DeKALB | Though Amanda Scott Born is not an ROTC student, she participates in Boot Camp each week.

The senior marketing major attends Boot Camp, one of the many fitness classes available at the Campus Recreation Center.

Boot Camp offers an intense one-hour workout for both beginners and advanced students by combining cardio and strength intervals. The class is taught by Bethany Bohlig and is offered this fall from 6:20 to 7:20 p.m. in Activity Room 1 of the Rec.

Each class begins with a simple warm-up for about 10 minutes, followed by about 40 minutes of cardio/strength intervals. The class ends with about 10 minutes of abdominal core exercises and stretching. The main focus of the class is on the large muscle groups, doing a lot of leg work, including squats, and using extra resistance such as body bars, steps, dumbbells, tubing and occasionally medicine balls, said Bohlig, a Recreation Services fitness graduate assistant and exercise physiology major. The cost is $5 for students and $10 for non-students.

“Basically, the name ‘Boot Camp’ is just to let people know it’s an intense workout,” Bohlig said. “There’s not a lot of fancy choreography you have to learn for the class.”

Bohlig said she introduced the class to NIU last Spring, which she originally taught at Illinois State University. The idea came from several fitness conferences and workshops and through her experience as a personal trainer for athletes, Bohlig said. She said each class is pretty much full to capacity, which is about 30 people, with a mix of regular participants as well as beginners.

Bohlig describes the beginner, moderate and advanced ways to do each exercise in the class, and instructs all students to keep their abs tight when doing each move to strengthen the core muscles. She also allows for a few one- to two-minute breaks in between each interval.

Cherie Tymkiw, a graduate student and fine arts major, said she recently began team-teaching the class with Bohlig.

“I think everyone has a busy schedule, but it’s always good to at least fit 30 minutes to an hour of working out in each day,” Tymkiw said. “You’ll just feel better.”

Though Scott Born said this is her fourth semester having the Fitness Unlimited Pass for classes at the Rec, this is her first semester participating in Boot Camp. For those interested, Scott Born advises not working out right before class and arriving to class early to set up equipment.

“I like the class because it’s high energy and there’s a big variety of [exercises],” Scott Born said. “Bethany is awesome. She has a lot of energy and she really knows what she’s doing.”