Create a Basic Boot Camp Workout Outdoors!

By:
Jonny Bowden

When the weather is pleasant, there's absolutely no reason to confine your workouts to the gym. With all the high-tech advances in running and climbing and biking machines, we tend to forget that the real thing lies right outside our front door, and at a substantially lower cost than a gym membership. Your own body weight provides more than enough resistance for a good strength-training program, and with a little ingenuity and imagination, you can fashion dozens of workouts at any level of difficulty, from beginner to boot camp. The folks in the military have been doing it for years.

You can easily make your own basic boot camp routine by walking (or running) for a bit then stopping to do any of a dozen quick exercises that require little more than your own body weight and perhaps a park bench or a tree. Then resume walking (or running) till you get to the next pit stop, where you perform the next exercise.

Here's a sample intermediate program. You can make it easier by extending the walking time between exercises, doing fewer pit-stop exercises or doing fewer reps of the exercises themselves. If you're an advanced exerciser and up to the challenge, making it more difficult is a cinch: Faster runs between pit stops, extra sets and reps during. The time spent walking (or running) between pit stops is given just for the sake of example. You can -- and should -- adjust it to your own needs.

Warm-up: Walk 5 minutes

First aerobic period: 5 minutes brisk walk or slow jog
Pit stop: Walking lunges. Step forward, extending your right leg in front of you. Bend your knees, and lower your body toward the floor between the back and front legs. The back leg will bend and the back heel will come off the floor. The front leg will be bent to a right angle, with the knee never going in front of the ankle, remaining directly in line with the ankle. Come up and switch legs, bringing the left leg forward, and repeat. Do 10 "switches."

Second aerobic period: 5 minutes brisk walk or jog
Pit stop: Jumps. Take a stance as if you were about to dive into a pool. Crouch down slightly, put both hands behind you, and then, in this "half-squat" position, "dive" forward as far as you can by pushing off on your feet and thrusting your arms forward. Try to land with a soft impact by bending your knees. Then immediately take two small jumps back. Repeat the sequence 6 times.

Third aerobic period: 5 minutes brisk walk or jog
Pit stop: Push-ups. You can do them any of a number of ways, depending on your fitness level -- the "assisted" version on your knees or the regular one using the whole body weight. Beginners can keep the feet on the ground and push up from the seat part of a park bench, keeping the body at an angle to the ground. The steeper the angle, the easier it is; you can make it even easier by standing a couple of feet away from a tree, leaning your upper body against it and pushing off. Return the upper body till it's touching the tree, and repeat.
Reps: as many as you can.

Fourth aerobic period: 5 minutes brisk walk or jog
Pit stop: Tricep dips. Sit on a park bench, legs extended, feet on the ground, hands at your sides grasping the edge of the bench, palms facing behind you. Slide your butt off the bench and lower your body towards the ground by bending the elbows. Stop lowering your body when your shoulders get just above your elbows, and then bring yourself up again by straightening the arms. Keep your back perpendicular to the ground. The closer you bring your feet in (and the more the knees are bent) the easier the exercise. Ten reps.

Fifth aerobic period: 5 minutes brisk walk or jog, slowing down the last couple of minutes to bring the heart rate down.

Finish up with: A set of abdominal curls and some light stretching, and walk home.

Exercising outdoors with a workout like this not only lets you train both anaerobic and aerobic energy systems, it gives you the added benefit of exposure to sunlight. That produces vitamin D in the body, vitally important for bone health, and has the added advantage of raising serotonin levels (nature's own "natural" Prozac.).

A support buddy can help!

Post your questions and comments on the Tone Up Your Body message board!