Does boot camp-style exercise turn slothful susans into committed fitness fans?
Though the road to fitness is paved with good intentions, it is also littered with abandoned exercise gear, forgotten resolutions, and countless women who’ve fallen off the get-fit wagon before reaching their goals. The motivation you need to stick to any exercise programme over the long haul is tough to muster, and the slightest obstacle can send you hurtling off course. So it’s likely that, in order to maintain a disciplined, regular workout, we need to leave it up to someone else to take control. Which could explain why countless women are turning to military-style boot camps to get that extra push: when someone else is yelling at you to run, climb, lunge, and drop; chances are you’ll do it.
Though not quite as physically demanding or psychologically taxing as proper military boot camp, the philosophy behind exercise boot camp is similar: what to do, when to do it, how to do it and how many times is no longer under your control.
WHY IT WORKS…OR NOT
“In this style of training, you relinquish responsibility,” says clinical and sports psychologist Greyling Viljoen, of the High Performance Centre at Sports Medical Services in Pretoria.
For some, it’s an easy way out: you get the results, but the mental push needed to achieve those results is “outsourced”. In the military context, soldiers obey orders without question, which in a case of life or death, may be crucial. “The appeal for the suburban GI-Jane is that it removes almost all personal responsibility. You don’t even have to motivate yourself. All you have to do is turn up, and the trainer takes over,” says Viljoen. This is why boot camp training works, but Viljoen’s concern is that removing responsibility could, potentially, have unhappy long-term consequences when the trainer is no longer around.
“My concern is that it can lower self-esteem; when the trainer disappears, the trainee cannot think for herself.” Viljoen maintains that in any sport, the focus is on the “destination goal”, in this case weight loss or increasing fitness. However, he would like to see more emphasis on how to get there; plotting a route to fitness or how to achieve the desired weight. “If trainees aren’t taught to under- stand the logic behind the exercises or how to build an at-home obstacle course, for instance, then the value is minimised,” he says.
The physical benefits would be short term, but in the long run the person is likely to fall back to old patterns if they don’t keep up the training with a personal trainer,” says Viljoen.
But boot camp trainer Huenu Solsona disagrees: “In my all-female training camps, the women are encouraged to carry on exercising afterwards, whether it is with me or on their own; I instill a confidence which they may lack before,” says Solsona, who is the director of Adventure Boot Camp for Women (ABC).
“We educate people about the mental aspects of training regularly, proper nutrition to succeed at weight loss, or just getting rid of the self-limiting behaviour,” says Solsona. “It’s no secret that most people need a push, to get them to start (or stick to) an exercise programme. But most women are intimidated by the gym, which is why boot camp works: it’s a safe exercise environment for women, where they are re-introduced to sport and exercise,” There is no screaming or “downgrading”, just encouragement and praise mixed with mentally and physically challenging programmes,” she says.
Unlike the infamous “Kamp Staldraad” where the aim was to “break down and suffer together to make a more cohesive team”, fitness boot camps encourage in a gentle manner, with the emphasis on camaradarie. “As fitness levels increase, body measurements decrease and once campers start noticing secondary results, which include better-quality sleep, a radiant, healthy glow and experience the natural high that regular exercise brings about, self-motivation becomes easier,” Solsona says.
It is well-documented that if you train with a partner you’re more likely to stick it. Big groups or duos, military-style or softly-softly, the bottom line is: get off that couch! Your health depends on it.
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