Please, Don't Call it a Bootcamp (Video)

Ten years ago, Gary Michel, an All-American black belt martial artist and former football player, got into a motorcycle accident, leaving him severely injured and tearing several ligaments in his spine.

For 10 months, he was bedridden. His 5-foot-10 frame ballooned up to a hefty 300 pounds.

“And at this height, that’s not male model, you know?” said Michel laughing. “So I had to teach myself how to sit up, then stand up and then walk half a block. I had to use a lot of the exercises I’d learned throughout my training days just to get back into the gym.”

Today, Michel is fit again and is teaching a boot camp fitness class at the Bedford Stuyvesant YMCA. This is his third year teaching the course, after he was called in to substitute temporarily for another trainer. His class became so popular, eventually, he was asked to take it over. And now, the boot camp is one of the center’s most popular and long-standing classes.

“Do we have to call it ‘boot camp?'” asked Michel. “That’s what they have written in the schedule, I know. But I’ve never served in the military, so I don’t know what that is. I’d prefer to call it a ‘sports conditioning class.’”

Monday through Thursday and Saturdays at 8:00am, and Wednesdays, also at 6:30am, Gary is leading his sports conditioning class—a group of between 25-40 members who start their day with aerobic warm ups, then interval training that aims to strengthen and tone.

“So a lot of the exercises, especially floor exercises are a lot of the things I had to do at home to just get back on my feet,” said Michel. “I treat everybody like athletes. I don’t look at age or disabilities to limit what they are able to do. I believe that under the right type of preparation, coaching and training, anybody could do it."

“I love it! I come every day,” said Nicola Augustin, a spry girl in her 20s who has been taking the class for four months. “My body has really changed. My abs are cut up now. It was really hard in the beginning. But after coming over and over, your body gets used to it.”

Augustin said she’s gone from a size 6, down to a size 4. “I enjoy more how my body is transforming. I feel like I’m wearing the same clothes, but my body is different.”

Michel uses a variety of interval training techniques, so that his class never really knows what to expect next. This includes exercises such as leg thrusts and squat presses, as well as jumping rope and short distance sprints. He even has broken the group up into small teams for relay races, adding an occasional competitive element to the daily workouts.

The class is inspiring because of the diversity of ages and athletic builds that attend. For example, a sizable segment of Michel’s class is between the ages of 50 and 70 years old.

“My oldest regular member is 74,” said Michel. “And they don’t keep up with the young people; they outdo them. A lot of gyms have those ‘sit and fit’ classes for the elderly, where everything is done from a chair. I think that limits them. Maybe the first 3-6 weeks, but then from there, you need to push them along. Otherwise you’re telling them they’re not capable, when often they are.”

64-year-old Olivia Farquharson agrees. She has been attending Michel’s sports conditioning class for two years, four days a week, almost without fail:

“I love this class. The Instructor is great. He encourages us. He motivates us. It was very hard in the beginning… But now, I miss it every time I don’t come,” said Farquharson.

“It’s a blessing,” said Michel. “Everyone has an athlete inside of them, even if they think they don’t. Anybody could do this. My class is proof of that.

“But I tell them that it has nothing to do with me. I tell them all the time, 'I’m going to stand to the side and make sure you’re doing it right, and I’ll count for you. Past that, the rest will be up to you.'”