Reporter finds motivation to complete Extreme Boot Camp in Calabasas

WORK IT OUT—Boot campers stretch their aching muscles as their trainers, dressed in camouflage, oversee the exercise routine. The six-week program aims to challenge participants to push to their personal extremes, getting their bodies and minds on a healthier track.

When the chance to try out one of those much-advertised fitness boot camps came across my desk, I was excited. I had set some goals for the summer, and the six-week, five-day-a-week program started immediately—no time to overthink and chicken out. I was out of shape and lacked motivation, and Extreme Boot Camp Calabasas seemed like the jump-start I needed, albeit with a lot of blood and sweat (okay, just sweat) along the way.

Day one It's July 21: first day of boot camp. I go directly from LAX (my former version of hell), fresh from a leisurely vacation, to Round Meadow Elementary School in Hidden Hills where boot camp meets (my new hell).

The burly men in camouflage pants and black T-shirts meander around us as we do squat after squat. Then it's the timed mile run. The fear I felt in sixth-grade PE class creeps up on me. I hate running. I swam and played water polo in high school and college and excelled in both because there wasn't a lot of running involved. I'm a water person, and I feel sick even thinking about running. At the gym I use the elliptical machine, do kickboxing and lift weights—anything to avoid the treadmills.

Not to say I'm a regular at the gym. Like anyone, when I get into the groove of going to the gym a couple times a week, I feel better and feel the need to go. But throw a three-day weekend or a cold that lingers into the mix, and I'm out for weeks.

On the first day of boot camp I feel like death. The sun is beating down as we run the mile through Hidden Hills near the elementary school where we meet. I finish in 11 minutes and 17 seconds and there are people ahead of me and behind me. (I remember in junior high school when I broke 8 minutes.) I want to get in the car and pretend I never came, but the instructors who are shadowing me and motivating me have already noted my name.

They want to make sure I'll return tomorrow.

One week in

It's not what you do in boot camp—anyone who's ever played a sport or worked out with a trainer knows most of the exercises: pushups, squats and flutter kicks; sprinting, jogging and jumping jacks— it's the sheer speed of the workout, the pace that's nonnegotiable.

Following an opening sprint you have 15 seconds to get to the mat and start with the weights. As you finish a set of high kicks, you have 30 seconds to get to the blacktop across the field for another run, everybody in the class jogging in a straight line.

Water breaks are barely long enough to grab the bottle and squirt the sweet nectar into your mouth. There's no time to think about what's next—and before you know it, an hour is up.

Despite the soreness I feel after just two days, I know it's worth it. I left each workout with renewed energy and a smile, knowing I was kicking my body into the best shape it's been in a while.

Getting into the groove

After a week I feel my arms toning up and my legs getting stronger. I jog up the stairs at my friend's apartment with ease. I'm eating a lot better, thinking about food more as a fuel for boot camp, not as a pastime to enjoy in front of the television. Ice cream is not fuel, by the way.

Four weeks into the regimen I feel better than I have since college. Boot camp is challenging every day, and it's fun. We have a wide spectrum of campers, but they all encourage one another.

The instructors are amazing. Some are more reserved and give you that quiet push you need, doing dips beside you to keep you going. Others tell jokes while they count off crunches and cheer you on while you round out 40 reps of bicep curls.

I'm a little bummed that I have to miss four days of the camp about halfway through. (It's a vacation to Hawaii, so I'm not too disappointed.) Surprisingly, I worked out almost every day while I was there and found myself trying to create sweat as much as I did in boot camp. During the week off I felt something was missing.

The results are in

Despite the vacation, the results of the camp proved incredible. My body feels so different. It's stronger and tighter and more capable. I lost 12 pounds and several inches off every part of my body. I have more energy, I'm eating healthier and have better concentration.

And I know I could have done even better. Without that chunk of time away from camp I would've been even more focused. If I'd cut out alcohol and a couple of trips to my favorite Mexican food restaurant, I would have dropped even more pounds and more inches. But the bottom line is, I feel great.

The men in camo

Steven and Ethan Davis own the Extreme Boot Camp franchise in Calabasas and in other areas, including Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and a new Oak Park/Agoura Hills location.

Steven Davis is studying to become a doctor and jumped into the exercise program because he believes in its effectiveness. He said the name of the camp isn't meant to scare people, but to let them know there's no kidding around.

"The results are so great if you follow the program," Davis said. Participants are required to log the food they eat and how much water they consume.

"It's about pushing you to your own personal extreme," he said. "We aren't concerned with getting you to someone else's level."

In just six months in Calabasas the organizers say they've had hundreds of people join their classes, and many of them have come back for repeat sessions. The program runs throughout the year.

"The hardest thing is starting," Davis said. "Once you're in, it's like a family. We don't intimidate, we motivate. I get so happy when people tell me boot camp has changed their life."

For more information, e-mail Calabasas@extremebootcamp .com or call Steven Davis at (818) 304-4111.