We’ve already given you a run down on fitness fads that may not be sustainable, for a long time, due to reasons like boredom, or the fact that some fads might show quick short term results but no long term improvement in fitness levels. Today we’re going to talk about one fitness fad that just might be here to stay. The Bootcamp. Bootcamps are fast becoming popular across urban India, and show definite merits when it comes to achieving fitness - swiftly and surely.

What is a Bootcamp? A fitness boot camp is a type of outdoor group exercise class that mixes traditional callisthenic and body weight exercises with interval training and strength training. In layman’s terms it is a mix of high intensity cardio, body weight exercises, functional core workout, and sprints, which provide the interval training. All this packed into an adrenaline pumped hour. Normally these bootcamps are conducted in open maidans, or beaches, wherever there is open space and an ideal groups size is about 10 to 12 people.

What exactly do you do in a bootcamp? As the name suggests, a bootcamp is a rigorous endurance and strength training class, which moves from one exercise to the next without any respite. The good news is that unlike a gym workout where you may follow the same routine week after week, a bootcamp generally mixes up workouts and therefore you don’t gat fatigued or bored quickly.

This is what an hour of this workout may look like:

• It starts with a warm up of some light stretches and a jog around the block to get you ready for the session
• Today it could be 2 sets of hundred meter sprints and 2 sets of 50 meters. Run as fast as you can for 100 meters, take a break and run again. Then run fast for 50 meters, jog back slowly and run again for 50 meters.
• Next, everyone faces the instructor. He may ask you to do 15 pushups. Then side crawl for about 10 or 15 meters do 15 more pushups and side crawl back. Next, jump squats where you do a squat, jump up and land back into the squat. Then bear crawl to the other end, do some more jump squats and bear crawl back. Next you do a set of burpees and frog crawl to the other side, do another set of burpees and frog crawl back.
• A quick water break and some more sprints. This time it’s shuttles where cones are placed equidistant from each other. So you run to the first one run back, then to the second, run back, then to the third run back and then to the last one. 
• For the next drill you form a circle and we do a circuit of six to eight exercises one after the other. The circuit may have alternate lower and upper body workouts. To give you an example the workouts in this order can be – Plyometric lunges, pushups on a ball, squats with leg raise, triceps pushups, lunge with side twist and a dumbbell curl and shoulder press.
• A core session is usually thrown in every 2 to 3 sessions where you do upper and lower abs crunches, straight plank, side plank and other core workouts.
• Sometimes a game is thrown in to make it more exciting, it could be a relay, tug of war or anything that requires physical exertion.
• The session ends with a cool down where you stretch out each body part and do partner stretches.

Whew! That’s a lot for an hour you say? Well the fact that you are working out with other individuals who maybe competitive, will give you that extra push in your workout, which will be twice as difficult to conjure up in a private gym session. The fact that it is a group workout adds to the element of enjoyment. A good bootcamp will always try and harbor a sense of team spirit and support from a motivational community of like-minded people.

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