Training the athlete in all of us

By: Dave Schmitz PT, LAT, CSCS, PES

Maybe you don’t consider yourself an athlete, but in reality, we all have some level of athleticism in us. The problem is, as life becomes busy and family’s become our primary focus along with work we begin to lose that athleticism because we stop training our body to maintain it.

Over the past 2 years adult fitness (or boot) camp training has become very popular. Initially the term Boot Camp can be somewhat intimidating unless you understand the concept and theory behind this new and exciting form of group personal training. An Adult Fitness (or Boot) Camp is intended to help individuals commit to consistent weekly training over 4, 6 or 8 week periods so they can experience immedi ate success from their exercise program.

We know that to truly experience success with exercise it must be done on a consistent basis and in the world of fast pace this is the number one reason why exercise programs fail. Fitness Camps allow a novice exercise person, who wants to learn how to exercise correctly, or the regular fitness minded person, who enjoys new challenges, the opportunity to learn from a professional trainer without the financial commitment that comes with one on one personal training. Plus, what better way to learn than by listening, watching and working hard with other individuals who share your goals.

The design of Fitness Camps is also very unique. Since these camps can be held essentially anywhere, they often use very simple exercise equipment like Medicine Balls, Rubber tubing, elastic bands, sandbags, and of course your own body. Using this type of equipment, trains the body to not only develop better functional strength and cardiovascular conditioning, but it also improves flexibility, balance and coordination of movement; things all of us need especially as we enter into our 30’s and beyond.

Considering that awkward movements and falls lead to 70% or more of all orthopedic injuries, developing our athleticism can be very helpful to our over all health and well being. Injuries like, hip fractures, ankle fracture – dislocations, rotator cuff tears, disc herniations, shoulder fractures and Achilles tendon ruptures can be devastating to one’s overall quality of life and to know that these can be prevented by simply learning how to properly train your body, may be well worth the cost of what is less than one month’s insurance premium.

If you are concerned about being able to stay with the group, don’t worry. Fitness Camps are set up on time based training, which means you exercise at your own pace for a certain time frame. This time based training allows everyone to push themselves versus being pushed. Also since these are taught by training professionals, you always have a watchful eye making sure you are staying safe.

So make sure you take advantage of what is slowing becoming the best way to train and check into an Adult Fitness Boot Camp near you this summer. Who knows, that athlete in you may just start coming out again.

Dave Schmitz is an Orthopedic Physical Therapist, CSCS, LAT and a Performance Enhancement Specialist with an emphasis on movement training and retraining. Dave recently created the only website exclusively devoted to functional resistance band training at www.functionaltrainingwithresistancebands.com.

He has written several articles, created 2 E-books and several DVDs on how to implement a Functionally Integrated Training (FIT) approach using resistance band.

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