35. "But Amy's different."The class works out inside the YMCA gym on most days, where Mecca has students run laps, or sprints across the gym, peppered with a wide array of calisthenics and exercises with hand weights. Although she sets up obstacle courses inside, she gets more creative when they go outside to work out in a park during cool weather.Class members -- most of them stay-at-home moms -- run laps around a basketball court, do push-ups on playground equipment, or jump a ditch. "If I had big tires or cement blocks, I'd use those. I'd make them flip tires," says Mecca. "Or I'd make them climb trees, if I could."The moms, though they struggle through some exercises, seem to love it."It's hard, but it's doable," says Dodi Huang-Hellinger, 49, of Winter Park. "And Amy will tell you if your technique is wrong. That's what's really invaluable."

Linda Shrieves can be reached at lshrieves@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5433.
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