Bootcamp Drills | Bootcamp Ideas

Sadistic Abdominal Bootcamp Drill

May 19, 2012 By Kyle Leave a Comment

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I’ve got another great core drill from Leon Melnicenko. This is definitely an advanced drill, not for beginners.

Plank Punishment

Time: approx 5 min

Get the campers to spread out in a line side by side and assume the plank position. Make sure they have a small gap either side to exercise.

Follow this sequence:

Plank 10 seconds followed by 10 press ups.
Plank 20 seconds followed by 10 press ups
plank 30 seconds followed by 10 press ups.
plank 40 seconds followed by 10 press ups.
plank 50 seconds followed by 10 press ups.
plank 60 seconds followed by 10 press ups.

Rules

This drill should be performed continuously until finished.
After the group have performed a set of press ups the stop watch will start when everybody is back in the plank position.
Knees must be off the floor at all times.
For beginners alter time and reps.

I tried this for the first time this morning with my intermediate/advance group and they just scraped through.

About the sadist creator

I run a fitness bootcamp in Plymouth (uk) www.sound-fitness.co.uk

P.S. Check out Leon’s website. He calls his bootcamp Team Training which I think is a great way to remove a lot of the negative connotations associated with the word bootcamp.

Image: The U.S. Army

Filed Under: Bootcamp Drills Tagged With: bootcamp finisher drills, core drill, Leon Melnicenko, Sound Fitness

Lower Body Bootcamp Drill

May 17, 2012 By Kyle 2 Comments

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You too can look like this... with the power of jump squats!

It’s a hard life coming up with drills to inflict muscular damage upon your clients. Here’s one that should help:

Leg Obliterator Drill

This simple drill works well as a finisher for a sprint or running workout.

Clients should start with 5 reps of each exercise with the exception of the run which is always one. Each round clients do one less repetition of each exercise.

Round 1:

5 Jump Squats
10 Cross-Body Mountain Climbers (5 each leg)
10 Jump Lunges (5 each leg)
50 metre Run

Round 2:

4 Jump Squats
8 Cross-Body Mountain Climbers (4 each leg)
8 Jump Lunges (4 each leg)
50 metre Run

And so on until:

Round 5:

1 Jump Squat
2 Cross-Body Mountain Climbers (1 each leg)
2 Jump Lunges (1 each leg)
50 metre Run

From there start adding one repetition each round until Round 9 in which you should be back to 5 reps on each exercise.

Share your drills on our forums!

Filed Under: Bootcamp Drills Tagged With: bootcamp finisher drills, finisher, legs, lower body

Partner Core Exercise Challenge

January 6, 2012 By Guest Leave a Comment

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Welcome back Bootcamp Instructors of the world to more exciting workouts and drills on BootcampIdeas.com. To kick off the New Year I’ve got a great finisher drill from Leon. Enjoy

Situp plank switch

Objective:

First team to complete 100 situps.

To start:

Player one starts in the situp position whilst player two starts off in the plank position facing and holding the feet of player one. On command ‘GO!’ player one must perform as many situps as possible before the instructor shouts ‘Switch!’.

When this happens the pair simply switch what they are doing. So now player one is holding the plank and holding player twos feet and player two is doing the situps. Note: Players switch exercise on the spot, there is no need to actually switch places. Each time players switch, the number of situps is passed across and continued.

The team to complete the task first wins.

Instructor points:

Switch frequently and randomly, even switch when teams are halfway between switching and switch again, its great fun.
The target number of situps can be anything from 20-200 depending on class fitness.
A torso twist can be added to the situp for increased difficulty.
To make the plank harder, alternating rear leg raises can be incorporated. Jumping legs apart and back in also works well.
I sometimes add in a run when teams finish. The run is usually around 400 metres and works well if the team link arms or hold hands. This will increase team bonding with members. Also before the challenge starts, try pairing people up who don’t know each other or who have never paired up before.

About the workout creator

I (Leon) run a group fitness business in Plymouth (UK). www.sound-fitness.co.uk

The workout above has been tried and tested and works a treat. I always explain what I am doing and how it will benefit the group before I start.

Submit your own workout or drill here.

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Image: The U.S. Army

Filed Under: Bootcamp Drills Tagged With: bootcamp finisher drills, core exercises, Leon Melnicenko, Sound Fitness

A Great Bootcamp Boxing Drill For Beginners

December 2, 2011 By Guest Leave a Comment

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This drill has been shared by Rubin Allen at BootCam Fitness.

Domino effect boxing drill

Split the campers into 2 groups with one holding the pads the other wearing the gloves standing opposite each other. The boxer will perform 10 straight punches then moves to their right to the next pad man and so on whilst the person on the end after completion of their punches peels off and sprints back to first place in the line.

I do this for a 2 minute round, you can choose a captain to keep a score of how many sprints he/she does then compare for the change over for a forfit.

This drill can get more intense if the campers swop one glove for one pad!

About the drill conspirator:

I (Rubin) live in Cambridge, England and have been teaching Bootcamp fitness for 1 and a half years indoors and outdoors. I picked that drill up when living in Sydney about 7 years ago whilst on a backpacking holiday and just added my own spin on it. My company is http://www.bootcamfitness.co.uk

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Image: koocbar

Filed Under: Bootcamp Drills Tagged With: boxing, boxing drills, saturation boxing

4 Excellent Bootcamp Stair Drills (plus bonus stair exercises)

November 21, 2011 By Kyle 1 Comment

Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

What do you see most trainers at the park using a large step or a set of stairs for? Dips, step ups, sometimes the occasional feet elevated pushup or teaching someone to squat properly. Or maybe its the good old boxing drill: run up the stairs, 20 punches, run back down, repeat.

Don’t get me wrong, these are all great drills that will give your clients great results. I use them all of the time, especially with my small groups.

But what happens when you’ve already done them before? What about those clients that have been training with you for a year or more and are still expecting you to dish up fun and new exercises?

You go online!

Here are some stair drills I’ve used to great success. I hope you find at least one new thing that you haven’t tried before.

For the purposes of the drills below take the following meanings for stairs and steps (see the bear crawl picture below for examples of both):

Stairs – Small sets of stairs anywhere from 10-20cm high.

Steps – Large steps around 50-60cm high. Two or three smaller stairs can be used if you don’t have anything like this available.

1. Stairway To Cone Heaven (Cardio)

Required: 50+ cones, 2 stairways or one large enough for two lanes of foot traffic

Place a pile of cones at the top of the stairs. Starting at the bottom, clients must run up one set of stairs, grab a cone and then run back down to the bottom. Clients keep going until all cones are retrieved. Vary the intensity by increasing/decreasing the length of stairs to run or the number of cones.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Bootcamp Drills Tagged With: cardio, stair drills, stair exercises, stair run, stairs, steps

Partner Burpee Suicide Drill

October 25, 2011 By Kyle Leave a Comment

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Thanks Nancy for sharing this drill. I though this title seemed appropriate. This looks like a great way to finish off a hard bootcamp session.

Have participants partner up. One partner holds a plank while the other partner does burpee, lateral jump over partner, burpee. So burpee, jump over partner, burpee, jump over partner, etc….Once the set amount of burpees is complete, switch with your partner. The other partner does burpees and jumps over your plank.

Do 3 rounds, 12-9-6. First round each partner does 12 burpees, second round each partner does 9 burpees, third round each partner does 6 burpees.

Image: The U.S. Army

Filed Under: Bootcamp Drills Tagged With: burpees, filler drills, partner drills

5 Circuit Training Ideas to Increase Your Bootcamps Intensity

August 22, 2011 By Kyle 2 Comments

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Circuit training has been around since formal exercise was created. It is a great way to move your clients around a variety of equipment and exercises while keeping them under control.

There is one problem with typical circuit training though. It can be really, really boring. Doing bicep curls with a band for a minute and then moving to the next station and doing squats for ANOTHER minute gets a bit tedious. Meanwhile, you, the trainer, are watching the stopwatch and trying to keep an eye on 12 stations at once. Eyes in the back of your head, you do need young Padawan.

Instead of doing it the old way, try out some of these methods that I’ve used with success to keep your clients focused and moving.

The timekeeper station

This one helps you keep your eyes on the client, rather than on a stopwatch or timer. Give one station a set number of repetitions. Once the client on that station completes all repitions, they call out ‘SWITCH!’ and it’s time to rotate. Clients on the other stations simply keep doing their exercise until they hear the word.

This giant circuit workout is an advanced use of the timekeeper method.

The Timekeeper Circuit

2 Bootcamp Drills for Excellent Endurance

August 21, 2011 By Guest 2 Comments

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Just a quick one today with a couple of drills submitted by DJ Stover. DJ is a Personal Trainer and Air Force Reserve Member in Pittsburgh, PA.

Drill 1 – Pushup/Reach-for-the-sky Pyramids

Pushup pyramid with hand raise above head with extended elbows. Starting reps depend on their fitness level for example an intermediate would be 10. So the campers do 10 pushups, stand up, extended arms fully above head 10 times, then they go back down and do the same thing for 9,8,…1.

Kyle here. I’m guessing you could have them do this as a time filler and the end of your bootcamp with a race to see who can finish first. You could do a similiar one for legs with (jump) squats and supine hip extensions.

Drill 2 – Plank Indian Runs

I also like doing indian runs while the clients do planks. The person at one ends runs to the other end while everyone else holds a plank. The last person doesn’t get up until the previous person gets down to the plank position at the other end.

You could make this a competition between two groups of people and see which team can cover a designated distance first.

Thanks DJ. I’m always looking for user submitted workouts. It’s a great way to share your favourite drills with the rest of the bootcamp instructor community. You can submit your workout(s) here.

Image: DVIDSHUB

Filed Under: Bootcamp Drills Tagged With: bootcamp finisher drills, competition, filler drills, indian run, muscular endurance, pyramid drill, team challenge, teambuilding

10 Boxing Bootcamp Drills For Small Spaces

March 31, 2011 By Kyle Leave a Comment

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Sometimes you get stuck with a big group in a small area. Maybe it’s raining and you’re crammed in a small shelter or perhaps your just starting out with an indoor facility and you can’t afford a big space.

Boxing is a great way to get a good workout in a small space. Below I have 10 different boxing drills you can put into action in your next bootcamp boxing workout.

The easiest way to run each drill is in intervals. Have the clients box in 2 minute intervals with 30 seconds breaks. Stop every once and a while for a drink break.

1. The Drummer

10 high punches
10 low hammer punches
10 high knees to pads

2. The 5 Punch KO

Left jab
Left jab
Right cross
Left uppercut
Right uppercut [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bootcamp Drills Tagged With: boxing, boxing drills, hiit, HIT

Sadistic Abdominal Bootcamp Drill