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Q:
Hi Diana,

I love teaching Boot Camp Fitness but could really use some fresh ideas.

I am located in Brantford Ont. I teach 3 Boot Camp classes a week. I do such things as heel clicks, burpees, plyometric lunges and squats, Jumping jacks Push ups, fast feet foot ball drills, jogging outdoors, hand weights, bi cep curls, tricep dips, weighted lunges plies, jumping rope, planks, side planks, ball crunches, Partner work with crunches and medicine balls, partner push ups clapping hands (high five to your partner) as you push up, side planks, side planks with a twist, kick boxing moves, lateral jumps, basket ball throws etc.

I was just looking for some new creative ideas to spice things up a little. The ladies get fatigued and feel the work they are doing, but, I want to add a little extra oomph! The classes are anywhere from 60- 75 minutes / class. It is tons of fun, but what can I add in to it or do different!

Trish

 

A:
Wow, all is great and challenging. You must have a very fit group that are ready to do everything with you. Awesome! Your exercises are perfect and complete. I do these too.

I change my class every week and I work by theme and/or equipment choices. One week, for ex. I will come in with ropes, Steps and Body Bar and my drills will be 1.5 mins on Step (quick taps, jumps up runs etc.), 1.5mins on jump rope, 1.5 mins kickbox then conditioning for 1.5 mins i.e. push ups etc. Next week, its BOSU, Ball and Body bar.

Sometimes, I divide the class into 3 segments after 10 min warm-up: first is jog intervals and drills for 15 mins, second 15 mins is Box drills and jump rope and last segment is Ball drills both cardio and core. I also have sport conditioning themes: 3 segments: Box, football, Soccer etc.

A few weeks ago, I brought in 2 decks of cards and gave everyone a playing card at beginning then randomly selected cards from the second deck to come and do drills on the BOSU. The rest of the group was doing cardio on steps and cheering them on.

I will also divide the group into teams w. team leaders and make them work on different equipment and then switch. My group is big so this gives me more options when I do not have enough BOSUs to go around, for ex. I also do plyometric classes but this will be about a 10-12 min min segment as it kills them. Sometimes, I aim to work to sustain aerobic zone for at least 20 mins without intervals which is hard for them, as I find that a lot of Boot Camp people are more developed to interval training.

Do you do Circuits? Depending on the number of people that can be fun from time to time. My groups like to see me do the stuff, but with my private group, I can do circuits. I am happy to give you even more precise formats if you want as I write all of my classes down. I prepare for each class but most of the time do not follow exactly. At the beginning of each Boot Camp class I tell my group what to expect so that we are ready to go and I do not let them stop.

Basically, I come in with a theme and work my class and the exercises around it. Please feel free to ask me more specific questions. Your class sounds great!!!!

Diana

I invite comments, send me an email: diana@di-namicfitness.com

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