Bootcamp Tips | Bootcamp Ideas

Voting For Your Favourite Workout Is Open

February 6, 2012 By Kyle Leave a Comment

Voting for the Bootcamp Workout Competition has begun and will continue until Friday 24th February. I need to to help decide who has the coolest bootcamp workout.

Before I continue, thank you to the nine awesome trainers who took the time out of their busy schedules to share their workouts with myself and the community. There are some awesome workouts here that I can’t wait to unleash upon my clients.

Here are the nominations (in no particular order):

ACRONYM BC! AMRAP/EMOM/RSP by njfitmom
Legs, Glutes and Abs by totalfit
Partner Bootcamp Workout by Mikeh
Timed Bootcamp Workout by shaun
Dynamic Endurance by Rubin
Pyramid Workout by Naomi Miller
Total Body – High Intensity – “7″ workout by Lisa
Climb The LADDER! by dsullivan
The Kitchen Sink by kmoore

How to vote:

Step 1:

Try out one or more of the bootcamps linked above. They are free to use so go ahead and use them all. You have three weeks to try them out.

Step 2:

Vote on the poll below for the ones you liked.

Step 3:

Go to the forum thread and vote there too. Every little extra vote counts.

Step 4:

While you are at the forum, take a couple of minutes to comment on the threads of the workouts you liked. Go ahead and share any modifications you used too to help other trainers.

To the entrants:

Feel free to share your workouts with your colleagues and fellow trainers. Every vote you get counts!

Poll

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Ask any questions you have below.

Filed Under: Bootcamp Tips Tagged With: competition, poll

Bootcamp Ideas Annual Trainer Competition

January 27, 2012 By Kyle Leave a Comment

I’ve been hinting at a bit of a surprise over the past couple of weeks. Finally everything is in place so I can announce it! Read on for more details.

Bootcamp Workout Competition

Who’s got the best workout up their sleeve?

We’ve decided to host a small competition on who can come up with the best workout. You can submit any of your workouts from last year or the years before or you can make up a completely new one.

Here’s how it’s going to work. Trainers who wish to participate can submit workouts via the forums over one week.

The rest of the Bootcamp Ideas readers then have 3 weeks to try out the workouts they like the look of and vote on them. The workout with the most votes wins.

Prizes

The awesome sponsors for this competition are the Bootcamp Alliance and Bootcamp Workout Ideas. Both have been very kind in arranging some great prizes for you.

First Place

First place will have their preference of ONE of the following prizes

Internationally Accredited Bootcamp Instructor Course (value $220)

12 Month Bootcamp Alliance Business Support Membership (value $135)
Voucher to Amazon.com or Iron Edge (winners choice) (value $80)

Second Place

The second place winner will receive the left over prize from above.

Runner Ups

The next three runner ups will receive a copy of Bootcamp Workout Ideas (value $59)

EDIT: I realised that some of you who want to enter may already own one or more of these products. Rest assured that if you win and you already own the product you will still be looked after. Most likely with a voucher of equal value to a store or program.

Dates

Workouts can be submitted from 9.00am tomorrow, (Saturday 28th January 2012) and will close 11.59pm EDT Friday 3rd February (03/02/2012).

Workouts can be voted on from 9.00am EDT Sunday 5th February (05/02/2012) until 11.59pm EDT Friday 24th February (24/02/2012).

Winners will be announced on Sunday 26th February (26/02/2012) via the website and our Facebook page.

How to Enter

Create an account on the community forums.
Share a workout in the Bootcamp Workouts forum. (Don’t use the form in the navigation above)
All workouts submitted within the appropriate dates will be considered.

Rules

Only one workout submission per trainer.
Workouts should take 45-60 minutes to complete. Warm ups and cooldowns should be included. Please do not submit just drills.
Any unknown/unusual exercises should be described or have links to websites/videos that describe them.
If you would like to submit a workout that you have already submitted to the site before, to keep it fair I’ve decided that you may modify this workout and submit it to the competition.

Terms & Conditions

This isn’t an official competition with pages and pages of fine print. This is something fun I thought we could all do to get the community rocking. There is however a few terms that you should agree to before submitting.

The winning workouts will be featured on the blog (with links back to your site).
Votes will be counted from three places. A poll on the blog and a poll on the community forums will be provided. In addition, the number of replies to a workout thread will also be added, excluding replies by the author. You can vote in one or all of these places. Note: Replies sent before the voting commencement date will still be counted.
In the case that there is an unusually high number of workouts submitted, I will shortlist them with the help of a few impartial trainers. I will judge them by how innovative they are and how easy they are to follow.

I need you!

This is a community competition so if you feel I’ve been unfair or I’ve missed something out, please pop it in the comments below. I look forward to seeing some great workouts!

- Kyle

Filed Under: Bootcamp Tips Tagged With: amazon, bootcamp alliance, bootcamp workout ideas, competition, iron edge

Pre-Season Bootcamp Training For Teenage Sports Teams

September 6, 2011 By Kyle Leave a Comment

In my inbox after bootcamp the other morning I had an email telling me I had a new comment:

So glad I found your website. I am starting to plan training for my U17 football team for 2012 (need to start early – these guys are keen).
With testosterone loaded young men, the idea of a bootcamp would certainly appeal to them. Do you have some tips when designing a plan for 16/17 year olds? Do you have a suggested routine?

Thanks

Justin

The answer I wanted to give was a bit long for just a comment so I decided to do a whole post on it.

Training Teens

There are a couple things to keep in mind when training teenagers so that you can get the most out of them.

They want to be first

The big difference between training adults and adolescents or children is their competitive nature. I have about 4 bootcampers who get really motivated with some good competition, the rest just do it because I tell them to.

On the other hand, in Justin’s case, if you have several ‘testosterone loaded young men’ who want to train and are essentially a captive audience, you can really push their buttons with some competitive challenges.

So try to use challenge drills as often as possible, even include some light hearted punishments to the losers. Make sure it stays light hearted though and doesn’t get personal.

Beyond Bootcamp Strength Circuits: The Drill Circuit

August 30, 2011 By Kyle Leave a Comment

Strength circuits are one of the staples of many fitness bootcamps. They are pretty easy to set up and don’t need a whole lot of equipment. A timer, a few bands and mats and you’re set.

However, the main problem with a giant strength circuit of 10-12 stations is maintaining intensity. You can only focus on one station at a time, meanwhile those clients at the other stations start losing momentum. They don’t mean too, it’s just a minute can seem like a long time when they are tired and doing 50 pushups gets boring.

You can combat this problem by adding intensity techniques or you can take a step outside the box.

My solution

One style of workout that I use regularly, that is effective and that always gets positive feedback from my campers is the Drill Circuit (or at least that’s what I’m calling it).

The drill circuit is exactly what it sounds like. It is a series of drills performed in circuit fashion. Clients move in small groups from drill to drill according to the timing method of your choice.

It works because going from a drill to a different drill engages the clients more effectively on both a mental and physical level which in turn results in more interested and harder working clients. On the other hand, it also means more work for you, but to be honest I’d rather be running around helping my clients than just standing there with a stop watch.

Here’s how to set it up:

Where To Buy Bootcamp Ropes

June 15, 2011 By Kyle 3 Comments

Bootcamp ropes or as they are sometimes called power ropes or battling ropes have become all the rage over the past 12 months. They vary in size and length but the same exercises and drills can be performed on all of them.

The key is to have a rope thick and heavy enough, most boating and hardware stores only sell synthetic rope in the large diameters which is quite light to use. If you cna get some for free from a marina or shipping yard, go for it.

Australian Suppliers

I use ropes from the first two suppliers listed below for Australia.

Iron Edge – 38mm diameter rope, 15m long. Good weight for females and beginner males. Stronger clients will need either a heavier rope or to do single arm battling.

7 Simple Bootcamp Workout Ideas

June 10, 2011 By Kyle Leave a Comment

Do you have a bootcamp session tomorrow but are completely strapped for time to write up a workout? Use the ideas below to pull together a quick workout. There’s one for each day of the week.

1. Bring out the boxing gloves

Grab your boxing gloves or have your clients bring their own. Compile 8-12 boxing drills and perform each one for 2 minutes with 30 to 60 seconds rest between intervals.

2. Time for a sprint session [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bootcamp Tips Tagged With: bootcamp challenge, boxing drills, circuit bootcamp, giant circuit, giant sets, hill run, intervals, simple bootcamp ideas, team challenge

3 More Bootcamp Warm Up Drills to Help Prevent Injury

May 15, 2011 By Kyle Leave a Comment

The last post I did on fitness bootcamp warm up drills was getting pretty long so I decided to move a few over here to this post.

Sprint Warm Up Drill

Planning on doing sprint intervals today? How about a few cone agility runs or maybe you are going to take your bootcamp on a 5km run?

You need to make sure that their muscles are ready for some serious activity. Below is one of my favourite warm ups, feel free to change it at will. All you need are a set of cones set up 10-20m apart.

Phase 1 – Mobility

First, start with getting your clients muscles working through their full range of motion.

Walking knee hug – Stand on one leg and hug your knee to your chest for one count. Put the leg down and step forward. Repeat with the other leg.
Walking butt kick – Stand on one leg and pull your heel to your butt for one count. Put the leg down and step forward. Repeat with the other leg.
Walking ankle grab – Stand on one leg. Lift and internally rotate your other leg. Pull your ankle up for one count. Put the leg down and step forward. Repeat with the other leg.
Warrior lunge – Focus on stretching through the hip flexors.

Phase 2 – Blood Pumping and Dynamic Movement [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bootcamp Tips Tagged With: bootcamp games, bootcamp warm up drills, bootcamp warm up games, knee tiggy, sprint warm up, warm up drills

5 Fitness Bootcamp Warm Up Drills to Make Your Job Easy

April 24, 2011 By Kyle 2 Comments

Warm ups are an essential part of each and every bootcamp workout that you do. Running around the block to warm up gets old really fast. Throw in some of these bootcamp warm up drills to keep your workouts fun and interesting.

Save this kind of stretching for after the workout

1. Left, Right, Up, Down, Back, Forward

You will need a large space to run this drill.

Organize you clients into several ranks (4 or 5 columns should do the trick). The trainer should stand in front of the clients facing them.
The trainer will call out Left, Right, Up, Down, Back or Forward instructing the clients what to do. Left, Right, Back and Forward indicate directions the clients should run and Up means tuck jump and Down means a pushup. Clients should be facing forwards at all times.
Keep the clients moving for 3-5 minutes and then either repeat or increase the difficulty.

Make it harder: To make this more difficult and to get your clients brains working, try ‘opposites’ where clients have to do the opposite of what you say. Or try the drill in silence and just use your hands to give directions.

How To Keep Your Bootcamp Clients Coming Back – Three Tips to Make More Money

April 1, 2011 By Kyle Leave a Comment

One of the problems many new Bootcamp Instructors face is understanding how to keep their clients coming back for more.

In the early days fitness bootcamps where designed as a one-off course for getting into shape. You signed up for the 4 weeks, got obliterated and left 5 kilograms lighter and a little battered.

While that may seem like a good idea at first, it makes a terrible business model. For each 4 week block you would need to ramp up advertising to fill your spots with fresh clients, it’s much easier to set up an ongoing bootcamp that clients can continue attending week after week. As a guide, from bootcamp to bootcamp you should be getting 70-80% of your clients returning. If you’re not, you’re doing something wrong.

Each bootcamp, you should be getting 70-80% of your clients returning.

There can be a whole laundry list of reasons why your clients aren’t returning, some of which you have limited control over. However, here are three that you can start changing today.

You Don’t Love Them [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bootcamp Tips Tagged With: client retention, make more money

How To Create A Simple Bootcamp Interval Workout Or Interval Drill

March 23, 2011 By Kyle 2 Comments

High Intenisty Interval Training (HIIT) is the staple of most bootcamp cardio workouts. Not only is it effective, it also creates a challenging and competitive workout for your clients.

Interval drills are a fantastic way to finish off a workout if you have a little extra time. Alternatively, if your clients are quite fit, you can base an entire workout around it. Below I’ll lay out how to set up a great bootcamp interval drill step by step.

Step 1 – Warm-up

It’s important that before you have your clients engage in maximal effort work that they are properly warmed up.

By warm up I don’t mean just a 2 minute jog around the oval, sure that will get their heart going and fresh blood pumping to their legs but it still leaves them exposed to strains, sprains or even muscular tears.

In you warm-up make sure you include dynamic movements to increase range of motion (especially through the hips and ankles). I’m talking about high knees, butt kicks, power skips, side to side running, back pedaling and bounding. These are just a few ideas you could use. If you are unsure of what these are just ask in the comments below or send me an email. If there is interest I’d be happy to put up another post with pictures and demonstrations of different warm up activities for running.

Take a good 10 minutes to warm-up your clients if they haven’t done any activities yet. If they have already been exercising, 5 minutes will be sufficient. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bootcamp Tips Tagged With: bootcamp workouts, hiit, how to, intervals