When it comes to health and fitness, staying motivated is one of time’s oldest excuses. Even with all the right props and best of intentions, we still find ourselves dreading that early morning trip to the gym or after-work run around the neighborhood. The drive it takes to stay in shape and push our bodies beyond what we think is possible, can be an exhausting and at times exasperating endeavor. But before you let the idea of sweat and soreness stress you out, chew on this: exercise doesn’t have to be like work. Ally Davidson is certainly proof of that.


MOTIVATION FOR THE MASSES

A native of Austin, and the recently crowned champ of the hit NBC show American Gladiator, Davidson is like a walking advertisement for how fun fitness can be. With her boundless optimism, “can-do” attitude and contagious spirit, she’s motivation personified.

At just 25, she’s unstoppable and unpredictable — from auditioning for American Gladiator on her wedding day and later winning the entire competition, to starting Camp Gladiator, one of the fastest growing boot camps in Texas. Willing to take chances and follow her gut, Davidson saw the opportunity to use her fame for good; by attempting to make changes to the way health and fitness was delivered to the masses.

“I quit my job after American Gladiator,” she says. “I thought, ‘I’ve just got to do something with this experience.’ I had been to other boot camps in the past and I knew I could do it. I quit my job a couple of days before the finale aired, and six weeks later we had our first location set up. It’s definitely been a blessing.”

The truth is, motivation probably comes easier for Davidson than most. She’s always been a gifted athlete and lived an active lifestyle, playing multiple sports in grade school and receiving a basketball scholarship in college. In fact, she met her husband, Jeff, at a UT basketball camp the summer before college. Jeff was a coach, five years her senior, but as Davidson recently explained in an interview with the Austin-American Statesman, their infatuation defied any difference in age. They dated long-distance for a year before she returned to Texas State for school.

“Pretty much I married my coach,” she told the Statesman. In fact, the nuptials took place just hours after the audition that changed her life.

“I literally tried out for American Gladiator on the day of my wedding,” she explains. “My sister, who was also my maid of honor, asked me the night before the ceremony if I wanted to do one last crazy thing before I got married. She said American Gladiator was having an opening casting call. When we got to the tryout the next morning, there were about 2,000 people in line. All my bridesmaids, brothers and sisters were with me, with poster boards. They ran up to the front screaming, ‘You’ve got to let her cut! She’s got to get her wedding!’”

Needless to say, Davidson’s last-minute decision to battle Crush and brave the Travelator has more than paid off. With her win, she became an overnight sensation and her career was propelled into an entirely new direction. Winning American Gladiator not only made her a household name, it gave her the motivation and legitimacy to be a real fitness leader.


CREATING CONTENDERS

Starting your own business is a fearless enterprise; however, running a boot camp in multiple cities is an arguably more daunting task. But that’s exactly what Davidson and her husband are about to do, as they expand their growing fitness venture — Camp Gladiator — into Austin this month.

Applying the same attributes that make her such a natural athlete — intensity, speed, determination, perseverance and focus — Davidson is charging into the Austin market just like she did each week on the American Gladiator obstacle course. This time, the real challenge will be learning to balance her role as a successful businesswoman with the demands of being an inspirational coach.

“I’m going to be here in Austin running all the camps,” she says. “My full-time job is promoting, doing workouts and talking to people. The next step is to get Camp Gladiator Austin off the ground. My husband likes to say, ‘We either have to get bigger or we have to get smaller.’ We’re so busy we can’t stay where we are because we’ll drive ourselves crazy.”

The goal of Camp Gladiator is to put a twist on the standard “boot camp” moniker; to give group fitness an unmatched level of excitement and competitive spirit. In fact, much like the show that got her started, Davidson’s camps will focus on high-intensity training in short spurts of time. Camp Gladiator contenders will push themselves harder and faster than they’re used to, but hopefully not notice the pain because they’re having so much fun.

“I think that in order to be successful, every boot camp has to have a theme,” Davidson explains. “I try to set up a competitive atmosphere where people can also have fun.”

Not to mention no two Gladiator workouts are ever the same.

One day participants will do jumping jacks and run an obstacle course, the next day they might end with a tug-of-war.

“We do a lot of team competitions — relay races, obstacle courses, cat-and-mouse and five-ball soccer,” Davidson says. “It keeps things fun, but it also makes people stronger and faster.”

And Camp Gladiator is open to anyone who wants to compete — whether it’s a triathlete looking to improve his race times or an elderly woman just trying to stay in shape.

Case in point: 71-year-old Dallas member Barbara Coffey, who was searching for an outdoor fitness program when she saw Davidson’s Camp Gladiator ad in The Dallas Morning News.

“I was 71 when I started in October — now I’m 68,” Coffey says.

After seeing Davidson and her husband compete on the show, Coffey decided to give the camp a shot. She now attends five days a week, and believes there’s no problem that can’t be solved with exercise.


QUESTION AND ANSWER

WHAT HELPED MOTIVATE YOU THROUGH THE AMERICAN GLADIATOR COMPETITION?
The fear of being humiliated on national television. My husband and I are very competitive. When you get in that type of situation, you just want to do your best and not lose. My whole family got to come too, which meant our own section of the audience was cheering us on, so that was really motivating.

HOW DOES THE SHOW WORK?
The show’s process usually entails doing one event a day. All the contenders wait in the locker room — which could be for up to eight hours — and then they call your name. Then you have to get warm, basically by doing jumping jacks and high knees in a five-by-five foot square. Then you go out with no practice. It was nerves like I’ve never experienced before: like a horrible feeling in your stomach for four weeks.

WHAT WAS THE MOST CHALLENGING PART?
It was emotionally exhausting. You don’t know what event you’re going to do, and you don’t have time to practice it. Every day is like a different experience. When you see us running through the obstacle course — that is our first time to do it.

WHAT WAS THE MOST EMOTIONALLY WRENCHING PART?
Watching my husband go was horrible, but his eliminator was good TV. He took a rope swing, which was on a mechanical descender, really fast, and it sent him into a metal scaffolding above the platform. He hit it and got knocked off the course. It gave him a concussion, cracked ribs and a bloody face. He climbed back on the course and passed the other contender. Jeff jumped on the zip line backwards and eventually fell off the balance beam because he was so dizzy.

WHAT WAS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE CHALLENGE?
I would pair my least favorite with the scariest. It would have to be the pyramid, because people get hurt on that all the time. I was thinking to myself, “I’ve made it this far, and if I get hurt on this stupid pyramid, I’m going to be so upset.” I had to go up against Crush. It’s so dangerous because she is a professional cage fighter. Trying to run up the pyramid and pass her when you don’t have any footing or traction and sinking in — it’s like running up a pole vault mat.

WHICH OF THE GLADIATORS WAS THE MOST INTIMIDATING?
Crush was intimidating. A lot of people think the bigger girls, like Helga, are intimidating. For me, I’d rather go up against Helga any day, because I’m faster than her. She could never touch me. But Crush is fast and athletic. When she’s going to get you, she’s going to get you good.

IF YOU CAME BACK AS A GLADIATOR ON THE SHOW, WHAT WOULD YOUR NAME BE?
My husband thought of it actually: “Chaos.” I guess because I’m chaotic.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU ON A DAILY BASIS, AND HOW DOES THAT HELP YOU INSPIRE THE UNINSPIRED?
Seeing that you can make a difference in someone’s life and motivate them is a big factor. Boot camp is a lot of hard work and long hours, but it’s the most rewarding job. People will lose weight or beat their obstacle course time. My inspiration is to see other people achieve their goals. It makes me want to work my hardest.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO TO STAY FIT BESIDES YOUR BOOT CAMP?
It’s funny, because now that I run a boot camp I don’t have time to work out anymore. For my own workouts, I like to do the same kind of things we do at boot camp. I would describe my workouts as high intensity, short duration exercises where I’m giving 100 percent of my maximum effort. Instead of just going for a jog around the block, we’re on the line doing shuttle runs, like in soccer or basketball practice.

YOU’VE MENTIONED A LOT ABOUT YOUR FAMILY IN PAST INTERVIEWS AND DURING THE SHOW. WHAT KIND OF ROLE DO THEY PLAY IN YOUR LIFE?
My family is definitely the biggest motivation in my life. My parents always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted. My entire family took weeks off of work and school, to fly out to Los Angeles and watch me on the show.

About four years ago, I was injured in a snow skiing accident. I fractured two vertebrae and luckily it didn’t interfere with my spinal cord. I was home rehabbing for the whole summer. You realize that your life could really be taken at any moment. It was a great wake up call for me, because before that I never slowed down and had quality time with my family. I became very close to them and grew a lot closer to God in my spiritual walk, too. After I hit that tree, I said to myself, “I know I’m seriously hurt, but thank the Lord I’m alive.”

WHAT IS A TYPICAL WORKOUT AT CAMP GLADIATOR LIKE?
It’s kind of fun to spread everyone out and do the warm-up together. We do “I-love-Camp-Gladiator” jumping jacks. The whole neighborhood can hear us. The workout session is a full-body workout. People get competitive with the short duration, high intensity workouts; I don’t necessarily have to be yelling at them to get them motivated. They push themselves, which is awesome. We do core work, multiple types of squats, lunges and jumps. Most of the time you use your own body weight, but sometimes we use sandbags, dumbbells and cones. No two workouts are the same.
It’s always a learning process at boot camp.

YOU SAID YOU DON’T HAVE AN IDEAL SORT OF CUSTOMER, BECAUSE PEOPLE OF ALL FITNESS LEVELS ARE WELCOME. DO YOU DO HAVE A CERTAIN AGE-GROUP OR BODY-TYPE CAMP?
We do more timed events. What I say is that everyone goes at his or her own pace: you are in control of how fast you go and how hard you push yourself. It’s very different from other boot camps because of the way the workouts are run. No one holds anyone back, and the top people in the class are challenged as well. We literally have every type of person in boot camp. In my evening class in Dallas we have everyone from people who run marathons every weekend and are in peak condition to a 71-year-old grandma in attendance. It is for all fitness levels.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PLANS TO START ANOTHER KIND OF CAMP.
Our ultimate goal is to open up a Christian sports overnight camp for kids. This summer, we’re starting a kids’ day camp: Camp Gladiator Kids. It’s going to be in northwest Austin at Town and Country Optimist Club. It will be like the games we do at the adult camps — but all day long, and they will do team competitions. The theme is still Gladiator, so kids will climb the rock wall, inflatable cargo nets and participate in tug of war games. On the last day we will set up a big obstacle course and they will run in front of their parents and friends. Most kids’ camps are sports-specific. This is more of an adventure camp: one that is open to all kids, athletic or not.