Sunday, June 07, 2009 | Life, Health + Fitness
SP A walk in the park …

… plus sit-ups, push-ups, squats, running and jumping jacks when you join Get in Shape Boot Camp

Courtesy of Get in Shape Boot Camp
Boot campers at Piedmont Park

WHAT: Get In Shape Boot Camp
WHERE: Piedmont Park
WHEN: Weekdays, Mon.-Fri. Check the Web site for times. The current four-week session started June 1, and you can sign up anytime.
COST: $250 for your first month, $200 a month for return boot campers. $150 a month for teachers and government employees. Free sessions are offered every Saturday for those who want to try before they buy.
CONTACT INFO: www.getinshapebootcamp.com
FITNESS FACTOR: 5 stars
FUN FACTOR: 3.5 stars

By Colleen Oakley

It was a glorious sunny day at Piedmont Park. Six p.m., and the temperature was perfect. A slight breeze ruffled the trees, and the laughter of young children tittered on the air. It would have been an opportune evening for a picnic basket and a blanket—a gathering of friends over a bottle of chilled wine.

These were the thoughts I was entertaining as I was huffing and puffing my way up a steep grassy hill for the fourth time in less than five minutes. I was one of about 20 boot campers sweating profusely and trying to get my body ready for swimsuit season at Shannon Hamilton’s Get in Shape Boot Camp.

The hour-long session started with a warm-up jog through the park. Then we stretched and did a few jumping jacks and push-ups. Then the workout began. There’s a reason I didn’t play football in college. Well, there are many reasons, first and most obvious being that I’m a girl. But Shannon Hamilton did play football at Georgia Tech, and it shows—not only in the muscles peeking through his tight T-shirt, but in his strenuous workouts. First up were wind sprints uphill—five of them, I believe, though my last three were less sprint-like, and would be better described as crawls.

Then we lined up and took turns picking different exercise drills; if you couldn’t think of one, he chose for you—and ab killers are his favorites. We did so many reps of squats, crunches, scissor kicks and bear crawls, I thought that surely my gut had transformed into a six-pack by the end of the hour. It sadly hadn’t, but not for lack of a killer workout. We ended the session with more running (I somehow got lumped into the fast group and quickly was eating dust), and tricep dips on a low stone wall.

While we were cooling down, I asked my fellow boot campers (who had all been training this way every day for a month or more) if they had lost weight. “Nearly 30 pounds,” one man piped up. “My jeans fit better,” a girl said. With a workout like that, I believe it. I’m definitely going back—I’ve got more hills to conquer and a six-pack to gain. SP
Colleen Oakley is a freelance writer in Atlanta and the former editor of Women’s Health & Fitness magazine. Got a fitness challenge for her? E-mail her at colleen@sundaypaper.com.