What Are Fitness Boot Camps For??

I have spent seven years in the U.S. Navy and Army. When I think of a fitness boot camp, it sometimes has the same characteristics as a real bootcamp. A BUDs (Navy Seal) instructor once told me you don't do the training because it is healthy or safe, you do it because it prepares you for the stress and needs of your job in the military. I think he was right on the money. The things we did during training were not necessarily healthy or the best choices to promote muscle or get you "tone". The exercises were simply created to get the soldier or sailor ready for the mission.

So I think it is laughable to think fitness boot camps are anywhere near a one stop solution for fitness. Like military bootcamps they possess basic elements that make them specific to certain areas of fitness. Below I have gone through the basic elements of bootcamps and what they truly promote:

1. FBC (Fitness Boot Camps) will promote endurance strength. This is the major strength that a FBC will allow to progress. Other strength qualities become more specific to the individual. For instance, speed strength can be increased to a point but the individual will most likely need more customized attention to develop higher levels of speed.

2. FBC will promote primal movements. I should say SHOULD promote primal movements. Unless the FBC is addressing athletes of higher motor skill level it should not push more explosive and multi-plane (multiple direction) training. This would just lead to bad habits and injuries. The primal movements like pushups, chinups, dips, squats,deadlifts and lunges should be the major movements used in an FBC for the average joe and jane. Variations should be made from these movements to enforce good habits, joint stability and later joint mobility. Also, primal movements allow for the greatest amount of joints to be used in one exercise, which brings me to my next point...

3. FBC will promote muscle co-contraction and fat loss. Muscles are functionally designed to work together and not isolated. Also when more muscles are used in one exercise you use more calories per exercise and have a greater EPOC response (layman- EPOC allows you to burn calories for hours after training stops). Also, becoming efficient with the movements means they will be safer. Safety allows for increase of load (weight), decrease of rest breaks and overall increase of volume.

4. FBC is a stepping stone for those looking to go into more advanced training periodizations. I have to be honest here, FBC will never be able to address a person's every need. Not only this, a person will eventually grow beyond the vague scopes of even an advanced form of FBC. For example, if a person wants to develop more maximal strength he or she will need to go into a max strength training periodization. Usually max strength training needs higher levels of rest that could not be facilitated in a FBC. Another example, is if someone has special needs to promote more fatloss and is slowed because of the lack of advanced motor skills. Well, this person will need to be given special attention to increasing motor skill, that others in the FBC may or may not need.

As you can see, FBCs have their specific goals which are fatloss, increase in edurance strength and hopefully increase ability to utilize primal movements. Other than that, I am hard press to find any FBC than can promote anything more.

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