Outdoor bootcamp in Pontypridd since 2017
Fifty minutes at the bandstand in Ynysangharad Park, seven times a week, for up to twenty people of every level with two trainers. Whatever the weather; the first one free.
Monday 6:15am, on the big lawn
Sessions
Seven a week at the bandstand
Fifty minutes in the park for up to twenty people with two trainers: a warm-up lap of the paths, a circuit of kettlebells, bands, sprints and bodyweight at three levels, a partner finisher and a stretch by the river. Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:15am and 7pm, Saturday at 8am.
£7 a session, £60 for ten (use them within three months), or £39 a month unlimited with no contract.
Four weeks
For people who have not exercised in years and do not fancy walking up to a group of twenty: eight sessions over four weeks with other beginners, Monday and Wednesday at 7pm, learning every station slowly, then into the main sessions already knowing people. £35.
£35 for four weeks, eight sessions, starting on the first Monday of the month.
Saturday 9:30am
Forty-five minutes on Saturday morning for children and their grown-ups together: relay races, obstacle courses, partner challenges and games that are secretly a workout, run by Bethan after the 8am bootcamp. £12 for up to two adults and three children.
£12 a family each Saturday, up to two adults and three children aged 5 to 14.
Nine weeks
Nine weeks from walking to running 5k, with Osian: one coached run a week from the bandstand on Tuesday at 6:30pm, two more on your own from the plan, a group that waits for the slowest, and a 5k along the Taff Trail together at the end. £30.
£30 for nine weeks: a coached group run every Tuesday at 6:30pm and the plan for the other two.
£150 for up to twenty people
A bootcamp for a workplace, a club or a group of friends: fifty minutes for up to twenty people of any fitness, built round team challenges rather than individual times, at the bandstand or on your own grass. Lunchtimes, after work or a one-off away-day morning.
£150 a session for up to twenty people, at the park or anywhere within ten miles of Pontypridd.
November to February
From November to February the evening sessions on Monday and Wednesday move into a primary school hall in Trallwn, ten minutes' walk from the park: the same bootcamp on a wooden floor with benches and wall bars, warm, lit and dry. Included in membership and passes.
The same prices as the park: £7, ten for £60, or included in the £39 membership.
The week
After that: Tomorrow at 7pm, the school hall, Trallwn. From November to February, Monday and Wednesday at 7pm are in the school hall in Trallwn.
How we do it
Twenty people, three versions of every exercise, two trainers. The quickest finish first and cheer the rest in; nobody is ever last on their own.
The park in frost, drizzle and June sunshine. Dark winter evenings move into a school hall from November to February; mornings stay outside with head torches.
£7 a go, ten for £60, or £39 a month for as many as you like. No joining fee, no contract, the membership stops with a text.
The four-week starter exists because walking up to a group is hard. You start together, at the same level, and join the main sessions already knowing people.
Dark mornings
The 6:15s stay outside all winter, on the lit stretch of the river path and the lawn by the bandstand. Bring a head torch (a cheap one is fine), wear something bright, and we lend hi-vis to anyone who needs it. Ten minutes in, nobody notices the dark; by February you are watching the sun come up over the hills at the end of the session.
And where the evenings go in winterPrices
£7
Fifty minutes at the bandstand or the winter hall.
£60
£6 a session, used any time within three months.
£39
As many sessions as you like. Stops with a text.
The trainers
Founder and head trainer
Bethan started Ynys Bootcamp in 2017 with eight friends, a bag of cones and a promise to turn up at the bandstand every Monday whatever the weather. She had spent ten years in an office in Cardiff and found the only exercise she ever stuck to was the kind with other people waiting for her. She writes the month's sessions, runs the 6:15s and the family Saturday, and knows the name of everyone who has ever been.
Level 3 personal trainer, outdoor fitness instructor (placeholder), emergency first aid, enhanced DBS for the family sessions (placeholder)
Trainer and run coach
Osian ran cross-country for the county as a teenager, stopped for ten years, and came back to running through Bethan's couch to 5k in 2019. He now runs the evening sessions, the couch to 5k groups and the team bootcamps, and is usually the one at the back of the run making sure nobody is on their own.
Level 3 personal trainer, run leader award (placeholder), emergency first aid
Members
Three years of Monday and Friday 6:15s at the bandstand. I have trained in frost, fog and once a hailstorm, and I have never once regretted getting out of bed. Bethan remembers everyone's kids' names and everyone's bad knee.
Fifty-eight, three stone heavier than I wanted to be, and terrified of looking stupid. The starter was eight of us all as bad as each other. Now I am one of the regulars waving at the new starters.
Could not run for a bus in January. Ran 5k along the Taff Trail in March with Osian at the back telling terrible jokes. Doing the parkrun most Saturdays now.
At the bandstand in the middle of the big lawn in Ynysangharad War Memorial Park. The meeting-point page has a drawn map, the gates and the winter hall.
We train. Under the trees if it is heavy. Lightning, ice on the paths or a red warning cancels, by text an hour before, and the session is credited.
You can, and every station has an easy version, but most beginners prefer the four-week starter, where everyone starts together.
It depends how often you come. The price comparer works it out: roughly, pay as you go for once a week, the ten-pass for once or twice, membership from about six sessions a month.
Just trainers, water and layers, plus a head torch for dark mornings. We bring the kettlebells, bands, mats and spare hi-vis.
To the Saturday family session, yes, with you taking part. The other sessions are for adults, sixteen and over.
Tell us which sessions suit and we reply within the hour between sessions with a time. Come ten minutes early, in trainers and layers, and whoever is leading will show you round and give you the easiest version of everything.
