Early one Saturday morning, we woke up ready and willing to get our asses kicked by Punk Rock Boot Camp. And we were kind of excited about it. No, this was not a brainwashing session designed to churn out gangs of misfits; you don't get your hair dyed or your nose pierced with a safety-pin. Rather, Punk Rock Boot Camp is an exercise experience. It is done in the spirit of punk culture, where DIY rules, and if you're going to bother getting in shape, you're certainly not going to bother with personal trainers, alienating machines or mail-order videotapes. The idea behind the class, held at Penn Treaty Park on weekends and at Penn's Landing on weekday mornings, is that your own body and an open space are the only things (and the best things) needed for a satisfying workout. In keeping, most sessions actually begin with a rowdy game of tag. Classes are taught by the garrulous Brian Adoff, an actor-slash who hates exercising (something we all have in common) but still feels right at home doing jumping jacks and prisoner's squats (something we don't all have in common). After dynamic warm-up exercises, participants work their core, travel between two cones for a series of lunges, jumps, and crab walks, and then finish up with some circuit training - all while rocking out to raucous tunes. If you are willing to do what you are told as intensely as you can, you are guaranteed to wake up hurting the next day. Trust us. Coming from two different fitness backgrounds - one of us is a semi-regular yogini and ex-runner, and the other hasn't worked out since high school cheerleading back in the Midwest - we had different thoughts on whether we'd return. However, PRBC is for "athletes" and non-athletes alike, and as Adoff says, "You get out of it what you put into it." The class is entertaining, and the next day you want to die - the holy grail of exercise combinations! You'll learn some pointers on what you can do yourself, but it's a lot less embarrassing crawling around like a crab with a group of people than it would be, alone, in West Philly.
Punk Rock Boot Camp takes place at Penn's Landing, MWF at 6:30 a.m. Drop-in classes take place at Penn Treaty Park in Fishtown, S-Su at 10 a.m. for $5. Visit punkrockbootcamp.com for details.
