Download - Fly Thomas Cook

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“REMEMBER TO BREATHE,” repeats
my instructor, Angela, in her calm but
authoritative voice. It may sound extremely
obvious, but I’ve been holding the ‘plank’
position for an excruciating 90 seconds in
25°c heat, and it is very necessary. Especially
since I’ve already spent the last hour jogging
on the beach, endured a never-ending series
of squats, push-ups and sit-ups, and at this
point, I’d be much happier doing the plank
in reverse: back on sand, sun on face – rather
than sand on face… and in other parts of my
body where sand should never be.
It does help that I’m on the stunning
beachfront of the Hard Rock hotel, Cancún
(thomascook.com) courtesy of B3 Boot Camp
(bootcampcancun.com), where I’ve enrolled for
a daily two-hour morning body blitz. Instead
of killing myself at the gym before my holiday,
I thought I’d combine the four S’s – sun, sea,
squats and spa-ing – to get that bikini body
on the beach itself and come back looking like
Jennifer Aniston or Jessica Alba (in my mind
at least), whose perfectly honed bodies have
also been paraded on the Yucatán Peninsula.
My fitness levels aren’t terrible. But I’d
still like to hoick my bottom up about three
inches, banish the bingo wings and turn
my muffin top into a slimline rice cake. So
I’ve put my behind in the hands of Angela
Carignan and Jackie Mejia who run B3 Boot
Camp. Cancún, with its long sandy beach
strip, lined with hotels, bars and restaurants,
with the sparkling Caribbean Sea on one side
and a lagoon on the other, seemed like the
perfect bootcamping ground.
“There’s so much amazing outdoor space
here – the sandy white beach, the parks and
the sea,” enthuses Angela. I can’t help but
agree, looking out at the bluer-than-blue
water stretching ahead of us.
Angela, who hails from Boston, has a
background in physical education and sports
medicine. She was also a choreographer for
90 THOMAS COOK TRAVEL
“Group exercise is great because
you laugh together, fall together –
you encourage each other”
six years, which is what first brought her to
Cancún: “I moved here for a six-month gig as
a dancer, met a guy from Mexico and never
left. Now, two kids later, I can’t imagine
being anywhere else.” She met Jackie, who
originally hails from Mexico City, in a local
Jazzercise class and the two of them decided
to go into business three years ago.
The pair go to wherever the clients are and
each group has a custom package made to their
specifications, so there’s no set price, but one
thing’s for sure: it will cost you a fraction of the
price of a personal trainer back home.
My day had started at a respectable
8:30am, which gave me just enough time
to get a few pre-workout calories from the
hotel’s impressive breakfast buffet. I somehow
managed to resist tucking into the crispy
bacon and fluffy waffles and stuck to a portion
of fresh fruit instead.
Down at the beach I met my workout
companions: a mix of Brits, Mexicans and
Americans, from ages 16 to 50 – all toned,
tanned and perky, with backsides that
would give even Pippa Middleton’s bottom
a complex (why are they here?). But Angela
advocates the benefits of group workouts even
if not everyone in the group has the same
fitness levels: “It’s not a competition, you
just do your best,” she reassures me. “Group
photo © getty