David Cabral—35-Minute Boot Camps: It Doesn’t Get More Real Than This
Written by: Audrey Perrott, Celebrity Branding Agency
There are a lot of things someone can do in 35 minutes: watch a commercial-free episode of The Biggest Loser; bake a loaf of banana bread; or spend that time with David Cabral of 35-Minute Boot Camps and get an intense and personalized workout filled with lots of sweat and lots of laughter.
“We’re creating a playground. We’re recess. If you look in our windows during a workout, it looks like recess because everybody’s laughing. You hear the word boot camp and think it would be hardcore and intimidating,” he says.
But it’s not and that’s what makes 35-Minute Boot Camps stand out among the rest of the nearly 20 gyms and studios in Hoboken, New Jersey. Cabral leads intense workouts, but ensures they are friendly, safe, and definitely never boring. His philosophy is simple: “The idea is to get real people, real coaches, real opportunities, and a real workout without real intimidation.”
And it’s working.
He started out in a park by the Hudson River with two clients. He’d run to the park carrying a 70 lb. backpack, lead his clients in an intense workout come rain, snow or shine. After six months he had the opportunity to rent 1000 square feet of space but he had bad credit, no loans and no money. He rented the space anyway and despite no air conditioning or heat, people continued to join 35-Minute Boot Camps. Within a year and a half, they were already outgrowing it.
One of his first clients, Dianna, could not walk one block when she first joined. She toughed it out through the wind, rain and snow and within a year completed a 45-mile bike ride. Now, she’s training to be one of his coaches.
“She is my ‘why,’” he says when describing Dianna and the reason he pushes hard to keep growing and coach others to live healthy lifestyles. “I say to anyone who thinks they can’t to look at me or to look at Dianna and I say to them, ‘This is WHO did this, why can’t you?’”
His list of success stories goes on and on. From Eddie, the 65-year old man who ran cross country in his teen years and is getting back into shape after a 30-year hiatus, to Necy, a girl who was scared to lift five pounds due to a back injury and can now carry 25 pounds in each hand, Cabral gets his inspiration from his clients.
“I never would have thought I could ever done this in my life,” he says.
Looking at him now it’s hard to believe that he too was once where many of his clients are today: living an unhealthy lifestyle looking for the road to a better life.
As a shy, skinny kid growing up in Brooklyn, Cabral saw a lot of good things and bad things, he says, and could have easily “run the wrong track.” But a strict upbringing in Catholic school and an all boys military school taught him character, respect, and humility.
“I had a lot of drive and heart in sports but at one point in my life I lost my motivation and gained weight. I couldn’t even get up a flight of stairs,” he says.
The strict upbringing gave him an unstoppable drive and a relentless optimism.
“I was always a high achiever and very patient. I never rushed things because I just knew it was going to come to me and it always did. I was a tough kid and a problem kid but that led me to having a drive. I would listen to a lot of motivational DVDs,” he says.
It was when he first started working at a gym and met a trainer who had successfully started a fitness franchise that he knew it was what he wanted to do. And even though it was not easy, he knew that it in time, he would achieve his goal.
“There’s ups and downs but a consistency of always having a dream and drive with something—I’m good at that. I knew then that at that point in my life it was time to get out there,” he says.
The biggest turning point in his life was when he son, now five years old, was born.
“Everything I do now is for my family. I call my son ‘the kettle bell kid.’ He’s an inspiration. He goes to the studio, climbs up and down the ropes, and participates in the kettle bell class, doing alternating swings,” he laughs.
His son is also inspiring him to start a children’s class at 35-Minute Boot Camps to encourage healthy living at a young age and fight the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. But in order to do that, he wants to make it fun and also different from the other gyms.
“I want to help kids but be different, too. I want to bring the old school playground back. Let’s let you experiment. Let them have adventure. Put up a rope and let them see what they can do. Provide simple stuff to let them let their creativity go,” he says. “I want to promote the experience of something that’s being lost.”
It’s just one of the many classes that Cabral offers at 35-Minute Boot Camps. He’s added a mom’s class, a yoga class, jiu-jitsu and Feldenkrais ATM—a class featuring exercises that emphasize fluidity and ease of movement.
But in the main boot camp class, each day is different, each workout is different and Cabral does that because he believes each person is different.
“I have a tri-athlete and a mom who hasn’t worked out a day in her life having the time of their lives in the same class,” he laughs. “Everybody is different and every technique is different. It’s okay to not be perfect. We’re not in a perfect world. Come and be who you are and the best you can be.”
In his 35-Minute Boot Camp class, Cabral will start off with a simple warm up for mobility training—everything from walking to reaching to stretching. Aside from getting the body ready for a workout, it also helps him assess each person as they start.
From there there’s no telling what he’ll decide to teach next. It can range from jumping jacks, drills, trunk twists, or sometimes he’ll use the floor as his equipment with crunches, flutter kicks and more. He likes to explain the “why” of exercises so his clients can relate them to everyday tasks such as carrying the groceries or picking up a toddler.
“It’s boot camp for real people,” he says. “The people make this their place. It’s their second home. It’s going to help them live their life.”
His optimism is infectious. For a man and business that have succeeded against the odds, Cabral believes, “We will succeed no matter what. That’s the vibe we have at the studio.”
Now occupying 2,500 square feet, Cabral welcomes his 100+ members for each class at the door and makes one request of all of them every single time—no watches, no cell phones, and no clocks. For a business whose name is based on time, he insists that every member focus on their workout, not the numbers. It’s also why they have a no before- or after-pictures policy for all of their clients.
“They think they have to be the dying image of fitness. I don’t care about that. I just want you to be healthy,” he says. “We want you to focus at the task at hand. If you don’t focus you can and will get hurt. We don’t want that.”
He should know. He laughs when he tells the story about the time he wasn’t paying attention during a class exercise on a battle rope and knocked himself in the head with a kettle bell.
“The class was packed. I couldn’t remember my name and I couldn’t feel my jaw for two days. It was one of those funny lessons on how not to do something. It was a good way to tell them if they lost focus you will get hurt,” he laughs.
And Cabral is all about focus. With the growing success of 35-Minute Boot Camps, he’s got his eyes on some new goals. He’s looking to expand his studio space again, write a book in Spanish about healthy living, and join his wife in designing “real workouts for real women.”
“Successful people always have a mission,” he says. And success and a mission are what he wants for each of his clients, too. Recently, one of his clients climbed up Mount Kilimanjaro and held up a 35-Minute Boot Camps t-shirt. Those are the type of pictures he wants on his website, he says, “Pretty pictures of people living life.”
“We’re teaching people how to live again. Boot camp is getting them ready for something and that’s what I’m doing—I’m getting them ready to have life again.”
