Sent to Bootcamp
This week Overoften is jumping on bandwagons so you don’t have to.
In a country that loves its fads, the latest sensation to sweep the nation is Billy’s Bootcamp - the series of instructional exercise videos by American fitness expert, martial artist and Tae Bo inventor, Billy Blanks. The ads have been everywhere for months. I was flicking through the channels just the other night and came upon three channels showing the Bootcamp commercial simultaneously. And Billy’s just completed a promo tour in Japan that had him appearing on many prime time shows (and torturing the tarento, which is always entertaining). For many, Bootcamp is the topic of conversation du jour. Families up and down the country are having a go at it. Kids are even doing it in their P.E. lessons at school.
Mrs O and I are not great practitioners of physical exercise. There is sofa space for 7 people in our living room. We enjoy clean mountain air by winding the car windows down. We’ve made a bit of a hobby of comfort. In short, we went soft a long time ago.
But we got a copy of the dvd, and in order to report on the Bootcamp phenomenon, Overoften has put his money where his mouth is, and has submitted to the daily harsh routine of Billy’s tutelage. The first week went something like this.
Day 1
We lasted approximately 15 minutes. I didn’t even break a sweat. Mainly because my creaking muscles gave up all motor functions before I was even warm.
Day 2
I ache all over. But the exercises get yesterday’s lactic acid moving about and today we last 20 minutes.
Day 3
Not in quite so much physical pain this morning, but can’t really say that I’m actively looking forward to beginning the workout today.
Day 4
I can actually feel muscles I haven’t felt for quite a while. Today I break a sweat, something I’m immensely, and rather pathetically, proud of. We’re up to half an hour.
Day 5
This has become a buzz. When Billy shouts “Feel the burn!”, I dutifully comply. This is not, however, Billy’s most feared phrase - that’s “One more set!”, not only because you’re usually hurting quite a bit by the time he says it, but also because he frequently fibs and has you doing two, three, and once even four more sets.
Day 6
I’m bouncing and ready to go this morning. I’ve begun to change shape. As Billy promised, I’m starting to reverse years of hideous neglect in just days.
Day 7
For the first time, we completed the routine and saw the end of the video. I feel like I’ve climbed a mountain. (This is only Basic Training, though. There are 3 more routines…) There are still parts of it I can’t do. Billy can’t train a couch potato to do the splits in just a week. But lasting an hour of full-on working out is a massive achievement for us, and it’s a great way to start the day.
Has the “Elite” 3-disc set hit Japan yet?
July 5th, 2007 at 2:17 amHey,Overoften thanks for jumpin’ on the Billy’s Bootcamp bandwagon.My Google alert popped up and that’s how I found your site. Your comments made me smile, and I showed them to my husband, Billy Blanks, he laughed, too. Billy and our daughter, Shellie, just returned from Japan last week. They had such a great time, and they met so many wonderful people. They were very sad to come home, but look forward to returning soon, I hope to come with them the next time.Well,take care, and God bless.
July 5th, 2007 at 3:36 amPuppets wait in line in order to buy the DVD everybody already has and then they let their TV set controlling them like silly puppets
July 5th, 2007 at 5:32 amQueenB - thanks for dropping by, and for your comments!
vittel - meh. Not so much.
July 5th, 2007 at 7:08 amFeitclub, I’m guessing not yet (but I AM guessing).
July 5th, 2007 at 7:08 amOK. . . Since Overoften has come out of the closet here. . . We also have our copy of the Billy Blanks DVDs and I have to say that my experience with it is almost exactly the same as Overoften’s.
Watching Billy and his group perform makes you want to jump right up off your chair and get with it. Easy it ain’t. But definitely a good way to work the rust out of the old sterling slim bod.
More on Billy Blanks here.
July 5th, 2007 at 9:29 amGreat site! I’m doing Tae Bo Amped myself but haven’t tried the bootcamp that’s all over the country.
You can buy Elite (through Yahoo and Rakuten), but not the ones with Japanese subtitles. That hasn’t stopped people from getting them though!
July 5th, 2007 at 9:58 amWelcome to ten years ago, Japan! Did you guys just find out about the Macarena too?
July 5th, 2007 at 10:37 amfunny? that chap doesn’t resemble Billy Boots at all!
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/b/billdane.htm
July 5th, 2007 at 10:57 amTen years ago, Paul? Bootcamp was first released in 2003, in the States. And even then, why would the rest of the world know about it, that’s only America.
July 5th, 2007 at 11:59 amI was talking about Billy Blanks in general. I thought he was a short-lived fad, like Ace of Base or something like that. It’s like Americans laughing at Hard Gay even though he’s old as dirt in Japan.
July 5th, 2007 at 12:18 pmGee, Paul, are you Grandpa Simpson? Who cares if he peaked in the US ten years ago? I suppose all those kids who are rediscovering Miles Davis and Captain Beefheart are also silly? Is there an expiration date on culture that we should know about?
I look at it from the other point of view. If the guy opens up whole new markets a decade later, there must be something to him.
My wife started, followed by my 4 year old daughter, who thought it was fun, then by the baby, who shakes her crib in the background, and finally our dachshund, who doesn’t count since he gets excited by just about anything.
My four year old tells me I can have a six-pack belly, too, but I tell her I already have a keg!
July 5th, 2007 at 2:06 pmJeez Ghoti, don’t get your panties in a bunch. Do you even know what a fad is? Go back to doing the Macarena.
July 5th, 2007 at 3:37 pmHey, Paul. Just checked out your site, and you seem to like the expression “get xxx’s panties in a bunch.”
At the same time, all of your posts consist of you getting YOUR panties into a bunch about one thing or another.
July 5th, 2007 at 5:36 pmTouché, diamondback!
July 5th, 2007 at 7:44 pmYou can buy Elite (through Yahoo and Rakuten), but not the ones with Japanese subtitles. That hasn’t stopped people from getting them though!
Yeah, my girlfriend has the Boot Camp disc but she really wants the new Elite edition, so I’m going to get her the English version here in the States.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:25 amfeitclub, if you live in the States, don’t get her Elite, get her Tae Bo Amped! It’s so much better!
July 6th, 2007 at 9:37 pmVery, very funny.
If I remember correctly, Billy Banks had Oprah into Tae Bo, so I guess you are in good company.
Next year you and your wife can start “spinning.”
July 6th, 2007 at 11:40 pmDare I ask?
July 6th, 2007 at 11:55 pm[...] of the “Billy’s Boot Camp” video, which was reported on here by overoften a short while back, recently surpassed the 1-million mark in Japan according to Oak Lawn Marketing, [...]
August 8th, 2007 at 6:00 pm[...] that just about everyone has heard of Billy’s Bootcamp, a number of imitator’s have started hitting the TV shopping airwaves in Japan. There is even [...]
September 6th, 2007 at 12:00 pm