Guerrilla Bootcamp recap

In my shameless effort of plugging my business venture, I felt it might be appropriate to give you an idea of what exactly we have been doing at Guerrilla Bootcamp.

Week 1:  We showed up at The Great Lawn in downtown Louisville.  If you've never been here, it's a great big giant open area located right on the Ohio River.  We had good attendance especially considering it was my first week.  Granted it was mostly my coworkers at SHPS but hey, you have to have start somewhere.  I brought my big tractor tire and needless to say my guerrillas were a little worried at what that had in store for them.  We started with basic instruction on squat and pushup technique.  This is something we always do at the beginning.  I think this is something that sets me apart from others, my attention to detail with exercise form and mobility.  We did 4 rounds of 20 squats, 10 pushups, and 30 yard sprints.  Then we did 4 rounds of 10 burpees and 10 toe touches on the tire.  Then came a little friendly competition where it was guys vs. girls on the tire flip.  There were twice as many girls as guys so I figured it would be fair.  The guys still won by a full minute.  All in all I think it was a very successful week and we had a lot of fun.

Week 2:  My guerrillas attacked my favorite spot in all of Louisville.  Dog Hill at Cherokee Park is LEGENDARY!  I had a few different faces show up this week which was great.  We started with a warm up of 3 rounds of 10 squats, 5 pushups, 10 shoulder press with PVC pipe.  We then took advantage of some small steps and did some bounding up the steps both double leg and single leg.  Then it was off to the hill...THE HILL.  Now I'm not sure if you've ever seen this hill but it's about 400 meters in length and I have no idea what the incline is but I'm pretty sure "steep as hell" serves as a great barometer.   With this we did 3 rounds of 10 medicine ball slams and hill runs.  Ugh.  Pure nasty.  Then we played a little game with the medicine ball.  I would toss the ball down the hill and they had to get it before it got away.  2 of my guerrillas weren't as fortunate as the rest of the band.  They had to run all of the way down the hill.  All of my other guerrillas got to it within about 10 feet.  They were the lucky ones.  Needless to say, a fun time was had by all.

Week 3:  We attacked Fern Creek High School track this past week.  I brought a full arsenal of weapons that included kettlebells and my trusty medicine ball.  We started with a basic ROM warmup.  Then we moved to KB swings so that everyone could get the range of motion down with this as it would be part of the big workout later.  Once I felt everyone was comfortable with that we started our chipper.  We did a chipper consisting of 50 squats, 50 pushups, 20 KB swings, 20 ball slams, 50 shoulder presses with PVC pipe, and finishing with a 400 meter sprint while lunging between each of those stations.  You initially have 3 minutes to complete as much as possible, then rest 1 minute.  Then you have 6 minutes to complete as much as possible with 2 minutes rest.  Then you run through the whole circuit.  Now this was great training for my band of guerrillas.  I think they liked it.

This week we are attacking the Yum! Center in downtown Louisville.  I have a ton of good stuff planned at a monumental landmark.  This is going to be absolutely epic and I implore you to be there if you are in the Louisville area.  It is definitely a training session you will not want to miss.

CrossFit Games

While I am in the middle of my in-training for Guerrilla Bootcamp, I need to point out that the CrossFit Games are this weekend.  The GrossFit Games are held in California every year at this time and just seem to be getting bigger and bigger with each passing year.  Yes, they are getting a lot more commercialized but I don't see much wrong with that.  The games will be shown online at www.games.crossfit.com.

Guerrilla Bootcamp's first week was wildly successful.  Even with having 6 potential guerrillas canceling the morning of, I still had quite a showing.  We are starting the class on block 0, meaning that I am introducing basic skills and movements so that everyone can be on the same page when we do more advanced exercises.  I introduced pushups and squats then we threw some fun tire flipping in at the end.  I will end every week's class with a fun little competition.  Last week we had a guys vs. girls tire flipping contest.  Even though the guys had exactly have the number of guerrillas the girls had, they won by a full minute.  But a fun time was had by all and that's what matters the most.  

This week's glass will be held at Dog Hill at Cherokee Park.  This hill, for me, is one of the landmark locations in all of Louisville.  It's about 300 meters hill madness.  I got some great stuff planned so if you are in the Louisville area this Saturday at 0900, make sure you and your friends stop by.  

Guerrilla Bootcamp is almost here

Anytime you start a new business, you have to find a way to make it unique.  You have to find a way to make yours stand out from the crowd and draw people to your business rather than someone else's that might be like yours.  Rarely does someone have a brand new idea for a business.  So when decided to start my bootcamp this year, I had to come up with a new concept.

See, Louisville has a number of bootcamps.  There is one that is for females only, there is one taught by a couple of meat-heads that has multiple different locations, there is one that uses kettlebells only, there is one taught on top of a building downtown that oversees everything, and there are a few others I'm forgetting about.  So I had to get creative.  I've taught bootcamp before and am very familiar with the layout, exercises, and means to market it.  But I just needed that extra niche to get people to come to mine.  

I spent 6 years in the U.S. Navy and while I was in, I was the PRT coordinator and in charge of my ship's gym.  Those were great experiences that allowed me to learn the fundamentals of fitness.  These fundamentals are often lost when it comes to exercising in the civilian world.  Kettlebells, medicine balls, tires, weights, machines, treadmills.  Those things are all nice and all make exercise seem like a fun experience, but you move further away from the fundamentals when you start incorporating that equipment.  When I speak of fundamentals, I'm talking about basic bodyweight exercises.  Squats, pushups, lunges, mountain climbers, bear crawls, crab crawls, frog jumps (no more animals I promise), fireman carry, situps, flutter kicks, pullups, planks, and bridges just to name a few.  When you incorporate your own bodyweight into your exercise, you gain so much more than just simple strength.  You learn proprioception (self awareness in space), balance, body control, strength (duh!), endurance, flexibility, power, and mental toughness.  These are the types of exercises we will be doing at my bootcamp.  Back to basics.  This will be a true military style bootcamp.  Now there will be the obligatory appearance of a tractor tire, or a medicine ball, or kettlebell, but those will be used as accessories to the class rather than the main course.  This is what will make my class stand out.  It will be a bootcamp in the truest sense of the word.  

The other thing that will make my bootcamp unique is that it will be popping up all of the greater Metro Louisville area.  I use the term Guerrilla Bootcamp to describe it and this is how I define it:

Guerrilla -- a member of an irregular, usually indigenous military unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy, as by surprise raids. 

Bootcamp -- a training session with hard physical exercise designed to bring your physical fitness beyond what you thought was possible.  

We are going to be popping up by surprise all over this town.  Parks, streets, parking lots, houses, downtown, wherever.  My little band of guerrillas will be bringing fitness to a whole new level.  My favorite line of that whole definition is "as by surprise raids".  Love it!  That's exactly what we will be doing.  Every Wednesday is when I will announce to the guerrillas where that week's class will be held.  It's going to be exciting, eventful, and most of all, fun!  I can't wait to get this thing started.  Information for the class is listed below.  Be sure to stop by and join my band of guerrillas each and every week.  

What:  Guerrilla Bootcamp

Where: TBD

When: Saturdays at 0900 - 1000

Cost: First week free, $10 every week after.  $5 if you bring a friend.  

What to bring: Yourself, water, and a lot of energy

Website: www.facebook.com/voltagestrength

My calendar of events

This is the year of running apparently because most of the Forever an Athlete events I have lined up are races.  But they aren't just simple 5k's and 10k's.  They are mud runs and obstacle races.  Below is a list of races and events I will be dominating in the next few months.  Below that will be a few that I WISH I could do.

July 23:  Guerrilla Bootcamp presented by Voltage Strength and Performance begins
Aug 13:  Mudathlon in Cincinnati OR Warrior Dash in Crawfordsville (I haven't decided)
Aug 28:  Performance Enhancement Seminar at IFAST in Indianapolis (continuing education)
Sept 4:  Rock & Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach (possibly with my brother)
Sept 10:  Rugged Maniac at Paoli Peaks in Paoli, IN
Oct 15:  Spartan Race in Marseilles, IL OR Urbanathlon in Chicago (I haven't decided)
Nov 19:  Tough Mudder in Attica, IN  (The granddaddy of them all!!!)

My wish list:
Mud Rush
Thunder Doom
Central Coast Clash
Metro Dash (this looks amazing)
Primal Mud Run

If you have any other events you'd like to add or see me compete in, let me know.  I'm all about the new events these days.