By: Laurie Franklin
Looking for something to do on Saturday morning besides sleeping in? Twenty-three people now show up at the Seminary Hill gym at 0800 for an hour-long bootcamp session. They seem to be having fun—and they keep coming back—so I’d call that a win.
This group grew out of a need to bridge Couch to 5K enthusiasm with a winter activity that kept us active and ready for spring running. While running in the snow sounds appealing (NOT), many of us prefer indoor strength and core work. Keri created a fantastic Couch to Core program and handed it off to me, which felt like a natural transition. I’m a nurse, a big believer in overall fitness, and I’ve attended almost 500 sessions at West Lebanon FitBody Bootcamp over the past three years.
Using what I’ve learned, I’ve adapted the program to focus on exercises you can do at home while still getting a full-body cardio/core workout. I’ve never been great at exercising alone, and I think this space fills a real need for encouragement, accountability, and friendship.
What I love most is how this group adapts to everyone—from those just starting out to those who are already quite fit. There truly is space for all levels. If a push-up is the goal, the path might start with a wall push-up, knee push-up, plank, or modified plank. They all count. My focus is safe movement, good alignment, and strengthening both the big and often-forgotten small muscles that support balance and injury prevention.
You’ll find yourself doing crunches, low planks with hip dips, wall sits with leg lifts, tricep dips, jumping jacks, squat jacks—and soon, burpees and beast hold walks.
It’s been great welcoming longtime UVRC members to the morning sessions. Spending time with Neil at Cioffredi’s really helped reinforce how critical this work is for stabilizing knees, hips, and core, ultimately making us stronger, more resilient runners.
Looking ahead, I’ve had great conversations with Kristina, Cara, and Jackie about how we can better bridge Couch to 5K runners into the larger group. While the main group can feel a little intimidating at first, what I’ve learned is that we all share the same desire—to be better runners. Sometimes we just need targeted training at a smaller scale before jumping into speed work and longer distances.
The goal is to build that bridge and make the transition feel welcoming and achievable. We’ll be closed March 14th for the Shamrock Shuffle but will continue workouts through March 28th—so feel free to stop by on a Saturday morning and give it a try.
