FollowWhen I think of bootcamp, rope climbing and crawling under hurdles in mud, potential battle wounds come to mind. I envision a drill sergeant yelling in my ear as I crumble in defeat, demanding, “Pull yourself up and get your act together! You are not a quitter! We don’t allow crying here! Now give me fifty pushups!”
After the drill sergeant demands this of me, I then envision myself holding up the white flag in surrender.
Before attending one of Shape Project’s Boot Camp sessions, I felt certain that I needed to get my will in order. I gave a long hug to my dog and reassured him that if I didn’t survive this workout, my mother would take great care of him.
When I arrived at my class at Stars and Stripes Park at Lake Hefner, I saw a group of women smiling.
Surely these women weren’t smiling knowing their potential torture? Surely these women were meeting to drink cold boxed wine on this hot summer day.
But alas, Melissa Cox, the owner of the Shape Project, greeted me, handed me a pair of five-pound dumbbells and summoned the class to begin.
At first I thought to myself, “Really? Only five pounds? Did she not see my guns?”
I quickly realized the reasoning behind the lighter dumbbells.
First, we started the class with what is called a “Victory Lap.” I personally thought it was about a mile long run to start off with, but really it was almost equivalent to one lap at a track.
After everyone was finished with their lap, they fell down into plank and we held it until each person in the class had completed their lap.
Melissa then broke us up into two teams: one team had to get in bear position, the other into crab. She threw a soccer ball in the middle of the field and we crawled around trying to slap the ball with our hands into our team’s goal.
So far my assumptions about bootcamp were falling to the wayside. This was fun. People were laughing, we were falling over and competing at the same time. And even though after a couple minutes it felt like my arms were about to fall off, it felt invigorating.
After the quick game, Melissa had us grab our weights. This is where the fun started to feel like work.
Over the next 45 minutes, I had never pushed myself so hard, especially in almost 100-degree weather. The workout consisted of quick bursts of intervals, dropping down to do ten pushups, quickly getting back up to do fifteen bodyweight squats, then using the dumbbells for shoulder presses. The goal was to complete as many rounds possible in two minutes.
A variation of different two-minute intervals made the time pass by quickly, though. Then Melissa found a way to ruin one of my favorite songs, “Diamonds,” by Rihanna. Throughout the entire song we performed mountain climbers, then each time Rihanna sang the word “diamonds,” we had to jump up and do a burpee.
Everyone moaned; everyone grunted; everyone complained. However, knowing everyone was in as much pain as I was somehow gave me the strength push through.
Somehow through my pain, I was smiling.
The camaraderie in bootcamp taught me one very important lesson: shared misery is a powerful thing.
WRITTEN BY ANYA ALVAREZ | PHOTOGRAPHY BY EMILY BRASHIER –
