Marked white, teal and black weighted balls slam into the ground. Heavy ropes snake up and down through the air. Running shoes sprint across the floor. Elly Montague, head trainer and certified strength and conditioning specialist at MADabolic, says to the class, "Start with the jumping ball and then around the world."
Corbin Jennings, owner-operator of MADabolic, Inc. says, “A lot of people in the field would call us a boot camp but I take a little offense at this." He explains MADabolic has a specific program and, "we switch it up every day with five different movements designed to work the whole body. Each of our nine locations is doing the same workout on the same day; the two co-founders designed it. Today," Jennings said, "we have the five movements but it is a little different. Once each quarter we have cardio week. We give 100 percent maximum effort. Some other gyms go 100 percent all of the time but this is a good way to wreck the body." He continues that MADabolic has some momentum days where they build up from 80-90 percent and other durability days at 80 percent.
Today's five movements are the jumping ball slam, the slurpee/burpee, ropes gone wild, ultra slide and the run combo. Jennings says, "Our movements use the entire body instead of just focusing on one area. It's a more efficient way to train them. We train people like athletes, one of the more effective ways." Jennings explains there is a lot of misinformation being circulated by gyms out there about training fundamentals, and it can damage people.
Jennings says his MADabolic opened Labor Day in Clarendon and it is the only one in the D.C. metropolitan area. The next closest is in Charlottesville, Va., and a new one is opening in Austin, Texas soon. He said, "We have a whole following already. We pay attention to form." Jennings says the same class is offered all day with the most popular times at 5:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. He adds that the gym is currently open until only 7:30 p.m., but it will be extended to 8:30 p.m. soon. He says that this noontime class of 10 is mostly females and stay-at-home moms. The maximum class size is 20 in order to give people more individual attention.
Montague begins each session with her workout speech and a demo of the proper form for the five movements that have been written on the white board for the day. Then into the warm up. "All right, butt kick. Get those knees up, up, up. Now you have two minutes to test out the weights." Jennings explains that white is the lightest, moving up the scale to teal, gray and finally black, which is the heaviest. Balls are thrown at the floor as each person determines what color feels the most comfortable for the workout. Most line up behind the white or teal. The class is ready to move from the warmup to the 30-minute workout.
Montague moves around the room calling out instructions and timing. Water bottles go up to hydrate as the one-minute time off period begins. Then on to the ultra slide board with power tuck or the jumping ball slam, very cardio and working the whole body again. Sweat drips off the reddened faces of the three clients pumping ropes up and down.
"Now the burpee." Hop, plank, hop back to a low squat, jump back up. Montague walks around the room checking form. Jennings explains, these really are universal terms — "The slurpee has two push ups and the burpee has one; otherwise it is the same."