Bridal Boot Camp – Day 52

Day 52 – August 26

The end is near and it’s crazy. I can’t believe how far I’ve come. I know I feel a change internally and I know I’ve gotten much stronger, but today someone else told me they noticed the changes too!

I had to go get my foot shot with cortisone and I’ve been struggling with a Morton’s Neuroma for almost 2 years now. It doesn’t bother me a lot unless I’m running regularly, and I haven’t been because I’ve been lifting a lot more. But, I do plan on dancing a lot at my wedding, so I scheduled an appointment just to be sure.

For anyone who suffers with foot issues, I highly recommend Capital City Foot and Ankle. I see Dr. Edward Baynham and have been for as long as I’ve had this issue. He has known me when I was at my peak in running. So today when he asked if I had been running more, he was surprised when I said no. “You look like you’ve lost weight.” He said six of the sweetest words that anyone wants to hear. The truth is I’ve actually gained weight – muscle! But it was awesome that someone who sees me every 4-6 months noticed a real difference!!!

Here I am with Emily, one of my bridesmaids. I can tell I’ve lost weight because this dress is a bit loose!!!

Besides how great it feels to see the physical change, it feels even better to know that I’m a lot stronger than I ever have been in my life. I did FitCamp class with Bill Brown this week. It’s a class that I’ve been dreading forever. A number of people in my office go at lunch and they are all super muscular and very active. I didn’t want to seem like a pansy in front of them. I also heard a rumor that people throw up in this class, it’s that hard. But all of that is just silly.

ANYONE, I repeat, ANYONE can do FitCamp. To be honest it is one of my favorite classes that I’ve done so far. I’d like to think of it as a sort of crossfit work out meets a H.I.I.T workout. But Bill likes to change it up, so you never know what you are getting yourself into. But here are some tips!

Here I am doing plate pushes. Sorry that I always wear the same thing. It turns out I’m in need of a athletic clothing wardrobe makeover.

I went to one class on Monday at lunch and loved it. Basically Bill gave us a list of all these moves we had to try to get through before the end of class. Moves included: Inverse Rows on a TRX, Plate Pushes (it involves pushing a 45lb weight across the room by sliding it on the carpet. It burns your quads up!), 10 flights of stairs carrying a med ball, med ball push ups, med ball sit ups, box jumps and more. I rocked it. I didn’t think I could do it at the start, but I impressed myself with my strength.

I liked the class so much I made the fiancé (I like the word better when I spell it Feyonce in my head)- Chris – join me last night.

Here we are doing burpees next to each other.

Chris and I ended up coming in on a night where Bill does a fit test. It’s a series of moves that you do once and count how many you are capable of in a time frame. You repeat that fit test a number of weeks later and try to beat your original numbers.

We ended up outside because it was a beautiful night. There is nothing like working out outside! Bill had prepared for us a reverse ladder. So we started with 5 minutes of burpees. I’ll be honest that I got so tired, I lost count. I’m guessing I was around 60 ish or so. Bill said that we should try to do 20 a minute. Just for kicks, try to do 20 burpees in just one minute. It’s super hard. These burpees were followed by 50 push ups and 50 jump ropes. Then we did 4 minutes of burpees followed by 40 thrusters and 40 jump ropes, then 3 minutes of burpees, 30 bicep curls and 30 jump ropes. It went on, doing 2 minutes of burpees, 20 sit ups and 20 jump ropes. Then we had a final minute of burpees and then we had to run a mile as fast as we could.

I was trying to come up with something clever about those who do thrusters together stay together…

I’m so glad to say that I kicked Chris’s butt at the mile run. He is not a runner. I used to be a long distance runner, so while speed was not ever my game, I killed that mile in 8:20!
I have NEVER beat Chris at anything athletic. I just don’t think he was prepared for how hard this class was going to be. And while he definitely outdid me in the burpees and most other excercises, he is not a runner. Not a little bit. Not at all. So my confidence soared through the sky as I out ran him in the mile!

Thank you Arena District Athletic Club for helping make me able to beat him, even if it just at one thing!

I also made a cool video with proof of how fun FitCamp is! Watch it here! I only have a few more workouts left before the big day, so stay tuned!

If you are interested, you should come try it for yourself. Just tell them that Charlie sent you! You can also sign up for Bridal Boot Camp and help get your body into the best shape you can for your big day.

The Arena District Athletic Club is more than just a gym, it’s a premier fitness facility located in the heart of the Arena District in downtown Columbus. We provide convenience and quality, featuring top-of-the-line equipment, top-notch personal trainers, spa-like locker rooms and a wide variety of free group fitness classes daily including Cardio, Spinning, Barre Fusion, Yoga, Boot Camp and more. We offer free 2-hour parking and convenient contract-free memberships, to fit your healthy lifestyle needs. Don’t just join, belong.