Fit Brit Vs World Gym Challenge.

Last Sunday (20th June) at Fitness First Fleet, WGC took a film crew and three of the best Gym Athletes in the country to film the difference in levels of fitness between two of the leading gym challenges in the UK today, The World Gym Challenge and Fit Brit.

Richard Vint. Current UK N0 1 Gym Athlete

Jack Bolton.  Current Leading Fit Brit contender

Claire Boyce. Former Ultra FIT contender

Here we look at the balance of things when leading Fit Brit contender experienced what a X Training Gym Challenge, which covers muscular endurance, areobic endurance, anarobic endurance , lactate tolerance and recovery levels on a fairer platform and see how all three performed.

As an introduction to to Gym Challenges Jack, did very well , but as we find out Gym Challenges need that something extra to make them fair and competitive for the Ultimate Gym Athlete

Jack Bolton

Personal Trainer Fitness First Southampton.

20.

Jack, you had an Achilles operation and stopped competitive athletics in the Decathlon and have just really started in Gym Challenges. How did you see the difference between Fit Brit and today's Challenge?

Fit Brit is shorter in places, the row for instance is 500m as opposed to 750 m and the weights are so much harder in WGC. So it’s a tougher course.

What part immediately hit as harder?

The Bike, which is the first event as you are not allowed to do free spinning. And that’s followed by the bench jumps when your legs are already high in lactic acid, so it’s an immediate impact.

Tell me about your clients training for Fit Brit – Do they enjoy it?

Yes, I have seven clients and three of them are training for Fit Brit. One of them started off as 18 min's and are now down to 13 minutes, which I am really happy about. One of my other  female clients is ranked 7th out of the girls at the moment and she finds it very motivating.

I look at Fit Brit as a starting block to X Training. World Gym Challenge is really the next level. Do you think the structure of the World Gym Challenge would interest your clients?

Definitely. In WGC you have the three levels . Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced , I think there is something for everyone . I have clients that would start at the beginning stages and then work on from there, also some Intermediates. A few would have a go at the Advanced, but that is very hard.

As a personal trainer, who works in a gym for a number of years , have you seen these types of challenges in any other gyms?

No, apart from Fit Brit

Do you think there is a slight issue there? I mean a gym challenge in a gym – one might think it’s the best way to train and motivate yourself? Do you think gyms and personal trainers are not embracing this as much as they should?

I know of some personal trainers who don’t like doing this because they don’t like the idea of clients beating them. Gyms, don’t really do it themselves and I couldn't’t really say why. The only thing that really happens in gyms is training for an event like Race for Life. And most of the people who are quite competitive , train for 10 k races or some sort of running or bike event, they don’t really have an alternative.

OK – so what we are saying, is that we train in a gym, but the only way to really test your yourself for the equipment you have been training on  , is to do something that is based outside of a gym?

Basically yes.

Would you like to see more gym challenges taking place in gyms? And what would you say about the WGC today?

Yes , definitely. It would be good for gyms.

The course today was far more challenging then Fit Brit. I will need a rest day for tomorrow ! I will over the next few months break down my training and train for the Ultimate Gym Athlete in September and I think the combination of training for both FIT Brit and UGA will help me in the long run improve my times.

Richard Vint

UK No 1 Gym Athlete based on the UK Gym Fitness Challenge Series 2010.

Richard, give your views on what went on today and Jack’s performance.

I think I saw a little bit of myself  in Jack when I first did a gym challenge, and saw some really impressive times on the row and the bike.  I think looking at it, it looks fairly straight forward and the weights all seem doable from fresh and I think maybe a bit of inexperience,  pushed Jack a bit too hard on these and he consequently suffered a bit on the shoulder after the row. The challenge with these gyms challenges is tailoring it to suit you and be able to pace yourself and that takes a lot of time in the gym and a lot of training. Jack gave  a gutsy performance and I’m sure his times will come down.

From grass root level it will take about three years to achieve Advanced status  or Elite status for the Gym Athlete Leader Board. Do you think the personal trainers and members of gyms are prepared to put the effort to reach that status, for clients and themselves?

It’s possible, but its always going to depend on the base fitness of the person you are training. The bigger the base somebody has got the easier it is to build upon that. It will take perseverance to reach the top levels and and as long as you have set realistic goals ,then  it is possible, as long as you are taking bite size chunks in getting and reaching small goals. The journey you reach at the end, will probably be the fittest you have ever been.

Personal trainers in the world gym challenge, live eat and breathe gym fitness. Do you think they are setting goal posts for other personal trainers to follow?

Yes, I mean you lead by example at the end of the day. Personal trainers that do it, set examples to others to show that it is achievable.  It is not a far off challenge that only the superfit do,  it is a balanced set of goals, that year on year gives you results , no matter what level of fitness you are. It must be hugely rewarding to see personal trainers train their clients and get these sort of results.

It’s important to remember, these challenges are not about being the best of everyone, but being the best that you can be. That does involve pushing yourself harder, but in that – that is where you get the benefits in fitness. It then becomes more interesting for those visits to the gym, because you are basically always training that little bit harder then you did before.

You have only been doing X Training challenges since 2008. As a newcomer into the sport, do you think that by September you may hold the new world record?

I hope so! (Laughs)

Your level of fitness is remarkable. Is it true to say you don’t spend many hours in the gym, rather the intensity you train at is harder, so by cutting down your training time.

I think its about setting goals, as long as you have something to train for, then the motivation will always be there. The training for events will involve weight based interval sessions leading up to the event, and then as we get closer being more specific, which helps stopping any staleness in my training. Mentally it helps you keep focused and physically it shakes your body down a little bit due to the variety of work involved. There is no getting away from the muscular endurance so you will have to train for the 30/60 reps of whatever the event involves, so I tend to cut down on recoveries and then put the exercise together , for whichever event I am training for. There is a key to training for events for example, shoulders following a row, would be different for row then follow by shoulders, so you have to train for that. It’s really about keeping the body in tune for the upcoming event, and to do that you have to train specifically.

Claire Boyce

Claire you were a regular competitor in the Ultra FIT challenges when they were very popular 12 years ago. How do you see the difference now?  And what would you like to see happen for the sport?

It’s more of a friendly atmosphere at the events. Personal trainers and Gym Athletes seem to share information, whereas no one used too. I think the internet and social sites have made this possible with being able to communicate and discuss training programs far more easily – plus search engines and You Tube have made it more or less possible to pick up training methods at a click of a mouse.

As regards to what I would like to see happen, is more people doing it and the message to get out there more. It’s ironic really that on one hand it’s more accessible due to the internet and on the other , all the information is out there, but people still won’t take part. It seems such a waste to be training three of four days a week with no real goal, as opposed to training for something that has measurable results in a gym.

Why do you think gyms are not taking part on masse?

I think they just don’t know about the sport. I don’t think there are enough people high up who run the gyms  that know about  these type of challenges. Years ago, you could talk to one person in a private gym and maybe they would understand the benefits and say that’s a god idea , but now  the person who makes the decisions you don’t see. So in effect, you would see the gym manager , but then, that gym manager has to go and speak with somebody else and sometimes the chain of command is wrapped up in other issues, and so gym challenges get put on the back burner and seems to miss their chance every time it gets suggested in a gym.

How did you feel about your first attempt on the World Gym Challenge today?

I found it all hard , but all ok . I can really only compare it to Brighton where my sit ups were a nightmare, but on this course, there isn’t anything that really stands out for me that says here you can save some time.

The golden question is how can you encourage friends to take part in gym challenges when there is hard work involved?

Friends that look at me doing this are instantly put off because of the intensity It’s a shame because I know they all could, especially as there is different levels. It’s not like anybody couldn’t do it, I mean you don’t need to have specialist skills like a gymnast, which means that literally anybody can do this, but because its hard work , they tend not to.

I think really we look at the key element in X Training and that is looking at the personal trainer. If a personal trainer has a lot of clients doing these challenges and seeing results from them, I think the sport would grow.  Jack Would you agree?

Definitely.  It is our job really to motivate our clients and gym challenges at the right intensity for each client is  a good way of getting results for both client and personal trainer. If I look at today and see this as regular thing at gyms, then yeah. I enjoyed it, it was different  and I think my clients would too – it made 20 minutes hard work into something new and challenging. So for me I will bring the two elements of both Brit Fit and World Gym Challenge to bring my times down.

I would like to see a day where hundreds of people were doing these challenges in gyms, so you could go onto the WGC website and see results that others are doing of a far bigger audience. It’s very motivational to see what times are up there and how you can push yourself. But it’s also good to just train with a goal and see yourself constantly improve. It’s how it was in Decathlon, all the top guys would talk to each other and always a bit of rivalry which is good for any sport.

Richard – How did you enjoy it ?

Er, I didn’t particularly enjoy it (laughs) But then I don’t think you are doing it hard enough if you do. It’s one of those things where it’s a good feeling at the end and there is a good feeling of achieving something that others can’t do. Not many people push themselves beyond the comfort zone. The gym is mainly full of guys that want to look big and strong and women that want to lose weight  and there is small niche of people who want to come to a gym and prove that they are fit – step up into the limelight and really get results and train for these types of challenges. It would be great for the sport if those niche of members competed as a whole and took on others on a far bigger scale so you can get a true reflection of fitness levels in gyms.

Clare?

I enjoy the fact that my fitness levels have improved since Brighton. The feeling of stopping at 1 km on the treadmill and you know its over. And for one day when people ask what is your gym challenge time and immediately know what sort of fitness level you are.

Claire Boyce 17 mins 17 secs

In summary

The last point Claire made about understanding an instantly recogniseable result and being able to understand the significance of a time based result is perhaps World Gym Challenges greatest quality. There can be only one World Gym Challenge for a measure of 'gym-fitness' and for this to happen and it can be in many forms, either by the sport you play (Football, rugby tennis etc) or by the gyms (specific to your gym) or perhaps you are in the forces , police or fire brigade, either way it’s a result based service that celebrates levels of fitness achieved in a gym and any gym in the world can take part.

The question is , does a gym manager want to see a sport for gyms exist and see the benefits for their members? Or can members increas their fitness levels at gyms? Perhaps a little bit of each is needed to get results for both club and member?

At a time not too distant from now the Gym Challenge as we know could evolve into a major industry with gyms competing against one another. A big business opportunity awaits to expose the fresh talent that  is being found in the UK gym , so that people like Richard, Jack and Claire who represent a broad spectrum of fitness levels can be given the opportunity to diversify their training in a gym, and concentrate in getting fitter, by using the personal trainers and gym equipment on hand to get results.

Sean Blyth

World Gym Challenge.com Ltd

Thank you to Image2Studio .com Video Team, George and Gabbi for filming today and watch out for alter episode to be screened on Physique TV at a later date. And thank you to Fitness First Fleet for their cooperation and support in the filming of this challenge.