Workout Review: Brooklyn Bridge Bootcamp

August 3, 2009 11:15 AM

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Hello, my name is Kim, and I am a gymaholic.

I like my exercise to come in a nice, little, climate controlled, TV laden package. They say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. You know what the second step to recovery is? Leaving the gym and venturing into the great outdoors.

Saturday morning at 7:45AM, me and my phobia of being seen in spandex outside of the confines of a bonafide gym headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge for the workout dubbed New York City’s Toughest Workout, The Brooklyn Bridge Bootcamp. Hell, if you’re going to go, go big, right?

Ariane Hundt, the founder and head trainer of the Brooklyn Bridge Bootcamp greeted me, and asked if I run. “On a treadmill”, I said sheepishly, and by that I meant the last time I ran on a ground that wasn’t conveying itself at a steady pace with conveniently placed handrails was probably around 1991 and I was engrossed in a hardcore game of freeze-tag. I knew from this point out I was in trouble.

Bootcamp starts on the Manhattan side of the bridge. There you are, minding your own business, when before you realize it your warm up consists of 50 standing pushups against the railings, tricep dips aplenty and another 50 pushups for good measure.

That’s just the warm up though; your next mission is to run to the first bridge tower. There’s no rest though, you’re there to work, and your first stop consists of lunges, squats and pushups. After that, you guessed it, another run to the next tower, where you will have more pushups, lunges and squats to do. A third run will bring you to a park in Brooklyn Heights where you get your very own resistance band and an arm workout that would do Michelle Obama proud. Oh, and there are more pushups, YAY!

You pretty much repeat the same pattern on the way back to Manhattan, with a few variations in the form of sprints, leg lifts, ab work, and squats with resistance. Woohoo!

I have to admit that I did sub in power walking a few times along the run, but all-in-all I left feeling pretty darn proud of myself. This was my first outdoor workout, my first time running not on a treadmill and it just happened to be a hardcore, kick-ass workout that burned 800 calories all before 9AM. I was so proud of myself, I walked back over the bridge to Brooklyn, then to Park Slope, where I promptly collapsed in bed and died.

If you’re looking to kick your ass into shape, check out the Brooklyn Bridge Bootcamp, it’s hard, but it’ll be worth it come time to fit into those skinny jeans. There are nine bootcamp classes weekly, everyday but Sunday. Classes fill up quick, so register online to reserve a spot.