Gauging your boot camp results

At the end of a boot camp, it’s always fun to reassess our initial measurements to see how much we’ve improved. Actually seeing progress is essential to maintaining the motivation to stick with the program. However, there are several important factors to consider when gauging your boot camp results. Think about these factors as you evaluate your camp experience:

• Your measurements include more than just your waist size, weight, and body fat. Though these are important, our first priority is better fitness, and that includes making improvements in the actual camp workouts. Did your mile time improve? How was your “Ruth” score or “Dawn” score when compared to your first effort? Can you now do push-ups on your toes instead of your knees? Changes in your body composition are a by-product of good fitness, but they are not our main goal. If your scores/times/rounds improve, your body will change!

• Hard work = results! This couldn’t be more true than for your boot camp experience. Did you commit to five days/week (with homework)? Were you on time? Did you push yourself to new limits? Simply going through the motions may produce some improvements, but it will not yield the type of life changing results that can be a reality if we work our hardest everyday.

• How quickly your body changes really depends on three factors: your genetics, your diet and your workout. You can’t do anything about your genetic disposition to burn fat and make muscle, but you can do something about the other factors. What you eat and drink is the biggest contributor to your overall fitness level. Did you follow the advice of the nutritionist? Did you cut back on sugar and spread your calorie consumption throughout the day? The other factor, your workout, also plays a large part in changing your body if you put in the effort. A workout that didn’t make you sweat, out of breath, sore, and fatigued may not be much of a workout (see previous point).

• For people who are just beginning to workout, a typical progression for seeing improvements goes in this order: 1. You feel better. 2. You look better (glowing skin, pants seem loose, etc.). 3. Your times/weights/repetitions/rounds improve. 4. Your physical assessment numbers improve (scale weight, body fat, measurements). Please note: your scale weight and measurements are typically the last thing to improve. In the first weeks and months of a new exercise routine, you are recruiting seldom used muscles and building new muscle, which will be put to use to burn fat. In the short term, however, this muscle gain will sometimes neutralize any initial fat loss it terms of actual body weight. Thus, it is common for some people to maintain the same weight for some time after the program has started. Don’t lose heart!

• You always hear us say it: “Fitness is a journey.” Sometimes, results may take a while, and when you do experience success, you’ve got to work just as hard to maintain it. The truth is, you’ve got to make fitness part of your lifestyle and acknowledge the fact that this is a long-term, on-going project. It’s unrealistic to expect to make huge improvements everyday so don’t let the short-term fluctuations distract you from the long-term goals. The joy is in the journey!

After considering these points, you can be honest with yourself about your results from camp. If the answers to some of the questions made you cringe, let’s commit to making positive changes for the next camp. We know the program works. We know the nutrition plan works. The variable is you! Are you ready to step up your game?