Sgt. Tony's Fitness Boot Camp

Good evening, everyone! Tomorrow is heavy weight Wednesday!

Hey, y'all!

It was great to see you all this morning! It does my heart good to start my day with you knuckleheads! Happy June!

Language learning is a big thing to me, and ought to be to you too. Here's why: I'll be meeting with a Japanese person this week for "language exchange." They're a native Japanese speaker studying English and I'm a semi-native English speaker (Arkansas people don't really speak English, or so I've been told!) studying Japanese. The app we used to find one another is called Tandem. Part of the Tandem questionnaire asks why you're studying your target language. "So my brain doesn't atrophy and shrivel up," isn't a common answer.

But that's one of the main reasons. "Learn a musical instrument" and "learn a foreign language" are at the top of the "keep my brain healthy" list of things. Younger people tend to have more focused goals.

I will keep reminding you of these two things. I want YOUR brain to remain healthy and sharp too!

"Exercise and application produce order in our affairs, health of body, chearfulness of mind, and these make us precious to our friends. ... You are not however to consider yourself as unemployed while taking exercise. That is necessary for your health, and health is the first of all objects."
— Thomas Jefferson

Good Sunday Evening, everybody!

I look forward to seeing you knuckleheads INSIDE in the morning!

Let me speak to you guys who haven't been on the Quarterdeck in ... a ... while. I know, I know ... you miss a few days and then that become a few years.

Tomorrow is MONDAY ... great day to get started!
Tomorrow is the FIRST OF THE MONTH ... a great day to give me money ... I mean ... get started.
If it's been a while ... we're at Colonial Park United Methodist Church now. It's at the corner of Park and Estate: 5330 Park and it's easy to find us once you get there.
If it's been a ... while, fees are the same as before: 1 Month: $90, 2 Months: 160, 3 Months: 195, 6 Months: 375, 1 Year: 650. Cash, check, and Venmo.

If you missed this video from the other day, take a few minutes to watch. It's very informative!

Testing my VO2 Max - Lab vs Smartwatch (Garmin, Apple, Whoop + Lactate Test) Get yourself a pair of Shokz OpenFit 2+: https://bit.ly/4k90hxmGe...

Good Saturday afternoon, everybody!

My thanks to Richard Bourland, Andrew Foresdick, and Paul Chandler for their leadership this past week! Thanks, guys! My back is much better and I plan to see you all on Monday!

The exercise science nerd in me really appreciated this video. Some of you will geek-out on it too. How does actual VO2max measured in a sports science lab compare to the VO2max reading you get on the Apple Watch and Garmin? Check out this video!

Testing my VO2 Max - Lab vs Smartwatch (Garmin, Apple, Whoop + Lactate Test) Get yourself a pair of Shokz OpenFit 2+: https://bit.ly/4k90hxmGe...

Good Wednesday evening, everyone. I want to thank you for your patience and understanding about today, and ask for you to extend those things to tomorrow as well. I'm sorry to cancel Thursday's workout (5/28/26), and we'll aim for Friday!

Of course, you are more than welcome to meet at the church in the morning to go run or walk. Lee Averwater, the director of recreation and sports ministry at the church, will probably arrive around 6:30-ish; they have camp this week at Colonial Park. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday!

Greetings, all!

I’ve taken the liberty of adding your names from my roll book to a GroupMe page: “Sgt. Tony’s Fitness Boot Camp.” And I’ve sent out a first message to you that you would have seen as a text message. Hopefully, you got that text. But if you didn’t, and you’re on my roll—that is, I call your name from my book—let me know so I can make sure you won’t miss an announcement.

Monday is Memorial Day and we’ll be standing down! But we’ll be back in business on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article titled: “Is the Secret to Men’s Longevity a Great Butt?” They called it a "hockey butt." (Apparently, hockey players have great butts.)

Friends… after years of running boot camp, I would like to officially announce that we were WAY ahead of the scientific community.

According to the article, strong glutes (“hockey butt,” as they called it) may be one of the keys to living longer, staying healthier, preventing falls, protecting your knees and back, and generally not moving around like an old folding chair.

Translation: all those squats, and lunges are not punishment. They are investments in your future backside.

The glutes are the largest muscles in the body. They stabilize the hips, absorb impact, improve balance, and help keep the hamstrings and lower back from filing formal complaints. Weak glutes, on the other hand, can lead to pain, injuries, and eventually that old-person shuffle nobody wants.

So the next time you’re in class wondering why we’re doing another round of squats, just remember:
We are not merely exercising.
We are building longevity.

Or, as the WSJ might put it…
we’re building championship-level hockey butt.