Anyone can run a fitness bootcamp…right?

A loud voice, military background, shaved head, and maybe some interest in fitness, but more interest in belittling people.  Thats what it takes to run a successful fitness bootcamp right?

Well unfortunately if you said yes, you have either experienced a bootcamp like this first hand, or have no idea what I’m talking about.  I’m sure the latter is not the case if you are reading this blog post as I refer to bootcamps all the time (probably because I run one .

Fitness Bootcamps might have started that way, but they have evolved in the past 8-10 years that they have been around.  Oh, and the thought that anyone can run a fitness bootcamp?  Well, hold that thought for a minute as I’ll let you make that decision.

I started running bootcamps for a few reasons.  For one I was bored with one on one personal training and felt like I could do much more with the time I was spending with one person.  I went to a few conferences and discovered the concept of fitness bootcamps.  It allowed me to train a larger group, so more people in the same amount of time.

Initially it was fun and I admit, there might have been a large compromise in quality from one on one personal training.  But as I evolved and our program evolved very quickly, the quality quickly rivaled personal training level of service.

We implemented tools such as foam rolling for warm up and cool down, a more extensive warm up working on trouble areas for clients. 

We incorporated a system for orientation of new campers so they aren’t coming into our program blind and neither are we meeting our new clients on the first day. 

In that orientation we implemented an evaluation of movement to assess potential trouble areas for new clients, allowing us to provide a personal touch in a group setting.

We diversified our workouts so they can be modified or enhanced to provide the most benefit to a large variety of clients.  All of our exercises we use not only are highly effective for fat loss, but also have the ability to be modified for beginners as well as enhanced for more advanced clientele. 

And we have literally 25-30 more things we will be implementing in the coming year to enhance the one on one attention in a group setting.

Now if you believe that anyone can do all of those things without formal training and education, then I suggest you read the above again.  Would someone without formal training be able to successfully complete all of the tasks above effectively?  Well, I can’t say it would never happen, but it is highly unlikely. 

Now as for the militant background, personally I get that question a lot, but other than my dad being in the Air Force, I do not have any military background.  However my head is shaven, but that’s because I look silly with hair .

I do tend to use my voice but its mostly because of being able to instruct with loud music, and for people to hear instructions and encouragement over the crowd.  Sometimes I use it to bring a crowd back as sometimes they can get out of hand with chatter and off-task talking.  One thing we never do (and I will say never here) is belittle or talk down to someone.  That is not what our program is about.  Its called a bootcamp for two reasons: its a catchy name, but the method of our classes are bootcamp like; get in, do what needs to be done and do it very well with max effort, and get out. 

Unfortunately some of the best one on one personal trainers make terrible bootcamp instructors because they are so focused on one person, and they have an entire hour or time slot saved to focus on nothing else than that person.  A good bootcamp instructor will have to multitask; attention to all clients in the same or, most often, shorter amount of time.  All the things a personal trainer does, like check and correct form, offer modifications, motivate, challenge, encourage, a bootcamp instructor needs to do…to ALL participants in a class. For us sometimes that is 35 people.  If one person didn’t get the attention they needed or didn’t do an exercise correctly, we didn’t do our job.

So, can anyone run a fitness bootcamp?  Unfortunately yes.  But can they run a successful business that is going to help a lot of people?  Not if they aren’t implmenting one on one attention, utilizing all the necessary tools to provide the best service to their clients, and producing results (which I didn’t even touch one, probably because I thought it would be obvious) for their clients.