The $4.98 Boot Camp

Last month, my wonderful, generous husband treated me to a full month at one of the more pricier boot camps in our area.

It ended this week and I left 1 pound lighter, 6 1/2 inches smaller and 5% less body fat.

Not bad.

But now it's over. And unless our money tree comes to life, I won't be going back anytime soon.

So I have been trying to come up with a replacement.

I now know the boot camp 'routine' light cardio mixed with intense cardio and a variety of muscle building work-outs done in specific amounts of time. Variety being the key.

At first, I went from memory. I remembered a few of the routines and I mixed in those routines with some light to hard running. Two mornings later, I was at a loss.

I needed some variety along with a good timer. On a whim, I wondered if there was 'an app for that' on the good ol' iphone. Surprise, there are quite a few 'apps for that'.

For cardio, I found an app called 'C25K'. This running program takes you from literally the couch to a 5K 30 minute run in 9 weeks. For $2.99, I figured why not and downloaded it. I got to play my own music (something that really annoyed me about boot camp--the instructor seemed to love Beyonce--me, not so much) and do some running/walking combos. I finished covered in sweat.

OK, that covered the cardio but my main issue was the strength exercises. I searched the apps long on this one and found the most popular one, 'iFitness' for $1.99. Even without stepping foot in a gym, I have quickly found a number of different exercises that I can build into routines and keep track of them. I have paired these with the timer already on the phone, mixed in some cardio bursts (jumping jacks, jump rope, burpees) and I have my own little boot camp.

Now there are some things that I just can't substitute from boot camp. The social aspect of boot camp is missing. I don't get to huff and puff while chatting with others about summer vacations, kids, etc. so I might try to rope in some local friends. Even if I can't, maybe you might want to join me. If you are interested in trying this $4.98 boot camp, email me at verybusymomwith4@gmail.net . If anything, we can compare routines, time and helpful tips. Who knows--maybe we could even do posts with our routines and some encouragement like my instructor did.

So in short, it's not not perfect but for $4.98 plus tax, this boot camp is hard to beat!