Are Fitness Boot Camps The Answer For Quick Weight Loss?

By Howe Russ


These days, boot camp classes are everywhere. Offering HIIT workouts with minimal equipment, they often bill themselves as the easy answer for people trying to figure out how to lose weight quickly and effectively.

Is this method safe and effective? Are you really able to generate quicker results and, more importantly, retain them into the future?

In short, yes. Once you get past all of the marketing hype and sales talk behind the product, a boot camp is merely offering advice which has existed in gyms worldwide for over twenty five years. Simply put, it's nothing new or ground-breaking.

If you walk into any well established gym these days you will see countless people applying the basic science of a boot camp workout to their gym session. High intensity circuits which incorporate both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training will cover all the bases you could hit at a boot camp.

Hang on a moment... If we're seriously telling you that the science behind boot camps is nothing new and has been used in gyms for decades, how come boot camps are billed as miracle solutions using the latest keep-fit secrets? It comes down to marketing. Notice that this type of class is usually associated with claims of instant weight loss and life-changing overnight results. It doesn't take long for the hype to get out of control.

By exaggerating the truth, of course, these classes often make it tougher to succeed. Every class has to top it's rivals so you end up in a situation where everybody is claiming to be the best workout ever, even though all of them are essentially providing the same thing and if you stuck to any of them you'd see results.

All of the hype surrounding this type of training, which is often merely a company's attempt at competing with it's rivals, can lead to the whole thing being labelled a fitness fad. Yet the workouts themselves are proven and they tend to stick to the basic exercises such as squats and push-ups.

The one area which still stands in the boot camp's advantage, of course, is the group atmosphere it promotes. There are many people who find it difficult to push themselves without others around them doing the same thing. This is where boot camps and fitness classes are first rate. However, those looking to join purely because of the fitness benefits are quick to notice that the actual workouts are very basic. Because of this realization, the whole boot camp phenomenon is now dying off and people are beginning to get the same effective workouts at home without the need for memberships.

If you are trying to discover how to lose weight effectively you will probably see boot camp classes in your local area quite regularly. Overall, the HIIT workouts they offer are proven to work but are ultimately something which you could do yourself. You should base your decision on how much you think you need a group atmosphere while working out.




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