4 Tips for Successful Boot Camps with TRX

Because of the TRX’s portable nature, getting out of doors with your fellow fitness enthusiast friends, clients or athletes is easy. Maybe you’ve already run a fitness boot camp or two in the past, but if you haven’t, fear not! Follow these four steps, and your fitness boot camp will be a guaranteed success.

1. Find a Spot – Your first priority is finding a location where you can deliver a safe, effective and energetic workout. Public parks, school or church playgrounds and even beaches (if you’re fortunate enough to live near one) are ideal. Basketball courts, tennis courts and even parking lots during non-business hours can be a viable substitute. If you’re faced with poor weather, you can always go indoors. All you need is an open space and a little imagination.
    
2. Make It Personal - While boot camps are not really “personal’ training, they still should allow for each participant to use the workout to get better, not simply get tired. You can make it more personal by adding appropriate progressions and regressions for each movement, use your warm up time to address individual corrective work and by making sure all attendees feel special by giving them some personal attention.
    
3. Go for Time – One of the biggest challenges in a boot camp setting is making the workout work for everyone. Having progressions and regressions for your movements is one way to do this. Another proven method is, instead of performing each movement for a set number of reps, go for time. With a timed approach, the better conditioned participants will complete more work during each period without disrupting the flow of camp waiting on the less conditioned participants to complete their reps. You can maintain a great tempo, and each participant can strive to get more done during the same amount of time during the next session.
    
4. Make It Viral – If you’re interested in growing your camp, there is no better way than through referrals. If you deliver an effective, high energy workout that your participants love, word will spread like wildfire. Encourage participants to bring like-minded friends to camp, share their experience on their Facebook page and proudly spread the word when people ask how they got in such great shape.
    

Integrate these four tips into your fitness boot camp, and you’ll soon have a team of highly motivated participants who thrive on your workouts and tell everyone about your camp.

Pat Rigsby is a co-owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association (http://www.iyca.org) and the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs.