MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Hut-hup-three-four!" Guy Osborne calls out cadence, and the women push themselves through yet another set of arm exercises — flies with dumbbells, presses with a body bar, curls with dumbbells.

It's not even daylight, not even 6 a.m., and the three women are soaked with sweat. Before they head out for a mile run around a lake, they stop at a bench where they do a set of dips, using their upper arms to lift and lower their bodies.

For a Friday session, the group of four or five women meets Osborne at a high school football stadium so they can incorporate eight to 10 runs up the stadium steps into their routine.

Welcome to boot camp, a program Osborne leads to jump-start a person's fitness level.

"It's designed to get a person ready to go out on their own on some type of physical-fitness regimen," Osborne said. "The most important thing is that they build self-confidence."

Jennifer Spencer, of Strong Body, Strong Mind, also has been conducting boot camps in different locations for the past five years. "It's really like any exercise class, except that it is a little more extreme outside, having to deal with the elements," she said.

After a warm-up, the class does cardiovascular exercises and weightlifting. They'll do running drills, jump-rope work, lunges or squats with barbells.

The participants come at different fitness levels, Spencer said, so she modifies the program for each individual.

Over the past five years, Osborne, the Pawleys Island, S.C., police chief, has led seven boot camps, he estimates.

He begins each boot camp by doing a physical-fitness assessment of each participant. In addition to weighing them and taking body measurements, Osborne has them do sit-ups and push-ups and times how long it takes them to do a certain number of laps on a track.

"The goal of most people initially is to lose some weight," he said. "They come in a little overweight, so I try to stress running and aerobics." Osborne went to the Cooper Institute in Dallas to be certified as a personal trainer, and he was impressed with the concept of getting a full-body workout in an hour to an hour and 15 minutes.

"A lot of people just don't have time to spend a lot of time in a gym," he said.

His says his program emphasizes cardiovascular fitness as well as weight training to tone muscles.

Boot camps usually last four weeks, but he has done a couple of advanced camps, where the group works out with him for another four weeks.

That is the case with the group of women who worked out with him this summer. One of the participants, Gina Olivetti, got a group of friends together who wanted to get in shape.

When the group first began, Osborne said, they had trouble completing a quarter-mile run. Six weeks later, they all finished a four-mile run.

Cathy Elliman said the group looked like ducklings on their first runs. "When we first started, he'd be running and we'd all be behind him, trying to keep up," she said.

Olivetti lost weight and gained strength. She got what she needed out of the program: "I needed a kick in the butt," she said.

Boot camp is intensive, Osborne said. "It whips you into shape."

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Hut-hup-three-four!" Guy Osborne calls out cadence, and the women push themselves through yet another set of arm exercises — flies with dumbbells, presses with a body bar, curls with dumbbells.

It's not even daylight, not even 6 a.m., and the three women are soaked with sweat. Before they head out for a mile run around a lake, they stop at a bench where they do a set of dips, using their upper arms to lift and lower their bodies.

For a Friday session, the group of four or five women meets Osborne at a high school football stadium so they can incorporate eight to 10 runs up the stadium steps into their routine.

Welcome to boot camp, a program Osborne leads to jump-start a person's fitness level.

"It's designed to get a person ready to go out on their own on some type of physical-fitness regimen," Osborne said. "The most important thing is that they build self-confidence."

Jennifer Spencer, of Strong Body, Strong Mind, also has been conducting boot camps in different locations for the past five years. "It's really like any exercise class, except that it is a little more extreme outside, having to deal with the elements," she said.

After a warm-up, the class does cardiovascular exercises and weightlifting. They'll do running drills, jump-rope work, lunges or squats with barbells.

The participants come at different fitness levels, Spencer said, so she modifies the program for each individual.

Over the past five years, Osborne, the Pawleys Island, S.C., police chief, has led seven boot camps, he estimates.

He begins each boot camp by doing a physical-fitness assessment of each participant. In addition to weighing them and taking body measurements, Osborne has them do sit-ups and push-ups and times how long it takes them to do a certain number of laps on a track.

"The goal of most people initially is to lose some weight," he said. "They come in a little overweight, so I try to stress running and aerobics." Osborne went to the Cooper Institute in Dallas to be certified as a personal trainer, and he was impressed with the concept of getting a full-body workout in an hour to an hour and 15 minutes.

"A lot of people just don't have time to spend a lot of time in a gym," he said.

His says his program emphasizes cardiovascular fitness as well as weight training to tone muscles.

Boot camps usually last four weeks, but he has done a couple of advanced camps, where the group works out with him for another four weeks.

That is the case with the group of women who worked out with him this summer. One of the participants, Gina Olivetti, got a group of friends together who wanted to get in shape.

When the group first began, Osborne said, they had trouble completing a quarter-mile run. Six weeks later, they all finished a four-mile run.

Cathy Elliman said the group looked like ducklings on their first runs. "When we first started, he'd be running and we'd all be behind him, trying to keep up," she said.

Olivetti lost weight and gained strength. She got what she needed out of the program: "I needed a kick in the butt," she said.

Boot camp is intensive, Osborne said. "It whips you into shape."