Boot Camp Exercises

From the past few years, boot camp exercises have gain incredible popularity and have become fitness 'mantra' for many health and body conscious people. This is because these exercises focus on complete body fitness and address all areas of fitness including cardio and muscular endurance, weight loss, body strength, agility, muscle building, balance, flexibility, etc.

Boot camp exercises for women or men take you through different high intensity strength and cardio exercises that are especially designed to challenge your strength and endurance while burning calories. The workout moves quickly, taking you from one exercise to the other without much of rest. Another element of boot camp workouts is that they are fun to do as each exercise is different and so you don't get bored during the workout. The cardio boot camp exercises at home mainly include push ups, jumping jacks, crunches and other high intensity strength training exercises.

Types of Boot Camp Exercises

High Knee Drill: Stand straight, drive your knee up towards the chest and keep that foot in first square or back on the ground. Likewise, drive other knee up and land in next square and jog moderate to fast with minimal ground contact time.

Burpees: From a standing position, jump as high as possible and come down on your feet with your hands on the ground. Kick your feet back, you will be in a push up position and then quickly jump back up again. Repeat the steps for required number of repetitions.

Squat - Thrusts: Stand with your feet together and squat down with your hands on the floor next to your feet. Quickly jump your feet backwards into a push up position and then jump the feet back between hands and stand up. Perform 10 repetitions, march in place for a few seconds and then do 10 more repetitions.

Slow Push Ups: Be in the push up position either on a ball or floor. Perform 4 push ups, abs in and back straight and on the 5th push up, lower the body halfway down and hold for 4 counts. Now push your back up and repeat the steps for 30 - 60 seconds.

Walking Lunge: Begin at one end of the room, holding weights if desired, and then step ahead with your right leg. Bend both knees to 90 degrees angles, lower your body into a lunge while keeping your front knee behind the toe. Similarly, take the left foot forward and step into a lunge and then continue lunging with alternate legs for 30 - 60 seconds.

Triceps Dips: Sit on a chair or bench with the hands next to your hips. Raise your abdomen up and take the hips forward, just in front of the bench. Bend the elbows and lower until they are about 90 degrees. Squeeze the triceps to push back up and repeat the entire procedure for 30 - 60 seconds.

Dumbbell Deadlift Row: Begin by holding dumbbells in both hands and squat down until the dumbbells almost touch the ground. Try to stand up and halt when your legs are semi straight and your back is at a 45 degree angle. Now, pull the dumbbells in towards your waist and then go back to the initial position and repeat.

Quad Psoas Stretch: Start by keeping one knee on the balance disc with the foot over the stability ball. Your other leg should be bent 90 degrees at the knee while keeping your foot flat on the floor. Slowly move or slide your foot on the floor forward and lean with your upper body towards the floor until you feel a comfortable yet moderate stretch. Now return to the initial position and repeat the entire procedure.

Lateral Step Up with Hop: Stand to left side of the box and keep your right foot on top of it. Push off the box using the right leg and jump up as high as possible. You can drive the arms forward and up for maximum height. Now come down with opposite foot onto box and repeat with the other foot.

Single Leg Plank Raise: Begin by creating a straight plank with your forearms and feet as the contact points on the floor. Once the plank is formed, lift one foot off the floor and then return to the initial position. Repeat the steps for the desired repetitions by alternating back and forth between the legs.

Read more on boot camp workout plan.

Before doing these boot camp exercises, warm up by doing some light cardio exercises like walking, marching in place, etc. for 5 - 10 minutes to release tension in the muscles and avoid any unnecessary injury. Perform each exercise one after the other for 30 - 60 seconds and take breaks whenever needed but try to maintain your heart rate up.