Bootcamp: My Sixty Minutes Might Be Up

Editor's Note: Bootcamp is a column I'm writing based on my experiences at Burnsville's Beyond Personal Training. On April 4, I took advantage of a Groupon offering unlimited bootcamp sessions for a month. These are my stories.

It is 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, I'm sweating profusely and my legs are shaking.

No, I'm not waking up from a bad dream, actually I've just finished an hour-long legs-based bootcamp workout with trainer Jeff Culhane.

Culhane is a great guy and knowledgeable fitness trainer that uses a remarkable variety of circuit training to maximize his students' effort. 

For those unaware of the specifics of circuit training, it is a simple concept. The participant does one exercise non-stop for a predetermined distance or period of time. He/she is given only enough rest time to get to the next station before the next exercise begins again. The different stations, or circuits, are designed to target different muscle groups. The more circuits you do, the better the workout. 

This morning, for example, Culhane set up eight different circuits—five of which targeted legs. The remaining stations included boxing, abdominal/core work and holding a plank position while balancing on a half-moon shaped ball.  

We did each of the eight circuits three times. 

But we only started our workout after we finished our warm-up which, again, included three full-body exercises performed three times each, one minute each time. 

While struggling through my third one-minute wall-sit of the morning, I was struck by how long a minute can seem. Some minutes are gone in the blink of an eye, others—particularly those during one of Culhane's bootcamp circuits—can last a lifetime. 

But as I finished this morning's workout and recovered from the shaky-leg-syndrome, I was also struck by how good I felt. 

Bear in mind, today was not easy—not by any stretch of the imagination—but for the first time since I began at BPT, I felt in control of the workout. I wasn't struggling to get through it or counting down the minutes as in my first two sessions. 

Today was different. Today I reached base camp. Today I felt strong throughout the entire workout.

But just as I began to feel confident about bootcamp BPT-style, Culhane dropped the bomb: He's planning to incorporate sprints and much more endurance activity once the weather improves. 

Well, it was good while it lasted.

My first two BPT sessions felt terrible. I felt like I was breathing Jell-O the entire time. Today, on the other hand, was sixty minutes of self-control. Sixty glorious minutes of self-determination and confidence-building.

It sounds like that's all I'll get.

Jeff Culhane's Training Tip: "Get outside. Get walking. It doesn't matter how long or how far, just get outside. AND, keep a food journal. Not to cut calories at first but just to make you conscientious about what you're putting in your body."