Boot Camp Courtesy of IMP

Afew months ago my friend Lisa brought to my attention a coupon that she found on groupon.com for an unlimited 4-week boot camp class at IMP Fitness in Fairfax, VA. We decided to use it starting the month of June not realizing that the startup gym was not equipped with air conditioning(!!). Yes, we did 2 of the hottest months of the year. On our first night of class I showed up in my work clothes, like I normally do when I go to the gym after work, thinking that I would be able to change in their locker room before class started. When I pulled into the parking lot after circling the office buildings around it for 5 minutes because I couldn’t find it, I realized that the gym was located in an old warehouse that had all of the doors opened with huge fans circulating the air. My first impression was not a great one; I’ve been spoiled with Gold’s Gym for years now so anything less then what I'm used to I tend to get a little bit snobby.
When I walked inside the gym was divided into 2 sections: (1) treadmills & free weights on one side; and (2) an indoor turf type field on the other which apparently was for sports training, i.e. baseball hitting/pitching lessons; volleyball lessons, softball, football, etc. I was then informed that they “didn’t have locker rooms yet” but that I could change in one of their co-ed bathrooms. =/

Our first day of boot camp was a good workout; I was kind of hoping for our instructor to be a little more...well, mean, I guess. I was definitely disappointed that he was so soft spoken & telling us to “go at your own pace.” When I had initially read the words “boot camp” I imagined someone yelling/screaming at me throughout the class; our instructor, John, was not like that. As the weeks went on John grew on me & I really enjoyed going to class every Tuesday night, Thursday night & Sunday morning. Li & I did get some great workouts in when we went there; some stuff I had never even done before & it’s always nice to change it up. I especially liked jumping rope, using the medicine balls, wearing the weighted vests & using the large yoga balls. Before our last class last Tuesday, Li & I gave John a little gift to remember us by – a whistle. =) All of the other trainers had them, except for John; he was pretty excited about it.

I’m totally going to miss having John work us out, but on our last night of class he secretly told us that another coupon would be posted on the groupon website after the month of October. I think Li & I are going to jump on that one too & possibly get our Sandra Lue to join us!

Some of my favorite memories from class:

1. Li: “Do you have a modified version of that because we fat people can’t do that one.”
2. Another trainer filled in for John one day while he was on vacation – his nickname was then “Suicide John” because he totally kicked our asses.
3. Li: “You should turn the AC on because it’s really hot outside.” Front Desk: “Well I would but we don’t actually have AC - we’re getting it though!”
4. High fives in-between sprints.
5. Our manly type sweating that burns our eyes & requires us to bring a bathroom size towel while everyone else in the class is barely sweating.
6. Good job butt smacks.

To quote Lisa - "On to our next adventure!" :D