A friend on a small homeschooling moms list I’m on (where several of us are T-Tappers) asked how she could be fit like Teresa and me and stay that way without doing bootcamps all the time. I posted the following to the list and thought it might be helpful and encouraging in light of all the adrenaline and excitement running high with the 60 Day Challenge!

Here’s my secret:

I hardly ever do bootcamps!

I remember when I first started T-Tapp, I would hear how you could maintain your goal size on 1-2 workouts per week.

I thought, yeah, well, probably not for me!

I was right. They were wrong.

I now maintain my size on two SHORT workouts per week! 🙂 BUT–with focus on form and intentional movement.

No.Move.Wasted.

There is a danger in 7-14 day bootcamps. You can overdo it. You can lose your focus and intention. You can burn out.

And, like the hare, you can sprint out the chute at 150% only to fizzle out before you’re halfway. That is NOT going to get you anywhere, no matter what facet of life you’re applying that to!

Everyone stand (curled core, ribs lifted, palms forward and KLT) and repeat after me:

“Bootcamps are to establish and/or strengthen neurokinetic connections. A longer bootcamp will not cause me to lose inches faster. I will not get hung up on a longer bootcamp and instead put all my focus and intention into a shorter one.”

Inhale–exhale BIGGER!

Let’s see if I can even remember my “bootcamps”:

February 2007–10 day BWO+ bootcamp, from the book
May 2007–12 day bootcamp of TWO, just through Runner’s Stretch
August 2007–14 day of ALL of TWO (and I lost the least inches, burned myself out, and hardly did TWO for over a year!)
Sometime in late 2007/early 2008–5 day MORE bootcamp
June 2008–5 day Tempo Arms bootcamp
January 2009–4 day MORE Instructional bootcamp (after 7 weeks off after my miscarriage)
February 2010–attempt at a 5 day BWO+ bootcamp but got sick
December 2010–4 day MORE Instructional bootcamp

There you have it. There might be one more 4 day MORE Instructional bootcamp I’m forgetting. My first three were the only ones 10 days or more. And I got better results out of the shorter ones!

Bootcamps are great for jumpstarting, but I think most of us are really, honestly, too busy and have lives that are too full (or too much going on health-wise) to be doing longer bootcamps.

I would seriously advise no one do more than a 7 day bootcamp, and that only if you are not battling health issues. Everyone else go for 4-5 days. PLEASE take two days completely off. PBS only.

Then go with your routine of choice. But be careful to not add too many “target” moves. Rotate them. 10 days target move, 2 days off. 10 days another target move, 2 days off. (Organs in Place and Half Frogs can be “freebies”).

The past year of mentoring for training and becoming a trainer has showed me what Teresa was saying all along–the stronger you get, the more you get out of it, the less you have to do. I held the plie squat 90% of the time. I only did 4 reps 99.9999999% of the time. No singles on Jazz Twist. Splitting TWO up over three classes.

And I still lost and reshaped, even as a less-to-lose! 2+ inches off of each upper thigh in 6 months–as a less-to-lose! I don’t think I lost 2+ inches off up my upper thighs in a YEAR as a more-to-lose!

So instead of killing yourselves with workouts, think LESS IS MORE (Maybe that should be in our daily reminders?!) and spend the time you would have in longer bootcamps, more moves, more workouts concentrating on form and intention instead.

Remember:

Focus on form+

                     Intention on moves=

GREAT RESULTS!