Going Green

British Military Fitness instructor Al Clark, from Wormwood Scrubs in London, gives some inspiration for all of those in the Red fitness group wanting to make the leap to Green this Spring.

Recently I have had about four or five of my regular members move up to a green bib. But believe me they took some persuading to ‘go Green’.  Two months on and they are doing really well and have settled nicely into the role of the 'superfit' Green.

In truth though the jump was more of a mental leap than a physical one.

Here is how I got them there (without them even noticing!):

• Firstly, I slyly started to increase the number of reps in exercises from 12, to 15, to 22, to 30 in a relatively short space of time (two weeks).
• And, over the space of a month I doubled the distance they were running.

Within six weeks I decided it was time for these particular Reds to move into Green bibs. However, I gave them one last session as Red. In this final session I made everything a contest, using a variety of techniques:

• Speed: fastest person back gets no burpees
• Strength: non-stop frog jumps; whoever bails out first had to buy me a beer at the next social. You'd be surprised how far some people will go to avoid having to buy a round!

Playing on the members’ competitive natures really showed me how motivated they were. In the last ten minutes of the class I sent the team out to do laps of the football pitch. To complete a lap they had to do ten burpees on each corner and a 30-second plank for a rest. They had to do it three times, five seconds faster for each lap. They all managed to do it. At the end of the session I asked Patricia, the member in the group who was the slowest runner, how she felt about wearing a green bib next time.

"No bloody way!" she replied," but Patricia" I protested, "You've just done a green class.”

The other members in the group compared how she got on with themselves. They noticed that she was an average performer in the group, and realised if she could do it then so could they.

At the next session these Reds were all daring each other to give it a go.  Two guys stepped forward and donned a ‘dreaded’ Green bib. They found the class challenging and held back in certain parts of the class as if some sort of horrible surprise was going to be forced on them at any given point - it wasn't. The guys finished the class tired, but happy with their achievement.

The following week two more of the Reds stepped up to the plate and they found the same thing, challenging but doable.  After that putting on a green bib didn't seem like such a big deal.

Now, don't get me wrong the Green classes are our most challenging, but if you really want to be put through your paces chuck on that Green bib and find out if it’s as bad as you think. Remember it's our job as instructors to make it manageable for you, and no one has ever died at one of my green classes (yet).  Reds, my challenge to you all this Spring is to get over that mental barrier and give it a go. Good luck!