Yoga & wellness vacations

What does 'boot camp' mean in yoga speak?

Generally, if you see the words ‘boot camp’ or ‘detox’ when applied to a yoga vacation, you can assume that there will be a healthy dose of wellness served up alongside your yoga. Don’t be fooled by the term ‘boot camp’ though – a yoga boot camp is not a stand-in-a-field-at-dawn-doing-jump-squats boot camp. It’s much gentler, and the term has morphed to mean a lot more where its association with yoga is concerned over recent years. There are more vegetarians, vegans and pescatarians than ever before and more people that are interested in a super-healthy lifestyle, so boot camp where yoga and wellness is concerned means more of a ‘blended retreat’ offering guests a little bit of everything that is important: fabulous nutrition, a light detox, which is more in line with ‘clean’ eating, some therapy-led classes, and some other exercise options – be that yoga, body conditioning or emotional freedom techniques.

Nicola Stone, from our supplier, Yoga Breaks in Spain, explains further:
“I used to work on a wellness retreat out in Spain and it was a six night retreat, but with only three classes of yoga throughout the whole week. I had a lot of people coming on that retreat saying they wished that there was more yoga involved because what they had really wanted was to progress their practice. A wellness retreat on which the teachers aren’t dedicated to yoga won’t help to progress your yoga practice very far because often you’ll have teachers that are Pilates, yoga and personal training practitioners all rolled into one, so they won’t be specialists in one field. Wellness retreats are more of a combination break for relaxation, body conditioning, life coaching, and a bit of nutrition advice – there’s nothing wrong with them at all, but it’s a very different vacation to a yoga vacation.”