Bootcamp

willow, pre-coffee iv

Beep beep beep beep…4:37am the alarm goes off…that is on days when I manage to sleep past 4:15.  I hate waking to an alarm clock so my brain usually wakes me up beforehand so I can switch the blasted thing off.  Get up, drink that first quart of coffee.  This time of day is so surreal; all of the people that stay up most of the night have gone to bed and the next shift of human activity hasn’t quite started yet.   It’s the best time ever to commute; the city is dark and quiet, just a handful of cars on the road.  It feels like I own this town.  Shift to the gym…almost eerily still…the smell of rubber mats and chalk. I switch on the lights and the brightly colored walls instantly saturate my retinas.  “Willow get ready to get your fitness on…did I drink all of my coffee yet?...where is the 18lb medicine ball?...I hope they like this workout…oops I failed to make a new playlist, AGAIN…how can I be this tired?” 

typical bootcamp workout

The words “boot camp” evoke a lot of negative imagery of some pinched looking guy in a uniform, barking out orders and raining down shame on everyone within shouting distance.  Not so at Juno.  Neither is it one of those cult-like gyms where you must, “comply to our lifestyle or fail”.  We don’t serve Kool-Aid at Juno, thank you very much.  A client once said (while groaning on the floor after a class), “I’m glad this is the ‘kinder, gentler’ boot camp because I don’t think I could take working this hard AND getting yelled at”.  I love teaching boot camp classes at Juno.  Of course it’s in no small part due to the amazing clientele.  I count myself lucky because across the board, from beginner to seasoned athlete they are inspiring.  Half the time when I’m standing there calling out time or counting (poorly) I’m thinking, “Wow I want to be like (your name here)!”   There is so much to love.  There’s the determination and fierceness that comes out in even the shyest, most unassuming person when they are driven to do that one more rep, to jump a little higher, to lift a little heavier.  There is the sea of positive energy that comes from a room full of people with the same goal, to be a little bit better tomorrow than they are today.  There’s the success that comes from hard work.  Seeing client progress is the best; that first push up or pull up, that perfect deadlift, positive changes in body composition, relief from back pain, better performance in their usual sport, the person that has “never worked out” admitting that she’s started doing Tabatas on her own.  Seeing those positive changes is so addictive it’s like a drug.  So what’s so special about boot camp at Juno? What gets me up at that early morning/fuzzy headed/haven’t-slept-enough-in-years time of day?  It’s not that I have some magical early morning skills (just try and get me to do simple math!)  It’s the people that come to class.  They are awesome. 

-Willow