Shipped off to Boot Camp!

Okay, full disclosure:  I went Rob's Big Losers Boot Camp, not an actual military establishment.  Today marked the end of Week 5 of our 12 week Challenge with Rob Dempsey's "Big Losers", and this week's agenda was to attend the boot camp.  So the pack of us all assembled at the East Side YMCA in Taylor's SC and went through the paces.  A good majority of the "Losers" showed up for the workout, although a few had to miss it for family reasons.

Gonna make you Sweat!

We started out with a warm up that consisted of walking and running some laps.  I haven't spent a lot of time running since I had the issues with my feet a few weeks ago (and that was the beginning of Week 2!), so it was a good test of how I'd do.  I was happy that I was able to "bring it" through the warm up, and get plenty of time at an accelerated pace.  I need to schedule with myself some time to actually run a few miles to see how my feet will handle the 5k in 7 weeks.

After the warm up, we did a cross training routine that included 8 stations.  We were set into groups, and went through the routines.  We started on push ups, and continued through a kickboxing station, rowing, jump rope, stepping, more kickboxing, squats and jumping jacks.  Every 40 seconds (times varied, but not as much as the 1 song challenges during Friend Raiser!) we changed stations.  I think the only stations that didn't challenge me during the sequence were the step station and the kick boxing, although I definitely felt a workout during those. I wish I had brought my lumbar belt for my water bottle, so I could get more hydration as we went along, though.

After we finished several rotations (I'm not sure if we started or complete 4 full sets), we had a cool down period for a few minutes while we moved into the group workout room, which was set up with floor mats.  Here we went through an abs routine (youch it was a good workout!) as well as a Yoga class.  Yoga is definitely not on my top 5 things to do, as many of the poses put a lot of strain on my joints.  It also reminds me that I have a lot more work to do in my overall fitness.

At the end we gathered up and had a group photo shoot.  Afterwards I was tired, but it was a great time and I had fun in the larger environment going through the workouts.  We have another Boot Camp closer to the end of March, and I'm looking forward to seeing how I do on that one as well.

Click on the Y to see all the photos!