Hip-hop jams playing from the loudspeaker set the tone, energy and excitement for the second demonstration day of the boot camp program at San Francisco State University. Participants of different shapes and sizes wear an array of expressions from silent fear to smiles while stretching to get ready for their hour of intense workouts.

San Francisco State’s Village Fitness Center, located near Mary Ward Hall, is offering its twelve-session, six-week boot camp program again this fall semester under the leadership of twenty-eight-year-old personal trainer Joey Jayme. Known for his energy, humor and ability to push people to their limits, Jayme is whipping people into shape by helping them set their individual physical fitness goals. The boot camp program is designed to help college students and staff integrate fitness into their busy schedules. The end goal of the program is to keep people coming back after the six-week camp is completed, and to help people integrate the workouts they’ve learned into their daily lives.

“It’s not just a workout, it’s a lifestyle change,” says Jayme. The boot camp program was pioneered by thirty-one-year-old SFSU kinesiology lecturer John A. Penacerrada, the Village Fitness Center’s opening manager and fitness trainer. His ROTC experience inspired the idea of bringing boot camp’s outdoor workout style to campus.

The program gives people a chance to get away from the traditional gym setting. Instead of languishing on a treadmill for an hour focusing on one part of the body, boot camp brings a variety of workouts that benefit the whole body in the same amount of time. Jayme constantly checks his stopwatch as the boot campers are running their seven-minute warm-up run. San Francisco’s chilly weather is back, but the campers are already breaking a sweat. Some campers are making running look easy, but others look winded already. Jayme uses a wide range of exercises, from sport-specific workouts and weight-training to Pilates and cardiovascular training, which are all catered to the campers’ individual levels and capabilities.

Kenneth Frias, a nineteen-year-old freshman at SFSU, signed up for the program to get back into shape. In high school, he was on various sports teams, which made incorporating exercise into his schedule easy. But now that he’s in college, he realizes that if you’re not on a sports team you have to push yourself and make the time to exercise on your own. “I really want to get back into having a workout
routine,” Frias says.

Lisa M. Vallin, a twenty-eight-year-old SFSU alumni and current Human Sexuality lecturer, has been a member of the Village Fitness Center for three years now, and is going back for the boot camp program for her second time after trying it out during the summer. She’s already physically fit, but says boot camp is a great addition to her normal workout routine. “I think a lot of times we take exercise lightly. It’s something we talk about and want to do, but it could be so fun and be so easy,” Vallin says.

Edward Vicedo, the director of the Café in the Park dining hall at SFSU, also enjoyed his boot camp experience in the summer, so he joined again this fall. “It was really great and motivating. It gave me something to look forward to through the week, because I have a stressful job. It was a way to carve out time for myself,” Vicedo says.

The program charges a flat rate of fifteen dollars for fitness center members, and twenty dollars a class for non-members. It may seem steep, but personal training sessions at the gym easily cost two to three times as much. Jayme doesn’t use the stereotypical “drill sergeant” approach with the campers, but he isn’t going to give in if you try to negotiate with him. “Joey is supportive, and a lot of fun. He challenges us and customizes the experience for each of our fitness levels,” Vicedo says.

With their fellow campers by their side, they start an obstacle-course-style workout, doing a variety of running, lunges, crunches, push-ups, squats, and more, while Jayme shouts, “Hustle up! Hustle up!” Penacerrada explains that the campers start to feel team camaraderie because they commit to six weeks with the same people, and feel more motivated to show up to class because they feel like a team. “Having other people there makes you want to push yourself and want to be better, but the others want to be better too, so you push each other in a positive way,” Frias says.

Forty minutes into the workout and it’s time for a break. One guy looks like he is going to barf from eating a big meal before the session and another has his hands on his knees, panting, while some of the ladies use their break to dance to the lively workout music. Students walking by stare as the campers do their workout, and some dance or bob their head to the workout music playing as they stroll by.

Having the Village Fitness Center on campus and programs like boot camp available makes it easier for students and faculty to juggle academics, work, and physical health. “People say that they don’t have time, saying that they have to study for midterms, that’s understandable, but you have to take care of yourself,” Penacerrada says.

Although Jayme is the trainer and the campers gain a lot of physical strength from his encouragement, he gets back the satisfaction in helping people reach their physical fitness and health goals one push up, one lap, or one crunch at a time. The hour is almost up, and by the look of pain and sweaty faces on the campers you know they’re trying their best to hold the last few seconds of a Pilates position, as Jayme counts down, “5…4…3…2…1…and done.”