It's 5.30 a.m. Wednesday morning. The temperature Is minus five degrees Celsius with some light snowfall. It's a typically cold, wet, winter's day on a football field at Washington Lee High School In Arlington, Virginia in the good old US of A. The sun isn't up yet, and neither are most sane people on the east coast.

By Mike James

Suddenly, the tranquility of early morning is disrupted by a booming, resonant voice yelling: "One, two, three, one, two, three," in a rhythmical, military cadence. Instructor Dimitri Lewis is leading 18 of his troops through a sequence of jumping jacks. This will be followed by some stretching, a I 5-minute endurance run and a set of tortuous calisthenics.

The Pentagon is only two miles away, but Dimitri Lewis is no drill sergeant, and his troops are not macho men seeking to be part of 'The few, the proud, the Marines. Dimitri's troops are all females ranging in age from 25-35 years. Among them are full time mothers, human resource directors, teachers, students and women from all walks of life who share one thing in common. They are all members of the 'Women's Boot Camp' programme conducted by Healthy Body Image (HBI) Fitness, a group of fitness professionals operating out of Gold's gym in Arlington. These women will meet at 5.30am every weekday for 6 weeks. No matter how cold the weather, Instructor Lewis will urge them to sweat, strain and never surrender their quest for super fitness.

HBI has been conducting the Women's Boot Camp programme since September 1998. According to Kirk Trader, vice president of HBI, "The Boot Camp classes are extremely popular, averaging 20 participants in winter and 25 to 30 women in summer.

"We purposely decided to target women in the 25-35 year age group for this programme," Trader explains. "These women are a different demographic from our personal training clients who are usually in the 35-50 year age group. We have found that many women are looking for something different from the traditional aerobic class format." Trader says that the Boot Camps' intense type of training has a number of benefits, including increased strength and cardio vascular endurance with greater calorie burning and fat loss."

Melissa Garner, a 28-year-old human resource manager, is participating. in her first Boot Camp. "It's a great way to vary your workout. I was getting stale in the gym doing the same workout over and over. With the variety of activities and intense cardio work I'm already starting to see changes in my "body after two weeks."

When asked if she ever felt like rolling over and going back to sleep when the alarm rang on a cold morning, she laughed and said, "Oh yeah, sure, but when I remember that an instructor is there waiting for me, and that I will let the group down, it motivates me to get going."

The punishment drill could also be a motivating factor. For each woman late or without a valid excuse for not attending, a 3D-second wall sit is inflicted on the whole group. Here everyone is made to squat with backs against a wall, knees bent at right angles and thighs parallel to the floor. By the end of a 6-week session some groups have had to endure this quadriceps burner for 6 minutes.

THE INSTRUCTORS

The instructor plays a major role in motivating the Women Boot Campers. While Dimitri Lewis exhorts the women to work hard, he is certainly not the stereotypical, in-your-face drill sergeant. Lewis is an affable 21-year-old African American man who loves motivating people to be the best they can be.

"If I change a person's physical appearance I am sure this can translate to improvements in other aspects of their lives," he said. "I tell my personal training clients and these women that successful people do the things that unsuccessful people aren't prepared to do." Certainly not the sentiments of the spitting, snarling, drill sergeant you see calling everyone 'maggots' in Hollywood movies. All HBI instructors participate in an 8-day training camp to learn the correct exercise techniques. It is not just a matter of barking out orders and blowing a whistle. Each day's activities are highly structured. "By having different activities each day you eliminate training plateaus," Kirk Trader explains. This also helps stop the boredom. Many of the Boot Campers feel that traditional aerobic and step classes have become boring, repetitious and that they no longer produce results.

THE DRILLS

The various drills used in the Boot Camp are vastly different from the usual choreographed routines found in a traditional aerobics class. Running laps with a brick in each hand, or up hills with a sack full of 10lb dumbbells is certainly different! Add some metro runs where boot campers run the stairs at Ballston and Clarendon train stations with a sack of 10Ib bricks; suicide runs where sprints are alternated with push ups; Karaoke runs where lateral running is made even harder by crossing the feet, and you have a very innovative way to get fit. There are also various strength training drills which incorporate log lifts, chin-ups and push-ups and partner-assisted resistance exercises like lateral raises and biceps curls.

THE A TEAM

But if you think these Women's Boot Camp are motivated, or maybe even mad, you ain't seen nothing yet. Two miles away at Thomas Jefferson Community Centre, Instructor Wolf Gottschalk, 30, is in charge of the A Team. The A Team are the elite force of Boot Campers. To be eligible to join the A Team, these women must pass a grueling physical fitness test. They must be able to run two miles in seventeen minutes, perform 20 full push-ups, 40 sit-ups in a minuteS chin-ups and a 3D-second bar hang.

As the sun begins to rise, Wolf is finishing of the morning's activities with 10 minutes of gut-wrenching abdominal work. While their faces contort with pain, he walks amongst the A Team shouting instruction and encouragement. "Come on ladies, keep your legs up, squeeze those abs, breathe out, hold it, hold it.. . good job Karen. Sink back down ... come on Holly two more reps."

Holly Maclean, a 30-year-old full-time Mom, is participating in her third boot camp. A former track runner at high school, Maclean enthuses, "It's the perfect time of day for me, and the team atmosphere make it very motivating."

Does this A Team boot camper ever feel like staying in bed on these cold mornings? "Yes, but you have an instructor you hear in the back of your mind so you get up!" Maclean replied.

While getting up on cold mornings seems to be the hardest obstacle, none of these A Team boot campers had ever missed a session. Karen Ager, 30, a director of operations for a non-profit organisation, says, "While getting up is the hardest part, Wolf told us that when you're up this early you might as well work out, so here I am."

Karen is committed to the programme: "It has given me results above and beyond my expectations" she said.

What were her expectations? "Initially, I just wanted a change from running and step aerobics classes, but this has made me so much fitter and better able to handle my hobbies of hiking and mountain bike riding."

Wolf, the A team instructor, is a neuro physiologist by profession. A competitive runner and triathlete, he loves helping women achieve their goals. An animated man with a quick wit and irascible nature, Wolf was also quick to explain that there is nothing better to see the sun come up in the morning, with a bright red sky in the back ground, and a line of women ready to get going.

"They're hot, sweaty, steam is rising of their backs, it's sexy I'm tellin ' ya. Hot sweaty women in the morning, you can't beat it," he said to a chorus of cheers and "Yeah, right," from his suitably panting, perspiring, A Team members.

Wolf, is lavish in his praise of women's motivation and pain tolerance. "Women are more hard core. From what I have seen they definitely have a higher pain tolerance." He is adamant that women are more motivated to come out here. "They don't have anything to prove. With men, you usually have that testosterone and macho attitude to ,deal with." Wolf also feels that women bond better than men. That motivates them to achieve results and work harder.

THE MILLENNIUM CLASS?

So there you have it, a new exercise regimen that is effective, motivating, innovative and sensual (at least for Walt). The Fitness industry constantly looks for alternative ways to attract members and provide diverse activities. There always seems to be some new miracle weight loss machine, strength building gadget or aerobic apparatus advertised as the new fitness panacea.

Over the past five years, the traditional aerobics class schedule has also changed dramatically. New classes like Spinning, Boxacise, kick boxing and sports conditioning have become more popular. HBI Fitness and Golds in Arlington, are taking exercise out of the confines of the gym and aerobic studio to an outdoor setting using more traditional military-based training techniques. Even in a bitterly cold winter the popularity of Women's Boot Camp classes has weathered the storm. It looks like this could be THE exercise class for the new millennium.

Mike James is the manager of the World Bank fitness center, and a freelance writer with years of experience as a corporate fitness center consultant. He is based in Washington, D.C.