Sweating it out at boot camp

I sort of pitied and at the same time envied the women on the British Club tennis court who were profusely sweating it out in the morning sun doing some unimaginable things.

Two of them were running across the court with half-filled water cans in both hands; others were dragging tyres attached to a rope while another group was jogging carrying a tyre on their head and yet another group were busy doing push-ups tied to a rope. Whew! It was certainly not a session for the faint-hearted.

These women are part of a Mummy Bootcamp introduced by club member Hannah Lynch for mummies in town seeking a place to leave their young children as they to get back to peak fitness under the expert guidance of ex-British army personal trainer, John Maxwell.
 
The hourly bi-weekly sessions take place in the mornings on Sundays and Wednesdays and also comes with a crèche facility, for children aged six months to four years, co-ordinated by Hannah and Niki Reekie, leader of the British Club’s Tots and Toddlers sessions.

Hannah, 36, from Umm Al Hassam, is an actor who is regularly seen in Manama Theatre productions and is also a qualified primary school teacher and was editor of a monthly magazine. She quit work to became a fulltime mum when her daughter Saoirse was born three years ago.
 
She said: “I couldn’t find time to exercise and that is when I had this idea of setting up something where mums could exercise and have fun which included facilities for the care of their children.

“I really wanted to be an at-home mum but the only thing that got me down and actually got me quite depressed was not being able to lose weight because I couldn’t find time to exercise.

“My husband is a pilot and was away all the time. I once used to play rugby for Qatar and I was quite fit ... but not any longer.

“It was my idea to have a military boot camp because I have done similar boot camps in England where you stay for five days in a base camp and do 12-hours of exercise in a day! It is pure hell but it pushes you to your absolute limit.

“Such camps also bring about a certain amount of camaraderie with encouragement coming from all those involved.

“It is also not focussed on weight loss but on getting fit. Weight loss has a lot to do with nutrition so we cannot guarantee that because your diet may or may not be right.

“We do a fitness test on the first day. This means running on the tennis court for five minutes and counting the number of laps; one minute each of sit-ups and counts, press-ups and counts and squatting and counts. Ten sessions later we redo it and I am confident that they will all do much better.”

Mr Maxwell, 27, from Scotland, added: “Mummy Bootcamp is based on the idea of a military-style camp. It is tougher than routine training and rather than doing the normal push-ups and sit-ups or shoulder presses we use items like tyres and water bottles, which is similar to using dumb bells and weights.

“The biggest difference for me is the way I speak to the ladies ... I try not to be a fierce trainer. The exercises are all the same and are based on every individual’s best efforts.

“A boot camp builds on the fitness level of every individual. We target exercises for the same areas but the routine changes every day. We have a cardiovascular session that works out your heart and lungs, legs, some core and upper body. Training once a week is a good start but ideally three or four sessions will actually help.”

The camp has received a good response from the community and the team is hoping to expand the sessions to afternoons and evenings to provide opportunities for day time workers and teenagers.