MAJOR WORKOUT:
Military-style fitness programs are a
hit Doug
Kreutz
One way
to get in top physical shape is to join the military and go through
basic training.
It'll
toughen you right up.
The problem is, you'll have to put up with some diabolical, dog-breath
drill sergeant bellowing in your face for months - and after that
you'll owe the government years of possibly perilous service.
A less-committing approach is to take a civilian fitness class modeled
after rugged military workouts.
Such classes have become popular nationwide - including Tucson - in the
past year.
``Eight-count push-ups! Ready! Go!'' shouts physical trainer and
private-sector drill instructor Kirsten Harris as she leads her
``troops'' through a class called Basic Training.
The weekly class at the Gold Medal Fitness center, 8140 E. Golf Links
Road, features fast-paced calisthenics, short sprints and other drills
familiar to military veterans.
Harris, 27, turns out for the coed classes in cutoff camouflage
fatigues and an olive-drab tank top. A few of the participants follow
her lead and wear paramilitary attire, but others seem to work up a
healthy sweat in civilian workout garb.
Harris, who has a degree in exercise physiology and nutrition, devised
the Basic Training workout with the help of Gold Medal Fitness
owner Chuck Marshall, who served in the Special Forces in Vietnam in
1968-69.
The Saturday morning class begins with a warm-up session in which
participants toss a medicine ball and otherwise limber up for exercise.
Then Harris throws the workout into double-time and leads her
platoon on a jog across an outdoor training field, up a flight of steps
and onto an indoor running track.
After a couple of laps around the track, class members pause to perform
chin-ups on a bar and then take another lap before returning to the
outdoor training field.
There, after a short session of jumping rope, they move into the heart
of the military-style regimen.
Eight-count push-ups, step-up exercises, dips with the arms braced on a
step, and vigorous, full-body movements called ``mountain climbers''
are interspersed with running and jumping movements.
One jumping exercise calls for participants to run from the back of a
sand volleyball court to the net, jump up five times as high as
possible and return to the back of the court - repeating the entire
routine five times.
Marshall, a 54-year-old Vietnam War veteran, keeps up with the much
younger members of the group throughout most of the exercises - and
yells gung-ho encouragement along the way.
``Up! Up! Let's go! Let's go!'' Marshall shouts. ``More push-ups! Oh
yeah! Let's have more push-ups! That's what we want!''
Marshall gets his bellowed wish, however facetious it might have been.
Then group members take a slow jog around the volleyball court, perform
lunging movements across the court and do some abdominal exercises
before concluding the workout with stretches and cool-down
movements.
``I think this class is a good change from regular weight training and
aerobic work because it's very functional training - working with your
own body weight (as resistance),'' says Harris, who quickly sheds her
GI Jane persona when the Basic Training workout is over.
``In day-to-day life, you're working with your whole body, so you might
as well train that way,'' she says.
Harris says leading the class has been excellent preparation for her
planned participation in the Galaxy Competition, an obstacle course and
physique contest scheduled for today through Monday in St. Petersburg,
Fla.
Marshall says he and Harris sought to make the class challenging but
not overwhelmingly difficult.
``It incorporates a lot of the basic training routine without getting
too hard core,'' he says.
Class participant Keith Scott says he uses the weekly Basic Training
session to supplement his regular running, cycling and weight-training workouts.
``It's a full-body workout, and it also pushes you mentally,''
Scott says.
Jacque Rowley, a class member who will join Harris as a contestant in
the Galaxy Competition, says she's hoping the fast-paced workouts
will help her with the competition's obstacle course events.
Gina Bramwell says she sticks with Basic Training because it offers
variety.
``I've tried step classes, I run and I lift weights,'' Bramwell notes,
``but this is great because she (Harris) mixes it up every time. It's
never boring. You definitely have to psych yourself up for it.''
Another Tucson-area health club offering a military-style workout
is Desert Fitness West at 4160 W. Ina Road.
Ron Holland, who operates an independent personal training company
called Fit-Tek, leads a four-week course called Boot Camp Challenge at
the club.
``It's a hard-core, one-hour session that meets three times a week for
four weeks,'' says Holland, a retired Air Force master sergeant who
devised the course from exercises he learned in his military career.
``It's about fat burning, muscle building and motivation,'' he says.
``We warm up with some stretching and then do calisthenics, weights,
lunges, duck walks, squat thrusts and sprints.''
The routine includes push-ups, pull-ups, situps and weight exercises
such as presses and biceps curls.
``The response has been excellent,'' Holland maintains. ``People who
have been working out with weights and doing cardio (aerobic) exercise
want to do something different now and then. This is a good change.
``When I first started it, I had a two-hour workout, but it was
a little too much for most people. Now it's an hour workout and
we stick mostly with the basics.''
Additional information on the Basic Training Workout, which is
free to Gold Medal Fitness members and prospective members, may be
obtained by calling 886-2532.
Information on the Boot Camp Challenge, which is open to members of
Desert Fitness West for $96, is available at 744-6340.
Check the ``gyms'' and ``health clubs'' listings in the yellow pages
for information on programs at other facilities.
Photos
by Jim Davis, The Arizona Daily Star
Nikki Mercaldo grimaces while doing pull-ups as part of her
military-style workout.
Gina Bramwell uses a medicine ball to warm up for exercises
Physical trainer Kirsten Harris, left, leads participants in her Basic
Training fitness class through a workout that includes drills
familiar to military veterans
