Are you ready for Boot Camp?

Are you ready for Boot Camp? - Tony Paladin

Boot camp (or “break your booty” camp as we rehab guys facetiously like to call it), is an awesome, high intensity experience that promises to whip a woman’s saggy bits into great shape in a very short space of time!

Is Boot camp every woman’s answer to exercise? By combining good eating, hard training, mud and sun; surely we should all be singing “Kumbayah” and doing G.I. Jane pushups to celebrate!

As an Exercise Therapist, I usually urge all patients to carefully ruminate over their current physical status prior to setting their goals and respective exercise intensities in order to avoid injury.

By exercising some common sense (excuse the pun), and sticking to some basic guidelines, most injuries can be avoided.

Firstly, we need to figure out how hard we should be pushing ourselves during sessions?

My general rule of thumb is to take it easy for the first 2 sessions in order for the body to adapt to new movements. Try and limit any new exercise to between 2 and 3 sets of 5 to 10 repetitions. From an intensity perspective, you should be able to maintain good form for the entire duration of the session. Loss of form is indicative of fatigue and carries a risk of injury.

When it comes to avoiding injury and extreme stiffness, the bottom line is that we need to be strong enough to execute the movement. If you are in a class environment and feel uncomfortable doing an exercise, rather adjust it to something that you are more comfortable with and discuss it with your trainer afterwards; after all, we know our own bodies better than anyone else does. I advise most people to attend a few one on one sessions before starting classes in order to make sure that you are strong enough to cope with the cadence of a class.

When it comes to augmenting an exercise by using weights, we need to consider that extra resistance is merely there to make things more difficult. If we are not strong enough to do a conventional push up or a one legged squat, I would suggest considering our need for that extra resistance. When using an extra weight such as a dumbbell, barbell, kettlebell or theraband, choose a resistance where the form of the exercise is not compromised.

If you are uncertain as to what your physical limitations are, I would advise you to see your Biokineticist before starting a new exercise regime to ensure that you are fully equipped to enjoy and benefit from it.

Tony’s Primary areas of focus include: Orthopaedic rehabilitation (mainly backs and knees). He works with regaining function in ACL reconstructions and total knee replacement patients.

Tony also has an interest in sport specific testing and training (primarily rowing, cycling, running and triathlon).

Tony is the Chairman of the Biokinetics Association of Southern Africa (Gauteng division).

Tony can be contacted on 011 028 1128 or tonypaladin@kinetics.co.za. 

In case of an emergency, he can be contacted on 082 921 6776.