Upper Body Bodyweight Bootcamp Workout

This past weekend was Labour Day (Labor Day for those from the USA) in Victoria so I was stuck with that conundrum of what to do when a session clashes with a public holiday.

I decided to do back to back workouts (T,W,F rather then M,W,F) and split up the body parts. This morning we did this upper body workout and tomorrow we will follow up with a Bootcamp Alliance workout called No Butts which as you can guess is lower body focused.

It’s a pretty straight forward workout (it follows the KISS principle well) as we usually have a few new people at the start of a new cycle. Here it is:

Big Guns

Goals: Muscular Endurance

Time: 60 minutes

Equipment: Cones, Mats, Interval Timer

Warm Up:

Suicide runs:

Set up 6 cones 5 metres (16ft) apart (25m total). Add some more cones so that you now have 6 lines.

Clients perform suicides, touching the ground at each ‘line’. On the second round have clients do 1 star jump on the furthest line, then 2 star jumps on the next and so on, On the third round do the same as round two but with push ups.

Drill 1 – 3 Person Circuits

See more on 3 Person Circuits. This is a straight line version rather than a triangle.

Split your group into 3 teams.

This drill works by having each team member perform a small 3 station circuit while competing with the other teams. One person on each team will be performing an exercise for reps, another will be performing a core exercise and the final team member will be running shuttles.

Once the first team member completes all of their reps they run forward and tag their team mate at the next line who then goes on and tags the third team member doing shuttles. The shuttle runner runs back to the baseline to perform push ups.

Tip: Use the cones from the warm up.

Round 1:

Timekeeper: 15x Push ups
Active Rest: Knees up crunch
Shuttle: Sprint then backpedal shuttle over 10m

Round 2:

Timekeeper: 15x Sea turtles
Active Rest: Plank
Shuttle: 10m suicide runs – really push the fitter clients on this one

Round 3:

Timekeeper: 10x Close hands push ups
Active Rest: V-Sit
Shuttle: Sprint then backpedal shuttle over 10m

Drill 2 – Core Trifecta

Spend 60 seconds on each exercise. Do circuit twice.

1. Spider man push ups (alt: Knees to elbows)
2. Stir the pot (seated version – 30s each way) – like a Russian twist but the hand move in a circle and you try to avoid rotating the spine
3. Side plank (30s each side)

Drill 3 – Rep Ladder

Set up two lines of cones 10m apart. Tip: Use 3 lines of cones from the warm up again.

At their own pace clients must do 10 pushups then run to the other line and do 10 mountain climbers (10 each leg) then run back and do 9 push ups and then 9 mountain climbers and so on until they reach 1 rep.

Scale drill for less fit clients by starting them on lower reps.

I had clients start anywhere from 10-7 reps this morning. Lean towards the higher number if you are unsure of what to give a client. I recommend giving all newbies seven just to see how they handle it. You do not want a newbie last to finish a drill at their first workout, this is very demoralizing.

Cooldown

Stretch. Have a chat about the dangers of sitting too much. If you haven’t read much about it read this MDA article and watch this video.

Question:

What do you do when a public holiday clashes with a bootcamp workout? Answer in the comments below.

Image: Fuyoh!

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Kyle Wood

Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.