This workout didn’t quite come together the way that I wanted it to. It was perhaps a little on the easy side. I would recommend going through each exercise as a group for time before starting the main drill. Call this the practice round and do it maybe 3 times for 40 seconds on each exercise.

You can block it out to 60 minutes by adding a couple of finisher drills.

Thor

Goal: Strength Endurance

Time:  45 minutes

Equipment: Cones, Mats

Warm up

10 minute warm up game.

Concept

Thor’s chiseled abdominals and massive pecs is largely due to his godly heritage. In today’s workout however we will attempt to emulate the kind of training a more mortal Thor might do.

Every 30 seconds clients will attempt to perform a set of reps. Each round clients will do 2 less reps. After 5 rounds clients will start scaling back up again for another 4 rounds.Eg. 15 Spiderman Push Ups, 13, 11, 9, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 Spiderman Push Ups

Workout

Scale down exercises where appropriate. Each round = 4.5 mins + 1to2 mins rest

Cooldown

Stretch

Be sure to sign up to our mailing list to get notified of our weekly workouts. You can get the Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Ironman workouts now.

While a lot of the workouts I share with you use intricate drills, tyres, ropes and lots of running, sometimes it’s important to give your clients a basic high intensity strength workout to reinforce technique and burn a lot of energy. In fact I schedule in what I dub a ‘boring’ workout once a week for my groups.

What is a ‘boring’ workout?

When I talk about boring, I mean for me, not my clients. I couldn’t stand coaching eight workouts a week where I am watching the stop watch the whole time (even with a Gymboss). I like variety, I like 3 people running one way and 6 running the other way and the rest dragging heavy ropes across the wet ground. Those are fun workouts.

However, the bootcamps are not about me, they are about my clients and high intensity strength workouts are great because they work.

I am not very good at planning them, so usually I will go to a Bootcamp Girls workout or a bootcamp workout idea for some inspiration. Recently I added MRT Bootcamp Workouts to my repertoire.

What are MRT Bootcamps?

If you have hunted around online for bootcamp training, no doubt you have come across Turbulence Training. In fact there is a banner on our recommended products page.

Craig Ballantyne has created an online empire for his brand Turbulance Training (TT) He is a great role model in learning how to take the skills and knowledge you build as a trainer, packaging them and selling them to a wider audience. TT has had a bootcamp package out for sometime now, but more recently Craig took his new Metabolic Resistance Training (MRT) techniques and turned it into a series of 61 bootcamp workouts.

This book is a great source of simple high-intensity and strength bootcamp workouts to use in conjunction with more fun and interactive challenge type workouts.

See for yourself

So you can get an idea of what I’m talking about, here is a workout I used in some private and small group training sessions last week. It looks simple, but my clients weren’t quite sure what had hit them at the end.

Allow approx 50 minutes of your session for this.

Workout # 2 DB/BW Supersets

Warm-up

Do the following circuit twice, resting for 1 minute between circuits. Each exercise should be performed for 20 seconds.

• Prisoner Squat
• Inchworm
• Duck Unders
• Bird Dog
• Band Pulls

MRT DB/BW Superset

Do the following superset 3 times, resting for 1 minute between supersets. Each exercise should be performed for 30 seconds.

1. Split Squat (1-1/2 rep style) (30 secs ea leg)
2. 1-Arm DB Shoulder Press (30 secs ea side)

MRT DB/BW Superset

Do the following superset 3 times, resting for 1 minute between supersets. Each exercise should be performed for 30 seconds

• DB Chest Supported Row (30 secs ea side)
• Triple Stop Pushups

MCT Circuit

Do the following circuit 3 times, resting for 1 minute between circuits. Each exercise should be performed for 20 seconds

• Lunge Jumps
• Pushups
• Bear Crawl
• Swing Lunge (20 secs ea side)
• Cross-Body Mountain Climbers
• Shuttle Run

Finisher

Do the following superset 4 times. Rest 30 secs between supersets. Each exercise should be performed for 20 seconds

• KB/DB Swings
• Plank to Pushup

Cool-down, Stretching & Water Break – 10 minutes

If you also have trouble coming up with interesting, basic strength workouts for bootcamps then check out the MRT Bootcamp site. Also, as of writing this, Craig has an excellent video available (no affiliate link) in which he explains why he runs his workouts the way he does. It’s well worth the watch from a trainer perspective.

Image: joshme17

Iron Man (Superhero version)

Goal: Strength Endurance

Time:  60 minutes

Equipment: Cones, Mats, Laminated Paper/Paper, White Board Markers

Warm Up

Amoeba Tag (from Outdoor Fitness Games)

Two people are “it”. They hold hands and chase the other participants. The person that they catch then joins the chain by linking hands. When another person is caught they can stay together or split 2 and 2 but they must split into even numbers and can link together at will. This game is played until no one is left. The last two become “it” for the next game.

Class Concept

Tony Stark has a lot of money. Like his money today’s workout involves a lot of repetitions.

As a group clients will rotate around a circuit (1 minute on each) trying to complete as many repetitions as possible in their minute. The goal is (as a group) to reach a total of reps on each exercise. The group keeps rotating until the goal is met.

Clients should add up the total reps performed by their group and write it down on the score card before going to the next exercise. Once an exercise has reached the goal number of repetitions, remove it from the circuit. Clients should then split up among the remaining exercises.

Tip: Bring a calculator to quickly add up scores while clients are rotating.

Rounds

Round 1: 1000 reps of each exercise

1. Lateral Lunges
2. T-Pushups (knees or toes)
3. Walking Lunges
4. Oblique Crunches

Round 2: 2000 reps of each exercise

1. Mountain Climbers
2. 20m shuttle
3. Lateral/Forward Jump over width of mat
4. Squats

Round 3: 100 seconds each exercise (together as a group)

1. Plank
2. Side Plank
3. Flutter Kicks

Cooldown

Stretch

Make sure you sign up to our email list so that you don’t miss out on the last workout, Thor. You can get the Captain America and The Incredible Hulk workouts now.

When I thought about what I would include in a Hulk bootcamp workout I thought about lots of carrying, slamming and throwing so I decided that I would need to bust out the tyres and ropes for this session.

The Incredible Hulk Workout

Goal: Strength/Crosstraining

Time:  60 minutes

Equipment: Cones, Mats, Tyres, Ropes, ~120cm (4ft) Boxing Bag

Warm Up

Mobility: Hands Overhead Squats, Frog Squats, Reverse lunge with twist, No money, Seal Jacks

Huddle Shuffle

Setup

Today’s workout is self paced by the individual. Clients will rotate to the next station once they complete their current station.

Clients will aim to complete 3 rounds. Tell them that once 1/3 of the group is completed everyone will stop. Eg. if you have a group of 20 clients, after 7 have finished 3 rounds have the class finish the station they are on and stop.

Take 5 minutes to demonstrate  and explain each exercise.

Circuit

1. OH Tyre Carry – Clients must carry a tyre overhead 20 metres to a cone and back 3 times. You can also do this with 5-10kg medicine balls.

2. Upper Strength Station – 20 Suicide Push Ups, 40 Prone Pulldowns, 20 Commando Push Ups

3. KB Farmer’s Walk – Holding 2 kettlebells by their side, clients must do a loop of the circuit (~100m circumference). Feel free to use dumbbell’s or spare tyres instead of kettlebells.

4. Rope Lunge – This station needs to be done with 4 or 5 people. Clients will need to wait for others to catch up. While holding the rope above their heads in a line, clients will need to walking lunge 25 meters and back. The rope must not hit the ground or else the group must stop and all do 5 jump squats.

5. Boxing Bag/Tyre Flip – Flip the boxing bag or a large tyre end over end 10 times.

6. Squat through tyres – Keeping their hips low, clients must navigate through a set of car tyres 3 times.

Note on station 4 (Rope Lunge): If you only have a small group omit this station to prevent having clients waiting around for people to catch up. Instead do this at the end as a group finisher.

Cooldown

200m slow run and stretch

Make sure you sign up to our email list so that you don’t miss out on the Iron Man and Thor workouts. You can get the Captain America workout now.

Image: Abi Skipp

I’m a closet geek (to my clients at least).

Nevertheless, I thought I would show my geeky side a little by theming this round of bootcamp with some Avengers themed bootcamp workouts. Today’s theme is Captain America.

Captain America

Goal: Speed/Cardio

Time:  60 minutes

Equipment: Cones, Skipping Ropes, Mats

Class Concept

Captain America is an all round athlete, but what we are going to focus on in this workout is his speed.

You will want to use car park, basketball or otherwise fairly hard surface for this workout.

Set up 2 cones 30-40m apart. Clients must complete as many suicide runs between the 2 cones as possible in an allotted time.

Have clients count how many suicide runs they do (up and back is two reps). If they where half way through a run they should round down.

Repeat the sprints again for the same time. Clients should aim to equal or better their number of runs.

Rounds

Round 1 – 5 rounds – 10 minutes

60 seconds sprints, 60 seconds rest.

Each round try to equal the same number of reps as in the first 60 seconds. Monitor fatigue levels and reduce goal reps in round 4 and 5 if necessary.

Round 2 – 5 rounds – 5 minutes

30 seconds skip rope, 30 seconds rest.

Use the same rules as above with skips rather then running reps.

Round 3 – 5 rounds – 5 minutes

30 seconds sprints, 30 seconds rest.

Each round try to reach half the number of reps from the first 60 second round.

Captain Core

30 seconds on each exercise:

• Pushup negatives – Count down 4, 3, 2, 1 for the negative and then call out UP to come up again. Leave them hanging at the bottom for a few seconds a couple of times too.
• Mountain climbers
• T component of T-Pushups

Rest 30 seconds and repeat once more

Stretch

I will be putting out the rest of these workouts in the next few weeks. There is also an Incredible Hulk workout, an Ironman workout and a Thor workout.

Ey mate, get on this here email list to get bootcamp ideas and workouts sent to your inbox. RSS is available too!

Image: DuckBrown

Boost Your Metabolism BootCamp Workout

Goal: Endurance

Time:  45 minutes

Equipment: Dumbbells

Warm-up

Spend 5 minute with a full body warm-up

Abs Circuit (Non stop 30 sec each)

• Sit ups
• Plank
• Super man
• Rest 30 sec…

45/15 Circuit

Perform each exercise for 45 sec and rest 15 sec between exercises.

1. Dumbbell Squats
2. Mountain Climber
3. Dumbbell swing
4. Dumbbell T Push up
5. Split Jumps
6. Dumbbell Bent over Row
7. Dumbbell Side Lunge
8. Push up position Row with dumbbells
9. Dumbbell Lunge and Rotate
10. Dumbbell shoulder press

Rest 1 to 2 minutes

Repeat from the top 2 more times

Warm down

About Francois

Hello! My name is Francois Haasbroek and I am a husband to a beautiful wife and father of two wonderful girls. I am the founder of FitStudio.co.za and have a heart for helping people live a healthy and abundant life. After losing 18kg myself I know what it takes to live a healthy life. I started the FitStudio.co.za Blog as a resource for people to make the necessary changes  to their lives.

Note from Kyle: This workout reminds me of the Men’s Health Spartacus Workout. Worth checking out for exercise descriptions.

Image: StressedTechnician

Jump Rope Challenge

Goal: Skill Improvement/Cardiovascular Endurance

Time: 45-50 minutes

Equipment: Skipping Ropes (one per person)

Warm Up

Spend 10 minutes mobilizing calves and warming up legs.

High Intensity Training

More frustration for participants in this jump rope challenge workout.

After a brisk warm-up, spend 5-10 minutes practicing and teaching double under skills. See the note below for a useful teaching cue.

The goal of the workout is to complete a ladder of consecutive, unbroken repetitions of either skips or double unders. There are 9 sets to complete and the number of reps in each set will vary depending on fitness level. Hint: If you have done 2 or more consecutive double unders in the practice then you are not a beginner.

If you fail to complete a set because you trip over the rope or stop for any other reason, then bad luck -
repeat that set again from the beginning until you do it unbroken before moving to the next one. Do not expect everyone to be able to complete the challenge by the cut-off time. Beginners and Intermediates who do complete the challenge should begin the challenge again on the next level up.

You must stop skipping in between sets. Intermediates and Advanced should not skip single in between sets.

Be prepared for lots of swearing!

Cut-off time: 20mins

Beginners (Skips)
20-40-60-80-100-80-60-40-20

Intermediates (Double Unders)
5-10-15-20-25-20-15-10-5

Advanced (Double Unders)
10-20-30-40-50-40-30-20-10

Double Unders

A very intense form of jump rope skipping – the rope must pass under the feet twice per jump. To learn double unders, start by skipping normally and attempt to do a double under on every 3rd jump ie. 1-2-double, 1-2-double. etc. This will make the transition from regular skips a lot easier.

Cool Down / Stretches

We love getting workouts from other trainers. You can share your own workouts via our submit form.

Image: David Salafia

Read my review about Bootcamp Workout Ideas.

I like to tackle this problem with some low rep, sub-maximal training. Pick exercises that are challenging for around 6-8 reps. I would recommend using this workout between some higher intensity workouts.

5x5x5

Goals: Strength

Time: 60 minutes

Equipment: Bands, Mats, Cones

Warm Up

Multi-directional warm up

Concept

At their own pace clients will need to complete 5 reps of 5 different exercises in a circuit a total of 5 times.

To set up create 5 stations in a row 5 metres apart. Once clients get to the end they must run back to the start.

Rounds

Round 1 – Regular or Hard

Everyone must complete 5 reps of each exercise. They have a choice to do the regular or hard exercise (marked with the square brackets).

1. Push ups [Clapping push ups]
2. Reverse Lunges [Jumping Lunges]
3. 5 sec Plank [Plank w/ lateral hand tap]
4. 5 sec Side Plank [Gravediggers]
5. Burpees [Marine Burpees - lie down on your stomach at the bottom and raise arms above head]

Round 2 – 3, 4 or 5

Assign clients 3, 4 or 5 reps depending on their fitness level. They must complete the following circuit performing that many reps on each exercise for a total of 5 rounds.

1. Band/DB Upright Rows
2. Frog Squats
3. Oblique Chest Lift
4. Yoga Push ups [Hindu Push ups]
5. Walking Lunge

Round 3 – Buddy Finisher

Clients pair up for these exercises. Complete 5 rounds, there is only 3 exercises for this round.

1. Buddy towel/band rows
2. Wheel barrow walks (5m)
3. Partner squats – hold hands, lean back and go low on those squats

Cooldown

Image: JD Hancock

You want more workouts? Well I’ve got them. Sign up to our mailing list to get a look at the best workouts and I’ll send you all of the new ones too! (We have RSS too.)

Ask any questions you have for Rubin in the comments below.

Dynamic Endurance

Goals: Muscular Endurance

Time: 60 minutes

Equipment: Kettlebells, Medicine Balls, Mats, Interval Timer

WARM UP

Start with mobilising the joints with shoulder shrugs, arms across the body, above the head then step back then jogging round a square get them doing a sports specific warm up with breast stroke, front crawl, back stroke, passing the imaginary rugby ball to the sides, archery, ice skaters, boxing to the front, above and to the sides, side stepping etc

If it’s a new group blow a whistle and have every one sprint in for a handshake and back then dynamic stretching.

1ST DRILL (4 mins)

Place 2 sets of cones 12 metres away from each other. Have the campers line up at the starting point then explain as soon as they start, the clock is ticking they must run out perform 5 squat thrusts and then run back and lie down on their fronts and on every 25th second they repeat.

Carry this on for 4 minutes. Very challenging.

ACCUMULATOR (25 mins)

This is an add on circuit every exercise to be performed for 30 secs:

• Jumping jacks. Then 30 seconds rest.
• Jumping jacks, push ups. Then 30 seconds rest.
• Jumping jacks, push ups, squat jumps. Then 30 seconds rest.
• Jumping jacks, push ups, squat jumps, KB swings. 30 seconds rest.
• Jumping jacks, push ups, squat jumps, KB swings, plank. 30 seconds rest.
• Jumping jacks, push ups, squat jumps, KB swings, plank, MB slams. 90 seconds rest.

Domino Drill

Have the campers form a circle. Have everyone perform a hand walk out apart from one member who performs 5 burpees then sprints around the outside of the circle and back into position then the next camper goes and so on.

FINISHER

Have the campers pair up and perform a side plank opposite each other whilst interlocking their fingers. Have them push against each other with their hands for a minute each side.

Image: Hamad AL-Mohannna

If you enjoyed this post or found it useful, sign up for regular bootcamp workout and drills ideas for free via our RSS feed or email updates. Got some questions? Ask them on ourcommunity forums.

The workout, called Complex Sprints (not very interesting I know), is very high intensity so make sure you include it in a more mellow week and not back to back with another draining workout.

Complex Sprints

Goals: High Intensity Intervals

Time: 60 minutes

Equipment: Bands, Mats, Cones

Warm Up

After we run in file to the workout area we did:

• Inch worms – 10m
• Walking Single Leg Deadlifts – 10m
• Spiderman Lunges – 20m
• Shuttle runs gradually increasing speed – 10m x 10

Concept

Today we will be attacking our clients lactic acid energy systems. The workout consists of a non-stop set of exercises followed immediately by a set of sprints. The exercises must be completed in order (equipment permitting).

You will need to set up a 10m long sprint area and a 20m long sprint area. I used the same space and just popped a set of cones half way for the 10m sprints.

Due to the taxing nature of this workout long rests between intervals are going to be used.

Note: I have blatantly stolen Crossfit’s 21-15-9 repetition choices (although I’m using them differently).

The Intervals

Repetition rule: The number of repetitions on each exercise will depend on the clients fitness level. I used the level from a previous workout to decide this. You can just have clients pick a level and then adjust them after the first round if it was too easy or too hard.

Rep levels: Level 1 – 9, Level 2 – 15, Level 3 –  21

Interval A

1. Push Ups
2. Mountain Climbers (L+R = 1)
3. Squat Thrusts
4. Squats
5. 10x 10m sprints

Interval B

1. Band Shoulder Press
2. Lunge Pulses (do rep level on each side)
3. High Knees (L+R = 1)
4. Lateral Cone Jump (alt: forwards jump)
5. 5x 20m sprints

Complete this interval 2 times. Take 2 minutes to rest between intervals.

NOTE: Clients should be completely knackered at the end of each interval. Make sure they are really sprinting on those short sprints. Run with the fitter guys and gals to push them along.

Cooldown

Finish off with some planks and side planks if you have a few spare minutes then go into a good 5-10 minute stretch.

Image: lululemon athletica

You want more workouts? Well I’ve got them. Sign up to our mailing list to get a look at the best workouts and I’ll send you all of the new ones too! (We have RSS too.)