Super Saturday Events

Speaking with Troy Dureh, the event coordinator and creator of Fight Klub and Super Saturdays I was pleased with introducing GymXTC® to their eventful day.

Super Saturdays is a master class of dance , aerobic fitness, boxing , mainly to the tune of some upbeat music to suit the mood of the day. So the opportunity to break the day down with Gym X Training Challenge and introduce Gym Sport to the complete novice was a bit of a challenge in itself, but finding a balance is something that we do ...

Due to the set up in the gym it was a day of Time Trials and not races.

10 minute Challenge / 15 minute Challenge

What would normally be considered by many in the Gym Cross Training World was not really an option. What is the point of introducing the sport to somebody who has never trained this way to be subjected to something that they will have no idea about . So how about giving them an option to try something for around 10 minutes ? That was the plan ...

The 10 minute Circuit was created so that anybody can have an idea about what sort of time span, the circuit will take. This is crucial to getting people to try it. Anything beyond ten minutes will start sending alarm bells and would possibly put people off of trying it. So ten minutes is the first hurdle to try and beat.

Before we set off, I had asked those who were trying it for the first time (Male) if they had ever Bench Pressed 40 kg. They tried it and it was there that it became apparent that the majority of the day would be at Bench 30 kg - Its a good starting point

The 15 minute Circuit was only attempted by those who had experience in racing which ended up being Tracy Davies and myself. It was about exactly right for an Advanced Intermediate (sub 15 ) and And Advanced Elite would come in around sub 12 .

The Gym X Training Circuit ..

Bike/ 1.5 km - A Matrix which at events is traditionally quite a beast to tame. With 20 levels, the marker point was set at level 10 for the Male and level 8 for the female. This saw some tired legs just after the very first discipline and once completed, you knew you were in for something that you had not experienced before.

Alternate Squat Thrusts 50 (25 each leg) So having just completed the Bike the AST came into action. Form wasn't great tbh by most but lets remember the total novice needs some slack and gentle words of encouragement and some guide lines were murmured, but on the whole , yes they were completed without any real difficulty.

Row 500 m. Probably be fair to say the row was the hardest part of the journey so far and at just 500 m a lot of people will find that hard to believe, but lets remember that those that are not used to this type of training they are just about halfway through and it must be quite hard for them. Nice to see James Pether at one stage pulling at a 1.36 / 500 m split and he ended up with the fastest row.

Step Ups 50 x 2 x 10 kg Male / 50 x 2 x 8 kg Female. So we turned up on the day and couldn't find the 8 kg Kettlebell and just have enough time to search for it, so we allowed the 7.5 kg to be used and allowed results to stay unchanged. I would say the reaction from those taking part in this challenge was they all said the Step Ups was the changing point, that's when hard went into extremely hard and challenging. Again there are those who train Gym XT and Step Ups are a bit of a recovery in places, but to the complete Novice, these come as bit of a void changer - stepping into the unknown. On top of that the box we were using to step up onto was probably at around 16 inches high, slightly higher then the normal 5 risers.

Bench Press 30 x 30 kg Male / 30 x 15 kg Female. As a whole I was pleased with the standard of the Bench Press. As a hardened Judge I would be say the majority of the reps were just about on point with some good depth and tempo. Occasionally the odd rep went by that was let go - but as a rule , first timers coming into play and the body now heavily peppered with fatigue in all known joints and muscles, the reps were sound.

CTF Burpees 8. Yes just 8 ! In fact 8 is hardly a number at all ..right ? .... Wrong ! CTF Burpees when placed in a circuit are pretty boring to watch - can you imagine watching somebody do 100 ? ... 50 even ..? Just boredom. But between 10 and eight, with a round 30 to 40 second burst of energy to sap you just before the shoulder press, then 8 to 10 reps is all that is needed.

Shoulder Press 20 x 20 kg Male / 20 x 10 kg Female . The final station. A lot of people were happy to reach the final push .. The Shoulder Press and this exercise is the most deceiving of them all, because 20 kg or 10 kg is just not a heavy weight is it? But then that is taking from the point of view of somebody who is looking at it on paper. And 20 kg / 10 kg is not when its singularly a dormant object, but having completed the 6 disciplines before hand - then this changes the dynamics of endurance entirely. Lactic very quickly builds up in the body and the reps in some cases can be a nightmare and this is how we train, to try and lessen the build up of lactic and let the body cope and flow.

Results ...

Male Intermediate

Female Intermediate

Acknowledgements ...

To all those who took part. The event went in blind, not knowing who was going to compete or what sort of level of fitness they were at. What I found was a complete range of athletes who were keen to try something that they had never tried before, not trained for, but had a sense of curiosity to find out just what Gym Sport was all about. I thank you all for trying this sport and hope you enjoyed the experience.

Troy Dureh

Fight Klub Head Coach and inspiration behind the Fight Klub Movement in the UK.

Marriotts Sports Centre

Thank you to Marriotts Sports Centre (Jay and April Drackford) in Stevenage. The first club in the UK to introduce Gym Sports to their members and begin the journey of transforming gym members into Gym Athletes.

Tracy Davies

UK No1 Female Gym Athlete Tracy popped down to help assist in the running of the day. Not only did she compete, but also took results judged and offered encouragement through out the day. Tracy has been a superb ambassador for WGC and to have somebody support the action of Gym Sport and aim to see it grow, is essential to the core path of our action plan - introduce the sport on a national platform.

Jill Bellingham

My partner in this endeavour who again entered all the results from scratch and had an immensely tiring day to make sure all the admin was kept on point and the day ran as best at it could.

Gym Sport

In the modern day everything is app driven. An app for this an app for that. But what is not app driven is sport. The actual nature of taking part in physical activity and that is focused purely in a gym. Sport is not app driven - Gym Sport is not app driven. You do this at your gym - in your time and you train for it at your level of fitness.

www.worldgymchallenge.com is the platform of which Gym Sport was created. We continue the drive to encourage Gym Sport in all gyms and welcome any gym in the UK to take part also.

If your gym would like to run an event for its members, then please do get in contact info@worldgymchallenenge.com