Bootcamp time again in Skipton!

Bootcamp training

Bootcamp training

The days are getting longer, the weather is not as cold and it seems more people are willing to join me in some outdoor training!  This can mean only one thing…It’s Bootcamp time again in Skipton! What is a bootcamp?  Originally its the rough and tough training you get in basic training in the military.  These days it generally means any kind of training that involves minimal equipment and usually outdoors.  And as a few of us have signed up for some outdoor challenges this year (Trailtrekker, Warrior Dash, Tough Mudder, Commando Challenge) it is perfect to get us in top form. But why train outside when I work in a lovely, climate controlled gym??

  • More “functional” – Because there is little/no equipment for you to have to learn, you spend 100% of the time learning how to use the best piece of equipment in the world…your own body.
  • Variety – Most gyms have the same range of equipment that you have to use in the exact same way or you get a spotty gym monkey trying to tell you how it “should” be done.  Outside we were using park benches, golf greens, fences, walls, boulders, bins climbing frames…any bit of the environment we could lay our hands on in as many ways as we could think of.
  • Balance – because you are not strapped into a machine the whole time, you are forced to improve your balance or you fall over…simple!  Over the last few weeks of training outdoors (in pouring rain, scorching sun, frost, gusting winds and more slippery surfaces than you can shake a stick at) I have fallen only once…I’ve lost my balance a bunch of times!  But (and this is the important bit) I have regained my balance before I hit the deck and carried on.
  • Character building – Improving our fitness, strength and weight is a tough thing to do and the most important part of it is consistency.  Having the will to go out and train, even when conditions are not perfect (it’s a bit wet, or a bit cold, or I have a bit of a sniffle, or I’m feeling tired, or my fave TV show is on, or I don’t have the right clothes, or it’s pub night etc) gives us the attitude to succeed.
  • Vitamin D – Our bodys make vitamin D when sunlight hits the skin.  If we are indoors, we miss out.
  • It looks cool – Lets be honest, we can blend into the crowd, doing the same as everyone else, learning a dozen different ways to do a bicep curl or tricep kickback.  Or we can learn to do some really funky things that really catch the eye of the opposite sex!
Below you can see me and Linda testing out my new “head-camera” and messing about outdoors in some wonderful Yorkshire scenery!
 

So here is to a summer of playing and training outdoors!  If you live in or around Skipton and are interested in trying a Bootcamp…Contact me today!