Over the past decade of personal training at gyms, in homes and on public grounds I have found one of the best means of achieving fitness goals is the Fitness Boot Camp. These are outdoor intensive group training sessions where you and the other attendees are pushed to your max, like they do in the military.

The Boot Camp method of training has become so popular across the country that entire shows and DVD series are dedicated to them. People just can't get enough. The proof is in the results. And the results are found in a new research study. Here's the scoop:

Researchers lead by two PhDs at the American Council on Exercise (ACE) performed a study that analyzed the overall health and fitness benefits of the Boot Camp style workout.

"There's a certain element of getting back to the basics and a more functional-training approach," says ACE's chief science officer Cedric X. Bryant, Ph.D.. "People are looking for different experiences. With boot camps, you're giving them something outside the traditional club environment."

The reasons for boot camp popularity could be the cohesive group and grunt cohesion, the outdoor experience, the DIY approach. No heavy metal equipment, just you, the dirt, the trainer, and your camp mates pressing you on... if only by their participation.

"Boot camp is becoming more and more popular in the health club setting so obviously people want to know if they're really going to get something out of it, and if it's going to be worth their time," says Kirsten Hendrickson, a graduate student in exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin. "So we decided to take a look at it."

In their effort to assess the actual benefits of boot camp workouts in comparison to regular gym workouts, a team of exercise scientists from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse Exercise and Health Program, led by John Porcari, Ph.D., and Hendrickson, recruited six men and six women ages 19 to 29.

After getting the participants' baseline measurements like maximum heart rate and oxygen consumption (Vo O2 max) by having them hit a motorized treadmill, a Borg Scale was used. cheap weight loss camp perceived exertion using a scale from 6-to-20, based on how the person feels they are exercising in terms of effort, difficulty and return on that investment.

After the baseline was gotten and participants were well versed in the forthcoming boot camp routine (so there would be no error from stumbling along), they returned to the lab and fitted in special gear to quantify their workouts. Each subject was then outfitted with the Cosmed portable analyzer, a backpack and face mask apparatus that measures oxygen consumption and caloric burn. Heart rate and perceived exertion were also tracked every three minutes throughout the 40-minute workout.

After analyzing the data, researchers found that the average boot camp exerciser burns approximately 9.8 calories per minute during a typical boot-camp workout, which equals nearly 400 calories during the entire 40-minute boot-camp video studied.

"The biggest benefit is you're burning an average of 600 calories per hour," says Porcari. "That's obviously going to help with weight loss, but you're also getting the muscle-building benefit from pushups, arm curls and squat thrusts that you wouldn't get just from going out for a fast walk or jog."