I finally took the plunge and signed up for an 8 week Pilates boot camp at Core Studio. Parting with $200 last night was a bit sad, but when you break it down $25 per 70 minute class is pretty reasonable for a reformer based Pilates class. The class size is also really small (5 people), so that means extra attention to me and my abs! Trust me they do need some attention… even after an 8 week boot camp.

The two main reasons that I’m doing this:

• I really do love Core Studio and whenever I go to another studio I always leave wishing I was at Core.
• I need a new challenge

The two superficial reasons why I signed up:

• I cannot be allowed to go home directly after work. Why? If I go home after work I end up snacking like crazy and this is not a good thing.
• My mother’s latest comment to me – when she saw me in DC during September this is what she said:

  “Your legs look really muscular from all that running. Too muscular. Once you stop all that marathon running (she isn’t a fan) you can focus on other things like Pilates.”

  Some of you may think “how cruel”, but sadly she is right. I need to do some lengthening and toning exercises that don’t focus on bulking up my muscles. Hopefully this will do the trick. For the record, though, I’m not giving up on running!

Highlight of my first class: the Jumpboard. Super fun and made me feel like a kid again.

If you haven’t been to Core go now. You won’t be disappointed.

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!