Bikini body boot camp

You hear it all the time: If an exercise plan isn't fun, you won't do it. So, why would anyone willingly enlist in a boot-camp program, when the first thought it brings to mind is a grueling workout, complete with a wild-eyed drill sergeant barking to drop and give him 20?

Believe it or not, you can do a boot-camp-style program that's as fun as it is effective: In five weeks, you can find yourself getting stronger, slimmer, and sexier - just in time for the coming swimsuit season. That's what 30 of us discovered when Shape recruited a few good women to enlist in Hart's Fitness Camp, a Los Angeles-based boot camp.

Four mornings a week, we rose before the sun did and from 6-7 a.m. we met at a park in the San Fernando Valley.

As we gathered on the dusty blacktop of a basketball court, we noticed assorted locals getting in their morning jogs or power walks and curiously checking out our big, bleary-eyed platoon. Under the direction of camp owner and trainer Robin Hart-Cohen, a former dancer who seemed more like an uplifting, sunny coach than a drill sergeant, our early-morning exhaustion faded pretty quickly. Along with her team of trainers, Hart-Cohen inspired us to move, pump - and sweat.

During our warm-up walk on the first day, we discovered that we all had different goals. "I've got to get a bar-mitzvah body," said Lori, who wanted to look smashing at her son's upcoming celebration. "I just want to feel like I can get up in the morning and exercise without dying!" said Maria, another recruit. Personally, after entering my thirties, a poor diet and sporadic exercise weren't working so well for me - I'd gone up a clothing size and felt sluggish all the time - so enlisting in boot camp was my attempt to get structured, disciplined and refocused on fitness.