And so another year passes and the formidable Gorton Grueller goes down as another gleaming example of what is good about Gym Sports. Over 100 competitors gathered from all over the UK, including Edinburgh and Southern Ireland and as a group represented athletes who love to challenge themselves.

These are the athletes who spend hours in the gym, regularly paying their fees, utilising their time to achieve maximum fitness and trying in the process to complete in one of the hardest gym challenges in the world today.

For those that are just starting out, the Junior and Intermediate course was introduced with some amazing results, with potentially rising stars emerging already.

What is a nice turn up for the books is the continued growth in the Forces taking part - both the Army and Royal Marines had representation today, such is the competitive element involved in pushing yourself as far as you can physically and mentally to achieve maximum results in as short a time as possible.

Science is on our side too, as the trend is now suggesting moderate activity is not enough to encourage and promote a healthy lifestyle - at some point vigorous activity is needed and that is where the growth market for X Training will appear.

You are not born athletes - you achieve physical fitness by two elements only, training and motivation.

Welcome to the world of X Training.

The Dublin Connection.

Flying in especially to compete from Dublin, Southern Ireland, Mark Delaney explains why he is so fascinated with X Training and why he had to travel all the way to Manchester to compete. "Quite simply", he went on to explain" I am the only person at my gym who does this sort of training"

WGC.com takes the stance that in this case - we say you as an individual have discovered something quite unique and they (being the rest of Southern Ireland) have some catching up to do!

The Newbie Connection

Debbie Saniga returns shortly to Melbourne in Australia. What I hear you ask will she miss most about the UK - Yorkshire beef and roast potatoes? The dazzling blue skies! The changing face of british politics? Nope. Hand on heart I think it is fair to say that Debbie will miss X Training. She explained to me ""Since I have started X Training I have never felt so good, never been as fit as I am now - and never felt so motivated when I go to the gym"

Debbie is already phoning gyms in Oz to see if they have ever heard of X Training and surprisingly ..er no! Well good news for Debbie is that she can compete on line for any of these events and keep the connection strong to the sport she has embraced and also in the process keep in contact with her Personal Trainer Lloyd Millichap who started it all for Debbie.

The Personal Trainer Connection.

Step up and be counted those Personal Trainers that go the extra mile for their clients? Well WGC.com would like to introduce you to one for sure, Aidy Cartwright. Setting unprecedented standards in what is good in a Personal Trainer.

Fitness First in Rochdale are without doubt there with one of the best in the business.

In just a few short months Aidy, who was introduced to the sport by Andy Lett, has embraced the sport and introduced it to Rochdale, where the results of yesterday are already apparent.

Mary Eve Mcnerney winning, best performance of the day, Simon Gibert winning the masters Intermediate, Jamie Fraser winning the Open Intermediate, Andy Lett , 3rd in the Open.

The Rochdale club is certainly now firmly fixed in the X Training scene and benefits for members - well don't take our word for it , the results speak for themselves.

The Husband and Wife connection

Few would argue that some of the nicest people you could ever meet on the X Training circuit are Nelson and Amber Anderson , who train out of David Lloyd in Essex. With strong additional training guidance being given to them both by Gary Nicholas of Calso Gym in Kent - Amber and Gary compete regularly throughout the year.

Amber represents that which is good about the sport, training and wanting to push herself as far as she can.

Nelson a former boxer has a job which is so physically demanding that he probably spends as much time working out at work as he does in the gym! His strengths without doubt is his cardio.

Together they train regulary and enjoy the social side of being part of the X Training community.

The Prison Connection

Relative new comer to the scene and making a huge impact already is Ben Stroud, a PTI within the Prison Industry.

Ben has had success in the earlier part of this year and and narrowly missed out on a placing yesterday. The future looks very rosy for Ben and as we believe it X Training is one of the training programs Ben has introduced to some of the inmates and guess what ? They love it