Hills, Tyres and Sandbags! Oh My!

Today’s workout was one I had the privilege of attending at Bootcamp SE16 run by Stephanie Henderson. Check her out at Pro Impact Fitness.

Steph’s bootcamp is set on the edge of a giant hill. Around the base of the hill runs a path and up one side there is also a set of stairs. The lookout point at the top is encircles in a metal railing which are great for inverted rows.

You would be hard pressed to find a better bootcamp location!

I, of course, had to take notes and photos so unfortunately (read: fortunately) I didn’t actually participate in the bootcamp. I just watched and encouraged.

So here for you today, I have a progressive workout featuring hills, stairs, good old tyres and sandbags. If you don’t have sandbags and tyres, for most of this you can use dumbells or kettlebells instead.

Hill Battle

Equipment needed: Tyres, Short Ropes, Sandbags

Warm up

Start off with some easy stair runs and then mobility work for each joint.

Drill 1: Upper Body

This is an accumulator drill Each round you will add a new exercise. Here’s how to do this drill:

• Start with exercise 1 and 2. Wait until everyone has finished and had a short break.
• Then do exercises 1, 2 and 3. Wait again for everyone to finish and have a short break again.
• Then do 1, 2, 3 and 4. Short break.
• Then 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Short break.
• Then finially 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Finished!

The exercises for drill 1 are:

1. Tyre Press x10 – Grab the tyre on the inside. Do a controlled clean and press from the ground.
2. Bear Crawl up hill
3. Pull Ups x20 – On the railing
4. Dips x20
5. Crab Crawl down hill
6. Push Ups x20

Take a longer drink break and prepare for the next round.

Here’s a short video of round one. Click to view on Instagram.

Drill 2: Endurance

Run around the bottom of the hill (approx. 150m) with one of two options:

Beginners/intermediates: Tyre carry on shoulder.

Advanced: Place a sandbag inside your tyre. Loop a rope around the tyre and drag it behind you.

Drill 3: Lower Body

Drill 3 runs the same as drill 1 but this time with a new set of exercises. Start with just 1 and 2 and complete four more rounds adding an extra exercise each round.

Exercises:

1. Jump Squats x10
2. Overhead Sandbag Carry up hill
3. Jump Lunges x20
4. Overhead Squats x10
5. Calf Raises on step (bear hug sandbag) x20
6. Sandbag Carry down hill

Cooldown

Finish off with some partner assisted stretches.

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London Workshop was great fun!

Thanks again to the 17 awesome trainers who battled the traffic and half closed tube system in London to come to the Bootcamp Training Ideas workshop last weekend.

The weather was in fine form. I will aim to get the photos editing and up in the next couple of weeks once my travel has settled.

There was some really terrific feedback about the drills and the workshop which we will use to make it even better next time. Yes, there will be a next time!

I learnt a lot too, like in future I want to always run one of these events with two trainers. Even with the smaller group I didn’t feel like I got a proper chance to talk to you all one by one. That is something to take note of in your own bootcamps. Can you really be giving everyone personal attention if you have 20+ clients and just one trainer?

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Images: Bootcamp SE16

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