Category — boot camp

Flickr credit: Markusram

About five years ago I bought myself a very high pair of BCBG heels. They are beautiful to look at, but sadly their beauty ends when I put them on. Yes they still look great, but unfortunately I’m not exactly able to walk in them…

Perhaps with this Bootcamp for High Heels class I may be able to fulfill my dreams of being Sarah Jessica Parker’s new best friend? In this 6 hour crash course you’ll learn how to love your heels on and off.

If any of you have always wanted to conquer the world of high heels this class is for you and for only $125.

My muscles and throat ache. Ironically the best I felt all weekend was when I was out running 13 km this morning. Boyfriend attempted to stop me from going as I have been sick, but I stubbornly told him to mind his own beeswax. Sunday’s run is sacred. It is my church – my time to think and digest all that happened in the week, the good and the bad. 

What I always neglect to do after most runs is stretching. I tend to rely on my one yoga class per week to keep me limber, but today I felt that I needed to stretch. As I didn’t feel like popping out for a full yoga class I decided to do a workout from Booty Camp’s DVD – Seaside Serenity Stretch.

The 26 minute stretching segment on the DVD was good and definitely stretched out parts of my body. The location was beautiful and the voiceover soothing. The one thing I would say is that if you have no knowledge of yoga you should watch the segment before doing it (as many of the moves are yoga inspired), so that you understand what the moves are and how to do them. 

After wrapping up the serenity stretch I took a peek at the Booty Booster workout (15 minutes) and after watching a minute or two I decided to do that one as well. A little bit of a backwards workout – stretching followed by a glute workout. Oh well. Loved this one and mid-way though was muttering all sorts of unmentionable words at the TV. But I know my booty will thank me in about a month when I slink my way into a great pair of jeans. Definitely motivating. Only question is how often do I have to do this to have this happen!? 

PS: Thanks to Lisa @BootyCampFit for sending me a copy! Much appreciated!

For other Booty Camp  DVD reviews check out:

Embracing Balance

Life, Health and Fitness

Two months ago I started my Booty Camp Fitness journey and over the last 8 weeks I have lost some inches and gained some self-confidence. I have kept track of my journey most weeks via this blog, so if you have been reading you know that I have been enjoying being a part of the the Booty Camp family. I, unfortunately, can’t share with you my 8 week results today as I have to confess that I missed the Wednesday class – after running the Marine Corps marathon on Sunday I just felt tired and decided to take a well deserved break. The good news is that my journey won’t necessarily be stopping here as the instructor is continuing to offer some pay-as-you-go classes and then in January it begins again! Hopefully, I’ll be keeping the fitness momentum going!

Here are my top 5 highlights of Booty Camp:

1. The people - the instructor and the other women throughout the entire camp were fantastic and surprisingly normal. Basically if you sign up for a booty camp class you are going to be surrounded by people who are both encouraging, there for the right reasons (improving their fitness levels) and not clad in size zero Lululemons.

2. Non-competitive atmosphere - As I mentioned before everyone is at Booty Camp to improve their own fitness levels, so people aren’t there to showoff or to show the person next to them that they are better than them.

3. Trying something new - One of Lululemon’s mantras is “do one thing a day that scares you” and Booty Camp has definitely helped me be able to do that. Doing declined pushups are definitely out of my comfort zone and although I might not be able to do them properly yet at least I tried to do them.

4. Being outside - I truthfully like exercising outdoors and run outside year-round, so I liked the idea of the camp taking place outdoors despite the sometimes chilly weather!

5. Strength - I just feel stronger and after running a marathon on Sunday I know that the strength I gained at Booty Camp is helping my running. I’m looking forward to my next race (Austin Half Marathon!) and seeing even better results!

For those of you that are thinking about joining a booty camp in January and are hesitating – sign up now for the January ‘09 sessions. I promise you that you will love it and feel better about yourself. The one thing I would say, though, is that if you are new to fitness and working out and thinking about joining a booty camp it may not be a bad idea to take a couple of personal training sessions with a trainer, so that you learn the proper form/techniques for doing some exercises like squats and lunges. In larger groups you aren’t going to get the one on one attention that is sometimes needed at the start of learning something new. By taking a couple of training sessions you’ll learn the right techniques and be good to go!

If anyone has any questions about my experience with booty camp please feel free to comment and ask your questions!

My awesome elite drill instructor

I have now officially reached my halfway point of my 8 week Booty Camp adventure. Week four was full of new moves and of course the dreaded measurement taking.

After a few days of digesting the mid-point results I have to say I am proud of my progress. The progress not being the inches I have lost, but rather the progress I have made in my own fitness levels.

I am now actually able to do things I never thought I could do. Prior to this experience I never even attempted a full push-up I always just dropped to my knees to do the “girl push-up”. Now I can do a few full push-ups before doing the modified versions. Another recent highlight is now being able to do something that resembles a burpee rather than my “hopefully they won’t notice that I’m not really doing a burpee” move.

The best bit about this whole experience for me is Oksana, the instructor. Her encouragement and dedication is truly impressive. Love her emails as well – is so nice and refreshing to receive an email that makes you feel awesome about yourself. Thank you Oksana!

Oh and for those of you who are wondering what my four week results are I am happy to share:

-2 inches of the booty
-3/4 inches of the waist
-3/4 inches of the hips
-Chest stayed the same
-1/4 inch off the upper arms
-1/4 inch gain in the thigh which according to Oksana is muscle…

As I said in a previous entry, the next four weeks will be focused on healthier eating and cutting out the alcohol…Thanksgiving may be a tad difficult.

Week 4 measurements...next week

Well, week 3 of my recently extended Booty Camp experience is now complete. For those of you who haven’t heard I took the plunge and signed up for the next four week session; mainly because the whole experience has been so fun, but also because I have a funny feeling I’ll be seeing better results after 8 weeks!

Week three was a tough week. I did three booty camp sessions (one was a make up one), coached my for women only running clinic and ran my own half marathon on Sunday – yes, I may be nuts. The good thing is that I actually felt really strong during yesterday’s half marathon which to me means that Booty camp must be working!

There were two things that I discovered during week 3 of Booty Camp:

1. Each location is unique and challenging in its own way. What do I mean by this? As I had to make up a session I went to a different Toronto location. There were a lot more hills in this one, so the instructor was really able to kick our butts with the cardio. On the flip side there weren’t a lot of places for things like one legged squats and tricep dips.

2. The workouts get progressively more difficult, but still doable. I’m not sure what an “eccentric pushup is” but I was doing them. I also was doing a lot of squats and have a funny feeling we may be moving toward things like squat jumps.

Up next…Week 4 and mid-point measurements. Not sure how these will go as I think I may need to cut out a few poor food choices to see maximum results!