A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience
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A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 3/19/2007 7:06:15 PM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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Well, I've given up lifting.
No! Not forever. Just for awhile. I wanted to kick things up a notch. And teach myself more discipline.
I'm in bootcamp! www.bulldogbootcamp.com to be specific. The gov't doesn't pay me to exercise--nope, I'm paying someone else to kick my sorry butt at some ungodly hour.
This journal will chronicle summaries of the workouts. I'm interested to see how strength will evolve, as too body fat, and of course, size.
My first entry is, however: UGH! 6 a.m. workouts in the cold outside are, um, challenging!
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 3/19/2007 7:10:13 PM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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Day 1
This was evaluation day.
Warm up, then . . .
ON your marks, get set, go! Run 1 mile as fast as you can. I can't remember my time (I think I heard it), but if I hadn't gotten confused in the park about where the finish line was, it would've been faster. In any case, of the 6 of us being evaluated, I came in first!!!!!
Before that, it was: How many situps (not crunches) in a minute (mid-20s)? And how many true push-ups in a minute (mid-20s)? (cheat push-ups don't count).
UGH. I thought I was in better shape than THIS!
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to gzinkl)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 3/19/2007 7:22:17 PM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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Days 2-5
Frankly, the days from the first week have blurred together. I'll recap as best I can. Let's just say, however, that I spent most of the week in a drowsy fog.
First, we start at 6 a.m. If your late checking in--10 extra push ups! (And if you aren't wearing the official "uniform"--the "Bulldog Bootcamp" T-shirt they give you when you sign up), that's just asking for lots more push ups. So far I've been prompt and wearing my T-shirt. The threats are not idle!
The only time class is cancelled (it's in the park and along the lake) is: It's truly 10 degrees F or less (wind chill doesn't count) and if it's lightning. Otherwise, rain, snow, sleet, wind, mud, etc., we're out there. It's dark, too. Ugh.
Every day does start out the same. We start with a warm-up jog that takes us to our destination for that day's workout (usually about 1/2 mile). I actually look forward to this part. We sing silly songs as we go (just like the military--the leader sings/chants his line, then we have to all respond). Here's one:
When my Grandma was 91
She did her PT just for fun
When my Grandma was 92
She did her PT better than you
When my Grandma was 93
She did her PT better than me
When my Grandma was 94
She did her PT more and more
When my Grandma was 95
She did her PT to stay alive
When my Grandma was 96
She did her PT just for kicks
When my Grandma was 97
She upped, died, and went to heaven
When my Grandma was 98
She *something something* Pearly Gates (gimme a break--it's 6 a.m.!)
When my Grandma was 99
She had old St. Pete doing double time!
Then we do some kinetic stretching exercises: neck rolls, shoulder shrugs, etc. Of course we have to count out loud and in time with the leader. BTW, everything seems to be done in counts of four, so when we're doing push ups for example, "1" push-up equals everyone elses "2" push-ups. Bastards.
Then it's on to that day's stuff. The programs mix strength training with cardio, and there is always one "long run" day a week.
So on Tuesday, it was bodyweight exercises galore.
Wednesday was suicide sprints, with some calisthenics (sp) thrown in
Thursday it was long run day: 1 mile (hills), then squats and other leg exercises (UGH UGH UGH that HURTS), then 2/3 mile (hills), squats, etc., then 1/3 mile.
Friday was goofy drills going in a square, doing stuff like "the grapevine", the "low shuffle", running backwards, skipping as high as you can, and skipping as far as you can, mixed with jogging (so the drills were something like: jog, drill selection 1, jog, drill selection 2, rest, repeat). With more calisthenics thrown in.
I was exhausted by Friday and looked forward to the weekend to recover.
My partner said that my body radiated so much heat in the middle of the week, he could hardly stand to be in the same room with me!
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to gzinkl)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 3/19/2007 7:29:03 PM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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Monday, March 19
Ok, it's week 2. I haven't given up yet! In fact, a colleague of mine and his fiancee are thinking of joining me at the next start date in April.
Today, it was warm up, which was a little longer than last weeks'. One of the amusing songs we sang today was a classic of the grammophone:
Tiny bubbles
in my beer
make me happy
they give me cheer
Tiny bubbles
in my wine
make me happy
they make me feel fine
Tiny bubbles
in my gin
make me happy
they make me grin
Tiny bubbles
in my whiskey
make me happy
they make me feel frisky
(may not be exact!!).
Then it was sprint day. In a long parking lot, a pylon was placed halfway. Then we did various combinations of jogs, 3/4 jogs/1/4 sprints (where the 1/4 sprint was in the course varied), and 1/2 jogs/1/2 sprints (total killers). Very little rest between each course--the idea was to learn to recover while jogging. In the middle of the workout we took a "break" and did squats, crunches, and sumo squats.
I forgot to outline above that we also have a cool down. We jog back to the start (with a stop at the only water fountain in Lincoln Park that must be left on during the winter) and then do a series of stretching exercises. Discipline is gone by the time we jog back--we're a motley, out of shape bunch, and it's painfully obvious by this time.
Rumor has it that it's "push-up day" tomorrow. We'll see. The next day's workouts are never broadcast.
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to gzinkl)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 3/22/2007 7:16:12 AM
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Swimmer
Posts: 185
Joined: 2/13/2006
Status: offline
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*picking jaw up from the floor*
You're in boot camp?!? Are you crazy?!? You're still alive and kicking....right? Have you noticed any changes in these first two weeks (I'm sure it would be tough to see - but what about changes in weight?).
Man, kudos for really trying something new!!
_____________________________
Stand Tall and Shake the Heavens
My 5x5 Journal:
http://www.discussbodybuilding.com/Swimmers_5X5_Journal/m_151211/tm.htm
(in reply to twistedlink)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 3/22/2007 7:36:46 AM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Swimmer
*picking jaw up from the floor*
You're in boot camp?!? Are you crazy?!? You're still alive and kicking....right? Have you noticed any changes in these first two weeks (I'm sure it would be tough to see - but what about changes in weight?).
Man, kudos for really trying something new!!
Yes, in boot camp (civilian!)
Yes, I'm crazy, but that was already an accepted fact!
Alive--Yes.
Kicking--maybe. It hurts to move like that.
Yes--4 pounds gone, and 1/4-1/2" off my waist (2.5" to go for my first big goal), and I'm used to waking up at 5:30 a.m. (that is good or bad, depending on the day and your perspective).
Can't write much more, but I'll leave the teaser that when they say rain or shine, they mean rain or shine . . . . drip . . . . drip . . . drip . . . .
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to Swimmer)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 3/22/2007 8:58:56 AM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: IBendBarbells
sounds pretty close to the real thing, only they are not telling you when to eat when to wake up or kicking your ass with non stop training for punishment.
hey those situps are no joke huh? lol.. i think we had to do 60 of them and I could barely do them, im not sure how many times me and my partner cheated since you have to count for them.. But sometimes I got killed by the person running the drills  pushups at a fast pace are pretty hard too... Im suprised they dont have you doing mountain climbers leg lifts etc... Maybe they do and i just missed it.
I think our drill sargent is probably nicer than those in the military, since he doesn't have the goal of tearing us down psychologically to become one unit. But I can't help thinking he doesn't take some kind of sadistic pleasure in telling us what to do. There is punishment for not following the rules (not the right T-shirt: do more pushups. You're late? More pushups).
Yes, we do all the exercises you listed. Here's what I can recall that we've done at least once (and don't involve some kind of leg locomotion):
crunches
side to side crunches
sit ups
jumping jacks
push ups (all varieties)
dips
butt biters
dirty dogs
leg lifts
locomotives
moutain climbers
squats (all varieties)
lunges
That's all I can think of so far, and it's only been (almost) two weeks. I'm thinking the repertoire will be expanding. I'm assuming there's room for expansion!
I thought there would be cheating, but there hasn't been. It's probably because we're there to get better, not meet some guy's pre-determined goal for us. Plus it's a small group. It's easy to get caught.
The cameraderie thing though has been coming through. It's a mostly encouraging group. And I'm surprised that the women far outnumber the men. Interestingly, the women almost always "win" the long runs, and the guys always the sprints and shorter runs. I'm not sure if my sample is overly small, but it's an interesting observation.
Here's the latest ditty I memorized:
Get up in the morning at the break of day
I don't like it . . . no way
Eat my breakfast too darn soon
Hungry as a hound dog . . . before noon
Went to the mess sargent on my knees
Feed me feed me feed me please
The mess sargent said with a big ol' grin
If you wanna be a Bulldog, you gotta fit in
And this lesbian-laced one:
Two old ladies lying in a bed
One turns to the other and says
I wanna be a mountain climber
Climb those mountains, higher and higher
She was motivated
She was dedicated
Two old ladies lying in a bed
One turns to the other and says
I wanna be a recon ranger
Live a life of stress and danger
She was motivated
She was dedicated
Mountain climber
Recon ranger
Higher and higher
Life of danger
Two old ladies lying in a bed
One turns to the other and says
I wanna be a scuba diver
Dive right in to murkey water
She was motivated
She was dedicated
...(I'm sure there's more, but we usually start this ditty near the end of the warm up).
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to IBendBarbells)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 4/16/2007 4:39:33 AM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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I'm still at it, except I'm doing the 5 a.m. session, instead of 6. Yeah yeah yeah...
We had an evaluation last week, and I knocked almost two minutes off my mile! WOOHOO! I added at least 5 pushups to the 1 minute time, and added over 10 sit-ups to the 1 minute time.
So far, we've repeated only one workout (this is week 6), and I've missed only 4 sessions (it's 5 days a week)--3 of which were because I was out of town (my son and I were in
DC for Spring Break--we did do a session together, because he was curious), and one day because I had gone to bed so late due to a computer disaster (my own doing! ) at work, and I thought I was more likely to get sick than be healthy.
Now that the weather is thinking about warming up, the groups have swelled. Instead of 3-6 at the 5 a.m. class, now there's around 14. At the 6 a.m., one day there were 40. UGH! Too many for me. Women still outnumber men by a good margin. Are men the real wimps?!?
I haven't lost any mass, except in my upper arms  , but I have lost fat--down a couple of %, and I'm toning up nicely. Still have too much gut for my liking, but, all in due time I guess. I'm following the Absdiet eating plan at www.absdietonline.com, and have fiddled with the calories so that even though it thinks I'm maintaining, I'm losing (my energy requirements are higher than they have programmed with their lifting regime). 7 lbs are missing from my frame.
Today was murderous (most Mondays are)--warm up jog, warm up kinetic stretching, some static stretching, calisthenics/run x 4 or 5, I can't recall now, and then the cool down jog and cool down stretching.
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to gzinkl)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 4/26/2007 6:03:33 PM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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It's been awhile since I've posted. I'm bummed. This is the seventh week, and I haven't been to camp at all--I've been sick! I hate being sick. And not cough-cough/hack-hack sick, but fatigue sick. I know it's not just me--everyone says I look like a walking corpse (gee, thanks!)
Went to the doctor today, and he has no idea, but we ran some tests. He said to avoid alcohol, get plenty of rest, and exercise! So I'll put my ass out there tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. Pray that it doesn't rain again!
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to gzinkl)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 4/26/2007 9:14:30 PM
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Kai
Posts: 44
Joined: 1/8/2006
Status: offline
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Hey I live in Chicago too!
Just curious, do most people stay with it or drop out of this bootcamp?
(in reply to gzinkl)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 4/27/2007 10:11:05 PM
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Jane
Posts: 539
Joined: 1/4/2007
Status: offline
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I did a bootcamp...
I live in calif...
I 'bout died...but it was so much fun...I lost some weight and I was able to do more push ups and running at the end....I did this like a year ago.
this year I plan on doing the Volkslauf...the "mud run" the proceeds go to toys for tots and it is soo much fun....it running and obstacles...marines yelling at you...and encouraging...i love that type of stuff.
good job for u!!!
(in reply to gzinkl)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 5/28/2007 6:58:09 AM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kai
Hey I live in Chicago too!
Just curious, do most people stay with it or drop out of this bootcamp?
Sorry I missed this entry from awhile back. I would say, in watching two monthly cycles, that the drop out rate varies from 50-75%.
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to Kai)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 5/28/2007 7:01:23 AM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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Still hard at it.
I've also added swimming training to my regime. I'm trying to learn free style so that it's comfortable and that I can do 700-1000 meters without rest or strain. I can do breast stroke til the cows come home, but freestyle is hard. I'm using www.triswimcoach.com materials.
Meanwhile, I've gotten not only my co-worker and his fiancee to join up, but also a neighbor in my building. And the most amazing thing happened--my partner has completed a week and a half! The same guy who said he was going to start his own group, "The Poodles", who, instead of exercising, would experience the finer things in life! (he's a funny guy). Anyway, awesome! I'm so proud of him!! He's 43 and never exercised regularly in his life. Stay tuned to see if he stays tuned! 
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to gzinkl)
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RE: A break from lifting: a civilian bootcamp experience - 11/4/2007 5:32:51 AM
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gzinkl
Posts: 2098
Joined: 3/23/2005
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline
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I haven't died. I haven't ignored the board. I've just been letting the internet robots do their thing.
This phase ended in the summer. I then trained with a fancy personal trainer for 8 weeks and learned a lot.
Now everything is geared towards my first triathlon next summer. I'm taking swimming coaching (it's amazing how poorly many of us were taught to swim!), running 3 miles at least 2x a week and a "long" 6 mile run 1x a week, biking 10-20 miles/day (commute, though, and errands, etc)., and since it's not time to ramp any of those numbers up, I'm bulking a little. See my new journal!
_____________________________
"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"
(in reply to rippedchick)
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