‘We’re about to sweat’: What a high-intensity workout with Aliyah Boston looks like
Aliyah Boston walked in at the Orangetheory Fitness gym on Harden Street wearing a green shirt that read “Championship Mindset.”
She and the South Carolina women’s basketball team will tell you they want to win a second-straight national championship this season. They’ll also tell you they don’t want to dwell on last year’s accomplishments.
Like any championship team, success begins with training.
But on this November afternoon, Boston wasn’t working out with her Gamecock teammates.
Boston announced a name, image, likeness partnership with Orangetheory earlier this month. She hosted a first look at her “Shot Clock Aliyah Boston Workout,” which is now live at several Orangetheory locations across the country.
She liked Orangetheory’s focus on empowering women and first heard about the company through her aunt.
“I started doing more research, and I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, this is cool,’ ” she said.
Boston designed the workout that bears her name around different exercises the championship-winning Gamecocks do in the weight room.
Though her counterparts on this day at Orangetheory weren’t training for a national championship season, she had no plans to hold back on them.
“We’re about to sweat,” she said before the workout. “And I don’t think anyone’s ready for it.”
A championship workout
Boston and 18 others left the Orangetheory lobby to enter the dimly lit workout space, complete with treadmills, water rowers, dumbbells and mats. The walls above the treadmills boasted such phrases as “keep burning,” “you’re one of us now” and “leave better than you came.”
Songs like “Wipe Me Down” and “Too Sexy” blared through the speakers. They intensified during the “30-second push” at the end of each round of workouts.
Participants took guidance from their instructor, “Coach Cameron,” while their heart rates and the collective number of calories burned displayed on a big screen to the right of the treadmills.
Boston and her new workout buddies did everything from quick lateral hops to high plank jacks, from squat jumps to deadbugs. Videos demonstrated how to do the exercises, and some of those clips featured Boston.
... 3,600 calories burned.
Raising her training game
After the basketball team’s first official practice in September, Boston listed things she wanted to work on ahead of the season — outside shooting, ball handling, passing and finishing around the rim, among other skills.
Despite her status as the reigning National Player of the Year, she continues to look for ways to add to her arsenal, senior guard Olivia Thompson said.
“When she came in, she was a force,” Thompson said. “Seeing the way that she works and is always constantly working on her game, it’s special, and her hard work pays off.
“She’s going to be a very special player in the WNBA.”
Boston trained with professionals during the offseason as a member of Team USA’s training camp roster.
She immediately noticed the increased pace of play and how consistent the players were in their approach.
“They’re competing. It’s never a play off,” Boston said. “And how physical the game is. I think that’s something that I wish I could take into this year, but I’m just afraid the whistles will get me and now coach (Dawn) Staley’s mad at me for picking up a foul.”
Boston’s approach has a purpose
... 5,000 calories burned.
Boston began her workout at Orangetheory on the treadmills.
The 6-foot-5 senior from the Virgin Islands towered over her workout partners. Her physical gifts continued to show, as a sprint to some was more of a jog for her.
Still, fatigue set in for Boston as she put her all into the session. That level of effort she showed in the workout is consistent with what she shows with the Gamecocks.
Brea Beal — a USC starter with Boston four years running — sees that tenacity up close both in practice and in games.
“You see her miss two layups in a row, she’s got that third one coming back,” Beal said. “That’s the mentality she has, and I think it’s good to rub off on all of us. Whether we’re seniors or freshmen.”
Consistent with Beal’s words, it took the Gamecocks’ 2019 senior class three tries to win a national championship.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the 2020 postseason, ending the 32-1 Gamecocks’ season. Then a last-second miss from Boston in the Final Four the next season sealed the team’s fate.
But she went on a tear her junior season, recording 30 double-doubles and winning National Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Final Four Most Outstanding Player and an array of other accolades.
“She stays the course no matter what’s thrown at her,” Beal said. “Whether she thinks she has a bad game or whatever, she stays in the middle. She doesn’t get too high or too low.”
Training like a champion ... with a champion
... 8,200 calories burned.
Boston kept a focused look on her face during the 65-minute Orangetheory workout. She knew the session would require her all, and that’s what she gave.
Boston alternated between the treadmill, the water rowers and her self-designed exercises while hearing Coach Cameron’s constant-yet-encouraging messages throughout the gym.
“This is the fourth quarter!” he yelled. “This is where you push through!”
Boston ran, jumped, pulled, lifted and sweated her way through as the exercising period came to a close. Though visibly tired, she completed each task.
By the end, as heart rates started to reduce, Coach Cameron guided Boston and the other 18 attendees in a period of stretches.
At last, 11,048 collective calories later, the workout was complete. And at least for a day, her counterparts trained like champions.
“That looked fun, right?” Boston said as she walked out.
