Boot Camp Workouts

Everyone knows how to "be all you can be": Join the Army.

However, many people are choosing to skip the armed forces and get fit by enlisting in a "boot camp" workout. For every would-be GI Joe and Jane, there's now a way to get in shape-military style. It's a rage from L.A. to New York, for the fitness crazed. This back-to-the-basics fitness regimen is attracting men and women with a "no frills" high energy military style workout.

The boot camp workout is modeled after the training of the Navy SEALs, Air Force Elite Units, and the gung ho!

Boot camp programs burn fat through aerobic exercise while building lean muscle mass through calisthenics. Using your own body weight as resistance, this workout can be done anywhere and requires virtually no equipment!

The program is popping up in gyms across the country, and even hitting the shelves under the title, The Official Five Star Fitness Boot Camp Workout.

"Everyone finally realized the military had the most functional way of training people," says Paul Frediani, coauthor of The Official Five Star Fitness Boot Camp Workout.

"Boot camp" training is somewhat mislabeled in that while the regimen copies military exercise, in most cases the threatening terrain and unforgiving leadership is absent.

While some people are willing to pay a personal trainer $100 an hour in a gym, the beauty of the boot camp workout ethic is simplicity, there's no fancy health club or no high tech equipment.

There is lots of hard work and sweat. Experts agree there is nothing better than the basic pull-up and push-up for virtually every aspect of physical training.

In California, many of the boot camps are on the beach. On the East Coast and in the Midwest, classes are often held in wooded areas and on large fields. Fitness recruits perform pull-ups, knee raises, push-ups, chin-ups, bicep curls and long distance running. We are talking plain old, in-your-face, drop-and give-me-20, I-can't-hear-you fitness.

Those who sign up as a fitness recruit say they see improvements in the first three weeks. "I've increased my flexibility by 40 percent, my muscle endurance by 25 percent and decreased my mile run time by 2.5 minutes," says an enthusiastic recruit. From whatever fitness level you start, this program can to get you into shape no matter what.

The boot camp exercises can be approached with any kind of intensity and any number of repetitions, which can be suited to anyone of most any age. It can be as challenging as you want it to be.

In all the hoopla over a return to the old boot camp ways, exercise gurus advise:

• Always check with a doctor (especially if you're over 40) before beginning an exercise program.
• Make sure the instructor has national certification.
• Establish that the boot camp has a good reputation.
• Observe a class or camp in action before signing up.
• Tell the instructor it is your first class and don't expect to be able to keep up with other veteran participants.
• Wear comfortable clothes, good cross-training shoes, and a cap, if outdoors.
• Always warm up and stretch before a workout.

Whatever fitness regimen you choose, experts remind you to make sure your workout is well-rounded. Each program should deal equally with strength, endurance, flexibility and coordination/agility.