Not all Vancouver boot camps are the same. Far from it.
As Vancouver boot camp programs are becoming more and more popular by the day, I figured I’d put together a helpful guide on how to choose a high-quality boot camp program.
There are a lot of embarrassingly low-quality boot camp programs out there. Whether you live in Vancouver, BC, or Anytown, USA, the following checklist will help to ensure that you don’t get taken to the cleaners by a boot camp company that’s only interested in your money.
Simply look for a boot camp program that meets the following criteria and you’ll be sure to reach your fitness goals and be 100% satisfied with your investment.
1. Unconditional 100% Money-Back Guarantee: Follow this one piece of advice and you’re sure to be thrilled and satisfied with whatever boot camp program you choose.
The vast majority of boot camp programs do not offer any kind of satisfaction guarantee, and as a matter of fact even go so far as enforcing an explicit no refund policy. After you pay them your hard earned cash, there’s no way you’re getting your money back. Period. So when you realize that their boot camp program doesn’t live up to the claims made on their website, you’re out of luck.
My Vancouver boot camp, and every other reputable boot camp program I’ve ever seen, comes with an unconditional 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee. Try one workout, or all twelve, and if you’re not thrilled with the workouts and with your results, just let me know and I’ll refund every penny of your purchase price.
That type of an unconditional guarantee is very rare in the fitness industry, so if you find a boot camp program who stands behind their service like that, you’ve found a real gem.
Most boot camp companies do not offer any guarantee at all, so proceed with caution when selecting a boot camp program, and look for their iron-clad guarantee (or lack of one).
If you do decide to join a boot camp program that doesn’t believe in their service enough to stand behind it with a rock-solid guarantee, then don’t be surprised when you realize their workouts are low quality and you don’t see any real results from their workout program.
2. Dinky Hand-Weights Are Pointless And Ineffective: This is very simple tip you can use to weed out the lowest quality boot camp programs. Simply following this piece of advice will ensure that you avoid most of the worst boot camp programs in your city.
Any boot camp program that requires their participants to bring dinky (5lb) hand-weights to the workout is either the worst boot camp program in your city, or shares that dubious distinction with other programs that also require their participants to bring dinky hand-weights to the workout.
There is simply no way that anyone except the most deconditioned and out of shape individuals will see any results at all from exercising with 5lb hand-weights.
Furthermore, any trainer who runs a 5lb hand-weight workout for anyone but a group of morbidly obese people, rehab patients, or 80+ year old golden agers (or 80+ year old morbidly obese rehab patients), is either incompetent, unscrupulous, or both. So if you join one of those boot camp programs, you’re sure to end up with either an inept trainer, or someone who knows better but just doesn’t care.
Join a boot camp program that will ensure you are given the necessary equipment to challenge yourself and see real fat-burning results.
3. 5-Day Per Week Boot Camp Programs Are A Waste Of Time: Here’s another simple tip to avoid all of the worst boot camp programs.
If your goal is time-efficient fat-burning, then avoid any boot camp that runs 5-day per week workout programs. Plain and simple.
Any boot camp that runs 5-day per week programs is wasting your time, money, or both. Exercise program design has come a long way since the 80′s, and we’ve learned that it’s no longer necessary to exercise 5 days per week to see optimal results. Not only that, but 3 high-intensity workouts per week will produce faster and better results than the 5 low-intensity aerobic workouts those 5-day per week boot camp programs are famous for.
Join a 2 or 3-day per week boot camp program that gets you doing high-intensity circuit training for maximum fat-burning during the workout as well as up to 48 hours after the workout (this is called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC).
If you join a 5-day per week boot camp program, you’ll end up wasting your time and energy doing ineffective split workout routines and even entire ab-crunching workouts that will do little more than ruin your back.
4. No More Than 15 People Per Class: I’ve never met a competent personal trainer that would claim that they can safely instruct a group much larger than 15 people, and most trainers will even admit that 15 is pushing it.
But many boot camp programs will pack 20, 30, or upwards of 40 people into each class. Unbelievable. Those workouts are an embarrassing money-grab and the companies offering those classes (and the instructors running them) should be ashamed of themselves.
There’s no way that one trainer can safely instruct a group of bootcampers that size. Period.
Be careful of the crafty wording that many of the lowest quality boot camp providers use to dance around the issue of class sizes. For example, some companies will not acknowledge their actual class sizes, and instead use wording such as “Class Max of 15 New Full-Time Participants”. This is deceptive wording and doesn’t acknowledge returning or part-time participants. Add returning and part-time participants to the class and you can easily find yourself exercising among a crowd of 30 or more people.
Join a boot camp program that will flat out guarantee that you will NEVER be exercising among a group much larger than 15 people. Period.
5. When In Doubt, Avoid Franchised Boot Camp Companies: This is a blanket statement I’m 100% comfortable making. If you join a boot camp program that’s part of a franchise operation, you’ll be joining a boot camp program that’s inferior to most of the independently run programs in your city.
I’ve simply never seen a franchised boot camp company that offers anything close to resembling what any knowledgeable personal trainer would consider a quality workout. Period.
If you’re looking for a quality boot camp program in your city, simply avoid any franchised companies and your odds of joining the best boot camp in your city will immediately be increased tenfold.
Summary: I hope you find these tips helpful, and if you have any specific questions about choosing a boot camp program, feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction.
And if you live in or around downtown Vancouver and are interested in trying Vancouver’s top outdoor fat-burning boot camp program, check out Mode Boot Camp.
