Welcome to Tales from Sweat Camp, I'm Pahla B - fitness trainer, health coach, and bootcamp babe. I'm the lucky owner of Pahla B Fitness Training and I run Sweat Camp for an amazing group of campers that I call my Killer Bs. We meet at Morse Park on weekdays at 5 am, even in the middle of winter. We work out when it's hot, when it's cold, when it's raining, and even when we're all half-asleep and a little bit grouchy. We laugh a lot, we swear pretty frequently, and boy, do we SWEAT!
I remember way back when I first started Sweat Camp, I was really excited about branching out from personal training to put on bootcamp-style group workouts, but I was also a complete nervous wreck! I didn't know how many people would show up (or if anybody would show up at all!), and I wasn't entirely sure if the workout I planned would seem like too much or too little. I worried that I wouldn't have enough equipment. I worried that my timer would malfunction (it was critical to the workout). I fretted for days beforehand about all the details that I just couldn't know until I was in the thick of it. I was a sweaty mess that day and I wasn't even doing any of the exercises! But I vividly remember, about halfway through the hour, looking around at everybody working out and thinking, "Yeah, this is awesome!"
Thankfully, the campers agreed with me and everyone came back for more bootcamp - yay! The workouts have become a bit more elaborate in the year and a half since I started, and the nerves have definitely settled down, but the excitement I felt on that first day hasn't changed a bit. I love bootcamp workouts, and here's why:
- I get to be creative. I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I love to put together different combinations of exercises, timing, reps, challenges and games to give my Killer Bs a good workout without pushing them too far into the "This isn't fun anymore" zone. Every artist has their medium, and mine is apparently a park playground.
- I love to watch friendships being built on the foundation of sweat. Lots of my campers knew each other to varying degrees before coming to Sweat Camp, but there is absolutely a unique bond that forms when you've conquered seven minutes of burpees side by side.
- There is nothing better than an early morning outdoor workout. There are actual, legitimate, scientific health benefits, of course - fresh air, green space, etc. - but what I love the most is the awesome spectacle of nature. Over the course of the last year, we've seen all sorts of weather, shooting stars, brilliant sunrises, creepy fog, sideways rain, and moons so full and luminous they look fake. You can't get that at a gym!
- I'm the puppet master and I get to pull all the strings! Oh wait, did I say that out loud? Oops! What I actually meant was that I really enjoy it when the workouts roll out just like I planned them. Sometimes I'll have what I think is a great idea for a workout and it lands sort of flat. Sad face. So, I'm particularly happy when campers are smiling and having fun while they're sweating. Best of all is when they tell me afterward that it was an awesome workout and they really loved it! And maybe even better than best is when I get a text the next day saying, "Ow, I think my butt is broken!" Yeah, it's good to be me.
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