The Bear Pit might be the closest to military-style boot camp yet.
In my opinion, it is probably the place to be if you want to become a cop or train to be in the military, learn self-defense or just hit something after a frustrating work day. This might be a 5-star program in your book.
I am not any one of these people.
If you are a beginner to exercising, need to lose weight, or have injuries, this might NOT be the place for you.
This is my 3rd boot camp in 3 months (using Groupon deals) and I still consider myself somewhat new to working out. I am just a girl, who needs to lose a little here and there to fit into my wedding dress, AND I have a couple of injuries.
I bought a Groupon to Bear Pit, and on my first day, I signed a waiver and that's it. Unlike the other boot camps I have tried, no one asked me about my injuries, or offered me any modifications, or talked about nutrition. The message I got during sessions was, 'if you couldn't perform the exercise, well, too bad. You're not trying hard enough.'
Everyday here has a boxing regimen. I've gone to a class where it was pretty much the whole session, except for 15 minutes of ab work-out. Ab exercises are also done daily, where pretty much the instructor walks away and leaves you be. Apparently, it is the same ab work-out for the whole week. Never mind if it is your first day or the first time you've ever heard of these exercises. Just imitate whatever the other guy next to you is doing. Except that everybody else is doing something different, or worse, WRONG.
Three weeks passed and I still did not know the difference between a hook and a cross, or a jab and a straight. Everybody seemed to be doing something different. Some people moved their trunk, some people turned from their hips, others pivoted on their back foot. In 3 weeks, I was approached by no one. I didn't know my stance. Do you move your hips? Do you bend your knees? Who knows. It was during my last week when Coach finally noticed I was stopping mid-punching due to shoulder pain, and gave me some tips. Might've been too late.
It seems so easy to injure yourself here, from a shoulder impingement to a boxer's fracture. I could feel vibrating bone pain in my shoulder each time I punched the bag. I am a weakling perhaps, and like I said, boxing might not be the best thing to start with if you are new to working out. I think you really have to develop a lot of chest and arm strength before you start this gig.
One thing that I think has never been uttered here is the word STRETCHING. I guess in real military boot camp, they never stretch? The 2 boot camps I have gone to previously always emphasize a warm-up, and some stretching before sessions, then a cool down and a LOT of stretching after. It just makes sense to me (also with some exercise physiology knowledge) but that maybe is just me. Here, right after the abs workout, a lot of people just get up and leave.
The instructor people called Coach was nice enough to let me borrow some gloves the first day I started. (I was not aware the girl on the phone said "gloves" not "towel") He is friendly, and encouraging, but he does not do a lot of hands-on.
I sigh on the inside when Zac is the instructor of the day. He might be a nice guy, he looks physically fit, and I believe he does the MMA coaching there. During boot camp however, he yells out the exercise, shows it a couple times, and when the timer starts, he goes off practicing his own punches and kicks. He rarely goes around to check on people or correct anyone. Twice on me, but that was because I was staring blankly at the instructions written on the paper at my exercise station.
One of the good things I retained from this boot camp is the tolerance for more push-ups. The exercises here are more hardcore, a lot of push-ups and burpees; and the ab exercises are the kind I have never heard of before. I might have initiated increased muscle strength earlier on from 2 other boot camps, which used free weights, as well as frequent open-chain exercises, and just developed them more here, with all the body-weight exercises. This place also has the least cardio work out compared to the other 2 boot camps, but then there IS the boxing session, so I guess that balances out.
If your goals are similar to mine, you might want avoid this place for now. Return when you are more fit, more experienced with exercise routines, and perhaps, strong enough to take up boxing. read more