Don’t let 2009 become one big fitness fail. Join the party at South Bay Fit Camp

PHOTO by CAROLYN OZIMOK

Surely there is a special treadmill reserved in hell for personal trainers to sweat upon for eternity. (The incline would of course increase ever so slowly—never to the point of being physically impossible, just stupidly painful.) At least, this is a common fantasy every time South Bay Fit Camp (SBFC) trainer Emily Duval approaches even the first syllable of “burpees.” Almost certainly, no decent person on this Earth has any business requesting that another human being commit a burpee, which is when you drop to your hands, push out your legs behind you (simultaneously) to push-up position, bring your legs back to squatting and then jump! Off the ground! Congrats: That’s one down. You’ve got nineteen to go.

Burpees—and mountain climbers, and weight work, and bicycle sit-ups, and the very dreaded bear crawl—are all fair game in the hour you’ll spend with Duval and your other classmates outdoors at such parks as Whaley and Recreation as part of the SBFC fitness challenge. (Slogan: “You’ll laugh your booty off. And your muffin top. And your lettuce arms.” Lettuce arms? I had to ask. They’re the flappy bits where your triceps used to be—or maybe never were. See also: Teachers’ flab.)

And yet there’s Duval, who co-owns and runs SBFC with licensed chiropractor and personal trainer Dr. Mandy Rhodes, by your side, offering—what’s that? Encouragement, via a simple, firm but excited “Good!” before she swats away an incoming mosquito. Delivered at just the right time—burpee No. 16 or 17—it’s enough to push you to 20. Which is in turn an accomplishment that leaves you at once drained and brimming with the potential for that essential awesomeness our bodies all crave from about birth onward: Knocking back the reaper. (And, you know, firm, tight abs.)

It’s easy to be put off at the thought of personal fitness (especially coming from this paper—see the column next to this one, among others). If you’re like me, the gym has been anything but a consistent friend to you over the years, and your definition of a workout involves a bike ride to the nearest restaurant with a weekend special on mimosas. But maybe, whether it’s not fitting into the dress that landed you a hot back-alley smooch behind the club four years ago (so hot) or, you know, just finding it difficult to breathe after consistent nights spent with a Pabst in one hand and a puff in the other, you’re feeling that this may just be the year. The year of you.

Seeing as how it’s nigh upon March already, the year of you is admittedly something like 16.6 (repeating) percent over—but that’s only if you consider Jan. 1 your start date. Too transient to even think about the next 16.6 (repeating) percent of the year? That’s okay. SBFC offers two main options, a four week and six week camp. During each camp, there are 12 one hour sessions offered every week. It’s up to you how many you attend (packages range from once to five times per week). A simple and effective—and I can personally attest to the latter—option is the Tuesday/Thursday classes at Whaley Park, of which there are two: 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. (Classes are also offered Monday and Wednesday mornings at 5:30 a.m. at Rec Park and Friday mornings in Signal Hill at 5:30 a.m.; there are additional classes in Redondo Beach Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and in the evenings on Tuesday and Thursday.)

At roughly $16 per class, it may take some re-budgeting on your part to make SBFC part of your life. But if you begin to cut back on those $6 packs of Parliaments or $9 bottles of wine—and you’ll want to, lest you enjoy feeling like a wheezing, dizzy sourpuss for 120 minutes every week—the numbers add up. And in the meantime, consider it an investment: if these trainers do their job, it’ll be quite a while before you meet up with them on the other side.

SOUTH BAY FIT CAMP 562.366.4354 | SOUTHBAYFITCAMP.COM

Tags: exercise, Long Beach, personal training, resolutions, South Bay Fit Camp