AN INSIGHT INTO FITNESS X

After running my 3rd fitness competition at Fitness First Luton, I am going to give you an insight as to what it’s all about. These sorts of competitions have in the past catered for extreme gym users as well as attracting competitors from other sports including triathlons, rugby and adventure racing to name but a few. These athletes find the multi disciplined skills involved in X Training a more varied challenge and most competitors return annually to compete. The introduction of the Sprint category also catered for those that want to have a taste of X Training and will maybe progress on to Intermediate or Open in a few years time.

      Fitness Xtreme 2008 was held in Luton on 26th April 2008, but the planning of it started months before. As competitors send their entry forms to me I then have got to decide who will race who on the day. Utilising estimated times and past form in previous competitions this will determine the final race day plan. With over one hundred competitors expected to arrive on the day of the competition bringing anxiety and nervous energy with them the judging needs to be as consistent as humanly possible. This means judges of the highest calibre need to be found and then briefed as to how each exercise should be judged. Having an experienced and well drilled team around me on the day is so important and takes some of the pressure off me. Fitness X treme is in it’s third year and the judges that are there on the day have mainly been there at all of these events and by doing so are constantly improving and setting standards in judging which has always been the most crucial element of the day. Occasionally a judge will make an error – but that happens in any sport as in occasionally the athlete will try and cheat or not complete the full range of movement required. The trick is to get the overall balance in favour of the judge and I believe Fitness Xtreme improves each year because of the regular judges and the commitment they show to the sport and this event.

      " Race day comes with a lot of pressure, when you have so many competitors turning up you have very little room for error so everything needs to run like clockwork, this year especially - it did"

The 35 man and woman team that were there made this possible, from a brilliant set of strict judges to timekeepers who  also motivated the competitors all day like it was their first event. Jo Black on the mic feeds information to spectators giving them background details on their profession as well as repetitions completed on each exercise as well as starting races on time.

      The experienced competitors that have competed here before know exactly how tough but fair this competition is and from the feedback we get how enjoyable it is too. Looking back on the day  it ended up a highly charged, enjoyable and rewarding day with great races. Some of the races on paper looked mouth watering and they didn’t disappoint. Each category turned out to be very competitive and some were won by literally seconds.

          If you are a X training virgin and you are intrigued as to what its all about then this competition is a good place to start. It has become one of the most recognised competitions on the X training calendar and on a global scale there are few events in a gym that encompass such passion and drive by competitors,  judges, time keepers, family , friends and management all bonding on a single day to drive forward a sport that although in it’s infancy has a chance to be most rewarding experience any athlete can achieve whilst they train in a gym environment.

"This event at its top level is hard. But when you train in a gym – that is what some people do. By bringing in the Sprint category it reaches out to everybody in a gym and provides a welcome mix of fitness levels"

What I do and this sport does is bring focus to those people who are in a gym and want to try that something different, something that brings diversity to their training and something that I try to improve on each year, so that the hundreds of people who are part of X Training feel they really achieved something at Fitness Xtreme and walk away from Fitness First Luton wanting to return the next year to improve on their times.

On a more personal note I would like to thank all the competitors, all the judges and time keepers all the friends and family – especially those that travelled from all over the UK to compete in this year’s event. I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to welcoming you again to Fitness Xtreme 2009 .

Roll on next year to Fitness Xtreme 2009 - The question is, will you be one of the hundreds of Xtrainers who will take part?