Azernews.Az

By Scott Fenwick

B.S. /Hons

[email protected]

The New Year is just around the corner; why not try something new with guaranteed results?

Boot camp workouts are a mixture of functional movements incorporating aerobics, strength, core and flexibility. It is organised with "military style" discipline and gives you the opportunity to push yourself more, working in a group environment. Join a Boot Camp class as a beginner or an expert and you will feel the benefits immediately!

These programs are designed to build strength and fitness through a variety of intense group intervals over a 1 hour period of time.

Originally from the United States of America they were brought over to Europe and have been growing in popularity all over the world.

Boot Camp training commences with dynamic stretching and running, followed by a wide variety of interval training, including lifting weights/objects, push-ups/sit-ups, plyometric and various types of intense explosive routines. Many other exercises using weights and/or body weight, similar to Cross Fit routines, are used to lose body fat, increase cardiovascular efficiency, increase strength, and help people get into a routine of regular exercise.

Another advantage of Boot Camp is that it provides social support (make friends and lose weight!) This provides a different environment for those exercisers who get bored in a gym and find it hard to develop a habit of exercise. Participants socialize as they exercise; this is an important factor especially at this time of the year.

January is the busiest time of the year for gyms and health clubs. However, after 1 month, most people become bored of the same exercises in the gym or they have not been taught the true potential of what they can do with regards to exercise. Functional movements and boot camp training provides excitement, fun and most of all a goal oriented regime that can keep you exercising without getting bored and really focuses on a result!

The Club Port Baku will be holding Azerbaijan's first fitness boot camp on 9 January for 4 weeks to get into the best physical condition possible. I will be holding and conducting this incredible opportunity and both members and non-members are able to attend! Come down and be a part of something exciting, the new you in 2013!

Boot Camp includes Functional training, which is a method of strength training that stimulates improvement in the body's functional ability relating to specific movement patterns in sports or activities of daily living. For many years, coaches and athletes have been utilizing this sport-specific type of training to improve performance.

The Functional training focus moves away from traditional body building type exercises where the concentration is on overload (strength) training of one muscle group at a time. There the major emphasis is on increasing the muscle strength, size and/or definition. In Functional training, similar overloading is required but the focus is put on motion and movement patterns rather than just the strength of a particular muscle group. Traditional strength training programs have relied heavily on machines that stabilize the weight for the user while the exercisers themselves perform the exercise in a two-dimensional movement pattern that rarely imitates typical activity patterns. With Functional training, the exerciser will be required to control and balance the weight while lifting and lowering it. Exercises using dumbbells and barbells (i.e., free weights) from a standing position are typically used in Functional training because the weights have to be controlled by the user and this encourages greater ability to support challenging weights while stabilizing the entire body from the ground up. This increases the functional effectiveness of training that can transfer into greater abilities to perform more demanding activities with potentially less strain to vulnerable joints like the lower back and knees.

Scott's Functional training program:

1. Multi-joint exercises. Examples: Squats & Lunges. Both of these exercises can be progressed to incorporate movements that are multi-dimensional. Eventually, the exerciser can incorporate upper body exercises with the lower body movements.

2. Exercises should work in loading and unloading cycles. For example: catching and tossing a medicine ball requires the exerciser to pre-load the movements necessary to efficiently catch (deceleration) and then toss (unload) forcefully the heavy ball.

3. Include activities that require balance and stabilization. Examples: balancing on one foot, using balancing boards or discs, or sitting on a physiotherapist ball while maintaining good posture and a stable spine. These can become progressively more challenging by closing the eyes or incorporating a light weight or medicine ball and moving it away from the body to change the center of gravity.

Check out next week's article as I will touch on your new resolutions and I will have your 500 calorie burning workout plan to start you in the right direction. Make it happen!