Last month, Karen Morgan — full-time volleyball director at St. John’s School in Houston, Texas — debuted the city’s latest community fitness offering, BK Bootcamp.
After looking around this past summer at Houston’s LGBTQ scene, Morgan noticed that the community was lacking an engaging fitness element.
“We have this one neighborhood, and it’s based solely around bars and restaurants and all of that,” Morgan told Houstonia. “You have these young LGBTQ people only going to bars — what happens when you get a family? What happens when you can’t drink anymore?”
Together with her wife Brittney, Morgan began working to bring a healthier alternative to Houston.
“Let’s get that health piece in there, that’s what we really want to bring,” she said. “I think that’s what’s going to bring people together.”
The new BK Bootcamp is centrally located at Eleanor Tinsley Park in the downtown area, and the workouts are structures on what Morgan calls the “tri-15 theory,” wherein participants alternate between cardio and strength training for an hour and a half, broken up by two rest periods.
Participants split into separate groups to run through 15-minutes sessions, with Karen leading the strength-training routings and Brittney presiding over cardio.
According to the Morgan, the bootcamps are open to anyone, and participants can form groups based on skill level to eliminate any element of intimidation.
The couple’s main goal is that regular participants will leave their bootcamp with an arsenal of exercises they can employ on their own to keep working throughout the week.
Said Morgan, “We provide pretty much everything else that [you] need — water, everything — just show up and have a good time.”
