ATLANTA - It is dark. It is cold. But instead of snoozing under my comforter, I'm lying in the wet leaves in my neighbourhood park struggling to do sit-ups.
Yes, sit-ups. Not those wimpy little crunches where you barely budge off the ground. But good old-fashioned sit-ups like the ones you did in gym class. Welcome to boot camp.
Every weekday morning for a month I have agreed to arrive here by 5:45 a.m. so that I can be shepherded through a workout that leaves me gasping for breath and, more often than not, covered in mud and twigs. The idea is to jump-start my fitness routine, which in recent months has consisted primarily of ambling walks for my geriatric dog and playing hide-and-seek with my toddler.
Not exactly a regimen heavy on the cardio.
A former runner, I had been trying to ignore the fact that I seemed to be breathing a little heavy when I climbed the stairs at work. But there was no avoiding the fact that when I tried to pull on a beloved pair of pants one day they simply wouldn't button.
In a bit of serendipity a flyer announcing the start of "Operation Boot Camp" was on my door a few days later.
Or maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. Boot camps are everywhere these days.
They come in many varieties, some a drill sergeant wouldn't recognize: There are baby boot camps, for new moms pushing strollers as well as pregnant moms-to-be. Boot camps on the beach combine a killer workout with a vacation and spa cuisine. Yoga boot camps are for those looking to perfect their downward dog. And women looking to tap into their feminine energy to improve their health from the inside out can check out the "Goddess Warrior" boot camp.
Unlike a regular exercise routine that's designed to be followed for the long haul, a boot camp is a short burst focused on yielding a specific result or providing a needed shot in the arm.
Cedric Bryant, chief science officer with the American Council on Exercise, says boot camps offer busy folks with short attention spans - and an aversion to leaving bed before the sun comes up - a time-efficient way to see results fast.
The fact that I shelled out $350 for this also gives me a reason not to hit the snooze button on the alarm clock.
So here I am with an acorn wedged painfully in my shoulder blade as our instructor calls out the count far faster than I am able to lurch upward in what I imagine is the most awkward sit-up ever.
Thankfully we complete the set, but immediately we are up and running, then performing lunges and then running again and then hopping like a crazed rabbit in the pre-dawn chill. One thing I quickly learn about boot camp is that you never rest. Even as you are listening to the instructors explain the next tortuous task on the morning's agenda you are supposed to be doing squats, jumping jacks or pushups. I am constantly peeling off layers of clothes and it's December.
The instructors don't shout or berate us like the old military drill sergeant models, but they do "encourage." The class is small, so if you slack off they notice and make everyone stop until you pull yourself together and keep going.
Workouts vary from day to day and have names like Altitude Adjustment (lots of sprints involving hills) and House of Pain (I don't think there was a part of me that wasn't sore after that one).
