Winner of the Gorton Grueller Richard Vint talks exclusively to the UKGCA

How do you feel with this seasons progress?

I'm pleased with the progress of this season, and feel that I've made some good strides over the last year.  I still recognise areas for improvement, especially around the area of lactic tolerance, but have begun to address this in my recent training, which has really helped.
 
The GG is very hard – How did you prepare for it?

The GG is particularly hard because it is so shoulder orientated (particularly the anterior deltoids).  I knew I would struggle with the shoulder press after the fatigue of the other excercises and would only overcome this by being specific and simulating competition conditions.  As a result I adapted my training by moving away from strength work towards strength endurance and lactic tolerance by lowering the weight, increasing the reps and lowering the recovery times in a circuit style session, mimicing as closely as possible the order of the exercises in the competition.  Being in a busy gym, however, I was not able to do this training as much as I would have liked, but the improvements were noticeable all the same.
 
Only two seconds off the record ! How would you compare that to any other record?

The record Ben set was extremely tough and I knew it would be a real challenge to beat it.  I can obviously see where I lost time and where I could have made improvements, but then I'm sure Ben can see that in his own time too.  Daniel put in a good effort on the day as well, and I'm sure he will be a contender for it in the future.  Either way it's going to be an achievement to beat it.
 

Any congratulations from the gym you are at? Or any sense of achievement?

Unfortuantely my gym is not aware of these competitions.  There is a great sense of personal achievement though, and friends and family always take an interest with a sense of awe for a sport and demands the most from your body...and then some.
 

What would you like to see happen to the sport?

There are sports that test different aspects of fitness, but no other sport puts them all together in an continual and unrelenting series of events as a test of ultimate fitness.  I think it would be great for the sport to become recognised by an official body so that it can be developed further and exposed to a wider audience.
 

Numbers were low – what could happen to increase numbers?

Sometimes injury and illness come around all at the same time and the GG isn't the kind of event you want to enter when unprepared or running on half a tank, which may be the reason for this year's GG being low on numbers.  It is also not the most attractive event to newcomers for as the name suggests it is pretty gruelling.  Despite the low numbers however, it was still a great event with a really supportive atmosphere.  I think exposing the sport is the answer to attracting newcomers, and possibly encouraging gyms and personal trainers into incorporating circuit training to give people a flavour for the sport.
 

In terms of fitness – you have developed massively due to X Training – would you agree ?

X-training has brought another element to my training and has definitely helped my overall fitness, especially in terms of strength endurance and lactic tolerance.  Competition specific training is tough but as the slogan in my old university gym in America said, "the more you sweat in training the less you bleed in battle".  I don't necessarily agree with this, but at least you bleed in a faster time.