Hillmotts Dorset bootcamp review : Part One

“Why are you here at Hillmotts?”

“Er… we just thought it’d be an amazing weekend away, really”

That’s what we were asked by one of the trainers, Chris, when we arrived. Me and my two favourite fitties sat opposite him and explained that we just thought it’d be a fun weekend away together, three solid days of non-stop exercise and healthy eating.

You know what I mean, right? We’d come back feeling EPIC!

The beautiful Dorset venue

For me it was a reset button too – I’ve been a bit slack with my eating recently and needed to find my morning mojo again to get up for early sessions. Everyone had different reasons for coming to bootcamp – to lose weight, kickstart a healthier lifestyle, revamp their training regime, or to learn about good nutrition and new ways to train. Or maybe just to have some fun!

Some people had never been to bootcamp before, some people were keen runners and regular spin-class addicts, and some came from doing very little exercise at all, so there was a real mix of people there, all in it together for the weekend (some even stayed for six days!)

Hillmotts Dorset weekend crew 27-29/9/13

Now that we’ve returned to reality, though, I’m currently aching in places I never knew possible.

Stairs are a no-no and minding the gap coming off the train when dealing with immense DOMS is not something I’d like to do in public again. Despite the stiffness and severe bootcamp withdrawal symptoms, however, (the latter being harder to deal with), I’m on top of the bloody world!

Behold: the fuel you need for 3 days of continuous exercise!

In the three days that we were there we:

Did a grand total of 12 hours of exercise, split into 12 sessions.
Met some fantastic people.
Were pushed to our limits/supported/cheered on by the amazing trainers.
Drank copious amounts of green and red berry tea.
Ate balanced, nutritious meals and snacks to fuel us for the exercise we were doing.
Learned about balanced nutrition and how to make the most out of our training schedules to suit our goals. (EAT CLEAN! EAT CLEAN!)
Ignored *most* of our snacks that we brought with us (I brought a whole bloody rucksack of rice cakes, oat cakes, almond butter, Dr Karg crackers, energy bars, nuts and bananas – but only had some nuts and a Dr Karg!)
Laughed. A lot.
Cheered. A lot.
Had so much fun!
Coughed – EVERYONE COUGHED. (See the first day recap as to why).
Slept – not much, but I reckon I was just over tired/pumped.
Swam and melted in the sauna.
Enjoyed the hot tub. Yes, I said HOT TUB.
Lost weight (I lost 4lb, and my two fitties I came with also lost 4lb between them!)

Hillmotts residential bootcamp review - Tess Agnew fitness blogger

Top to bottom: 8am Insanity session, 8am HIIT session & boxercise

Smashing expectations

We’d been looking forward to it for months and I was especially excited and bouncing off the walls about the whole thing, so it had a lot to live up to in the Head of Tess.

I’m glad to say it most definitely smashed my expectations and then some – the trainers were great, the other bootcampers were brilliant, the venue and location was amazing, the weather was perfect (even the pounding rain during our first 8am HIIT session on Saturday morning).

If anything the rain just made me run harder to get my porridge quicker!

I don’t want this to be one mahoosive long post, so gonna split it up into recaps of each day, and then it’s not like reading a dissertation. You’re welcome.

Day One recap link below so click through to find out why coming to Hillmotts
made us feel like this: