Benefits of a Boot Camp Workout | Prescription Fitness

Written By: Elsie Velazquez Cert. Personal Trainer

Boot camp workouts are a very efficient way to burn calories and lose weight. These workouts work the entire body and challenge you to push your body (and mind) to the limit!

Boot camp workouts are a very efficient way to burn calories and lose weight. The metabolism is also boosted which is also helpful in losing weight!  Because boot camp workouts are considered aerobic exercise, the heart is strengthened and the risk of cardiovascular disease is decreased.   A boot camp workout usually involves a wide variety of different exercises which are designed to work the entire body. The important thing is not to stop between exercises. This workout should keep the heart rate up for an extended period of time and increase the body’s oxygen concentration. An aerobic boot camp workout routine not only targets improvements in cardiovascular endurance, but muscular toning and sculpting as well. You want to keep moving!!!

Fortunately, boot camp workouts require little more than your own body, and are thus quite cheap to perform and easy to do just about anywhere.

After performing a warm up consisting of some type of light cardio (walking or jogging) , perform  about 10-15 minutes of a combination of full body moves.  Once you have completed the full body moves, a cool down should be done (walking or jogging).   Below is a list of suggested exercises:

• Pushups
• Sit ups
• Lunges
• Squat thrusts
• Plyo-jacks
• Jumping jacks
• Ski jumps
• Jump squats or regular squats
• Jump rope drills (with or without rope)

Sample workout:

*5 minute warm up

Jump rope drill                     1 minute

Squats                                     1 minute

Lunges                                     1 minute

Crunches                                 30 seconds

Ski jumps                                1 minute

Bicycle crunches                    30 seconds

Pushups                                   30 seconds

Tricep pushups                       30 seconds

Burpees                                     1 minute

Jump rope drill                        1 minutes

Squat thrusts                            1 minute

Jumping jacks                          1 minute

*5 minute cool down

To get the maximum benefits from a boot camp workout, you should be in reasonable physical shape before beginning. However, Boot camp can be adjusted for almost any level of current physical fitness. Aside from the physical benefits, boot camp workouts provide mental benefits as well:

• Improved Mood
• Reduced Anxiety
• Decreased Stress
• Improved Self-Esteem
• Improved Focus