Over the last few years there has been a rapid growth in the popularity of fitness boot camps. In fact, if you walk into any gym it is likely you'll meet at least one customer who likes to tell people how to lose weight with the type of HIIT style workouts associated with a boot camp.
Is this method safe and effective? Are you really able to generate quicker results and, more importantly, retain them into the future?
In short, yes. Once you get past all of the marketing hype and sales talk behind the product, a boot camp is merely offering advice which has existed in gyms worldwide for over twenty five years. Simply put, it's nothing new or ground-breaking.
In fact, if you stroll into any gym in your local area you will see countless fitness enthusiasts putting the foundations of a boot camp workout into their regular gym routine. Circuit classes have existed for decades. Likewise, high intensity interval training has been around for years. Both principles are widely adopted by outdoor fitness classes.
So if it's advice which has existed for years already, why are boot camps often billed as miracle weight loss solutions? Quite simply, it all comes down to marketing. By giving something a catchy name and making outrageous claims about the results you can achieve, you'll undoubtedly have something which appeals to a lot of people. This marketing tends to be misleading in a lot of cases, as it's often aimed at individuals who have never exercised before, with promises of instant results.
While the general marketing behind boot camps tend to be quite misleading, the theories the style of training is built upon are actually very solid. Any high intensity interval training workout is going to get your blood pumping and your heart reaching the upper scales of it's ability. This will lead to weight loss and will improve your fitness. If you incorporate resistance training into the routine, which most trainers do, then you will also notice an increase in strength, too.
The only negative about the boot camp gimmick is that it often gives off the impression that you are getting some kind of miracle formula. You're not. The exercises are very basic, often relying on classic body weight moves such as push-ups and pull-ups, and indeed you could perform this by yourself at home or at your local gym without splashing out hundreds of pounds or dollars on a membership to a 'training camp.'
The one area which still stands in the boot camp's advantage, of course, is the group atmosphere it promotes. There are many people who find it difficult to push themselves without others around them doing the same thing. This is where boot camps and fitness classes are first rate. However, those looking to join purely because of the fitness benefits are quick to notice that the actual workouts are very basic. Because of this realization, the whole boot camp phenomenon is now dying off and people are beginning to get the same effective workouts at home without the need for memberships.
While it is often unfairly billed as the latest health and fitness fad, the truth is the science behind the boot camp theory stacks up nicely. By performing regular HIIT sessions and incorporating the basic, classic strength moves you will indeed see results. If you've been trying to learn how to lose weight and have seen an advert for one of these type of classes, however, you should base your final decision on how much you think you need a group atmosphere in order to succeed, because there is nothing stopping you from performing a boot camp workout right now without spending any money.
Is this method safe and effective? Are you really able to generate quicker results and, more importantly, retain them into the future?
In short, yes. Once you get past all of the marketing hype and sales talk behind the product, a boot camp is merely offering advice which has existed in gyms worldwide for over twenty five years. Simply put, it's nothing new or ground-breaking.
In fact, if you stroll into any gym in your local area you will see countless fitness enthusiasts putting the foundations of a boot camp workout into their regular gym routine. Circuit classes have existed for decades. Likewise, high intensity interval training has been around for years. Both principles are widely adopted by outdoor fitness classes.
So if it's advice which has existed for years already, why are boot camps often billed as miracle weight loss solutions? Quite simply, it all comes down to marketing. By giving something a catchy name and making outrageous claims about the results you can achieve, you'll undoubtedly have something which appeals to a lot of people. This marketing tends to be misleading in a lot of cases, as it's often aimed at individuals who have never exercised before, with promises of instant results.
While the general marketing behind boot camps tend to be quite misleading, the theories the style of training is built upon are actually very solid. Any high intensity interval training workout is going to get your blood pumping and your heart reaching the upper scales of it's ability. This will lead to weight loss and will improve your fitness. If you incorporate resistance training into the routine, which most trainers do, then you will also notice an increase in strength, too.
The only negative about the boot camp gimmick is that it often gives off the impression that you are getting some kind of miracle formula. You're not. The exercises are very basic, often relying on classic body weight moves such as push-ups and pull-ups, and indeed you could perform this by yourself at home or at your local gym without splashing out hundreds of pounds or dollars on a membership to a 'training camp.'
The one area which still stands in the boot camp's advantage, of course, is the group atmosphere it promotes. There are many people who find it difficult to push themselves without others around them doing the same thing. This is where boot camps and fitness classes are first rate. However, those looking to join purely because of the fitness benefits are quick to notice that the actual workouts are very basic. Because of this realization, the whole boot camp phenomenon is now dying off and people are beginning to get the same effective workouts at home without the need for memberships.
While it is often unfairly billed as the latest health and fitness fad, the truth is the science behind the boot camp theory stacks up nicely. By performing regular HIIT sessions and incorporating the basic, classic strength moves you will indeed see results. If you've been trying to learn how to lose weight and have seen an advert for one of these type of classes, however, you should base your final decision on how much you think you need a group atmosphere in order to succeed, because there is nothing stopping you from performing a boot camp workout right now without spending any money.
About the Author:
Writer Bio: Russ Howe PTI is the UK's most subscribed personal trainer. He has taught thousands of gym members how to lose weight and introduced many to hiit sessions on a daily basis.
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