Field House hosts women’s boot camps

Kent State’s Strength and Conditioning department at the Field House is giving women a chance to train like professional athletes at the Flashes for Fitness 2014 Women’s Boot Camp this spring.

The workshop will take place on April 29, May 6 and May 13 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will be instructed by the Field House Strength and Conditioning staff.

Rhen Vail, one of the strength and conditioning coaches, said the point of the workshop is to promote a healthy lifestyle.

“Two years ago, the football department put on a women’s clinic where women could do something for a day related to football,” Vail said. “We kind of took that idea and ran with it and focused on kick-starting fitness in the summer.”

Vail said there have been people in the past who come in looking for programs to be a part of.

“There will be people that come up sometimes who want a program or want to get started,” Vail said. “Honestly, a lot of those people are females.”

Another strength and conditioning coach, Antoine Sharp, said the program will focus on how to do the exercises the right way.

“We are going to teach Olympic lifts,” Sharp said. “You go to CrossFit places, and they put people at risk by teaching improper techniques. We will also do some circuit training and metabolic conditioning.”

Vail said the exercises will be tailored to the needs of the participants.

“We know we are going to have people that will be pretty fit; they might know what they are doing,” Vail said. “But we also might have people that have never worked out before. We’ll be able to accommodate that.”

Vail said he wants the program to be an enjoyable experience for everyone that comes.

“The point is to kick-start something, not bury you,” Vail said. “We want them to be able to come back and it to be something they want to continue to do.”

Sharp added that the program will not be the same experience as joining a gym.

“It’s an experience,” Sharp said. “Nobody trains like these guys. It’s something you aren’t going to experience when you go to a 24-hour gym. It will be more of a group setting, a way to see how every team that comes through here operates.”

Sharp said if someone wants to see results, lifting weights is something he or she just has to do and commit to.

“The commitments you make are life-changing,” Sharp said. “If you are considering it, really think about what you are trying to get started.”

To register for the Women’s Boot Camp, visit www.kentstatecamps.com.

Contact Hannah Reed at [email protected].