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Hey Everyone! I hope your weekends are all going well! Mine’s been pretty busy over here! Yesterday I had my 10 mile race (which I’ll re-cap tomorrow), sushi and a movie with Chelsey, and then dinner with my cousin and uncle who were in town for the weekend! I was flying from place to place and let me tell you, I hit that pillow pretty hard last night!
Today it’s back to the grind – I’ve got three finals this week and I’m ready to bust them out and head on home next week! Today is also the LAST DAY OF BOOTCAMP!!! I cannot believe I’m saying that – where has time time gone!?!?
For any new readers, for the past 8 weeks I have been participating in Tina Reale’s Best Body Bootcamp!
Tina set up bootcamp as an 8 week program broken down into 4 phases, each lasting 2 weeks. Every 2 weeks she would send us our workouts for the next two weeks giving specifications for each one, as well as alternatives for each move if we needed to make it easier or had to do an at-home version.
The four phases were stabilization, strength endurance, strength, and power.
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Phase 1 – I LOVED the strength workouts – we did a ton of moves that were completely new to me! There was also one circuit workout, which was good because I was traveling during this phase and that circuit was very easy to work-in on days I couldn’t get to the gym.
Phase 2 – I actually didn’t really do phase 2! My half marathon was at the end of phase 2 and I did the first workout and could barely walk, so I decided it would be best to kind of do my own thing while I tapered so I wouldn’t be too sore for the race. I am planning on going back and re-doing phase 2, clearly it was effective!!!
Phase 3 – I was so ready to get back into bootcamp, so I was really pumped about this phase! We used two techniques that were new to me: Pyramids and Drops sets. I explain drop sets here, and pyramids are where your first set is at a high rep range, then you decrease reps while increasing weight for the next set. I also liked this week because it was divided into workouts where you use “push” muscles and ones where you use “pull” muscles. This was definitely my favorite phase.
Here’s me wiped out after some circuits (clearly a happy camper):
Phase 4 – Honestly, I was not a big fan of phase 4, I actually didn’t really do the second week because I just didn’t enjoy the workouts. I’m not a big fan of circuits and I was just not in the mood for them these past two weeks. Also, we had 5 workouts scheduled and only 2 cardio of choice day, whereas in other phases we had 4, and 2 cardio of choice days. However, I LOVED the interval and HIIT workouts she gave us. I’m definitely incorporating them into my workouts in the future. One was a 40 minute interval workout and I covered 4 miles with it and had a blast!
Another part of the bootcamp was our check-in sheet. We each had a google document on which we would mark of if we did our activity that day, as well as our goals. Each week we were supposed to pick 2 goals (they could be repeats) to meet each day. These could be things like drinking 80 oz of water, stretching before bed, giving yourself a compliment, eating 6 servings of veggies, etc.
I loved the goal sheet because it was a great way to pick other goals to work on outside of just exercising, and it was fun to have a place to mark off with an X whenever I completed a goal! I’m totally a To-Do list person and I love the satisfaction of marking things off! And the best part? If you completed an activity or a goal 5 days out of 7 you got a point. So if you did all 3, that’s 3 points. Also, you get a point for sharing about bootcamp on your blog that week. For each point you got an entry into that week’s drawing for a prize! Now that’s incentive!
Sadly, I did not win a prize, haha but I’m not surprised since there were hundreds of people participating in bootcamp! I also got to know some of these people through our facebook page! Tina set up a facebook group where we could link to our blog posts, tell each other things we were working on, and encourage one another. I really loved checking out that facebook page everyday! It was nice to have a “group” feeling to the bootcamp, since technically I was doing it alone.
Now you must be thinking, well that’s nice for you, but what does this mean for me?! Well, Tina is really considering doing another bootcamp, so keep an eye out for that! Also, if any of this sounds interesting to you, Tina makes personalized workouts for people through her website, so go check her out! She has a ton of knowledge, a great attitude, and she truly wants to help people. So thank you, Tina for a great bootcamp!
Have you ever done an online or book workout program? What did you think?
Anyone else out there not a cardio circuit fan?
