Over the past 2 years or so I have slowly worked towards getting fitter and I wanted to share how I got into it. I went for a bootcamp in August 2022.
The decision to go for a bootcamp
I was sitting at a bar in goa alone and sipping a cocktail when serendipity struck. Next to me sat a beautiful girl who like me was enjoying her drink. We started talking and I got to know that she was leaving for Kodaikanal early next morning (that made me sad :P). Well, this was strange because rarely does it happen that someone goes to kodi from goa! I was intrigued and then she told me that she was going for a fitness bootcamp there!
I checked out the website, it seemed pretty cool Fully Customized One on One Fitness Boot Camp, Asia, India (1on1fitnessholidays.com). Nestled away in the greenery, legit trainer, yoga classes, great food, testimonials were amazing, tripadvisor makes it an easy decision. I made a mental note to enquire about it and fit it in my schedule if all things worked out.
I had been searching for something like a bootcamp. I wanted to get fit gain muscle and generally feel confident when I walk into a gym and be like yes, I know my shit and I know what I'm doing with all the machines, what I'm lifting, what body part I'm working on and so on. Also, I had lost a lot of weight post coming back from vipassana and lost my appetite and just weighed 65kgs!
So, I talked to Prahlad, who runs the program and got to know more about the program.
5 people in one batch
3 hours of commitment to body work, for 3 weeks
Food is taken care of, stay is sorted, at an Airbnb right next to the home gym setup.
Located in a posh, beautiful society.
Supplements taken care of. It felt like a good solid program, and I had missed a presence of a mentor who'd guide me with my fitness journey, so I decided to go for the program, paid him the money and waited to go to Kodi!
First Impressions
From Delhi, I reached Coimbatore and took a cab to reach Kodi. I reached on an evening around 6 and the next day was the first, with the first workout session scheduled for 6:45 am.
Prahlad is a beast of a man who could lift you and throw you and do it 10 times over without breaking a sweat. He's big, muscular and you feel like saying 'yes coach I will do as you say'. It seems like he's always angry and trying to control his anger but then in his own humorous way he'll have fun with you.
Khushi seemed very loving, kind and a spirited person and the amount of food she has fed me is just incredible! More on that below.
The space and the people
Entering the gym, you instantly realize how thoughtfully it is created, utilizing the space efficiently similar to a cozy study room meant for deep intense work.
The setup (home and the home gym) was located in Millhaven, a posh gated society which suddenly appears out of nowhere right next to a popular market and is superbly serene and feels like a place out of a story book. The home is very cute, with a dining area where we spent a lot of time eating lovely meals and a pinch of banter.
I was accompanied by 4 other people/ students and that’s it! It took time to get the conversations going but in a couple of days we got comfortable with each other, and it felt great to be around these lovely people. All the others had come to lose weight while I was the only one who had come to gain muscle. We had a lot of banter at the dinner table, and it was great to see each other get better and well, we competed and rooted for each other as well :)
The routine
There are rules! and 6:45 means 6:45, gym shoes are separate and cannot have any speck of dirt on them. Got to know how to wear the heart rate monitor and started the workout.
Before the workout I had one glass of apple cider with water, pink salt and lemon. Wore my heart rate monitor. Ate a banana. Made an intra workout essential amino acid drink and entered the gym before 6:45 (or else i'd have to do burpees as a penalty for being late! and it's seious)
We had a small prayer and breakfast at 8am. The breakfast was simply insane! Eggs of course in some form or the other, huge bowl of broccoli and multigrain slice of bread. No coffee, tea or caffeine in any form
Since I was working from there as well, I started off my day early and got in a good 3 hours of work from 9-12pm before the Yoga class started at 12:15
The yoga class was gentle, and Khushi did not push us to do lots of asanas or strain ourselves. Also, it has an outdoorsy feel with sweet sunshine sometimes coming to provide warmth in the chill. She sometimes narrated stories (simple, meaningful motivational stories that we might narrate to kids) while we held a relaxing pose and I loved to hear those! It was a unique style that she made her own and I always looked forward to the class mainly because it was so relaxing! There were times I slept at the end, and someone had to wake me up because it was lunch time!
1:15 we had lunch and post that I would have another work session for 2-3 hours depending on when my next workout would be.
Sometimes I had another strength training session at 4 or yin yoga at 5. Yin yoga was my absolute favorite! There was another cozy studio in the same society just 5 minutes away and it had a beautiful yet trippy room (because of the lights!). It was the first time I had gotten introduced to Yin yoga and holding the poses for long was extremely relaxing. There comes a time when I stopped resisting the pain and just fall forward or relax with gravity.
Dinner was early at 6:30. Post which I had to journal about the day - what I had eaten and how many calories did it constitute, how many calories did I burn, the supplements taken, details about any aches and pains and then we made a drink with a magnesium supplement and warm water and off we went to our rooms. After the hard work of the day, it was time to doze off by 9:30 or 10 and it was hard to keep up post that especially after the magnesium I'd taken.
There were informatory classes (lectures) in the morning for the first week as well on different topics and we had to do a bit of homework as well. Like one day we'd discuss about sugar and why it's bad. We also watched 'the sugar film' which solidified my understanding of this piece. (I'd highly recommend watching it!)
Prahlad made me follow a German volume training method. All the exercises were logged in trainerize (that is an app which is used by both the trainer and the trainee to track and log the workouts) and progress was tracked and measured. Small wins, a 2.5 -5% increase on completion of 10 sets of the same exercise was allowed the next time of doing the same one. I loved the program because of its simplicity! If you are able to do 10 sets of bicep curls at 7.5kg (12 reps), then you can increase the weight by 2.5 to 5% the next time. Simple, logical, trackable!
The Food
It was a lot of food! and a lot of super super tasty food. It was fantastic to have so much variety of such tasty food!! 5 meals a day. 3 main meals and two snacks, and all the meals were filling, unique and lip smackingly tasty, always! I had progressively increased from 2500 calories to 3200 calories a day and it was super hard to get there! All thanks to Khushi for feeding me with the best home food I've had (outside of my home :D)
Tools and supplements
Protein: Perfect amino protein tablets by Bodyhealth. I couldn't digest the protein powders. EAA powder for intra workout
Multivitamin: GNC Sport
Omega 3 by Swisse
Proibiotics
Vitamin C
Magnesium: Body calm by bodyhealth (I have never slept better, and this is like a magic drug! I did not know what deep sleep was before this! )
Heart rate monitor: Myzone
Workout logging: Trainerize
A daily journal to log food, calories, and aches & pains
It took some unclogging the mind that oh I am taking so many tablets. It made sense and the morning theory classes helped break this resistance.
Fun Stuff
Over the 21 days i got to know my fellow bootcampers. And shared every meal with them and Prahlad and Khushi and it was so much fun! Jokes at the dinner table, everyone pulling each other's leg, sharing a little bit about each other, healthy competition as well! It felt like being a part of a family from different parts of the country
Two indi dogs - horsey (yes there was a dog called horsey!) and kaja visited regularly and went for walks whenever they felt like it.
You get out of the house to an amazing view!
The change is visible! and it kept me going. In three weeks i gained 5 kgs, from 65 to 70
Tuesday lake walks. The Kodaikanal lake is beautiful, huge and walking around it takes an hour!
Wednesdays were cheat days! We went out for dinner to a really fancy place and we could eat anything from the menu and as much as we wanted apart from the sugary stuff.
Sundays were off and I just lazed around the house, read something or played with colours
Closing thoughts
No vices, no drinking, sleeping well, working out like a beast for 21 days put me on a pedestal and served as a launchpad for my journey into body work.
Even if there are times when I feel like I've fallen off the wagon, there is baseline understanding using which I come up again :)
No amount of money is too much for quality education! It is immensely important to invest in your own body. There is dearth of such quality education!
Life can be lived in a lot of different ways, and it was inspiring to see them live in kodi and train people for a living!
I’ve done my Yoga teacher training course which I credit to having come to this place.
With every year, I aspire to be the fittest I have ever been :D
Some point in life I wish to have a similar setup. A sanctuary where people can come and feel safe, spend some time and work on themselves.
Crossing 30, I have seen a lot of people around me struggle with physical or mental health and not either being ignorant to it or not prioritizing it enough. Everyone has their own constraints, but I urge you to workout 45-60 mins a day. Let me know about your journey!
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