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.

Guerrilla Bootcamp has taken over Louisville

For as long as I've been out of the Navy, I have wanted to open my own fitness center.  No, I don't want to start a gym filled with nothing but meat heads posing in front of mirrors and only doing bench presses and arm curls.  No, I've wanted to own a fitness center geared towards promoting education and strength training for all populations from women, men, kids, and the wonderfully active aging crowd.  As time grew on my ideas started to shape themselves a little bit more and I decided I wanted to go more towards sports performance.  Then after I graduated with my Master's, I decided that I wanted to go more in the direction of functional mobility and stability and injury prevention for all, not just athletes.  After all, weekend warriors get injured a lot more then those that train every day simply because they don't know how to train.

Starting a place is hard work and it costs quite a bit of money.  I thought I had something going a few months ago with a up and coming franchise but there were several things that didn't add up properly and I backed out.  Rather than incur quite a bit of debt for something I wasn't completely sold on, I passed.  Now I'm back at square one and I'm starting small.  In starting small I can focus on perfecting my craft and establish bit of a following.  Enter Guerrilla Bootcamp.

Guerrilla Bootcamp is now being presented by my business Voltage Strength & Performance.  I am now on the 4th week of classes, which are held every Saturday morning at 0900 at various locations across the Louisville and things are going smoothly.  I have a steady group of 5 or 6 "guerrillas" every week.  So far our training grounds have included the Great Lawn downtown, dog hill at Cherokee Park, and most recently the Fern Creek High School track.  I like to think my bootcamp is a little different than most bootcamps.  For one, I say "bootcamp", whereas most others say "boot camp".  That totally set me apart from the rest.  Kidding.  I start every class with a simple mobility education.  Last week I had a baseball and showed something you can do to help loosen up the pec minor to keep it from pulling on the shoulder girdle.  A very simple way increase the knowledge of my participants.  It's a very simple way of distinguishing my bootcamp from all of the others that simply want to take your money.  I want to educate every one of my guerrillas.

If you are reading this and are living in the Louisville area, I ask you to come and try the class.  You will not leave disappointed.  The mobility training isn't the only thing that sets me apart.  Come to one class and you will find out first hand just how different this class is.  And since your first class is free, you got nothing to lose.

BTW, you can now check me out on Twitter.  I'm @voltagestrength and I frequently update my future locations and different types of mobility and stability exercises you can incorporate into your routine.

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

Guerilla Bootcamp

Get ready Louisville Metro!  My business, Voltage Strength and Performance, is presenting something that will completely take the greater metro area by storm.  Guerilla Bootcamp!

There are a lot of bootcamps around.  Some are pretty bad, some are actually really good.  Generally, a bootcamp takes place at a local park and the organizer brings some equipment and a fun time is had by all.  An hour later, the participants are sweating and may or may not have had a great experience.  Guerilla Bootcamp is breaking out of that mold.  Cherokee Park?  Sure.  Waterfront?  Definitely.  Downtown?  Yes.  Oxmoor shopping mall parking lot?  Oh yeah!  We are going to take bootcamp to the next level and going to take it all over this great area.  

I was inspired last week when I was walking around the waterfront and downtown area.  I kept seeing areas that would make for great workout spots.  I jokingly told my wife I'd love to do plyometrics under the 2nd street bridge next to the arena and I'd love to do sprints on the great lawn on the waterfront.   That was my "aha moment".  

So beginning on Saturday, July 23 at 0900 (it is bootcamp so we will be talking military time),  we will be embarking on the city of Louisville.  Each session will cost $10 and t-shirts will be available for $20.  Voltage Strength and Performance will show Louisville the true meaning of Guerilla Bootcamp.  If you are interested, please email me at rbarnold@hotmail.com, see my Voltage Strength and Performance page on Facebook, or call me at 502-645-0324.  I am absolutely stoked to be bringing this to Louisville.