Make Your Workouts Count

I teach a lot of ladies only boot camps in my training studio. I currently run 5 different classes, each meeting twice a week for a total of 10 boot camps a week. I cap each class to 12 ladies and average 8 ladies per group for a total of 40 ladies.

I've been doing them for over a year and most of my boot campers have had great success.

Some ladies haven't reached their goals and get mad at me. That's OK, I can handle the anger if it's warranted. I can admit when I suck and drop the ball - which happens at times.

However, there's usually a reason some ladies succeed in my boot camps and some don't.

The ladies who succeed work hard and follow my instructions and follow my nutrition advice - most of the time.

The ladies who don't succeed, don't follow through. They skip sessions (for a myriad of reasons), don't work hard during the session, don't follow my nutrition advice and make excuses.

The reason I keep my sessions to only 12 ladies per class is so that I can give 1-1 attention where it's needed. Some ladies catch on quicker than others and I want to be able to help out those who need it. That's a big complaint of mine with the larger classes at most health clubs. There's no opportunity for individual attention.

Having said that, the ladies who succeed take my advice and use proper form and perform each exercise correctly and WORK.

The women who don't succeed will do the exercise properly when I stand by them and correct them, then 30 seconds later they're doing things the "easy way". They're not going low in their squats, doing easy plank and push-up variations when I know they can do better.

Your success hinges on how hard you work during your workouts whether it's cardio, resistance workouts, taking classes, doing your Wii fit (as i know a couple ladies on here are), or doing a boot camp class.

You cannot "go through the motions" and expect any sort of success. Sure you may notice some results in the first couple of weeks because it's a new type of workout, but those results will stop coming and then the anger and frustration kicks in. You'll either be angry with the instructor, designer of the workout, or yourself.

One of the reasons I like to design short workouts is that there's less opportunity for you to get bored and go through the motions. If you have a short workout, and work hard, that is so much better than a long workout where you don't work hard.

So what do you do?

Work. Don't be afraid to sweat. Don't be afraid to grunt every now and again. Don't be afraid to increase the resistance and use heavier weights.

Don't be afraid to cuss out your instructor, personal trainer, or workout program designer because we really enjoy getting cussed out because that's how we know you're working.

If you're working, you will succeed.

I once had a woman call me a Son of a bitch (pardon the french), but she lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks.

Do you really think I got my panties in a bunch because she called me an SOB? If I had a room full of women calling me SOB's and punching me in the arm, I wouldn't care because I know they're going to get the results they want.

Commit to yourself that you're going to work hard in whatever your choice of workout may be.

Do that and there's no way you can fail. And don't get mad at yourself because that's a self-defeating mentality and can lead to some nastiness.

You can do it...I believe in you!