My First Boot Camp Experience: Did I Survive or Am I Writing This From The After Life?

I survived. I survived. I survived.

(At one point, I thought I was on the edge of the afterlife but it turned out that someone had just opened up the door to the outside to let some cool air in. That sudden bright light got me sidetracked for a moment.)

That is the take home message I want to keep with me from my first ever Fitness 101 boot camp that I attended at 8:00 this MORNING. I SURVIVED. (As long as I know how to plank, I'll know I'll stay alive.) I know 8:00 is not really, really early but I didn't go to sleep until 12:45 in the a to tha m! We went out to eat at Italian for our 14th wedding anniversary last night and then we went to see Gravity, which I LOVED.

My point?

Girlfriend needed to get her butt UP to work off that lasagna.

I was a little nervous when I came into the room of seasoned boot campers. It is clear that this is their deal, you know? They know where all the things are for the class and stuff. They know that the class isn't over 45 minutes into it, unlike me. I also felt a little lost because Sean, my personal trainer and exercise security blanket for the last few months, wasn't the instructor for the class. No Sean?! Could I make it??

Thankfully, Sean left a fully capable trainer in charge named John. Now, I know Sean's age because he is a little closer to my age and would do well on 90s hip hop trivia. John, I suspect, wasn't even born until the 90s. He still may do well on 90s hip hop trivia, though. I don't know. I have only met John once. He may know his Warren G. 

Young though John may be, he has been around long enough to study the tactics used at Guantanamo Bay and use them at boot camp. Honestly, I should have known what to expect when I walked up to the gym to see this:

Do you see that small writing on the side of the building? Sean did not give me the heads up that I would possibly be asked to put my feet in these straight-from-Guantanamo contraptions while doing push-ups:

Holy moly smokes.

I couldn't do that one. No, ma'am. I had to just put my feet in the stirrups and push my body off the ground and hold it there like a suspended sloth while everyone around me acting like calorie burning machines. 

"Hi, everyone! Don't mind me! You go on and do all your exercise-y stuff. I'll just be hanging out here in these stirrups! Hahaha!!! Just hanging and swaying!! Haha!!!"

(This is the only other time I have put my feet in stirrups without a doctor coming at my you-know-what with a silver pinching tool in his gloved-to-the-elbow arm, so at least that.)

The other stations I handled just fine. I have done the other things, like the lunges-with-a-medicine-ball station and the I-need-a-drink-of-water-AGAIN station, with Sean, so I wasn't totally lost on those.

Well, except for anything involving planks.

First, let's distinguish between the two main types of planks. There's the...

I Lack Shame plank:

   I love this grocery store plank long time.

and the...

I Lack The Desire To Continue Holding Up My Weight On Two Arms, I Wish I Had Skipped The Cheesecake, Please Make It Stop plank:

(That girl is just showing off jutting her arm out like that.)

I know planks are good for you to do. I know they help strengthen your core. I know they probably help wobbly arms become less wobbly, but if anyone asked me if I wanted to do any more of them, I definitely would have said, "No, planks!" thrown a water bottle at the wall to divert attention and ran out the back door.

It's like anything else. Things that are good for you to do are sometimes not easy to do. I will definitely be back to boot camp. John was a great motivator and had a nice way of telling me how to do an exercise correctly when I was tearing it up. He was a lot of fun and the class did go by quickly. The SIX TIMES AROUND THE STATIONS really did go by quickly.

(It really did.)

If you want to try out a boot camp class, Sean will definitely hook you up. You can e-mail him at sean@fitness-101.com for more information. If you want to try out the "Turkey Day Boot Camp", there will be a free one at Klein High School THIS Thursday at 8:30 a.m.! It'll be fun!!! I will come pick you up!!

Oh! I wanted to show you a picture of John. I asked Sean to send me one and he gave me this:

It does sort of look like him. Same hair color.

Have a Happy Planksgiving next week!!

About Sean, the Personal Trainer Man:

Sean Millhouse is the program director and owner of Fitness 101. He is also a partner in Northwest Personal Training Center (Northwest Houston’s largest Personal Training Facility). Sean and his businesses have helped more than 3500 clients meet their goals through the development of healthy fitness and eating habits.

Sean has been an ACE certified Personal Trainer for 14 years and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Houston- Downtown. Through ACE, he is also an Advanced Health and Fitness Specialist.

Through his multiple Personal Fitness Programs…Sean has worked with several local celebrities and successful business owners in the Northwest Houston area. His focus is on helping people who have lost control of their lives. Sean teaches that if we start practicing moderation, we can achieve balance and live a healthy lifestyle.

To help change lives through fitness…Sean offers his knowledge for lunch and learn opportunities, health and fitness seminars, and various charity functions.

Sean also publishes a Blog at www.fitness-101.com and weekly e-newsletter “Fit For Life” that help readers stay current with health and fitness topics. Archived articles are available on the blog.