By Shelby
After the sweaty asanas, my Groupon fitness adventure took me in an entirely different direction, one that relied less on achieving inner peace and more on achieving both inner and outer agony. And I mean that in the most loving way possible. My Groupon gave me a four-week session at Austin Adventure Boot Camp (now defunct).
As a boot camp first-timer, I couldn’t have had a better experience than the one I had with Austin Adventure Boot Camp. Not only did they offer women’s only sessions, but they also stressed the importance of diet along with all that exercise. Setting my alarm to get up before 5 a.m. to make the 5:30 a.m. classes may have never lost its painfulness, but once I arrived at the school where the session I attended was held, the instructor, Paige, kept things peppy with upbeat music (she even took requests!) and upbeat attitude. The session began with an evaluation that tested how fast we could run (or walk, if need be) a mile, how many sit-ups we could do, how many push-ups we could do and more to see exactly how much we would improve in four weeks.
Four mornings a week, I increased my vocabulary at an astonishing rate as I learned about tabatas, dead lifts, mountain climbers and many, many more. My muscles also learned to dread those phrases too. But throughout it all, the team-based structure of the program kept me motivated. I’d never played organized sports (band nerd!), so this was as close as I ever got. Everyone in our session cheered each other on, which made the agony much more bearable.
Austin is home to an array of different boot camp offerings, but I’m not sure if all provide the same nutrition support that Austin Adventure Boot Camp does. Without trying to sell us any additional services or products, our instructor allowed us to send her our daily food diaries, which she would evaluate and provide guidance on. For that service alone, along with those butt-kicking workouts, I can see how boot camp can deliver major results if you stick with it.
But for me, sticking with it wasn’t meant to be, as my next Groupon was burning up a hole in my email. And I had to put on my dancing shoes!