A Feb. 16 Weekend article incorrectly described Patrick "The Sarge" Avon as the founder of the Sergeant's Program fitness boot camp. Grant Stockdale founded the Sergeant's Program in 1984; Avon has owned the program since 1989.
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Sir, Yes, Sir!
When Avon launched the Sergeant's Program, he was the only game in town. Nowadays there's a boot camp for just about everyone: baby boot camp, mommy boot camp, even bridal boot camp. Avon sums up the broad appeal in one word:
"Community."
 Doug Vasiliadis, 45, of Great Falls, leads Active Duty Fitness for Women at the YMCA in Reston, VA . (Michael Temchine - FTWP) |
In a Sergeant's Program class in Rockville, the same instructor and the same group of about 20 guys have been working out together at 6 a.m. five days a week every week for the past 10 years. That is not unusual, according to Avon, who says many of his classes have core groups of members who have been working out together for at least five years.
David Sherer, 49, an anesthesiologist in Northern Virginia, has been a member of the Sergeant's Program for more than 11 years at the Bethesda location. Sherer compares his group to a family.
"After this many years, we now celebrate each other's life events: births, showers, second marriages. Our instructor invited us to his own wedding in Rehoboth, and about 10 of us showed up. When you're with people for an hour a day, Monday through Friday, for many years -- through the rough talk, the hard work, the complaining -- you see people in ways you don't normally see them. They're sweating, making faces, working hard, things we don't see in civilized society. You're breaking people down to their basic elements through physical activity, and it makes everyone more human."
Avon attributes class cohesion, in part, to the consistency of having the same instructor, day in and day out.
"Lots of people can teach a class, but not everybody can be there five days a week, through cold weather and hot weather, every single morning. Our clients keep coming back because they know their instructor will be there. They know we're going to hold their hand and kick their butt at the same time."
The camaraderie that develops at boot camp is real. Just ask Lee Boswell. Director of sales operations for a software company in Reston, Boswell started her Active Duty boot camp program four years ago. She was 51 and had never exercised in her life. She enjoyed the physical challenges of the program. Then life brought its own challenge: In January 2006, she received a breast cancer diagnosis.
Boswell's doctor told her that while she was going through chemotherapy, she should try to live her life as normally as possible. For Boswell, that included boot camp.
From May through August, Boswell had chemotherapy every two weeks, but she still tried to make it to boot camp most weeks.
"I ran my best mile time while I was on chemo," Boswell says. "My best time ever." Boswell says the friendships she made at boot camp -- she didn't know any of the women before she started -- sustained and supported her during treatment.
"The girls took me out to dinner the night before my first chemo appointment, and when all my hair fell out, they told me how good I looked in a bald cap!"
