March 28, 2009 1:59 am

How To Play Bootcamp (and a Giveaway!)

My Bootcamp Buddies!
My fave part about this pic is that when I said “look tough” all the girls broke out their guns but the men just stood there. But, you know, it’s very tough standing. PS> Greg - don’t worry, no one will run over your pecs at night.

Gym Buddies Krista, Lisseth, Bill, me, and Allison

What I really wanted to title this post was “Wild Bootcamp Bill and How the West Was Won.” But in spite of what all you East Coasters think, Minnesota is not actually considered part of “the west” and I was afraid the bootcamp message would get confused for some kind of war talk. But it was kinda wild (on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is Farkle with your grandparents and 10 is the cantina scene from Star Wars reenacted by a frat house then I’d put this at about a 3 - you know, like buying a beret and wearing it out of the house wild.) AND there is winning involved!

How To Play Bootcamp
There are several hard-and-fast rules to my workouts: 1) Try everything, 2) Laugh lots and 3) Buddies make everything better. So when Nuru planet sent me their “Exercise Anywhere” cards - a deck of card with different exercises printed on them - to try out, I knew I had 1 and 2 covered but with rule #3, the more the merrier. I roped in my bootcamp teacher Bill and the rest of my class into helping me out. For all of you that would like to join in, here’s how to play bootcamp!

Step 1: Find a drill sergeant, er, instructor. Bootcamp Bill was perfect for this because while he’s not very mean, he still has plenty of ways to motivate us. (Funny Bill Story: the first time I took his class, we were running warm-up laps on the track and as he ran past me he smacked the rear of the woman in front of me. She seemed non-plussed but I was aghast. He must’ve seen my face because on the next lap - as he passed me again - he said, “You know I’m married to her right? I don’t just randomly spank people.” Good to know, Bill, good to know.)

See? Now Bill and I are friends. Look at us lunging all happy like! (Side note to Nuru: You probably don’t need to have cards for squatting and lunging. I think it’s safe to say most of us master those skills in the toddler stage.)

Step 2: Find classmates. Sure you can do the Exercise Anywhere cards by yourself but… why? Thankfully my bootcamp class is made up of adventerous folk who are not afraid of a good sweat.

Check out all those fitness fiends doing their wall jumps!

Step 3: Pull a card out of the deck and do it! Bootcamp Bill decided to have us do 2 sets of 10 reps of whichever card a random classmember chose. In between sets, we ran shuttles.

Gym Buddy Krista demonstrates the Bird Dog (a.k.a. spinal balance from yoga) and not only nails it but manages to smile and wave too! Now that’s good balance.

Gym Buddy Allison is Superman! That is if Superman were a woman. And pregnant. Now that I think about it, Superman could only hope to be as super as Allison!

What is this blog without the obligatory weird pose picture? Gym Buddy Lisseth and I do Pike Push-ups. (You will thank me for not posting the orignal shot of this pic - taken from behind us, thank you very much Allison.)

Just like those chicks in the fitness magazines, Lisseth and I demonstrate the different parts of an exercise. I’ve got part A of the burpee with the jump while she’s got part B - the ending position. For the record, neither of us are burping.

Step 4: Don’t forget to properly cool down with some walking & light stretching (read: sit on a foam roller and discuss how The View loses a lot of its appeal when viewed entirely in closed captioning and/or also who’s child is more likely to pee on the floor first and/or who has embarrassing sweat stains.)

I have a freakishly small head. Seriously.

You want a chance to Play Bootcamp too? Leave me a comment with your fave bootcamp-style move and you’ll be entered to win a pack of Nuru’s Exercise Anywhere cards! Note: Gym Buddies are not included. (Want a second chance? MizFit’s got a deck to give away as well!)