(I wrote the following story for The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer; it appeared in both papers on January 31, 2012. It appears here, with links.)

Used to be that neighborhood moms got together for lunch or a game of bridge. Today, they’re increasingly likely to gather for burpies, squats and to work up a good sweat.
The boot camp workout, born a decade ago and initially targeted to hard-core fitness buffs, is moving out of the gym and into local neighborhoods, where it’s finding a growing following among busy moms struggling to juggle work and family, let alone find time for a workout.
The workouts incorporate a variety of intense strength and aerobic exercises jammed into a half hour or hour. Boot camps continue to be one of the nation’s most popular group exercise programs, according to the non-profit American Council on Exercise, ranking with Zumba, TRX suspension training and interval training as 2012’s hottest options.
That boot camps are now coming to your neighbor can only enhance their attraction.
“One of the most commonly cited barriers to working out is that the gym is too far, it’s not convenient,” says Jessica Matthews, an exercise physiologist with ACE. “The workouts are fun, they’re convenient and they have the added social element of catching up with friends, of seeing your neighbors, of being part of something active.”
Fun?
Thirteen women from North Raleigh’s Harrington Grove neighborhood who gathered in 25 degree temperatures for their regular Saturday morning Boot Camp Moms workout a couple weeks back might take issue with that notion.
“My hipbone hurts!” complained one during a bout of figure-eight crunches.
“That’s because you have tiny butts,” shouted instructor Kyle Gill Furlow, attempting to spin the pain.
“Yeah, right.”
“We lie to them all the time,” joked fellow instructor Jennifer Pinder. “We find it motivates them.”
Friends Furlow and Pinder came up with the idea for Boot Camp Moms when both emerged from pregnancy five years ago, Furlow carrying an extra 45 pounds, Pender an excess 80.
“Kyle joined Jenny Craig and I joined Weight Watchers,” says Pinder, “but we knew we needed to exercise, too.”
They got in shape and in the process realized that other moms were in similar condition. Both got certified as group fitness instructors through the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America and hung out their shingle — via fliers placed around the neighborhood and word-of-mouth. The response surprised them.
“We had 22 women at our first session,” says Pinder.
The path for Missy Isom, founder and owner of Moms Evolution in Cornelius, was similar.
Prior to having her first child in 2008, she was a financial adviser by day, a body builder by night.
“But I always wanted to take my love of fitness and turn it into a job,” says Isom.
She, too, got certified through AFAA and initially struck out with Baby Boot Camp, a San Francisco-based franchise operation. But she found the focus was “less on the moms, more on the baby and the social aspect. My true passion,” she says, “was on taking these moms and helping them get fit.”
Which isn’t to say that baby doesn’t play a key role in her workouts. For some of her exercises the baby is integral to the exercise.
“We use the baby as weight,” says Isom. For curls, for overhead presses, for lunges … .
Matthews, the ACE exercise physiologist, says that’s smart for two reasons.
“That movement, that up and down: out of the crib, into the car, how many times do you do that in everyday life?” she says. “Those are very functional movements.”
Further, she says, “In working with people who specialize in new moms, from a psychological standpoint that face-to-face eye contact is important for bonding.”
Isom’s group, which started in 2008 and averages 30 moms at any one time, uses space in a neighborhood fitness studio. Furlow and Pinder, who currently have 40 signed up in their year-and-a-half-old program, meet on the outdoor tennis court of the Harrington Grove neighborhood community club.
On that 25-degree morning, the 13 Boot Camp Moms who braved the cold for an hour-long workout that began and ended with aerobics (jumping-jack-infused sprints, running a circuit course) with strength training wedged in between. For strength training, the women rotated among eight stations, doing TRX, Bosu Ball pushups, snatches, equalizers, rowing, squats with a medicine ball, resistance bands, more squats.
“Your mind is going to give up before your body does,” yelled Furlow, the self-appointed drill sergeant of the duo (Pinder is the cheerleader). “Don’t let it.”
Melissa Diana didn’t let her mind give up, despite being “scared” at the group’s very first session.
“I tried everything,” she says of what Furlow and Pinder threw at her on day one. “I couldn’t do many reps.”
But Diana, who is 33, kept coming back. Within a year, she had lost 80 pounds. More importantly, she’s kept it off and she’s embraced an active lifestyle.
“I went from exercising zero days a week to exercising six days a week,” she says. “I like the group atmosphere. I like that we’re all in the trenches, doing it together.”
Julie Nelson, at 52 one of the group’s advanced moms, echoes the sentiments of several fellow boot campers. “I like that I have much more energy. I like the way I feel.”
That, says Furlow, is what ultimately counts: how you feel, rather than how many dress sizes you drop.
“Strong,” says Furlow, “is the new skinny.”

* * *

More info

• Boot Camp Moms meets Mondays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. at the Harrington Grove Clubhouse in North Raleigh. Cost is $8 per class, 10 classes for $50 through Feb. 1. More info at Bootcampmoms@gmail.com or here.
• Moms Evolution meets Mondays at 9:30 a.m. and Fridays at 10:30 a.m. at KadiFit in Cornelius. Cost is $8 per class, $50 a month, or $40 a month for a six-month commitment. More info at MomsEvolution.com.
• Another option for mom/baby workouts is Stroller Strides, a franchise that operates nationwide with several offerings throughout North Carolina. For more information go here.
• If you don’t live near one of the above options, the American Council on Exercise offers two free parent-oriented workouts you can do at home. Postural Workout for Parents “is designed to help people who have postural imbalances resulting from carrying unbalanced loads (e.g., children, a heavy shoulder or computer bag) for extended periods on a regular basis.” Total-body Conditioning Workout for Parents “is designed to improve muscular endurance and strength through exercises that focus on the correct execution of the five primary movement patterns (bend-and-lift, single-leg, pushing, pulling, and rotational movements) in all three planes of motion.”

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Quick catch-up: McDougall was an avid runner. Like many avid runners who entered the sport in the 1970s, he was an avid heel-striker. And like many avid heel-strikers as he entered middle age, he began enduring a host of injuries common to runners. Doctors told him to find something else to do, but McDougall wasn’t ready for long walks in the park. Besides, he wondered, running was once integral to our survival: running to catch a meal, running to avoid becoming a meal. Thousands of years had groomed us to run; only the last few hundred had tried to break us of the habit. And what about pockets of people around the world such as the Tarahumara in Mexico’s Copper Canyon who could run for days on end? Why could they run forever?

In searching for answers McDougall discovered that we were indeed born to run: We’d just forgotten how to do it. Rather than running on our forefeet, which have the bone structure to absorb the constant pounding of running, we’d been lulled by pricey running shoes with thick, wedge-shaped heels into striking our heels first. There’s little natural absorption in the heel; thus, over time that constant pounding takes a toll.

There’s been considerable debate on the matter, but probably the most telling endorsement of the “Born to Run” minimalist approach? The shoe companies that got us hooked on those cushy running shoes in the ‘70s all now offer minimalist shoes that cater too, and encourage, a forefoot strike.

Now weighing in on the issue: the American Council on Exercise. ACE enlisted the help of the University of Wisconsin La Crosse’s Exercise and Health Program to study the effectiveness and safety of minimalist running. Researchers John Porcari, Ph.D., and Caitlin McCarthy, M.S., recruited 16 injury-free female recreational joggers ages 19 to 25 and tested them running under three conditions: wearing the Vibram FiveFingers Bikilas, a barefoot-style running shoe; wearing “neutral” running shoes (New Balance 625); and while barefoot. The runners were then tested in the lab for “3-D motion analysis and measurement of ground-reaction forces.”

The results show that test subjects who ran properly in the FiveFingers — meaning they adopted a forefoot strike — did indeed endure less stress. Those who persisted with their heel-striking ways, however, were more prone to injury.

If you’ve been following the “Born to Run” debate, check out the full study here. Worry not: It’s relatively short and devoid of medicalese.

* * *

In other fitness news …

Do you have a fitness “problem”? Ever wonder if you work out too much? Of course you don’t — but maybe you should. According to The Nemours Foundation, you may be a “compulsive exerciser” if you:

• Refuse to skip a workout even when tired, injured or sick.
• Exercise out of obligation, rather than enjoyment.
• Double the length of a workout after missing one.
• Obsess over weight and burning calories, along with weight loss.
• Increase exercise to make up for eating more.
• Prioritize exercise above seeing friends and family, and participating in social activities.
• Allow intensity and frequency of exercise to affect self-esteem.
• Are unable to find satisfaction in physical accomplishments.

Stroke! Stroke! Finally, if you’re a guy and you’ve been trying to get pregnant (you know what I mean), try taking your boys for a walk. A study of 215 guys at Japan’s Yamaguchi U. found that those who exercised moderately exhibited the best sperm motility. (Translation for those who have never been handed a specimen cup: their sperm were better swimmers.) Interestingly, couch potatoes and the fitness obsessed both had weaker swimmers. Learn more here.

Battle of the bulge. Wanna lose that spare tire? Jogging beats weight lifting for losing belly fat, according to a recent study at Duke’s Medical Center. Duke studied 196 sedentary, overweight adults ages 18-70 over an eight-month period. Half ran the equivalent of 12 miles per week at 80 percent maximum heart rate, half did three sets of eight to 12 weight reps three times per week. Result: the aerobic exercisers burned 67 percent more calories than the resistance trainers.

“Resistance training is great for improving strength and increasing lean body mass,” according to lead author and Duke exercise physiologist Cris Slentz. “But if you are overweight, which two-thirds of the population is, and you want to lose belly fat, aerobic exercise is the better choice because it burns more calories.” More here.

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I can’t remember where we were — the middle of Nebraska? the middle of Missouri? — but it was time to visit another rest stop. We’d been driving for a day and a half, a day and a half and twelve hundred miles of sitting with virtually no exercise. My body was starting to petrify, my mood was increasingly surly. Marcy hopped out, opened the rear hatch of the M5, rooted around for a moment, then emerged with the antidote.

A hula hoop.

Exercising on a road trip is an oft-discussed, little-acted-upon phenomenon. LizzyGMobile makes underappreciated videos (6 views as of yesterday) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R61g57MfgYw on the subject, and truckers’ forums touch on the topic from time to time. http://www.truckersforum.net/forum/f18/get-out-exercise-rest-stops-5506/ Yet a GetGoingNC/Google investigation revealed that no states appear to incorporate exercise into their rest areas, despite offering everything from snack bars to wifi, according to the Interstate Rest Area Guide. http://www.roundaboutpublications.com/ebooks/index.php?recid=1&maincat_id=1&page=1

Thus, it’s up to you to make your own RAW — rest area workout.

The trick is to get some movement going, to get the blood flowing, the muscles engaged, the back realigned — without conjuring a sweat that will stick with you to Topeka. That’s one reason we like hooping. A recent study by the American Council on Exercise found: “Hooping is an excellent form of exercise that compares pretty favorably with most other group classes” — boot-camp, step aerobics, cardio kickboxing — “in terms of heart rate and calorie burn.” (Read the entire study here.) Plus, while your gyrations may warrant a curious glance or two, unlike with a bout of rest stop cardio-kickboxing, you likely won’t get a visit from the rest stop SWAT team.

An even greater plus: the rhythmic nature of hula hooping is a great way to ease the stress of driving and dissipate a potential case of road rage. And there’s surprisingly little collateral sweat.

Hula hoop: Add it to your packing list this Labor Day weekend.

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Move more and eat better in 2011 using these seven simple strategies:

1. Mix it up. The big trend in fitness isn’t one thing, it’s everything. Avoid drudgery, avoid stressing the same muscles and work your entire body by doing a variety of workouts. “Incorporating several different forms of exercise in a training program can be an excellent way to develop the various components of fitness,” according to the American Council on Exercise. If your goal is to lose weight, varying your exercise regimen — walking one day, lifting weights the next, taking a Zumba class after that — keeps your muscles from becoming too efficient at any one exercise and thus burning fewer calories.

2. Find what works. If you don’t enjoy it, you won’t do it. Think, personal trainers advise, about what you like to do, or what you liked to do in the past. Did you love riding your bike as a kid? A preponderance of fun-to-ride bikes — from the aptly named “comfort” bikes to speedier and more aggressive urban bikes — has flooded the market, and with nearly 150 miles of greenway in the Triangle, it’s easy for the grown-up you to rekindle your childhood love. Or maybe you get so caught up in the joy of dance you don’t realize you’ve had a good workout until the following morning. Zumba, dance exercise with a Latin zing, and Nia, a marriage of dance, the martial arts and the “healing arts,”  are two popular dance options.

3. Eat smart, eat simple. It’s a paradox, but the more we learn about food, the poorer we seem to eat. Good-eating advocate and author Michael Pollan writes in his latest book, “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual,” “for all the scientific and pseudoscientific food baggage we’ve taken on in recent years, we still don’t know what we should be eating.” Pollan, whose “In Defense of Food” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” were both best-sellers, doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but his “Food Rules” offers 64 succinct suggestions for common-sense eating. They range from “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food” to “Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle” (fresh food generally lines the walls, processed foods are in the aisles). Some suggestions are only a sentence; none takes up more than a page.

4. Try the unthinkable. Running, for instance. Few exercises elicit a more visceral negative reaction than running. Yet an increasing number of people who find their metabolism slowing as they pass 40 are turning to running as a way to keep the pounds off. Consider: A 170-pound person who walks three miles in an hour will burn 337 calories; that same person will burn more than twice that many calories (775) running six miles in an hour. One reason running doesn’t seem as arduous anymore: an explosion of walk-to-run programs. A walk-to-run 5K program takes nonrunners and, over the course of 12 weeks, converts their walks into runs to the point that they can run an entire 5K (3.1 miles).

5. It’s a lifestyle, not a quick fix. There’s a reason programs such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and TOPS have been around so long while the all-grapefruits-all-the-time diet fads quickly fade. Fad diets — promising fast results based on a quick fix — may work in the short term, but once you’ve dropped that 20 pounds, you’re back to your old, bad habits. Programs that focus on changing behavior have a better chance of helping you lose weight and keep it off. According to WebMD.com, a healthy weight-loss program should include a daily minimum of 1,000 to 1,200 calories for women and 1,200 to 1,600 for men; promote slow, gradual weight loss, generally 1 to 2 pounds a week; offer flexibility in food offerings; and not cut back on your recommended daily allowance of vitamins, minerals and proteins.

6. Find a support group. Look at it as misery loves company, if you must, but knowing you’re not alone in any challenge can make a difference. According to the Mayo Clinic, “A support group can help you cope better and feel less isolated as you make connections with others facing similar challenges.” In a convenience store getting hit on by Little Debbies? A fellow dieter who can talk you down is just a cell phone call away. And for those times after a long day of work when you don’t think you have the strength for Pilates? The guilt of knowing your classmates are gutting it out should be enough to get your butt in gear.

7. Persevere. Losing weight, moving more and adopting a healthier lifestyle aren’t easy. It won’t happen, in a healthy way, over night. And studies have shown that most resolutions fall by the wayside before January is over. But if you slip up, don’t throw in the towel. According to a study by the University of Scranton, 71 percent of people surveyed who achieved their resolution slipped up at least once (and usually early on, in January). So you miss a day at the gym or a seductive slice of cheesecake crushes your vow of no desserts? Look at why you slipped up — maybe five days a week at the gym is too much with your schedule, maybe one dessert a week isn’t a bad thing — and adjust if you think it will help you reach your goal, and carry on.

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“Music is like is a legal drug for athletes,” says Costas Karageorghis with from London’s Brunel University School of Sport and Education, who has studied the buff/beat relationship for 20 years. “It can reduce the perception of effort significantly and increase endurance by as much as 15 percent.” Music, Karageorghis has found, tends to distract us and arouse us; it triggers an ingrained instinct that subconsciously drives our bodies to keep pace with the beat. The studies studied involved runners, walkers and cyclists. The studies took different approaches and evaluated on various criteria. But they all showed that a peppier beat leads to a more aggressive, faster workout.

The caveat: You need to pay close attention to the music’s beat. I’m reminded of those junior high dances where you’d ask a girl to dance to a “safe” — meaning fast — beat, only to have the band seamlessly segue into a slow number. Thus, you don’t want want to put your iPod on Shuffle and have your run ricochet from Metallica to Manilow. Or maybe you do, if it’s an interval workout you’re after. Getting the right beat to match your workout is why sites such as ClickMix exist, so you can download just the right bpm (beats per minute) soundtrack to power the workout you have on tap.

Another caveat, albeit more personal preference. I don’t run with music mainly because my run is when I take out the trash in my brain. After a mile or so, the flotsam and jetsam of work begins to drift away. By about mile three, my brain is free to go in whatever direction it chooses. That wouldn’t happen with ABBA rattling around in my head.

If you’re new to the notion of using music to give you an added advantage, the folks at ACE recommend that the beats-per-minute of your music equal the heart rate you hope to achieve during your workout. For instance, if you’ve got a moderate-paced run planned where you expect your heart rate to fluctuate from 145 to 150 beats per minute, ClickMix suggests a mix of, say, Steve Miller’s “Jungle Love” (145 BPM), Heatwave’s “Boogie Nights” (146 BPM), and perhaps some Blondie, “One Way Or Another” (150 bpm).

For more on the study, go here.

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