Breaking Through the Pain Barrier at Bootcamp! Do They Work?

Our busy "Mums on the Run" take time out to explore whether the claims of losing 20,000 calories a week are true!

Added:Sun, 2nd May 10

Us “Mums on the Run” are always eager to keep to trend and try as many different fitness regimes as we can. So with celebrities a plenty using fitness boot camps in the past year or so, we decided to try one out and see what all the fuss is about...

Our boot camp of choice was (www.fitness-boot-camp.com) in Palma Mallorca. What better way to spend a week burning calories than in the sun?! According to the website we could burn 20,000 calories in a week!

We were fairly nervous stepping off the plane in Palma. We hadn’t kidded ourselves and knew we were about to enter a week of hard work outs and we were not wrong.

Stan Bowles (who owns the camp) and his ex Marine side-kick Dan Paget met us at the airport in their bright green “fitness boot camp” t-shirts and military shorts with welcoming smiles and muscles that clearly showed we were about to be tested.

Arriving at the most amazing house as our residence for the next 7 days, we slyly gazed at the pool wondering if a few hours sunbathing may be ok.... wrong! Straight down to business... we had a weigh in, then after a briefing and a chat getting to know one another, we were ushered off to get our running gear on to do the fitness test, sit-ups, press-ups, a 1.5 mile brisk walk followed by a timed 1.5 mile run. To be repeated again at the end of the week, and this was just the afternoon of day one!

Our trainers for the week were clearly very experienced and knew what they were talking about. They knew we were all there to be pushed to our limits and they had to get effort and focus out of us that we never thought we had.

A general day consisted of a 7.15 am breakfast call, followed by a jog or circuit work out before going off and exploring the island the fitness way!

Our hikes up mountains and work-outs on the beach and bike riding (which really was tough) around the island ensured that we definitely saw a lot of what Mallorca has to offer too. The views at the ends of the hikes were simply breath-taking and really helped to take our minds of the gigantic hill we had just spent hours power walking up.

We would be back at the house for an afternoon exercise - one included being chased by our dressed up trainers while trying to rescue 2 members of the camp they had “captured”, all the while dressed in military jackets... To be honest, that wasn’t one of our favourites, but other members of the group really enjoyed it. And all this before eating dinner and having our evenings to recover – thank goodness.

We were placed on a strict nutrition plan throughout the week. The lunchtime salads became quite tedious - no dressing, and not much flavour but for nutritional purposes they did their job. The evening meals however (prepared by Chris and Sarah the house chefs) were absolutely amazing.

We had to steer clear of the wrong types of carbohydrates all week but they produced a delicious main meal every evening. This more than made up for the salads and the snacks of seeds - which were lovely on day one, but not so lovely by day six. We also managed to cook for the group on our last night - a favourite from the book (roast salmon and sweet potato salad) which went down very well.

As the end of the week neared we all wondered whether or not we had lost weight, although it was clear just by looking at people how much they had toned up and slimmed down. I am pleased to say we had success! Everybody had lost weight - the average being 3kg. Everybody had kick started their desire to be more fit and we genuinely had a great time.

Of course there were sulks and moans along the way, but isn’t that what boot camp is all about? If it was easy there would be no point. So, while boot camps may be a fairly expensive way to kick start a change in health and fitness, we would say it is definitely worth doing. We are fitter than before. We have a renewed attitude to health and fitness. It was also a bit of a break for the brain leaving you feeling refreshed. And we made some new friends on the way.