The vibrant fitness industry is forever patting itself on the back and taking heaps of praise for the drive in tackling diabetus, obesity and the general lack of fitness in the UK. On the whole the drive is commendable and without doubt needed but when you take a closer look there is a nasty taste surfacing.
WGC is proud and priviliged to have on its books the best gym challenges in the world competed by the fittest gymathletes in the world. It can say this because it has the times to prove it.
So why is it there isn’t a ‘body‘ that a member of a gym can turn to when he feels that the gym he or she belongs to is not listening to them.
The equipment was supplied and now fitness levels have been achieved. Mission done by the gym I guess - but what now?
Unless there is a recognised sport that can be carried out in a gym, the choice is limited - in fact it’s so limited it doesn’t exist. Or does it ? X Training can be competed at any level of fitness using only the equipment you use in a gym and will gauge levels of fitness between, Beginner, Intermediate, Advamced or Elite all of this on the strength that Sport England saying that they don’t consider X Training to be unique.
Why is it that certain members of gyms are without doubt so incredibly fit, by using the equipment the gym supplied, the member paid to use and have achieved a level of fitnes that can be regarded as the fittest in the Industry - and then the gym they belong to not be interested in their achievements? It’s a bit like playing on football pitches achieving the FA cup the Euopean cup the World cup and the FA saying so what!
If I am understanding this right the FIA represents the clubs, the suppliers and tight media control. Who represents the members’ of gyms? Who by the way the former would not exist without them?
Sport England have stated that certain conditions need to be met before they can recognise X Training as a sport, but without investment into this how can we meet conditions that they after in the first place! And they won’t invest because they don’t see it as a recognised sport!
What is without doubt and without question is that the entire infrastructure is in place for this sport to develop namely the venues, the equipment and the members - speaking of which WGC states publically, the fittest and most dedicated and inspirational gymathletes are in the UK - the rest of the world has to play catch up and the industry should embrace these unique individuals and praise them for the incredible levels of fitness they have achieved.
When it comes to the world champion of this sport saying that the gym he belongs to dosen’t care one bit about what he has achieved - yes it does leave a very bitter taste and the fitness industry should hold it’s head in shame.
So the question remains - who exactly does care?
