The Company Team\'s January Challenge: Kick Start Boot Camp
fitness challenge,loose weight,fitness,health and fitness,bootcamp,fitness bootcamp,kick start boot camp
kick start boot camp
Every girl always wants to loose a dress size! So when we were offered to test different routes to loosing that stubborn half stone I jumped at the chance!
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Being an active gym-goer, I thought my fitness levels were already pretty good. But had felt stuck in a rut doing the same classes in the gym.
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I hadn\'t seen a change in my body shape for months, and needed that motivation to push my fitness routine to its next level.
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I chose to take part in the Kick Start Boot Camp. This did seem the hardcore option, but I was up for a challenge!
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The Kick Start boot camp began its first courses in June 2009. The moto of the course is \"as if losing a dress size wasn\'t exciting enough\", Kick Start\'s aim is to educate you to a better health future where you learn about nutrition and exercises that not only make your life easier, but also give you fantastic results.
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Kick start offers a choice of two courses, the four day (running from Friday to Monday) or the seven day.
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While not cheap, four days being from £599 and the seven day being £1,350. The course takes care of everything. From the moment you are picked up at the station, your time has been carefully planned and prepared for you.
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The course is spilt over two locations, the beautiful Standford Hall country estate on Soar, Leicestershire. All physical activities take place in it\'s 350 acres of countryside. The accommodation is a short way away in the luxurious Bunny Hall. The accommodation boasts indoor swimming pool, steam rooms and Jacuzzi.
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I signed up and was ready to go!
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The details:
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4 day boot camp - £599
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7 day boot camp - £1,350
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For more information log on to kick-startbootcamp.co.uk
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Tel: 0115 969 1220
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Click through the gallery to see how Abi got on...
Kick Start Boot Camp: Day 1
fitness challenge,loose weight,fitness,health and fitness,bootcamp,fitness bootcamp,kick start boot camp
kick start boot camp
I am met at Loughborough train station by an impossibly fit looking man in combats and army boots, and know I am in for a tough time.
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It turns out Steve, or Staff as I have to refer to him as is really lovely, and puts me at ease. Having been in the Navy, and now an experienced personal trainer, he is well versed in dealing with those embarking on a fitness-training programme.
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Once in the beautiful surroundings of Stamford hall, I have my initial body check.
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My fat is measured on my arms, stomach and back, I am weighed and measured and have my lung capacity read.
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I am feeling fairly good, the training hadn\'t yet started and I am thinking, ‘I do five times a week in the gym, I must be fit\'.
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All the results are now kept secret from us until the last day, when they will be compared to our (hopefully) new body levels.
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All changed into our outdoor sports gear the five of us girls taking part venture out for our first session. We learn how to stretch, bend and move safely before marching - in single file - to our first assignment in Stamford woods.
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A huge pile of car tyres need to be moved from one side of the woods to the other, finishing with being tied to a tree as a wall of tyres.
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Small catch, we have to run one tyre at a time, the rain water gathered in the tyres splashes all down my T shirt, and I suddenly don\'t feel so enthusiastic or fit!
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Once the task is completed five very muddy girls march back to the hall for lunch. I am pleasantly surprised, lunch is a lovely chicken and rice salad.
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Okay, so it\'s not huge, and there\'s no bread and butter on the side, but it is really tasty!
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As Steve explains it\'s just the right amount of carbs and protein to give us all the energy we need, without raising our blood sugar levels too high. Meaning we should not suffer the blood sugar crash that enevitably follows. The meals were very structured, no food type was cut out (apart from the obvious macdonalds and pizza).
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Each meal or snack (yes, three snacks per day!) was designed not to raise the blood sugar levels too high, and in turn stopping those energy crashes that drive you to reach for the nearest bar of chocolate.
Because of this control over our sugar levels, we never felt hungry. Don\'t get me wrong, we\'re certainly not full up, but the cravings for sweet treats just disappeared after the first day.
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Kick start really is about entire life changes, rather than a one weekend quick fix, so it\'s a really nice break from all that exercising to have a nutritionalist come in to talk with us. Offering real advice that fits into my life on the right way to eat is quite an eye opener. I love the 80%/ 20% rule, where you can have that 20% off and still get results. Don\'t beat yourself up over that one treat seems to be a real mantra here.
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More exercises follow, but everything is mixed up to take your mind off just how hard you are working. We had a sports day afternoon which mixed the expected sprints and weights with an egg and spoon race!
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After a long day (and all that exercise!) we all head back to the main house. Surprisingly when dinner was served, I wasn\'t so hungry I would have chewed my arm off, but it was welcome!
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We had soup to start and gammon steak for our main. The meals are calorie controlled but again I am not starving. My cravings for a sweet treat are definitely feeling like a distance memory.
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We all head to the pool area for a final stretch of the day. Our two trainers, Steve and Charlie take us slowly through each stretch. They tell me I have tight hamstrings, and pick up on the pain I have in my lower back, all from the way I ran earlier! Something my home gym of seven years had never noticed!
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Bed! It\'s only eight o\'clock, but I am totally exhausted and in slight dread of my 5:45 start time tomorrow, hit the sack.
Kick Start Boot Camp: Day 2
fitness challenge,loose weight,fitness,health and fitness,bootcamp,fitness bootcamp,kick start boot camp
kick start boot camp
I don\'t think anyone could have prepared me for my 5:45am start. I head outside to meet the others, it\'s still dark, and we have head torches on so we can make out Charlie, who is waiting for us already.
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We have an hour of tough circuits, press ups, lunges and squats spilt up by sprints. As it begins to rain I really wonder what I am doing here!
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Although when the rain clears and the sun finally begins to rise I do feel good, we head inside for breakfast and to change into our dry clothes.
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Breakfast is a typically healthy organic muesli and fruit. Again the portions are pretty small by my standards but this is the amount we should be eating!
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We pack our bags with two sets of changes of kit and head into the grounds of Stamford hall.
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After filling up our water bottles, and changing into our outdoor kit (I begin to dread being told to change into our outdoor kit, as it tends to involve very hard work!) We march to a large field, which has a specially designed assault course prepared for us.
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This consists of a large stack of hay bales, which we are later to clamber over, a net to crawl under - I am feeling very GI Jane on this one. Finally there is a huge tractor tyre for us to flip. This may all sound very random, and to us at the time looked very random too, but each course meant a different move of the body, and a different action. I am aching at the end, but with muscles I never knew existed, this had to be a good sign!?
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We are so happy to be told lunch is on the way, and the carrot and mackerel salad was so good!
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The programme here is so considered, that after all the work on our legs in the morning, we had a boxing class planned for us in the afternoon. We partnered up and learnt Jabs, uppercuts and hooks. As Charlie and Steve taught us the techniques I did feel for the first time really fit and energised.
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Being a group of girls, we had one thing keeping us going, X factor tonight! Every time one of us looked tired we shouted X factor as a pick me up. What is so amazing is how much the five of us bonded, not sure if it was through exhaustion or determination, but the support I felt from these girls was just amazing!
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After a full day of boxing, the boys had lined up for a Yoga expert to come in and stretch and relax us - although I was so tired I didn\'t need to learn how to relax, I could have fallen asleep there and then.
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Back to our living quarters for dinner, a really delicious salmon curry. We are told adding spices to our food is a good way to boost the matalboism. Anything to burn those extra calories with minimal effort sounds good to me!
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It\'s almost eight O\'clock and time for X factor, I watch Olly open the show, and then just have to go to bed! Can\'t believe I am missing Jedwood, but my bed is calling. Again sleep so soundly!
