abouThealth

Boot Camp Helps Meet New Year's Resolution
By REBECCA WATTS

For some, planning 2008’s resolutions began months in advance of the New Year. Others used the last five minutes of New Year’s Eve to scribble their top five on a napkin. The majority of Americans didn’t make resolutions at all. That’s what a December survey conducted by Whole Foods Market found.

Seventy-five percent of Americans last year scrapped their resolution list for long-term lifestyle changes. The survey found that a lifelong, healthy lifestyle is preferable to the short-term solution of resolutions. Those that made a list aren’t ignoring their health either - weight loss and eating healthier top the list of 2008 resolutions. Helping both reach their long-term and short-term goals is fitness boot camp.

Fitness boot camps began as a civilian version of the military training program that included rigorous physical drills and a barking drill sergeant clothed in camouflage. It has since morphed into a national phenomenon aimed primarily at the female market. Brides and bridesmaids, short-on-time executives, and busy stay-at-home moms are achieving quick results using boot camps tailored specifically to their needs. In June of last year, Cliff Latham, owner and operator of Fitness Together Training Studios, brought the trend to College Station in the form of Adventure Boot Camp for Women.

“The adventure behind it,” Latham said, “is everything is out of the box. Women of all abilities are working together for a common goal and having a blast doing it.”

Adventure Boot Camp is an outdoor fitness program that incorporates instruction, training and nutritional counseling into a one-hour program. Personal trainers providing support and encouragement take the place of the drill sergeant, and offer toned-down physical drills to accommodate all fitness levels.

The camp kicks off with a nutritional session that teaches how exercise and healthy eating work together to achieve success. Latham provides software that tracks food intake and sends a motivational e-mail during the week.

Charlotte Green, owner of Chrome Salon in College Station, said the boot camp is addicting. “I learned more about food in that one hour than I have my whole life,” Green said. “This was not the Food Pyramid stuff you learn in high school – it’s the why and the how food works.” Green is featured as one of the program’s success stories and has signed on for a year of Adventure Boot Camp. She said she looks forward to getting out of bed and driving to the Wolf Pen Amphitheater in College Station, where participants meet each weekday at 5:30 a.m. “I won’t do it by myself,” she said, “but I’ll get up at 4:20 and drive 20 minutes to get over here.”

The Adventure Boot Camp website states participants can expect a three to five percent reduction in body fat, five to twelve pounds of weight loss and a one to three inch loss in the waist area. The program also boasts improved posture and relaxation and a boost in endurance, strength, and self-confidence.

Latham attributes the success of Adventure Boot Camps to what he calls “contagiasm” – contagious enthusiasm. “The energy is contagious. We all get done with the workout and just breathe - it’s so invigorating!” Green said. The women hold each other accountable and because sessions are based on time increments instead of traditional sets and repetitions, no one comes in last. In addition, boot campers never perform the same exercise twice.

“Everything is unique and fun,” said Latham. He said some mornings include television or sport themes, scavenger hunts, obstacle courses and partner combinations he said. Green recalled a camp last year when she and three other women pushed the Fitness Together Hummer up a hill.

“I tell people that and they think, ‘What?’ but, pushing that Hummer up the hill works every single muscle in your body,” Mrs. Green said. “But I came to the next camp and it was so much easier than the first time. It really showed me how far I’ve come.”

Latham focuses on what he calls power movements that allow easier life movement, such as getting out of the car or walking up stairs. As a former track coach in Kansas, Indiana, and Maryland before signing on with Texas A&M University in 1999, Latham employs many of the same strategies in Adventure Boot Camp and admits that teaching is one of his passions.

“I have a passion for coaching and teaching. I want to teach other people amazing things in life,” Latham said. “We train just like athletes. Some [participants] have become runners, but it’s not just about losing weight; it’s about being able to perform.”

Latham’s strategy for succeeding at New Year’s resolutions is to set a BAG – “a big, audacious goal” and to find someone that will provide accountability, support and encouragement.