Build Your Own Bootcamp Workout Research Lab

This is where the hundreds of hours I spent in research labs and libraries comes back to help you get more results in your bootcamp workouts.

From my experiences performing and reviewing scientific studies, I’ve discovered a lot of cool stuff, but the best thing is taking a look at pre-treatment and post-treatment data. It’s just really cool to be able to say that subject X increased performance in test Y and the only variable that changed was Z. And you can do that in your bootcamp classes to help your clients get more results – and build more credibility for yourself.

It’s all about cause and effect. That’s one of the most powerful “laws” on the planet, just a few steps below compound interest. Unfortunately, the majority of people – and trainers – walk around in a daze without ever paying proper respect to Cause and Effect. They eat crap, get fat, and never connect the two. Or they sit in front of a computer for 12 hours per day, constantly clicking a mouse with their right hand, and then wonder why they have a pain in the neck, never connecting the two.

However, the person who looks for cause and effect in everything in the world will be rewarded with life-changing insights. And when it comes to training our clients, or even putting together our own workouts, the more we know about variable X causing change Y, the more we will set ourselves apart from the competition.

In fact, you can start your own “Bootcamp Exercise Research Lab” at home, with just a small investment of your time and a few good ideas. You can leverage your results into future programs or products, literally using yourself – and your clients – as guinea pigs and use the data in your boot camp marketing campaigns.

Let me show you how. Here’s a step-by-step set of instructions I gave to one of my personal business coaching clients. We’re building a fitness info product brand based on her advanced workouts. She has tons of great ideas, but I told her it would be even more effective if we had DATA to share with her readers. So here’s what she’s going to do:

Step 1 – Order a Bodybugg calorie counter.

Step 2 – Do short 5, 10, 15, 20 minute workout “challenges” and measure how many calories can be burned in a short amount of time. You can do some of the workouts yourself, or have your clients use the Bodybugg as well.

Step 3 – This will make for great blog articles, youtube videos, and future programs (taking the best workouts and putting them in a bootcamp workout manual).

Step 4 – Use your clients as guinea pigs…let some of your most fit clients wear the Bodybugg and put them through tough workouts.

Step 5 – Essentially, we want to leverage all the workouts that you are doing and your clients are doing so that we can create a large volume of content. Every single workout that YOU and your clients do should have the purpose of giving us DATA.

Take a bootcamp group exercise class through this…(assuming they see you 3 times per week and you have 15 women in the camp)

Workout 1 – Test max pushups early in workout

Workouts 2 & 3 – Put 5 women through “Pushup Power Program #1″, 5 into “PPP #2″, and 5 into “PPP #3″.

The Pushup Power Programs are up to you…maybe group 1 would simply do 3 sets of max pushups with 60 seconds rest between each, while group 2 would do 5 sets of 50% max pushups with 30 seconds rest between each, and group 3 would do version 1 in workout 2 and version 2 in workout 3.

Workout 4 (after 2 days off for weekend) – Retest max pushups

Now you’ll take the best results and write about them in the free report. You could also talk about other exercises in the workout that will help (ie. make sure to do stickups in your warmup, and then narrow grip TRX rows as well…whatever).

b) Try and figure out the same type of “research lab experiment” for pullups….obviously this will be much harder because few women can do pullups…maybe you have some male buddies at the gym that could try this out…maybe even guys in the MM? Leverage your contacts.

BOTTOM LINE: Put this into play starting next Monday. This will be an AWESOME learning experience for you.

That’s how you “wow” your bootcamp workout clients and build the insider knowledge to take your personal training business to the next level.

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Bootcamp Workout Bodyweight Exercise Updates

When you’re running bootcamp workouts, even your beginner clients are going to start loving more advanced routines and exercises. If you’re lucky enough to have access to bootcamp equipment, like TRX straps, Kettlebells, dumbbells, sandbags, and more, then you’ll have an infinite way of challenging your bootcampers.

However, if you’re just stuck with bodyweight exercises for your boot camps, that’s fine too. Your clients can get amazing results with just body weight exercise movements, and you’ll still be able to come up with hundreds and hundreds of workout ideas.

For example, as Certified Turbulence Trainer Mike Whitfield explained, “I run boot camps with mostly females using the TT Bootcamps program. I use a local high school’s open gym (no equipment), so it’s mostly body weight moves, sprinkled with some resistance band moves.”

But you might be thinking, “Okay, but doesn’t that get boring after a while?” And the answer is no, because Mike has a phenomenal way of putting together his classes for maximum fat burning and results – and fun.

As Mike continues, “Timed sets using a gymboss is what works for us. This allows people to go at their own pace.” That’s just one of the intensity boosters that you can use in your bootcamp programs.

And when asked about his favorite exercise bodyweight exercise, Mike replied, “That’s a tough one… today, I’ll say Spiderman Push-ups. But I’m also a fan of the 1-1/2 rep style split squat.” Those are both classic staples of the Turbulence Training Bootcamp workout programs – built specifically for trainers who don’t have any equipment.

Now as I mentioned, if you can bring a TRX into the workout equation, you’re going to exponentially increase your workout options. The TRX, or similar Jungle Gym XT straps, or even “Elite Fitness Blast Straps” are incredible workout tools. You can take your body sculpting and calorie burning to another level with these light weight, portable “gyms”.

But don’t get carried away, because I assure you, even bodyweight workouts and exercises are still amazing. According to one TT reader, Melissa Chong, “I love bootcamp! My favorite workouts are when we do bodyweight stations – abs, legs, arms/back – because this keeps me focused on the specific body part. I also like interval training circuits.”

And here Melissa is referring to bodyweight cardio-type workouts that are used in the TT Bootcamps. Again, you’ll just simply use tough bodyweight exercises, like decline pushups, Bulgarian split squats, bodyweight rows, mountain climbers, walking lunges, and total body extensions to elevate your heart rate and burn a lot of calories in a metabolic resistance training style workout.

That’s what works for bootcamp fat loss, even when you have no workout equipment. Plus, you can use the fun-n-games ideas in the TT Bootcamps to add variety, or even create your own group exercise variations.

As Daniel Woodrum, another Certified Turbulence Trainer chimes in, “I often use TT bootcamps and I will get the group involved by calling out someone to complete the exercise. For example, I might call on Jack and say, “40 bodyweight squats for Jack”, and then everyone does bodyweight squats until Jack finishes all 40 repetitions. It adds team bonding to the bootcamp and makes each person work harder.”

Done For You Boot Camp Workouts & Bodyweight Exercises

Such simple little bodyweight exercise tips can make your fat burning bootcamps even better.

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The Best Bootcamp Tips

Yesterday was a little crazy…

I was flying home from Orange County, California (after celebrating bootcamp boss Bedros Keuilian’s birthday)…

…there we were, literally 3 minutes from landing in Toronto, when all of the sudden the pilot started going the WRONG way.

By that, I mean we were only a few thousand feat off the ground and but then he started going back UP. That’s what I call the “wrong way” when you are trying to land an airplane!

So I peaked out the window and realized why. We were heading directly into a storm cloud, and I doubt “Fly into a lightening storm” was on the pilot’s bucket list, so he aborted.

We circled, landed at another airport, refueled, sat around, came back, aborted ANOTHER landing (because of landing gear problems), and then finally got home 5 hours late. Oh well.

You gotta look on the bright side…

And I was lucky enough to have an awesome book with me called, “Bringing Out the Best in People“.

Now it is actually a book about managing employees, but a lot of the lessons apply to running the BEST bootcamps.

Here are a few of the best tips I’ve found so far.

You can use these to get the best results and effort from your clients, and from your trainers (if you manage employees):

1) “The one thing managers (and bootcamp trainers) should know the most about is human behavior”

2) You must know and create and continue to re-create the conditions under which people do their best.

3) “Behavior is a function of its consequences. People do what they do because of what happens to them when they do it.” Therefore,
you must create immediate positive consequences for taking action.

4) “The role of leaders in every organization is not to find fault or place blame, but to analyze why people are behaving as they are, and modify the consequences to promote the behavior they need”

5) “To be trusted, all you have to do is what you say you are going to do. Once trust is established, people will give you the benefit of the doubt if you make a mistake. If you are not trusted, they will not believe you even when you tell the truth.”

Powerful stuff.

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, TT Bootcamps

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21 Bodyweight Exercise Bootcamp Workout

Today I have one of my really cool TT Bootcamp workouts for you, filled with 21 really cool bodyweight exercises.

Now let’s look at the TT Adrenaline themed bootcamp…it is advanced, and there are also 2 other Adrenaline workouts in the manual.

TT Bootcamp Workout #17 – TT Adrenaline Bootcamp 3 – ADVANCED Workout

TT Warm-up (20 seconds per exercise) – 10 minutes

• Seal Jumps
• Bodyweight Squats
• Stick-up
• T-Pushup
• Waiter’s Bow
• Shuffle
• Rest 1 minute before repeating 1 more time.

TT Adrenaline Strength Circuit (20 seconds per exercise) – 10 minutes

• Lunge Jump or Bulgarian Split Squat (20 seconds per side)
• Close-Grip Pushup (Max reps)
• Shuttle Sprint (15 seconds)
• Optional: Chin-up (Max reps)
• Rest 2 minutes before repeating 1 more time.

Water Break – 2 minutes

TT Adrenaline Circuit (20 seconds per exercise) – 10 minutes

• Vertical Jump or Kettlebell Swing
• 1-Leg Bench Squat or Reverse Y-Lunge (20 seconds per side)
• Stability Ball Jackknife-Pushup Combo
• Shuttle Sprint
• Rest 2 minutes before repeating 1 more time.

Water Break – 2 minutes

TT Adrenaline Abs Circuit (30 seconds per exercise) – 10 minutes

• Stability Ball Leg Curl or Prisoner Forward Lunge
• Stability Ball Jackknife or Mountain Climber
• Get-up (30 seconds per side)
• Cross-Body Mountain Climber
• Shuttle Sprint
• Rest 2 minutes before repeating 1 more time.

Cool-down, Stretching & Water Break – 10 minutes

REMEMBER: That’s not for beginners, but if you want to try that one yourself or take your advanced bootcampers through it, I guarantee everyone who does that will be getting amazing results.

Enjoy!

And last reminder…

I hope I’m not being as annoying as a vuvuzela, but I really want to make sure you don’t miss your chance to get 31 amazing bootcamp workouts to use with your clients this summer.

Everywhere I look in Toronto there seems to be a new bootcamp poster popping up…but frankly every bootcamp I pass by on my morning walk with Bally the Dog is L-A-M-E-O.

Seriously. I can’t believe people pay money to be told to jog around a park or do resistance band exercises that wouldn’t even challenge a 4-year old.

So fortunately, the competition out there will be EASY for you to DOMINATE with the TT Bootcamps workouts (because your clients will be loving the results and variety).

Plus, the marketing of these “rookie bootcamp trainers” is pathetic. I’ve noticed two posters this week alone from bootcamp owners who have literally stolen before and after photos from one of my websites. (The thievery never ends, I tell ya…)

But that’s good news for you, because with the PROVEN marketing secrets you’ll get in the TT Bootcamps System, you’ll easily DOMINATE these bootcamp chumps when it comes to getting new clients.

I congratulate you in advance on your success!

Get the NEW Complete TT Bootcamps System here today:

=> http://www.TTBootcamps.com/31workouts

Have a great day dominating other bootcamps,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, TT Bootcamps

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25 Bodyweight Exercise Ideas for Bootcamps

When doing bootcamp workouts, you have to have a LOT of variety, or else your campers will get bored and another “bright shiny fitness object” like Zumba or spinning will grab their attention and they’ll be gone from your classes for good..

As you know, there’s a huge range of bodyweight exercises in the TT Bootcamps Workouts, but if you’ve gone through all of them already and can’t wait until “TT Bootcamps 2K10″ comes out, then here’s a laundry list of exercises to help you change up your programs.

Well, here are more than 25 alternative bodyweight exercises for you.

Situation #1 – You need a REPLACEMENT FOR PUSH UPS…so why not try:

- close-grip pushups (use 3/4 range of motion for maximum triceps work)
- decline pushup
- elevated pushups
- off-set pushups (& walking off-set pushups – totally cool move)
- pushups with your feet on the ball
- pushups with your hands on the ball
- spiderman pushups
- decline close-grip pushups
- decline spiderman pushups
- pike pushups

Situation #2 – You need some NEW LOWER BODY EXERCISES, so try:

- 1 & 1/2 rep Bulgarian split squats (advanced)
- split squats with your front foot elevated 4-6 inches
- 1-leg deadlifts
- 1-leg squats sitting back onto a bench
- 1-leg squats standing on the bench and dropping one foot off the side
- deep step-ups (drop your hips low before doing a step-up)
- reaching lunges

Situation #3 – You DON’T HAVE DUMBBELLS but you want to do something for the UPPER BACK, so you can do:

Using the smith machine, you can do…
- inverted rows
- underhand inverted rows
- inverted rows with your feet on the ball
- inverted rows holding the ends of a towel hung over the bar (advanced grip strength there!)

Using the pullup bar, you can do…
- eccentric pull-ups
- regular pull-ups
- sternum pull-ups
- chinups
- side to side pull-ups

Whew!

That should add some variety to your bootcamps until I can get the TT Bootcamps 2K10 manual done for you.

Your friend,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, TTBootcamps Workouts

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Winter Olympics Bootcamp Workout

Have you been checking out the Winter Olympics?

I was looking at all of the events and it gave me this crazy idea to create a “Winter Olympics Bootcamp Workout“.

You can do this with your clients and I bet they’ll love it. You can even “team them up” into different countries and give out gold medals and awards.

Here’s how it goes:

We start with the Moguls Warmup.

I chose the moguls for warm-up,  because that’s where the skiers do all those crazy moves and look really mobile.

Jumping Jacks
Duck Unders (step to the side squat down and duck under as you move)
Stickups
Seal Jumps (like jumping jacks, but cross your arms in front of you)
Pushups (tell your clients they all wiped out and have to do pushups)

Next, we move into the first event – The Ski Jump
10 second hold in the bottom of squat and then do a vertical jump
Repeat 3 times, then move to…

The Downhill Ski Race
1 Long Jump
10 Squats
1 Long Jump
6 Walking Diagonal Lunges per side
Long Jump
20-30 second squat hold
Repeat 3 times.

Give out a gold, silver, and bronze to the people who made it the furthest.

Gold medal awards and water break

Next up, we move to Speed Skating Strength Training
Skater Jumps or Lateral Lunges (depending on fitness level)
Pushups (another wipe-out…so do pushups to practice getting up)
Lunge Jumps or Reverse Lunges (depending on fitness level)

Take another water break if you need to…award some medals if you want, and then move to more strength training, this time courtesy of a weird sport…Curling.

The Curling Strength Circuit
Lunges (because the lunge low when they throw the rock)
Spiderman Climbs (again, because it helps get in that low position)
Close-grip Pushups

Now here are two optional exercises you can add in…

Sweeping (this is a bit of trick…but let’s say your gym needs a cleanup, you can give everyone a broom to cleanup, and tell them its just part of the curling circuit!)

Curls (curlers love to drink beer, so your campers can do dumbbell or band curls to practice for post-game beverages)

Take another water break.

Optional: Hockey Strength Circuit (Uses db or kb)

If you have access to equipment and your campers like heavier resistance training, you can do the following exercises:

Split squat (to build strong skating muscles)
1-Arm Standing Shoulder Press (to practice raising your stick in the air after you score a goal)
Row (to strengthen your upper body & grip for hockey fights)

Figure Skating Bodyweight Strength Circuit

Now we combine bodyweight exercises for strength and finesse…

Reaching Lunge
1-Leg RDL
Pushup or Dip or Overhead Press
1-Arm Band Row

Take another water break.

Sliding Sports Circuit
Bobsled Push (For this, you’ll need a “prowler sled” or a punching bag or weight plate that can be pushed across the floor to simulate the start of the bobsled race)

Then you’ll follow that with a:
Stability Ball Plank or Plank (to simulate holding your body in the luge position)

And then flip to the side for:
Side Planks

Next up, the plain ol’ weird Biathlon (a combination of cross-country skiing and shooting). We’ll modify it so that we do:

Shuttle Sprints (in place of the skiing)
Plank (to simulate the shooting position)

And if possible, add in some type of skill component to simulate the shooting…perhaps you train folks in a gym where there are basketball nets…so have them shoot free throws…or bring in a Supersoaker…no wait, bad idea. But I’m sure you can come up with something.

Water break, cool down, awarding of more medals, and closing ceremonies.

***************
I’m sure your campers will have a blast with that. It’s a great workout, and you’ll probably have some even better ideas than that.

Let me know what other events you come up with,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, TTBootcamp Workouts

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Abs 300 Workout for Your Bootcamps

The other night I finished up filming on my TT for Abs DVD’s, and one of the programs we did was the “TT Abs 300″ workouts.

There were several versions, but I wanted to share the Beginner version with you, because it uses minimal equipment and could be done in most bootcamps.

Plus, every camper loves abs, right – but NOT crunches, and so this program gives you a lot of different and original ways to train the torso without risking their low back.

You’ll look like a super-hero trainer when you bring in this program or your own variation of it.

Oh, and one other thing, most bootcampers also love a challenge or competition style workout, as I’ve talked about so many times in the past.

So you can time this workout, or have teams race through it, or do all sorts of things that will bring even more energy and workout addiction to your bootcamp – therefore making it even better than all of the other camps in your area.

This will increase client retention and dramatically boost client referrals.

Everyone wins with the TT Abs 300 beginner workout.

Beginner “TT Abs 300 Workout”
- Go through the circuit TWO times resting as much as needed between exercises.

• Cross Crawl – 10 reps per side
• Plank – 20 second hold
• Prisoner Squat – 10 reps
• Side Plank – 15 second hold per side
• Mountain Climber – 10 reps per side
• [Beginner} Inverted Row - 10 reps
• Stability Ball Rollout - 5 reps
• 1-Leg Hip Extension - 10 reps per side
• Spiderman Climb - 5 reps per side
• Chop - 10 reps per side
• [Kneeling] Pushup – 15 reps
• Bird Dog – 5 reps per side
• Stability Ball Leg Curl – 10 reps
• Plank with Arms on Ball – 10 second hold

Even your most fit campers will be surprised how hard it is by the mid-way point.

Let me know your favorite challenge style workout in the comments section below!

To your success,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
TT Bootcamps

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5 Bootcamp Secrets to Get More Fat Burning Results for Your Clients

I was just reviewing a big file of all the new exercise, diet, and research proven fat burning tips I wrote down for 2009, and I wanted to share 5 BIGGIES that can help your clients get more results AND make your awesome workers even awesome-r..

So here we go:

#5 – Recent research shows shuttle-running is tougher than running intervals in a straight line…

…so if you want to help your clients burn fat faster than ever, make sure you incorporate old-school shuttle runs (i.e. classic suicide type drills) into your fat burning interval programs.

#4 – Encourage your clients to use a food log. When they ask why, tell them I said so.

No seriously, tell them this:

“According to Men’s Health (Feb 2009, p 38), keeping a food log helped subjects lose 3.5 more pounds than subjects that didn’t keep the log.”

#3 – Demand that your clients hit a personal best in each workout.

This is an oldie, but a goodie. There are a few reasons you need to do this:

a) First of all, everyone loves progress, and if you can get them to achieve a record each workout (i.e. could be # of pushups, plank
time, etc.), then they will feel a HUGE sense of accomplishment

b) More personal bests = more results. Plain and simple.

c) They will get addicted to the workouts, and always want to come back for more attempts at breaking records…thus becoming raving fans of your camps and referral machines.

#2 – Remind them that they need you, and here’s the proof:

“According to Men’s Health magazine, (Dec, 2009), beginners who work with trainers get more results than beginners who workout by themselves”. Guaranteed.

#1 – Bring a motivational quote to every class.

You might say it at the start, middle and end of every class, or you might print it out and give everyone the quote to take with them, or you might simply put it on your bootcamp’s Facebook fan page every morning.

Regardless of how you deliver the motivation, I promise you that it will keep your campers connected to you AND it will elevate your expert status even more in their eyes.

Here’s the first motivational quote you can share with them:

“Be loud and proud of the healthy changes you are making in your life. There are many more folks secretly wishing someone will take charge and be a healthy role model for them. It might not happen overnight, but if you continue to lead by healthy example – without preaching or being condescending – you can build an entourage that will help you reach the next level.” – Craig Ballantyne

Helping you and your clients get more results,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, TT Bootcamps

PS – What if 1 simple workout style could also help your clients get more results without any equipment?

I promise you, the TT Bootcamps System can – and will – get your clients more results, without requiring any more work on your part.

Click here to get 31 Done-For-You no-equipment bootcamp workouts

It will free up even more time and energy for you to fill your bootcamps and build the life you deserve.

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