The Norwich Evening News tries out Norwich Boot Camp
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| Sam Williams, of the Norwich Evening News, is put through his paces at Norwich Boot Camp |
28 June 2008
A new Norwich “boot camp” begins next week, bringing a taste of US military-style training to a city park. The personal trainers behind the venture put reporter SAM WILLIAMS through his paces.
“Come on you maggot, I've seen my granny run faster than that.”
That's the sort of insult I expect to have hurled at me when I am informed that I will be spending part of my working day undergoing a demonstration of Norwich's new boot camp.
Instead my two personal trainers, Jason and Brad, who are starting the US military-style training at Eaton Park for those wishing to get super-fit, turn out to be much different than the stereotype built up by watching too many army-related films and television shows.
I meet the two friendly and likeable personal trainers, on a pleasant, sunny afternoon.
To be frank, I would much rather have spent the afternoon sipping cold beer and watching Wimbledon, but I'll give anything a go once.
So after a warm up, the muscular Brad takes me on a brisk stroll for about a minute or two and then a very gentle jog, again for about a minute. For a while it seems like boot camp is literally just a stroll in the park, but at the back of my mind I'm worried about what they've lined up for me next.
The answer is lunges, and plenty of them.
For anyone new to lunges, they are basically big steps, bending the back leg so your rear knee touches the grass, standing upright again and on to the next step.
Covering about 30 metres, we then turn, run back to the starting line and repeat, three times.
I can feel a few sweat pores opening and a bit of muscle ache, but I start to feel slightly smug that it appears my basic level of fitness will see me through this and back to my telly without too much effort.
Next up we do a few squats, with me and Brad holding one side of a weighted bag each. While the bag has 25kg printed on the side, it is in fact just 10kg, I'm relieved to find.
I am put through a series of exercises, squatting down and standing up while holding the bag, lifting the bag to head level and stepping from side to side.
While I feel slightly jealous of the children playing and people relaxing in the sun, it's not too bad, and at the end my legs feel pleasantly tired, like they've done an honest day's work.
The exercises get steadily harder, but Brad is there giving me gentle encouragement, and he seems instinctively to know how far to push me.
After a welcome few minutes rest and a drink of water, I'm back in action, this time doing press ups and sit ups - two of my most dreaded exercises.
My previous smugness quickly begins to evaporate.
The drill comprises eight press ups - chest nearly to the ground, honest - followed immediately by rolling over and doing sit ups until Brad tells me to stop.
Another roll over and I repeat the process, three times just for good measure.
This is tough, I can feel the sweat starting to drip, my muscles are burning and I can't prevent a few embarrassing squeals escaping my mouth with the effort.
I feel like I'm on fire and as if I have pushed myself to the limit - if only for a brief time, and it takes several minutes for my breathing to return to normal and the beetroot tint to leave my face.
Lastly, back to the 10kg bag, which I have to get across the 40-metre strip of grass by squatting, standing up and throwing it over my head, and then running to where the bag falls and repeating. And then a full out sprint back to the start.
By the end it's all I can do to get the bag over my head, and I just about manage the sprint back.
Again I feel I have pushed myself close to my limit - way beyond my comfort zone and past what I would normally put myself through on my own.
But the shouts of encouragement from Brad and Jason offer the motivation to keep going and push for the extra few push ups or squats.
And they didn't even call me a maggot once.
Boot camp starts on Tuesday, July 1, with three sessions a week for four weeks in Eaton Park on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6.30pm to 7.30pm and Saturdays from 8am to 9am.
Jason Francis, 37, a personal trainer working in Norwich, said the experience was an enjoyable and highly effective way of improving fitness and losing weight.
He said: “It's not called boot camp because we shout at you and make you feel miserable, it is about fun and fitness outside.
“It is fast moving and a unique way to kick-start fitness, and you get motivation from the group and your instructor.
“It is a motivational package which will provide results fast.”
And while it can be tough, it is aimed at all ranges of fitness and is suitable for anyone who is medically fit, with participants working at their own pace.
Brad Williams, 20, who also works in Norwich, said: “All levels of fitness are welcome. It is good exercise if you are not very fit or if you are really fit. You work at your own pace. If you can do 30 press ups in a minute you can do so, or if you can do 10 on your knees you do that instead.”
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