Military Madness

Gain comes with just a little bit of pain with Boot Camp

The Weekend Australian Magazine

Words: LARA ZAMIATIN

"Come on, pick it up - and make sure you b-r-e-a-t-h-e!" barks the Lead Instructor named Chief. A group of mostly 20 and 30-somethings are lying on their stomachs, faces contorted with exhaustion and suppressed laughter, dragging themselves along the sand of beautiful Coogee Beach. Chief, with his shaved head and combat boots, pauses for a moment, nods slowly and with arms folded, squints into the breaking daylight, then counts: "Fifteen seconds to go, move it. Go, go, go..... 3, 2, 1. Steady!"

The exercise (at 6.00 am on a Friday morning) is called "dead legs" and the point, explains Chief (AKA James Brabon), is to pretend you've been shot in the butt, and are unable to use your body from the waist down. "It's a fast track way to build upper-body strength and muscular-endurance" says the 29 year old ex-Army soldier, and founder of the Boot Camp movement in Australia.

Looking at his lean-machine body with a body-fat-ratio of about 5% and the ability to complete 30 chin-ups in a minute (and yes we did get to witness this) - who would doubt him?

Boot Camp - the use of military style training and motivational techniques to get people into shape -  is one of the more extreme exercise fads to emerge, but according to its ever increasing army of devotees, it works. Why else would Brabon's recruits be prepared to stick out a month-long course that requires them to report to a beach, pre-dawn, three times a week to spend an hour and a quarter under extreme duress? And the calisthenics make Pump classes look like a picnic. Some sessions involve soft-sand sprints, along with an assortment of push-ups, chin-ups, crunches, squat thrusts, bunny-hops, monkey runs and excruciating 8-point push-ups (a favorite of the US Navy SEALs that combines push-ups and squat-jumps), while enduring orders and punishments from Brabon and his team of Drill Sergeants - Personal Trainer Emily Hames and former soldiers Ron Veldhuis, a Scot, and Brazilian Chris Valle.

Though it's difficult to imagine how such draconian measures could be so popular, it seems the best way to get couch potatoes moving is through a little military style discipline. Couch potatoes know this, and are willing to pay for it.

Like most fitness crazes, Boot Camp originated in the US. Here in Australia, the Original Bootcamp program was founded over a decade ago by Brabon, who has since developed a system for international health club chain Fitness First. Despite the numerous health clubs and personal trainers offering army-style programs, none have been able to match the results achieved by Brabon's programs.

With Australia's Army Reserve numbers critically low and conscription back on the agenda, Boot Camp throws up an interesting contradiction: people don't want to join the army but are willing to fork out $129 a month to be treated like they are in the Army. The reason for most participants is the results. Brabon has proved that his programs produce results as good as, if not better than having a personal trainer, and this has shocked the fitness industry. One of his current recruits told us that he had lost nine-and-a-half kilos in his first month on the program and so has naturally come back for more. "We have a number of people who have never trained before entering half-marathons after just two months with us." says Brabon.

"It's because of the intensity of the sessions; people have nowhere to hide and no excuse to stop, so they just keep going. We push them as far as they can go, physically, mentally and emotionally."

"Discipline is paramount," Brabon adds. "If someone slacks off, is late or talks while an Instructor is talking, the whole platoon pays for it - usually with extra push-ups. That's why we often hire ex-military personnel, because for them it's just a flash-back to when they were in the service. They know exactly the types of motivational techniques that will keep people moving."

One such person that Brabon and Co have got moving is Josh Levy, 18. This is his first Boot Camp and while he says the early mornings can be torturous, he's enthusiastic about the camaraderie, "I wanted something more full-on then I had previously been doing and this was so different, I had to try it. The people are friendly and when you're being put through hell together you bond and spur each other on. Plus, your outdoors, on a beautiful beach."

So it's not just about craving more and more extreme physical challenges. Senior Sergeant Tony Merrick, who runs Brabon's programs in Perth, says that many recruits start as introverts. "It's about self esteem. When people are pushed to their limit, they gain confidence, The discipline makes them more focused in other areas of their lives. They're better at making decisions and they just feel good about themselves."