Kerry Katona’s recent weight loss success is proof that boot camp really does work. So I decided to attend a Prestige Boot Camp Fitness day, to get a taste of what it’s all about.

 
Call me crazy but for some reason I was actually looking forward to the challenge. And boy was it going to be a challenge; I’m talking a 10am start and 4pm finish.

First up was boxing, combined with some jogging (I was soon to learn that there would be a lot of this involved). Then a lot of running and touching of trees was done along with some more jogging and then we took a 10 minute tea break in the café (which we jogged to of course). The first circuit we did was called Overload: We were all paired up and did the same exercise in a pyramid i.e. 1-10 then 10 -1. I’m told that the benefit of this is that you overload the same muscle group, which will help to improve your stamina and tone you up.

Lunch time was no excuse not to exercise so we jogged back to the café, to have something to eat.

I must confess that by now, I was starting to feel the affects of the morning exercises, but I carried on through to the next circuit activity. We were split into groups of 3 with each person named Work, Rest & Play. In our groups of 3 we did a combination of CV, specific exercises and recovery. Each person was assigned one exercise to do and we worked through the exercises until all were completed. This circuit delivered a combination of muscle strength, speed stamina, and cv in one session. It was hard work, especially running up the hill to touch the tree; but I think I was more afraid of sliding down the hill on the way down, than actually doing the exercise itself.

We were allowed a little break, but that was only so the instructor could set up the next exercise. And boy did we need it because it was time for me to experience a form of interval training called Fartlek (Swedish for “speed play”). Regular Prestige Boot Campers call it the F word! And I was about to find out why.

The idea is to increase and decrease the intensity of your workout with active recovery ratios. So you will walk, jog, sprint then actively recover through a walk before commencing a further jog, then sprint and so on. It dramatically improves your conditioning and performance very quickly and research proves that you can improve your endurance and recovery from intense bouts of exercise with just one hour per week of interval training, compared with five hours per week of traditional endurance training!

After this we were done. I had successfully completed my day at Boot Camp.

 I’m not going to lie to you its hard. Because you’re really encouraged to go beyond your comfort zone, so you can get the full benefits of your boot camp experience. 

As for the after affects, well my body did constantly remind me for the next 3 days that I had indeed been to boot camp.

 For more information on Prestige Boot Camp including course dates and prices please visit www.prestigebootcamp.com or call 0117 973 12 13