December 5, 2006

Operation total fitness

Women’s-only boot camp takes Campbell Park by storm

By Jennifer Robertson
Staff Writer

Fitness “boot camps” are perhaps among the hottest trends in fitness right now. Oprah and her team recently lost inches and pounds through a rigorous boot camp program played out for her viewers. But, if you think it’s only for big-city urban dwellers or elite socialites, you’re wrong.

Denise Bradley, head coach, supervises boot campers in Campbell Park as they practice the “plank” exercise, which is designed to strengthen the abdominal region. Bradley is a physical therapist who also serves as the “injury consultant” for all of the Bay Area Boot Camps.

Bay Area Boot Camp, which has seven locations throughout the Bay Area, offers boot camp in our backyard . . . almost literally. Three to five days a week, women of all ages, sizes and fitness levels get up at the crack of dawn and head out to Campbell Park for an hour of rigorous exercise.

Bay Area Boot Camp is an intense four-week fitness and nutrition program. The Campbell boot camp, which is for women only, includes exercises such as sprints, calisthenics, weight lifting, yoga, obstacle courses, jump rope, pilates, stairs/bleachers, squats, pushups, crunches, lunges and relays. The trainers have a good imagination, which can sometimes seem a bit cruel first thing in the morning, but people see results.

Loretta Reyes, a 42-year-old from Cupertino is a good example. Prior to attending boot camp, she had been a smoker for 28 years and couldn’t even run 100 yards. “I had quit smoking and I gained 20 pounds within a couple of months . . . I was very unhappy. I felt fat,” said Reyes.

In spite of being a single mom with two kids at home and a full-time job with Apple Computer, she made the commitment to drastically change her life. “I am not one to get up at 5 a.m. to go exercise . . . My bones aren’t even awake at that time,” she laughed. Reyes now exercises regularly. In fact, she recently competed in a couple of local 5K races and plans to run a 10K race soon.

And although staying fit had always been a priority for Krista Valpareda, a 30-year-old-stay-at-home mom, she had not worked out much during her pregnancy. After she had her baby, she wanted to lose weight, start running again and train for upcoming marathons. At 5 feet 4 inches and 160 pounds, Valpareda knew she had some post-pregnancy weight to lose, but what she didn’t know was that she was clinically considered obese.

A woman is considered obese if her body fat percentage is 30 percent or above. During her pre-camp consultation, which included nutrition instruction, goal setting and taking weight and body fat measurements, Valpareda was surprised to learn that her body fat percentage was 35.9!

During her first four weeks of Boot Camp, Valpareda lost 4 percent body fat. She has attended a total of seven boot-camp sessions and has gone from a size 12 to a size six. Her body fat percentage is now 23 percent, which is considered healthy for a woman. “It’s an incredible experience,” she said. “You reach your goals, then surpass your goals.” She feels part of the reason for her success is the fact that the camp offers a great deal of diversity in its fitness activities and is held outdoors, making it a much more interesting alternative to the gym.

But while Boot Camp workouts may be more exciting than a trip to the gym, prices are not cheap. For example, a five-day-per-week session is $325, while a gym membership might have a monthly fee of $25-$65. Mary Beth Gonzales, who co-owns the boot camp with Heather Glenn, put the price into perspective. Boot camp includes 20 hours of instruction, which works out to $16.25/hr, or about the price of an individual yoga class. With a gym membership, you do not get a personal trainer unless you pay extra. “You’re committed to a four-week trainer for way less than a personal trainer,” which can cost $50 per hour or more in addition to the membership fees, explained Gonzales.

Although attendees are part of a group, they get individual attention as well, including pre and post-camp consultations. “I have gotten much more out of the boot camp than I ever did having a trainer at the gym,” said Valpareda.

Fitness from Within
In addition to weight loss and increased fitness levels, many women cited increased confidence as one of the main benefits they derived from Boot Camp. “I’ve always been very insecure, very hard on myself . . . not thin enough, not pretty enough,” Reyes commented. “I think as women we are so down on ourselves.”

This is perhaps the main appeal of the Bay Area Boot Camp. Its’ mission is to “empower [women] through fitness, better their health and have fun at the same time,” said Gonzales. Her target population is women in their mid-20s to mid-40s who enjoy being in a group environment outdoors, but there are certainly women who attend who fall outside that age range.

Camp activities include plenty of partner and team activities to promote healthy competition and a sense of camaraderie.

In fact, Gonzales does pro bono after-school “boot camps” geared to girls in third to fifth grade through a non-profit organization called the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI). The purpose is to empower girls in underprivileged areas through exercise such as dancing, sports, games, relays and teamwork activities.

Gonzales got much of her inspiration from her mother, who encouraged her to engage in sports from a very young age. Gonzales noted that she started kicking soccer balls at age 2. Her father also inspired her as well, but in a very different way: When he was 39 and she was only 7, he had a heart attack. “I was very aware of the health issues that run in my family,” she explained. “It was my personal mission to adopt a healthy lifestyle.”

Gonzales has stayed true to her mission by regularly competing in national and local competitions. Although she has competed in triathlons and marathons, she prefers shorter races and overall fitness competitions. Recently, she competed in the Women’s Tri-Fitness competition in Tampa, Fla., which included obstacle courses, bench pressing and other “military-style” competitions similar to the boot camp program.

Although she does not wish to take her program to a national level at this time, Gonzales is in the process of creating a more cardio-specific boot camp that focuses on running and will include track meets with events such as 100-, 200- and 400-yard dashes and relays. She hopes to have this in place by fall of 2007. She will also start doing some weekend seminars, create an on-line store that will sell fitness equipment and clothes, and hold one-week specialty camps that focus on specific items such as yoga or cardio-vascular activities.

Although Bay Area Boot Camp actually holds co-ed classes in the evenings in San Francisco, San Mateo and Sunnyvale, the organization feels it is important to hold women's only boot camps in the mornings to “foster a team atmosphere" and to “ensure that all women feel comfortable and not intimidated,” explained Gonzales.

“Opportunity has always been limited for girls and women,” she said. Although there has been a surge in fitness programs for women, she feels there are not enough programs that are held outside in a team-oriented environment. “I want women to feel like they can accomplish anything.”

For more information, visit the Web site at www.bayareabootcamp.com. To contact the Bay Area Boot Camp, call (408) 425-9475 or send an e-mail to info@bayareabootcamp.com.