The participants in the ‘Fit for Life’ program are at a point where they have gotten to know each other, and are becoming competitive with each other. In the first few weeks the participants have gone from learning each other’s names to being very comfortable with each other. After this has become obvious, the instructors have began noticing the participants are becoming competitive with each other. Participants are noticing what others are doing and questioning it if they are pushing themselves. Many times during bootcamps participants have made the comment to others, “You are only lifting the ten pound one” or “You only did ten of those”. The friendly encouragement is not all there is though.

Many participants are increasing the percentage of weight lost and have the goal to catch up with Loquita, who is at 9.5% weight loss, and eventually pass her. They are becoming competitive to see who can do this. Encouragement and competition is a great motivator in this situation.

Some of the participant’s mindset has changed completely at this point. They are at the YMCA of the Northwoods all the time, and are always working hard. They are completely dedicated to creating a healthy lifestyle and lengthening the time they are alive and healthy.

The challenge for week 5 was to see how long you could do a plank in the proper position. Some people chose not to participate in this and as a result lost the challenge and the knowledge of the instructors. Those who did the challenge were successful just for doing it. The time for doing a proper plank ranged from 1 minute and 18 seconds to 10 minutes and 2 seconds. This is such a wide variety, but by doing it, they were able to learn the proper plank position, get the encouragement from the instructors, and hold the plank a lot longer that those who are not physically active may be able to. Each week the participants are growing stronger socially, mentally, physically, and emotionally.