Boot camps apply military concepts to daily life, as do dance parties set to Morse code and tanks converted into school buses. Declassify your abs with today's Groupon: for $49, you get a four-week fitness boot camp from XLR8 Fitness, LLC (a $180 value). Boot-camp sessions are held Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Guests can register for outdoor sessions in Johnny Bright Playground or West End Park, indoor sessions at Anytime Fitness, or outdoor stroller boot camp in City Park.
With a master's in health and exercise science and a knack for reshaping clients' physiques, XLR8 Fitness founder Emily Eoff designs morning boot-camp programs whose one-hour regimens have been lauded on ABC 26. Supportive, certified trainers lead groups through fast-paced reps both indoors and out. As participants perspire through a 10-minute warm-up, a 40-minute workout, and a 10-minute cooldown, instructors shoot out suggestions for exercise modifications that suit individual body types and fitness levels. Strength training sets limbs burning with dumbbells and body bars, and medicine-ball maneuvers strengthen cores while reinforcing the catching skills needed to survive a meteor shower. To keep hearts fit, exercisers run through cardio drills, jumping hurdles, leaping through plyometric movements, and lunging across obstacle courses. Guests should bring their own dumbbells (5–10 pounds or heavier, depending on strength), water, and a thick mat, loaded into a gym bag or on the back of a sweatband-wearing pack mule.
In the spring, stroller boot camp teaches parents to "push off the pounds" by wheeling their progeny through City Park. A series of energizing routines can tone figures as patrons spend quality time with their children, imparting such valuable lessons as the joy of playing outdoors or the satisfaction of beating a team of squirrels in pick-up basketball.
Groupon Says
The Groupon Guide to: Advertising Soup
In this economy, soup isn’t going to sell itself. Only the perfect commercial is going to get those cans flying off the shelves. But what are the elements of a good soup ad?
The setting can make someone immediately yearn for a bowl of the hot stuff. Good settings include:
• A wealthy person’s farmhouse glowing warmly in a snowy wooded area (farmhouse should show no signs of actual farming)
• A small but cozy shack standing on a craggy cliff over a violent sea
• A bread factory
The main character is the viewer’s connection to the soup. It should be:
• A loving yet endearingly inept dad. He is in decent shape, not too handsome, and wearing a sweater and/or tucked-in collared shirt.
• A Victorian sailor’s wife. She is pale and beautiful, yet jagged. It has been a hard life.
• A bunch of working-class bread-factory guys who are hungry but tired of all this dry bread.
The story of the ad then whips the potential customers into a soup-eating frenzy by depicting:
• The dad’s son playing in the snow. The dad wants his son to love him but he cannot prepare a meal on his own. He makes the son soup, and the two bond over a game of checkers in front of a fireplace. Mom does not interfere.
• The wife gazes longingly at the sea during a windy, daytime rainstorm. She misses her husband’s warm, hearty arms but finds solace in a thick chowder that possesses those same qualities. Just as she finishes her bowl the husband kicks down the door. He has returned from his voyage and he has brought her many exotic hats.
• The bread-factory guys make some soup and have a crazy party wherein they dip the dry crusty breads into the steaming bowls with much joviality and merrymaking. What a day they’ve had.
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