Your
Perfect Fitness Boot Camp
by Ty Ferrell
Fitness
boot camps have become a very popular way of attacking some general
physical goals. Not all boot camps are the same and not all are even
worth partaking in. I have been a spectator to many boot camps and
participated in a few including US Army basic training.
After
reviewing results from many styles of fitness boot camps, I have determined
there are only a few outcomes that could possibly happen when done
successfully. Also, there are common characteristics in decent boot
camps that make them successful. What I plan to do is outline what
makes a fitness boot camp successful AND I will show you how to customize
the information so you can make your own perfect boot camp.
First,
I would like to establish what the purpose of a fitness boot camp
is. Behind all the marketing, there are few simple defining truths.
I have seen boot camps that are supposed to develop abdominal muscles,
increase muscle, burn fat, increase strength, or all the above. Boot
camps by nature have a few characteristics:
• Increase endurance strength
• Increase caloric expenditure
• Increase metabolism
• Increase lactic acid buildup
You may
ask why I did not mention fat loss. Well, I did mention more calories
being expended. Calories are what you eat, fat, and muscle. This brings
me to my next point. The perfect boot camp would have those attributes
previously mentioned as well as:
• Maintain maximal strength levels
• Boost fat oxidation over other calorie expenditures
• Increase full body motor skills, which will allow more muscle
to be recruited and used – leading to even more fat burning.
• Enforce joint and movement health. Nothing worse then watching
sloppy boot camps with people “half-assing” the most useless
exercises.
• Allows for progression. Any chimp can throw together
exercises just to make a person move more. A trainer and smart fitness
enthusiasts will enforce training progression.
There
are many great trainers out there that have built exceptional fitness
boot camps that uphold and possibly exceed all these standards. I
don’t like to boast and brag BUT I consider myself a master
of perfecting fitness boot camps. Later on I will fill you in on how
to build your own perfect bootcamp. Right now, let me explain what
elements should not be thrown into a boot camp. Since boot camps are
really for those looking to lose fat and increase endurance strength.
Guys and gals looking to gain mass, jump higher, or gain maximal strength
shouldn’t go with boot camps. So, these elements will not be
involved in a boot camp:
•
New and complicated exercises that have a higher learning curves.
Bootcamps are fast moving and a person learning a complex movement
is prone to injury and gaining bad habits from trying something too
hard. Keep it simple, work with exercises that you know and can really
give full effort without form turning to crap.
• Plyometric training. In my opinion, plyometric training is
one of the most abused forms of training out there. Plyometrics by
nature need to be high in quality each rep. Many half-wit trainers
do not know the difference between simple aerobic and other higher
volume forms of energy system training and plyometric training. Jumping
on and off a box until your ready to fall over with fatigue is not
the brightest idea. Plyometrics (such as depth and box jumps) need
greater rest breaks and more attention focused on your position and
reaction skill. Leave plyos out of the boot camp cocktail.
I can actually make a pretty big list of things to watch for, but
those are the two things I see screwed up the most with boot camps.
Now, you
really need to know your present abilities before attacking training
sessions boot camp style. If you have bone, muscle or other connective
tissue injuries or impairments you should take care of those problems
before getting into bootcamp training. If you do not know how to hold
your body in correct posture while training you should read
Conquering Enemies of the Spine.
Also be smart and be aware of the difference between pain and potential
injury pain. One last note, an elite collegiate athlete without a
care in the world can get away with higher levels of training than
an overworked mother of three children. Now you have been read your
rights. On with the training:
Your perfect
bootcamp:
You are going to hit all the basic areas needed to make this boot
camp superior to your average fitness camp ran by an ass clown. Check
out the table below to see the basic premise for assembling an awesome
fitness boot camp:
First and foremost lets assess your needs with these basic assessment
test. There are many more assessment test that I would use to collect
data on a client, but since this an article and not an encyclopedia,
I will outline some easy to use and valuable assessing test.
Test1:
Touch your hands behind your back. Give it a few tries on each side.
If you can not touch fingers behind your back you will eliminate all
pushing movements except for the pushup.
Test2:
Get into a wide stance squatting position with feet facing forward
(toes pointing slightly outwards if you like). Squat down and touch
the floor. At the same time keep your head up, chest forward, keep
heels on floor and allow your hips to drop below your knees. If you
can not do this do not add jumping movements.
Test3:
Tall kneeling overhead hip hinge. I’m yanking this test from
Stuart McGill and Grey Cook. You need to kneel on the floor with both
knees facing straight ahead and top of your feet facing the floor.
Extend your arms above your head, bisect your ears and reach as high
as possible while bringing your hips forward in line with your abs.
This will allow the spine to remain nice and long. Also you should
feel an “abdominal bracing” as your core muscles begin
to stabilize your body. Now, you need to tilt your hips back towards
your feet and kneel down keeping your upper body as tall as possible.
As your hips drop towards your feet allow your upper body to naturally
tilt from the hip area. This should cause a 45 degree angle. Now return
to starting position. If your arms fall forward as you lowered yourself.
You need more pulling motions in the boot camp and ease up on the
pushing motions besides pushups. If your lower back rounded during
the lowering portion, you need to work on all around core strength.
If you swayed a lot to the right or the left, you need to build your
lower posterior muscles more. Do more leg exercises involving pulling
(i.e. deadlift). If your hips could not come forward inline with your
abs, you need to work on building lower posterior muscles and stretching
the hip flexor muscles.
That’s
it for the quick testing to make sure you have minimal flexibility
to do this boot camp without regressing the exercises. Also, use those
test as part of your warmup. We will not be covering warm-ups in this
article either. I know, I’m being a fitness-nazis, but I have
to keep this article from becoming a textbook.
Creating
the Regiment:
A regiment
is not any good if it doesn’t allow for progression. The boot
camp must have progression. This boot camp needs to be done 3-4x a
week. I highly recommend doing it every other day.
Boot
Camp:
The first exercise is 3minutes of one of the following exercises:
-Jump rope
-Mountclimbers
-Jumping Jacks with torso twist
* You may take 5-10 second breaks if necessary to keep from messing
up good form. However always show progression. So, if you needed two
mini rest breaks the next session will only have one or no mini rest
breaks.
Next you
will rest for 2min
Now choose one of the following exercises:
Pushups with Plank Rotations
Pushup with Hand Walk out
Alt. Staggered Hand Pushup
You will do the exercise until your muscles begin to fatigue from
lactic acid buildup. Record that number and rest one minute.
Next choose
one of the following exercises:
DB Deadlift
DB Straight Leg deadlift
DB Front Squats to box
Once again you will do your choice of exercise until you hit the point
of fatigue by lactic acid buildup and no sooner. Rest one minute.
Choose:
DB Tall Kneeling Shoulder Press
Dips
Chinups
To the burn and rest 1minute
Choose:
DB Swing Curls
Side Plank Holds
Hanging Knee Raises
Burn it up rest 1minute
Choose:
BB Back Lunges
DB Press to Front Lunge (slow jerk)
Jumping Squats
Choose:
1 DB Arm Prone Bench Row Heavy
This time
choose a weight to that is close to your max weight (1rm). Lay on
a bench with the dumbbell near chest. Simply pull the weight, keeping
your abs in contact with the bench. Do this 5x each side.
Now rest 2min and run back through it. This time choose different
exercises in each category. Rest another two minutes and choose the
remainder of exercises or repeat the first round of exercises.
This is
the breakdown for the weekly schedule:
Week2- change order of exercises -shorten 2min rest breaks to 90sec
and beat your last repetitions
Week3- shorten 90sec rest breaks to 60sec and 60sec to 45sec and beat
your last repetitions
Week4 change order of exercises -shorten 90sec to 60sec and 45 to
4 deep breaths beat your last reps.
That is it. You have successfully progressed yourself. Your perfect
bootcamp. Keep the basic guide in mind and by all means be creative
and put your own arsenal together. Share your boot camp ideas with
us in the
forum. Now put your war face on soldier
and get ready to be smoked.
