At 4:30 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, a beeping sound echoes in Lilly Fitness Center Room 1025 and high tempo music fills the space as people start to bounce along to the beat. Sweat runs down their bodies and drops onto the floor.
After about three minutes, a beep notifies people of fifteen seconds rest and brings them relief. As soon as they wipe the sweat off their foreheads and quickly gulp down water, another beep sound goes through the air and they start again.
Bootcamp is one of the most popular fitness classes at DePauw University. For 45 minutes, students perform various movements to tone their bodies. In front of a large mirror, around 30 or more students run, jump, kick, lift weights and do push-ups. By doing all kinds of body movements and cardio, they burn fat and train the muscles they don’t frequently use in their daily lives to make their bodies more balanced.
Wendi Haltom is the instructor for Bootcamp. She grew up in Greencastle and now teaches at the Greencastle Community school corporation as a special education teacher for fourth graders. “It is just like a hobby,” Haltom said. “I have taken every fitness class and then I just started not being able to find a class to go to because of my time, so I started doing it on my own.”
She took an online course to get a certificate and first had a fitness class for the fellow teachers at her school who liked to workout. After that, she started teaching at DePauw two years ago after her daughter became a student at the University.
Junior Fumika Daimon has been a big fan of Bootcamp since her first-year year. She goes to almost every class and likes that the class makes you sweat a lot. “It motivates me whenever I feel less pains in my body after the class, because then I know I am getting fitter,” Daimon said.
Students also appreciate the opportunity to socialize while also getting a workout. Senior Xueying Li joined this class last semester with her friends and loved it. “I like the group class because when there are a lot of other people who know me, it motivates me to keep up.” She likes the timing of the class as well because she can go workout right after her classes and have dinner immediately after that.
Haltom wants more students, faculty and staff at DePauw to feel free to come to her class. “I think a lot of people are scared of it, but I would encourage people to try it,” Haltom said. She teaches another class called Strength and Tone on Mondays and Wednesdays for people who are interested more in using weights rather than focusing on cardio.
The majority of people who are currently in Bootcamp are women, but she welcomes everybody with every fitness level. “I would encourage more guys to give it a shot,” Haltom said,
Haltom encouraged people to stick with the workout even though it’s hard at first. “In the beginning people get tired and they cannot do the whole workout, but usually by the end of the semester they are keeping up.”