The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Show up & just do it
No frills, bare bones Lisa’s Bootcamp in Branford thriving
BRANFORD >> Let’s start with what Lisa’s Bike & Bootcamp Studio, on East Industrial Road in Branford, doesn’t have.
It has no towel service, no tanning beds, no juice bar. It has no mirrors or TVs. If you’re looking for elliptical trainers, treadmills, or cutting-edge machines to isolate a particular muscle group, go elsewhere.
Of course, in spite of the bare walls interrupted only by pullup bars and speed bags, and the medicine balls and the kettlebells breaking the monotony of the Spartan interior, Lisa’s Bootcamp has something no other gym or fitness center on the Shoreline can offer, and that is Lisa Peterson, its founder, owner, head trainer, and manyhatted minister of inspiration.
Take, for example, a recent on-off bike class. Watch Peterson as charismatic preacher whipping her flock into action while heavy metal music blares. See her as brash drill sergeant colorfully barking out orders and encouragement as one recruit jumps off a Cycleops bike and onto a rowing machine—“go go go”—and another climbs back on—“that’s it, good form, that’s it.” Witness her as virtuoso conductor coaxing and cajoling her group to a fast tempo, then a slow one.
“She pushes you, she praises you, she watches you, she gets you into the best shape of your life,” Leighton Davis of Branford said.
“A master teacher who gets you going no matter what,” according to Branford’s Nancy Ryan, who’s been following Peterson for 12 years.
Said Barbara Yamada of Branford, “she makes you want to keep coming. And to tell all your friends about it.”
Given this kind of adulation, it’s arguably no wonder that, since its founding in 2011, Lisa’s Bootcamp has grown more than 800 percent, according to Peterson, and is now hundreds of members strong — and increasing.
The 2015 inductee into the West Haven Hall of Fame for her athletic exploits in volleyball, basketball, and softball had zero aspirations to own a gym, much less train people into better shape for a living. She was contentedly working at the front desk at InShape Fitness in Branford in 2004 when her boss, Pam Hutchinson, asked if she’d ever considered becoming an instructor.
“I said no,” the lean, animated 47-year-old recalled on a recent afternoon. “And then she told me she’d like to send me to get certified. She said they’d cover it. And I was like, whoa.”
The instincts of Hutchinson proved spot-on. Soon Peterson’s Body Pump class was so oversubscribed there were members cramming their mats into a walk-in closet in the back of the space. Her spin classes would fill up within minutes. When she took a job at a struggling studio in Orange, it suddenly had a two-week waiting list.
“It just came natural to me, so I went with it,” said Peterson.
It was in the same unpremeditated way that, in 2010, she went out on our own, renting a space in Guilford as a personal trainer in order to earn a living while in the midst of a divorce.
There, a familiar problem arose. Her hours were limited; she would only work while her four children were in school. Before long, there were too many clients and not enough time.
“So I started grouping them together,” Peterson said. “I’d ask ‘would you mind sharing your time with so-and-so?’ and then it turned into four at a time and then six and then it got that I needed more space.”
Which was when Lisa’s Bootcamp, the one-on-one training within a high-intensity group setting, was born. And with it, three more moves to ever-larger spaces as membership grew and grew.
In the midst of this, tragedy struck, with the 2011 passing of her beloved 4-year-old son Tristan, who suffered from Dravet syndrome, an affliction that had him enduring up to 200 seizures a day. Peterson, devastated, took a few weeks off. Then, she returned.
“Everyone loved Tristan and they were all still showing up at the studio and that was what got me back to work,” she said.
The Guilford resident hasn’t stopped since. And membership hasn’t stopped multiplying.
One reason: no two classes are the same. It might be fastpaced tire lifting, elbow planks, and repetitions of clean and press one day, and assault bike sprints, medicine ball crunches, and box jumps another.
“You jump from one hard thing to the next, with the goal of becoming better at doing hard things,” said Branford’s Shelly Johnson, “and you do it at the all-out effort that Lisa demands.”
According to Davis, that kind of workout results in an overall fitness that the six-pack abs and buns of steel afforded by traditional gym machines and the road-to-nowhere plod on the treadmill or elliptical can’t rival.
Above all, there’s the fact that inclusiveness, not exclusiveness, is the Lisa’s Bootcamp way. It’s not just the motto of her on-off bike class.
“There is always room for everyone!!!” her website proclaims. Or the enthusiasm with which Peterson introduces a new member to the group. Or that the camaraderie is such that no one wears isolating headphones.
It’s also the way she emails or texts a member who doesn’t show up for class. “I know what everyone’s routine is here, so I check in,” she said.
“I love doing this every second,” she added. “I don’t think of it as my job. Because when I’m able to help people feel so much better about themselves, just by setting goals that are achievable for them, when this is a place where people can come and can hear someone say ‘good job’ or ‘you’re doing great’ or ‘I’m glad to see you,’ that’s not a job. That’s a privilege.”
Sure, there are few bells and whistles at Lisa’s Bootcamp. Her members wouldn’t want it any other way.
Lisa’s Bike and Bootcamp Studio is located at 53 East Industrial Road, Building B, Branford. 203-738-9658. www.lisasboot.com.