i like the saying ‘it takes 2 months to get in shape and only 2 weeks to get out of shape.’ i feel like this holds pretty true too-after about 8 weeks of sticking to a plan i see vast improvement and if i fall off for just a few weeks i lose a lot of my gains. i’m a runner so i track my fitness by my 5k time.

Congrats on surviving your first two weeks of boot camp! I think getting out of your comfort zone is a perfect example of ways to see results. It’s so easy to talk yourself out of anything and so hard to overcome intimidating feelings. I’ve been able to see that I’m getting stronger when I try a move that gave me the initial thought of, “I could never do that.” Then I’m blown away when I actually CAN!! 🙂 Even if I try something and it doesn’t go the way I had hoped, it just means I have a new goal to strive for. Plus it is still a victory because I got out of my comfort zone.

My old trainer used to tell me, “Muscles remember, your heart doesn’t” which has rung so true in my experience. I can take a week or two off from strength training with relative ease but the second I scale back on cardio (which unlike you is my least favorite!) I notice it almost immediately. My measurement technique for strength, balance and agility has been a free standing handstand for quite literally, years. Someday I’d also like to add a scorpion tail. I can do it against a wall no problem but just popping into one in the middle of room and holding it? I feel like that’s when I know I’ve “made it” and I’m an official bad-ass. Ha!

Ugh, planks are so not a great exercise for many postpartum mamas (as many are coping with diastasis recti). I also hate the idea of creating a “hard” body through something like planks. We want bodies that work well and are properly aligned and function to support all of the natural movements that we do. I would love to see some more of a focus on health rather than looking a certain way in this bootcamp classes.

Such a good question and one I’m constantly thinking about! I find it hard to measure fitness successes as I’m always mixing up my workouts to stave off boredom. I was actually just mentioning this to my husband the other night, how I’m often winging it when I go heavy on weights because I’m not always doing the same weights, reps, etc. Sometimes I think I’d like more of a “program” so I could see results, but I also like the flexibility of what I do now.
Back on topic-one way I’ve found to measure is through clothes fit. Judging it based on needing modifications, amount of weight can be hard because some days I just don’t have 100% for some reason or another. I’ve also found that random time you look in the mirror and notice something new, which happened to me the other night. I was about to get in the shower when I spied my arm out of the corner of my eye. I held it up and noticed a new “cut” I hadn’t seen before. That’s always a nice surprise!

You could wear a HR monitor during the class and see how your cardiovascular system improves over time. Also, the RPE scale (rate of perceived exertion…there are different ones but the easiest is just to rate the workout’s difficulty from 1-10 each time you do it and see how that improves. Sounds like a fun and challenging class!