Are Boot Camps Effective For Fat Loss?

By Howe Russ


These days, boot camp classes are everywhere. Offering HIIT workouts with minimal equipment, they often bill themselves as the easy answer for people trying to figure out how to lose weight quickly and effectively.

Today we're going to answer the all-important question. Is there more to this training method than just being the next big fitness fad?

The one word answer is yes. However, there is more to this than meets the eye, as we will explain today. The reason it works is because the science behind it is proven and established. You see, despite all of the marketing claims that they are using the 'best kept secret in fitness' or that they have discovered a new formula yielding instant results, the foundation of a boot camp is built upon advice which is decades old.

If you walk into any well established gym these days you will see countless people applying the basic science of a boot camp workout to their gym session. High intensity circuits which incorporate both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training will cover all the bases you could hit at a boot camp.

So if it's advice which has existed for years already, why are boot camps often billed as miracle weight loss solutions? Quite simply, it all comes down to marketing. By giving something a catchy name and making outrageous claims about the results you can achieve, you'll undoubtedly have something which appeals to a lot of people. This marketing tends to be misleading in a lot of cases, as it's often aimed at individuals who have never exercised before, with promises of instant results.

While the general marketing behind boot camps tend to be quite misleading, the theories the style of training is built upon are actually very solid. Any high intensity interval training workout is going to get your blood pumping and your heart reaching the upper scales of it's ability. This will lead to weight loss and will improve your fitness. If you incorporate resistance training into the routine, which most trainers do, then you will also notice an increase in strength, too.

Make no mistake about it, there is no miracle formula at it's root. Despite all of the claims about instant fat loss and promises of increasing your fitness by 200%, the workouts themselves are basic, primal affairs which often stick to the old classic moves. In most cases you don't need any equipment at all.

It doesn't take long for serious fitness enthusiasts to realize they don't need to keep attending a boot camp class to get results. This is why the marketing is misleading and targeted at people looking for a quick fix, because once a person finds their feet they realize they can get just as good a workout by themselves for half the price in a gym or at home. This means the boot camp class needs to find new clients quickly in order to survive. The only area where they really have an advantage over conventional methods is the group atmosphere which some people place huge importance on.

While it is often unfairly billed as the latest health and fitness fad, the truth is the science behind the boot camp theory stacks up nicely. By performing regular HIIT sessions and incorporating the basic, classic strength moves you will indeed see results. If you've been trying to learn how to lose weight and have seen an advert for one of these type of classes, however, you should base your final decision on how much you think you need a group atmosphere in order to succeed, because there is nothing stopping you from performing a boot camp workout right now without spending any money.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment