When Coach Steve Rainbolt started his Shocker Fitness program, he had a few goals: Help Wichitans get in shape. Create a community out of his participants.
And get to use a megaphone.
On the first day of the program in September 2008, 67 people met “Coach Bolt” in the cool pre-dawn air at Cessna Stadium, wondering what to expect from “Shocker Fitness with Coach Bolt.” Last summer, more than 400 were coming at three different times of day. “At 5:30 a.m. I had 225 people out there, and a megaphone helped me a lot,” Rainbolt says. This winter, the number is still more than 200 for all sessions combined.
Shocker Fitness is Rainbolt’s version of the hot boot-camp exercise programs springing up everywhere. There’s usually no special equipment, just space for walking, running, and exercises you may not have done since P.E. class.
They meet three days a week, with sessions at 5:30 and 7 a.m., and 5:45 p.m. The group’s workout facility is WSU’s Cessna Stadium (or the Koch Arena practice gym when the weather’s bad), where they hit the track, run the stadium steps, do pushups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, lunges, planks and anything else Coach throws at them. Participants are urged to go at their own pace, but challenge themselves, too.
Sure, you could do all that at home. But you wouldn’t have the guidance and motivation of Coach Bolt. The coach, who heads WSU’s track and field program, is himself a huge part of the appeal of Shocker Fitness. You could say he’s inspired a Cult of Bolt.
“We have a lot of people who were there on Sept. 15, 2008, and have never missed a day,” he says.
Ask Rainbolt why they keep coming back, and he says it’s the group. People develop a sense of accountability—not to him, but to others in the program, who take notice when someone takes a day off.
“People will be looking for you at Shocker Fitness and they’ll say ‘Hey, we missed you on Friday.’ You get to know people and create a community of friends, and it’s sort of like going to practice. It’s the closest thing in midlife that you can relate to being part of a team,” he says.
It’s a format that seems to appeal to professional women and moms in their 30s and 40s, Rainbolt says. Many will come to get in an early workout before the kids are up, or before the workday begins. A lot of women have also told him how they used to meet with a neighborhood friend to go for walks, but it didn’t quite deliver what they needed. “It’s appealing to do something more strenuous, and to be directed by someone who knows what they’re doing. Then you’re able to get a good workout.”
Rainbolt knows what he’s doing all right. He’s been head of Shocker track and field since 2000, and he coached at Kent State and the University of Nebraska before that. At WSU, his teams have produced 15 All-Americans and 53 NCAA qualifiers, and they’ve had nine Missouri Valley Conference championship teams. Rainbolt himself participated in the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials in decathlon, and served as a staff member at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., for the junior Elite Decathlon Training staff in 1991-93 and 1998.
Despite his long-running experience with top college and world-class athletes, Rainbolt says he wanted to do something for the community that would be accessible and reasonably priced. He was inspired by the Dog Days Fitness program in Lawrence, headed by Don “Red Dog” Gardner. Originally conceived as a summer training program for high school athletes, Dog Days was probably one of the first boot-camp-style fitness programs opened to the public.
Even though it’s called a boot-camp, Rainbolt doesn’t come off like a drill sergeant. He’s authoritative, not abusive. But he discovered some newcomers were still intimidated by the concept. So he keeps the mood light.
“A major principle that I say over and over to people in Shocker Fitness is, if you want to remain youthful, do what the youth do, and that’s running fast. The youth play, they run hard after a Frisbee, and then stop and do something else. I try to give it a playful attitude,” he says.
One thing Rainbolt hears over and over: “I hate to run.” That’s why he doesn’t set his charges out on 3-mile runs. They do interval training or even run relays—ways to provide the short bursts of intensity that are best for burning fat.
Rainbolt says he also sets Shocker Fitness apart from the pack by fostering a community among the participants, and using their numbers to do good for the community at large. Each session they ask members to donate to a cause—school supplies in summer, turkeys in fall, toys for Wichita Children’s Home at Christmas. “One of my motivations is to create a sense of belonging.”
