My latest Vancouver boot camp program kicked off today at Coopers Park. We went though an intense total-body resistance circuit training workout this morning while the franchised boot camp company spent much of the hour doing abs and jogging.

If you’re looking for the most results focussed boot camp in Vancouver, with the smallest class sizes (limited to 15 people per class), where you aren’t required to bring any of your own equipment, with a 100% no questions asked money-back guarantee, then you’ve come to the right place. Register today for the next program that starts July 28th. Classes fill up fast, so register early to reserve your spot.

I never cease to be amazed by the pointless and goofy exercises I see the franchised boot camp company doing in their workouts. I genuinely feel sorry that their clients have paid hard-earned money for such a low quality exercise program without realizing that most of the exercises they’re doing are completely pointless and ineffective.

Today, in addition to lots of “wall sits“, I saw them doing some sort of a bizarre isometric lateral shoulder abduction type exercise. With their light hand weights, they raised their arms to the side and held them there (yes, the exercise looked as ridiculous as it sounds). Unless you are a scarecrow, and it is your job to stand with your arms raised for long periods of time, there is absolutely no good reason for a healthy person to be doing this exercise, and there’s certainly no reason for it to be done in a boot camp program where 99% of the clients just want to burn fat and tone their muscles.

I get asked the same question over and over again about the Nike Boot Camp program I run in Coal Harbour. The question always goes something like this:

Are the classes really completely free? Are there any strings attached?

Yes, the classes are 100% free, with no strings attached. The Nike Runner’s Lounge in Coal Harbour is a non-profit facility and all of their programs and services are completely free to everyone that’s interested in participating.

I get asked the same questions over and over again by prospective Vancouver boot camp clients.

Q: What equipment do I have to bring to the boot camp classes?

A: None. We provide all of the equipment necessary for you to have phenomenal results focussed workouts.

Q: How much running is there in your boot camp program?

A: None. We don’t charge people money to come to a public park and jog. If you want to jog, we suggest you do that on days that you don’t have boot camp.

Q: How many participants are there in each class?

A: 10 people maximum. This is fewer than half the number of people found in most other boot camp programs.

Q: What level of fitness are the workouts geared towards?

A: Our workouts are suitable for people of most levels of fitness. Everyone works at their own pace, and we offer exercise variations to suit the wide range of abilities of the participants. With that said, our workouts are extremely intense, so if you’ve never exercised before and are really deconditioned, you should consider working your way up to our boot camp program by attending one of the many low-intensity exercise programs available in Vancouver.

I gave a lunch & learn presentation at the Westin Bayshore hotel on Friday. The topic of the presentation was nutrition and below is a point form summary of what I talked about.

Why 5 to 6 smaller meals per day is better than “3 square meals” per day.

• Eating smaller meals more frequently increases your metabolism.
• Digesting food requires energy (known as the thermic effect of food), so eating more often causes you to burn more calories through food digestion.
• Eating smaller meals more frequently will help you avoid the feeling of being hungry. People often make the worst food choices when they are extremely hungry.

Why does sugar promote fat storage?

• Your body must maintain a stable blood sugar level. Whenever you eat or drink something high in sugar, your blood sugar levels spikes, and your body’s natural defense mechanism is to release insulin into your bloodstream. Insulin’s job is to lower your blood sugar level as quickly as possible, and one of the ways this is done is to immediately convert and store the sugar as fat.

Why does alcohol put the brakes on fat burning?

• Binge drinking creates high levels of acetate in your body.
• Definition of binge drinking: 3 or more drinks for a women; 5 or more drinks for a man.
• With high levels of acetate in your body, you burn ZERO fat until the levels return to normal.
• Often takes 24 to 48 hours for acetate levels to return to normal.
• Alcohol often increases your appetite while completely halting your body’s ability to burn fat.

3 nutritional supplements to consider taking.

• Multivitamin
• Omega 3 (Fish Oil)
• Greens (Vital Greens, Greens+)

Best and worst quality protein sources.

• Best sources includes eggs, chicken (skinless), and fish
• Egg whites are the highest quality protein source (yolks are high in fat, and high in cholesterol)
• Worse source is red meat, which is high in fat.
• Regular ground beef is a particularly bad source of protein.

Best and worst quality carbohydrate sources.

• Best sources include whole vegetables and whole grains
• Worse sources include almost anything prepackaged, anything fried, white bread, white rice, white potatoes, most breakfast cereals, soda

Good vs. bad fats.

• Good fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
• Bad fats: saturated and transfats.
• Monounsaturated fat sources include nuts (peanuts, almonds, walnuts, cashews, pistachios), canola oil, avocados, olive oil.
• Polyunsaturated fat sources include fish oil (omega 3), and sunflower oil.
• Saturated fat sources include meat, dairy, and eggs.
• Transfat sources include fried foods, most prepackaged foods, margarine.

Why are fiber rich foods good for you?

• Fiber helps control your blood sugur levels and helps make you feel fuller, longer.

Why eating healthy is easier than eating unhealthy, provided that you plan ahead.

• Cook food in bulk and freeze it.
• Do this every Sunday evening so that you have all of the coming week’s food prepared in advance.
• Having healthy food available means you will eat less bad foods.
• You often make bad food choices when you are really hungry and have no healthy foods conveniently available.
• When you always have healthy foods pre-made and ready to eat, it’s easier than always needing to come up with something to eat at each meal.

The 80/20 rule; eat healthy 80% of the time, and treat yourself the other 20%.

• Don’t eliminate bad foods from your diet, just eat them in moderation.
• Reward yourself for healthy eating.
• If you completely quit eating all of the unhealthy foods you enjoy, you will eventually “fall off the wagon” and binge on those foods and end up further behind than when you started.

Book recommendation (5-Factor Diet).

• Based on healthy eating of whole foods, not fad dieting.
• 5 components to each meal: low fat protein, complex carbs, good fat, fiber, sugar free beverage.
• 5 ingredients per recipe.
• 5 minutes of prep time per recipe (doesn’t include cooking time).
• 100+ easy recipes.

The franchised boot camp company finished their latest 4-week program today. I overheard one of their participants make the following comment to her friend as they were walking home after their last class:

Thank God we don’t have lug this @#*! equipment around with us anymore!

Apparently they weren’t planning on returning to the boot camp for another 4-weeks.

One of the great things about my Vancouver boot camp program is that you don’t need to bring any of your own equipment to the workouts. I provide all of the equipment, so you just need to show up in your workout clothes, with a bottle of water, and as much energy as possible.

An interesting video showing MMA fighter Georges St. Pierre doing some strength training exercises. Vancouver’s Denis Kang makes an appearance in the video doing inverted rows on the TRX Suspension Trainer.

Before participating in the franchised boot camp company’s program, you are required to sign a document that includes the following non-compete clause:

I understand that I may not open my own Boot Camp or divulge program information within 3 years after signing this document and/or attending Boot Camp operated by [franchised boot camp company].

Non-compete clauses are incredibly difficult (almost impossible) to enforce in Canada, and no judge in this country would ever enforce such a ridiculous clause as restricting someone from opening their own boot camp for 3 years after simply participating in another company’s boot camp program.

It’s laughable that the franchised boot camp company is so threatened by competition that they would actually include such an absurd and unenforceable clause in their registration agreement.

A large number of my Vancouver boot camp clients have previously participated in the exercise program offered by the franchised boot camp company. I have yet to talk to a single person who’s had anything positive to say about their exercise program. The most recent criticism I’ve heard was regarding the large amount of jogging involved. According to people who have participated in the program, some days they would be sent jogging for the first 20 minutes of the workout, and again for the last 20 minutes of the workout. Paying for a 60-minute boot camp workout and spending two thirds of the time jogging makes for one of the worst valued workouts you’ll find anywhere in Vancouver.

Today at my evening boot camp workout, as I noticed the franchised boot camp company begin with their usual jog, I took a moment to mention to my group that I will NEVER include jogging in any of my workouts. If you’re a boot camp client of mine and you want to jog, you can do that outside of my boot camp program, perhaps with one of the many (free) running groups in the area. There is absolutely NO reason to pay money to jog.

I sincerely believe that the franchised boot camp company’s program is one of the worst exercise programs ever designed, and that is unquestionably among the lowest valued and poorest quality group fitness workouts in Vancouver. There are so many great options for group workouts in Vancouver that provide an infinitely higher quality workout than the franchised boot camp company’s program, and often at a significantly lower price, with substantially smaller class sizes. I can only assume that the people participating in the franchised boot camp company’s program have not done any research into all of the great workout programs that are available in Vancouver.

One of my clients emailed me the following question today:

Could you tell me what exercises we do at bootcamp that helps tone the arms and butt?

Part of the response I sent her is included below:

Your question about arms and butt exercises must be answered carefully. If you were asking what exercises simply strengthen the arms and butt (which I know is not what you were asking), then the general answer is squats and lunges for the butt, and rows and pushups for the arms. Isolation exercises that target just the arms or butt (such as triceps extensions, biceps curls, and glute extensions) are not as effective towards working those muscles as compound exercises (multi-joint, multi-muscle) that work the muscles as part of a larger unit.

Since you asked about the best exercises to tone and firm the arms and butt, then the answer includes the information above, but with the disclaimer that spot reduction is not possible. You can’t burn fat off of certain areas of your body by targeting those areas and performing exercises specific to those spots on your body. So although the exercises I listed above will strengthen your arms and butt and make the muscles firmer, the only thing that will tone those areas (i.e. reduce fat) is burning more calories each day than you consume, which is done through a combination healthy eating and maximum intensity total-body exercise (i.e. what we do at boot camp each workout).