As this site is devoted to one week residential boot camps, I wouldn’t normally bother with a camp that worked on you for only 4 days and lodged you for just 4 nights – even if, technically speaking and with its feathers at full fluff, it can bill itself as a ‘ 5 Day Boot Camp’. But then, out of the blue, I got an unsolicited invite from founder/owner, ex-Para and practising PTI – Mark Hooks Bsc. – to come down and review his proud achievement with Reboot, ” a product that has been perfected “. Although a little alarm bell did go off at this point, I still thought why not? Reboot, after all, has been around since 2009 and Mark seemed to be a man with a very passionate conviction for his cause. Furthermore, no journalist to date has reviewed Reboot, so it was nice to be asked – with the flattering suggestion that my opinion might be of some value. Turned out it was, as Reboot since my visit in January 2012, has altered its product considerably.
The first thing that hits you about Reboot is that the website is awash with inflated claims about the product. All of these Mark has just gone off, sat down and made up himself. Not one of them is attributed to a third party. So, perhaps, a good place to start would be to take a closer look at some of these boasts on behalf of Reboot. Ignoring minor irritations – like loudly straplining itself as ” the ultimate boot camp ” – I’ll stick to dealing with the important stuff.
It is simply not true to say that Reboot is ” a totally unique weight loss experience “. Virtually everything that happened at Reboot, I’ve done at other boot camps – and sometimes better, too. Reboot, apparently, is also ” a holistic camp ” – which is not a category I would put it in, alongside genuinely holistic camps like Phoenix and Nubeginnings. Three Relaxation Sessions after dinner – however New Age in style and effective though they may be – plus three seminars with the dreariest Mind Coach I’ve ever heard (so dull, in fact, that Mark intervened after fifteen minutes and took over the second seminar himself!) just is not enough fire-power to label Reboot as properly ” holistic “, even if it does nod in that direction. To be fair to Reboot, I should add that their principal Mind Coach was away when I was there and would, no doubt, have done a better job. But not enough still, in my view, for Reboot to qualify genuinely as a ” holistic camp “.
Next up, is Reboot really – as it says it is – ” the best value for money boot camp in the UK “? Well, I let Mark know when I was there, that I certainly didn’t think so. He was using The Old Rectory in Symondsbury, a vintage Grade 11 listed building – but it was woefully short of bedrooms with private facilities, a touch over-delapidated in places, and an en-suite single was coming in at the colossal price of £1495 for 4 nights! That home truth – whether grateful for it or not – was something Mark chose to act on immediately. He moved Reboot at once to a new West Dorset village venue, which is more modernised, has plenty more en-suites and costs a lot less. Instead of £1495, an en-suite single now costs £795! So, is the revamped Reboot now right to call itself ” the best value for money boot camp in the UK “? Er, no. That title belongs to Joe Ayo’s splendid Back2Basics Boot Camp – where for £699(e/s sgle) and £599(e/s sharing) you get superior accommodation, complete with sauna and swimming pool, for the whole 7 nights, with a wider range of activities and far more psychological work on you than Reboot offers. Consider also the very upmarket Trimmeryou Boot Camp, where an en-suite twin for the whole 7 nights is only £825(just £130 more), scoring this camp the full 5 stars for ‘ Value for Money ‘. Similarly luxurious is England’s national award-winner for ‘ Best Holistic Boot Camp ‘, Phoenix Boot Camp, where an en-suite twin for the whole 7 nights comes in at £900, only £200 more. All this is not to say that Reboot isn’t decent value for money; it’s just to correct the hyperbole that it’s the best value in the land, because the owner says so.
Whilst the above three paragraphs would have been totally unnecessary if Mark Hooks had shown more awareness of what other boot camps were up to, I am now about to shock you – and possibly him, too – by agreeing with one of his biggest boasts and being happy for him to quote me as endorsing it. I think Reboot really is, as Mark says, ” The Best 5 Day Fitness & Weight Loss Boot Camp in the UK “ – with two crucial provisos, which he’ll be less likely to take on board and probably won’t mention at all, namely: as far as 5 day boot camps go and considering the lack of competition in that category.
Make no mistake, Reboot succeeds in getting plenty right. Mark himself is a truly inspirational trainer, one of the best I’ve come across. His female side-kick, Helen, is unfailingly funny, a right bundle of energy – but with a softly sympathetic gear, too. And ” H “, as she prefers to be known, actually is the best female bootcamp trainer I’ve ever met. Likewise, I would rate Naomi Devlin as the top bootcamp Nutritionist on the circuit. The food, too, was above the bootcamp average and scored a welcome four stars.
There are, however, areas where I feel that Reboot is missing some tricks: no cycling(on grounds of Health & Safety, which don’t impede almost every other boot camp in England), no pool sessions, no sauna or hot tub, and no hikes on that glorious Unesco World Heritage Site nearby, The Jurassic Coastline( no time for that, it seems). Well, I would much rather have started earlier than 7.30am, had dinner one hour later at 7.15pm, skipped the whole javelin, discus, shot put and relay racing bit, which was distinctly underwhelming – even the TRX resistance bands, too – and made sure to include the joyous off-site variety of some cycling, coastal hiking and acqua aerobics. Especially, moreover, since all these events are available on Reboot’s doorstep anyway. When Apples & Pears is in Dorset, it does all three.
My final point would be this: what is Mark’s rationale for preferring a 4 night boot camp, when virtually everyone else runs theirs over 7 nights? Well, he claims that after exercising over five days, the body must have two days of rest. This, of course, is generally not happening anywhere else. So does this consequently mean that the rest of England’s equally highly-qualified bootcamp trainers are, to a man, all getting their training wrong? Rather unlikely, wouldn’t you say? In actual fact, at the top camps – and I’ve experienced it many times over – modified ‘ Periodised Training Programmes ‘ are created to allow your body that vital downtime to rest, heal and grow , precisely so that you can exercise over seven days in perfect safety. So I don’t buy at all Mark’s line that anything more than a 5 day Monday to Friday is all wrong for your body. However, I do notice that Monday-Friday venue rental costs, known as midweek rates, are considerably cheaper than full-week rates, which involve an expensive weekend premium. I really do hope that sort of monetary calculation has nothing to do with Reboot’s opting for only the 5 days - but it is quite hard to avoid the lingering suspicion that it might do.
How to sum up Reboot? Well, I would not say it ’s ” perfected ” just yet – more a work in progress still. But if Reboot does go on to make further changes for the better – beyond promptly changing its venue and pricing structure – I will happily re-write sections of this review. Should you go there? Well, if it’s your very first boot camp, and you really want to be sure to lose half a stone and drop that dress size, I would opt for a full one week camp. If, however, time is very tight or you feel the need for a top-up, then Reboot is ideal for you.
Accommodation: Set in the West Dorset village of Charmouth, Stonebarrow Manor is a functional, modernised venue with a three-star feel to it, but not without some charm – like an open fire – and wi-fi throughout.
Capacity: 24. Mixed M/F.
Duration: 4nts. (1pm Monday – Friday 1pm).
Cost: Single e/s £795 & basic £695. Sharing e/s £695 & basic £595. Discounts Jan-March.
Price includes: All food, lodging & activities which typically include gym-style work-outs plus high intensity interval training, strength training, boxing, military tasking, javelin, discus, shot put, relay racing, 3 Nutrition Workshops, 3 Mind Coaching Seminars, 3 Relaxation Sessions, Gala Dinner on final night, email link to camp photos & 3 months of after-care.
Evening Events: 3 Relaxation Sessions.Otherwise, it’s pay for a massage or TV in the lounge.
Optional Extras: Massage £50/1hr. Nutritionist/Mind Coach 1:1 £60/1hr. Reboot Hoody(£35), T Shirt(£18), Beeny Hat(£10), DVD of the camp £10. But if you buy a hoody or a T shirt, the DVD is free.
5 STAR RATINGS
LOCATION: ****
ACCOMMODATION: ***
FOOD: ****
STAFF& ACTIVITIES: ***
VALUE FOR MONEY: ***
LIFE CHANGING POTENTIAL: ***
