UPdate 11/28/20. Ahhh, the joys of training a fitness boot camp class… Hearts thumping. People sweating. And all of your boot campers giving you those “I hate you looks” as you put them through their workout. But you just smile because you know your people are getting the one thing they really want: RESULTS! But, you also want to keep your boot camp fresh so your members don’t get bored –and so that they keep seeing results. To help you, here are five fitness boot camp that you can start using in your classes your classes today.
Fitness Tip: Be sure to have your class both warm up and cool down before doing these drills. Light jogging for 5-10 minutes should do the trick, followed by light stretching.
1. Slalom Runs. Here’s a drill that helps develop both speed and agility. Simply set up a series of cones (or other markers) as far as you want your trainees to run. Then have them run through the cones slalom style (so that they have to weave back and forth).
For a fun variation, blow the whistle and call out an exercise – like burpees or push ups. Trainees should do that exercise until you blow the whistle again, at which point they continue sprinting through the slalom.
2. Pack Runs. Basically, have your boot campers line up (single file) and start jogging. When you blow a whistle or call out a signal word, the person at the back of the pack sprints to the front of the line and become the new leader.
This exercise works great if you had a medium to large size class, because the person doing the sprinting has to sprint farther. If you have a small class, no problem, just spread your members out to put more distance between them.
3. Drag Runs. This drill is good to develop speed and strength. And, you can also use it to help the team building experience.
Here’s how it works…
Create a heavy drag resistance (such as a tire on a chain) with a harness that’s easy to get on and off. Now have one person drag the tire while everyone else jogs behind. When you blow your whistle, the next person in line must quickly take control of the tire and start dragging. That means all team members get at least one turn dragging the tire.
The goal is for the team to reach a certain destination within a certain amount of time.
4. Shadow Runs. This exercise is great for developing agility. Have your trainee’s partner up. One partner is the leader and takes off jogging. The other partner “shadows” the leader as closely as possible. So if the leader zigs to the right and then hops on one foot, the second person needs to do the same thing.
Every two minutes or so, blow the whistle to signal the leaders and followers to switch positions. You can also create a signal for “double time,” where each pairing needs to double their pace for 30-60 seconds (or until you blow the whistle again).
5. Suicide Bear Crawls. You’ve heard of suicide lines (Also called ego makers). This is where your trainees run from the starting point to a line that’s 25 or so feet away, then back to the starting point, then out to a line that’s 40 feet away, then back to the starting point – and so on -until they’ve run and touched every line.
And you’ve also heard of bear crawls, where trainees walk around on all fours (hands and feet) like a bear. This drill combines these two great exercises. Instead of sprinting to the lines, your trainees will alternate sprinting and bear crawling. For example, you can have them bear crawl out to the lines, and then sprint back to the starting point.
There you have it, 5 little known kick butt bootcamp drills that’s sure to keep your members exhausted, fit –and coming back for more!
Georgette Pann is a personal trainer, successful boot camp trainer is the creator several helpful fitness products including The Home Boot Camp Workout Program and her How To Guide to Running a Successful Fitness Boot camp Business
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