I’ve had several people share ask about bootcamps both in and out of town and whether I thought they were good or not.  So here you go.  This is to help you choose wisely…

It’s beach season and time to get back in that bathing suit – another time of year when FITNESS GETS HOT (at least for a couple weeks months). People are looking for quick solutions to lose weight and firm up and are looking for help on how to do it through books, magazines, gyms, miracles in a bottle, personal training, etc. One area that’s gotten popular is group training also known as “bootcamps.” Fitness Bootcamps are a growing trend in the fitness industry today and for good reason. They typically are MUCH MORE affordable than personal training. They also offer more camaraderie and social support and are much more exciting while still providing expert supervision and guidance.

Unfortunately, bootcamps do have their downside. Many fitness instructors want to jump on the bootcamp bandwagon without having any of the skills or experience to design custom workouts for the wide variety of fitness levels typical in large group training. This can be flat out dangerous (not to mention a waste of your time and money) so I thought I’d offer you 10 tips on how to properly select a bootcamp that will be a good investment, get you results and keep you safe at the same time.

The Top 10 Bootcamp Safety Checklist

1.) The Instructor(s) Must Be Certified With Nationally Recognized Institutions such as the American Council on Exercise or the National Academy of Sports Medicine. There are many online pay-for-certifications where people can get a certificate with little or no knowledge of proper training methods. And many of them have book knowledge but no hands-on/practical experience. This is a big part of what gets people hurt and gives fitness a bad name!

2.) The Instructor(s) Must Look The Part And Walk The Walk. If the trainer takes physical fitness seriously and is on the cutting edge of new training methodologies, they will be fit themselves, plain and simple. After all, who wants to take advice from someone who is in worse shape than they are! I’m always perplexed at why a client would choose an out of shape trainer but regardless this is seriously an embarrassment to the industry, not to mention the trainers themselves.

3.) The Instructor(s) Must Be Experts With Exercise Progressions. Every exercise has the appropriate regression and progression based on your current fitness level. Overweight, de-conditioned beginners SHOULD NOT perform the exact same exercises as their more fit counterparts. If you ask your trainer if he/she can show an exercise modification that better suits your particular situation and they have no idea and give you a blank stare, you should leave and leave quickly!

4.) The Instructor(s) Must Make Themselves Available for 10-15 Minutes Before and After Every Session. Although a good trainer can effectively train the group as a whole and still give that personal touch, he/she must be willing to speak with clients before AND after every workout to answer questions and address any personal issues that might arise within the scope of your training or in related to other very important topics like nutrition.

5.) The Program Must Emphasize Body Weight Before External Resistance. There should be no added weight to any movements until you have mastered the key foundational body weight exercises in full ranges of motion like push-ups, squats, lunges, etc. A red flag should be raised if you are being instructed to add weight to a movement that you have yet to master with your body weight alone. This one’s important because it’s not a matter of if you will get hurt… it’s a matter of when! Too many trainers are more concerned about putting on a show and “hurting people with exercises that are too advanced” than taking the time to teach proper technique. Foundational movements must be mastered and safety should always be a top priorty.

If you’re looking for a bootcamp (or personal training) in the Charlotte, NC area, I’m confident that I meet these criteria and would love to have you join us! Our next phase begins next week. More info here.

Check back for part 2 of this post soon…”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p3u7a0-wxE[/youtube]

**The next phase starts on Monday, February 1st.  Now is your chance to lock in at our lowest rates to date before they go up!!

Unfortunately, bootcamps do have their downside. Many fitness instructors want to jump on the bootcamp bandwagon without having any of the skills or experience to design custom workouts for the wide variety of fitness levels typical in large group training. This can be flat out dangerous (not to mention a waste of your time and money) so I thought I’d offer you 10 tips on how to properly select a bootcamp that will be a good investment, get you results and keep you safe at the same time.

Outdoor Bootcamp

The Top 10 Bootcamp Safety Checklist

1.) The Instructor(s) Must Be Certified With Nationally Recognized Institutions such as the American Council on Exercise or the National Academy of Sports Medicine. There are many online pay-for-certifications where people can get a certificate with little or no knowledge of proper training methods.  And many of them have book knowledge but no hands-on/practical experience.  This is a big part of what gets people hurt and gives fitness a bad name!

2.) The Instructor(s) Must Look The Part And Walk The Walk. If the trainer takes physical fitness seriously and is on the cutting edge of new training methodologies, they will be fit themselves, plain and simple. After all, who wants to take advice from someone who is in worse shape than they are!  I’m always perplexed at why a client would choose an out of shape trainer but regardless this is seriously an embarrassment to the industry, not to mention the trainers themselves.

3.) The Instructor(s) Must Be Experts With Exercise Progressions. Every exercise has the appropriate regression and progression based on your current fitness level. Overweight, de-conditioned beginners SHOULD NOT perform the exact same exercises as their more fit counterparts. If you ask your trainer if he/she can show an exercise modification that better suits your particular situation and they have no idea and give you a blank stare, you should leave and leave quickly!

4.) The Instructor(s) Must Make Themselves Available for 10-15 Minutes Before and After Every Session. Although a good trainer can effectively train the group as a whole and still give that personal touch, he/she must be willing to speak with clients before AND after every workout to answer questions and address any personal issues that might arise within the scope of your training or in related to other very important topics like nutrition.

5.) The Program Must Emphasize Body Weight Before External Resistance. There should be no added weight to any movements until you have mastered the key foundational body weight exercises in full ranges of motion like push-ups, squats, lunges, etc. A red flag should be raised if you are being instructed to add weight to a movement that you have yet to master with your body weight alone. This one’s important because it’s not a matter of if you will get hurt… it’s a matter of when!  Too many trainers are more concerned about putting on a show and “hurting people with exercises that are too advanced” than taking the time to teach proper technique.  Foundational movements must be mastered and safety should always be a top priorty.

If you’re looking for a bootcamp (or personal training) in the Charlotte, NC area, I’m confident that I meet these criteria and would love to have you join us!  Our next phase begins next week.  More info here.

Check back for part 2 of this post soon…

Christmas is over and the New Year is just around the corner. The parties and holiday “splurging” you were going to enjoy is now coming to an end. So now what? You told yourself you were going to start that new diet/exercise routine after the holidays, and yet you haven’t made a plan for yourself to start. Watch out for these traps that will have you in a pit, discouraged and getting no where…and maybe even packing on the pounds instead of shedding the excess ones you already have.

• The “I’ll start tomorrow” trap-You know you’ve said it. We all have. For some reason, we can excuse our way out of making change TODAY, while still setting us up for failure TOMORROW. Guess what? There is always going to be a tomorrow. So, if your mentality is “I’m going to eat this/enjoy that and start my diet/exercise tomorrow,” then when tomorrow actually comes, we can just tell ourselves that we will start the next day. There is always another party. Someone else’s birthday is next month. More cake and more vacations. More reasons (in your head) why you shouldn’t be disciplined than reasons why you should buckle down and really go after your goals. This is a dangerous trap as it can have you putting on excess weight in the meantime, while you are prolonging your start to a healthy life, making it that much harder for you to lose the weight you want. The reality is, when you want it bad enough and get yourself motivated, tomorrow becomes today, and there are no more excuses!

• The “I had a great workout today so I can eat whatever I want” trap. The answer to this one is NO! Don’t do it! This is a common misconception that can have you gaining weight even when you are hitting the gym regularly. If you are trying to lose body fat, you definitely don’t want to have this mentality. You cannot out-train a poor diet. Don’t undo all the hard work you put in during your workout by packing a bunch of greasy, high calorie, fatty foods into yourself. Let your workout be a supplement to a great, carefully planned, well-rounded diet.

• The “I can’t do this” trap. This is the most dangerous one of all. So maybe you’ve had a few failures or been uncommitted in the past and haven’t succeeded in reaching your fitness goals. You cannot start telling yourself that you can’t do it, or the reality is, you never will. You CAN do it, you just need the motivation and the right tools to get you there. It might require more effort or hard work than you’ve ever put forth before, but you definitely can reach your goals if they are realistic and important enough to you. Don’t talk yourself out of it.

Let us help you get there! January Bootcamp is right around the corner, and is a great way to start the New Year! No more excuses, let us keep you from falling into these traps and help you get a jump start toward reaching your goals. Click here for more information and here for our new membership program and rates! See you there!

Really? Is exercise really THAT boring that you would risk being unhealthy/and or overweight for the rest of your life? And exercise doesn’t have to take that much time. If I remember correctly, there are still 24 hours in a day, and a lot of people spend a good 1-3 hours of that in front of a television. What if you dedicated a small portion of that time to exercise instead? There are many great workouts that take 45 mins, or even 30 mins or less that will keep you engaged and not have you gazing at the clock waiting for your cardio time on the elliptical to pass. You can burn fat in a short amount of time if you are serious about it and maximize the time you dedicate to your health and fitness.

Need a new workout, passion for exercise or some accountability to help motivate you? Body By Buck Bootcamp can help you with those things! It is anything but boring, and we will have you burning fat with just 45 minutes a session. AND you are working out with other great people, which helps keep you motivated! We will also show you how to get great workouts in at home so that you can still make progress on the days you don’t come to Bootcamp. Stop making excuses about how much time it takes to be healthy or how boring it is. Let us show you how getting fit/staying fit is fun and and time efficient! January is right around the corner, let us help you jump start your new healthy lifestyle in 2010! Remember, invest in your health NOW or pay LATER!

• More Fitness Equipment
• Filtered Water fountain
• Private Changing area
• Indoor sound system
  (bring your favorite workout cd)
• Weather Proof/Climate Controlled
• Bathroom (no showers – you’re welcome to take a towel bath)

Now this is no globo gym with a lot of fancy equipment that yields little results.  So if you’re looking for that stuff, you’ll need to look elsewhere.  Here you’ll find just the functional, useful stuff and the opportunity to reach your potential and push yourself to new limits.  Are you ready?  I’m excited and hope you are as well.  December 1st is coming quickly…Don’t miss out…Get more info and Register here.

Some of you have been asking so I’ve included a few pics for you from my cell phone.  Enjoy…

I’ve been looking at different locations for awhile and yesterday I officially secured an indoor training facility for our early morning bootcamp.  It’s going to be awesome!  Just wanted to quickly let you know once it was official. More details to come.

And December bootcamp is just around the corner at a price you can’t beat.  Reserve your spot before it’s too late…

November Bootcamp starts on Monday, November 9th and will be for 2 weeks total.  Reserve your spot and get details here!

How about 2,000?  Not really.  There’s really no way to answer this question correctly and not knowing your current bodyfat level, measurements, eating habits, medical history and exercise program, I can’t even begin to make a fair assessment but I’ll share a few quick thoughts.

There are many factors that can contribute to getting 6 pack abs. “Doing situps/crunches” is not an important one (I’ll explain).  Honestly you don’t necessarily have to do any situps or crunches to get 6 pack abs.  Here are 6 things you do have to do:

• First your nutrition has to be on point.  You need a well balanced diet (high protein, healthy fats, and natural carbs) that stokes your metabolism and provides your essential vitamins and nutrients. That means no starving yourself here.

• You have to create a caloric deficit (burn more calories than you consume) to help get rid of your bodyfat through an exercise program.
• You need to have an intense weight training and cardio program several days per week that includes interval training.
• You have to do compound movements that offer a lot of “Bang For Your Buck.”  You actually can’t spot reduce in your body – this means you can’t make your body burn fat from a particular area by exercising that area (yes advertisements can be very deceiving here).  That’s why hundreds/thousands of situps won’t necessarily burn fat from your “belly.”
• You need adequate rest through sleep and time off from training.  Your body can’t recover properly without rest (I promise  I know this first hand).
• You have to be committed long-term and ready to change your lifestyle.  This is a process.  Not a quick fix. You didn’t get a “belly” overnight so you can’t get a “six-pack” overnight.  Anyone who promises differently is NOT telling the truth.

Still feel lost?  You can hire a personal trainer or an even better solution is bootcamp where we’ll help you with all of these (for less than the price of 2 sessions with a trainer).  There’s still room.  Register Now!

• Bodyfat Testing & Measurements (not mandatory but recommended)
• New fat blasting workouts
• Nutrition Plan telling you exactly what to eat
• New Bonus Site which includes bonus fitness information for active Bootcampers only
• Bonus Workout/Cardio Plan for “off” days
• Body By Buck Bootcamp T-shirts for successfully completing bootcamp
• Special Offer: New clients receive 1 Week FREE!

More details here and here.  Don’t miss out.  Time to start changing your life today…

Sign up today to reserve your spot!