“A gym without a ‘Cross Training Gym Challenge’ is a bit like a football stadium ? but all the football players do is train in it and never play football matches?

Would you agree or disagree with this statement?

The team at Fitness First Rochdale did X Training proud last Saturday.

If you would like to say thank you, or just post a comment on the day please feel free to do so.

It is with regret that I have to inform you that WGC has failed to unite all of the Organisers in the sport of X Training under a common WGC prefix.

Those events that have chosen will remain Independent will continue to run via other outlets and WGC wishes them every success.

World Gym Challenge.com ultimate aim has always been to increase participation levels in X Training and expand the ‘Gym- Fit’ database in the process.

WGC primary role is to publish the times of the gymathletes who join the site for X Training events they enter and publish reports from those events. It will now be the responsibility of the Organiser of each event that is unassociated with WGC to ensure that details are on hand for split times at the event - or by the competitor making notes of their splits at events. WGC will only turn up to events that it is invited to by the event organisers.

The Hall of Fame initiative was also introduced to bring to the attention those that win the events and set course records for other gyms to try and beat - it is after all a World Gym Challenge and other gyms form around the world could try and beat those names that go into the Hall of Fame if they wished. Only those events that have a World Gym Challenge prefix will enter the Hall of Fame and all events that are now indpendent have been withdrawn from the database.

X Trainer of the Year will have to be reviewed too - two of the nominees have decided to withdraw support for and it would be inappropriate for these names to remain in the running.

WGC acted in good faith to promote the sport of X Training and has published over the last three years results, photography, interviews, final results, split times and a regular news update on the events that have occurred. It has also been a central focus point on publishing entry details and race plans, but it’s main aim has always been to increase particiaption in the sport and develop ‘grass root growth’

Earlier this year WGC had a meeting with Sport England to further those goals. Certain conditions have to be met by Sport England in order for the sport to gain recognition and remaining as a group independent events is never going to achieve those goals.

Members may if they choose create their own version of any challenge in the world by entering create your own challenge feature on the wgc web site - this will also give you the added bonus of seeing if you are getting faster or slower on the lead up to an event and publish your result in much the same way as normal - the only difference is youhave to get this verified now.

The future plans of WGC are to remain focused on X Training becoming a recognised sport. The development of ‘the orbital’ as an arena for X Training and increase in participation of the ‘Gym - Fit’ database - which was the first databse to recognise the importance of the time it takes an athlete to complete a challenge in and the differentials in disciplines- so others could easily find the times to beat and give personal folders of events entered and a training program - in the sport of X Training.

These decisions have not been taken lightly but for the sport to mature, gain structure and get recognition the X Trainer of tomorrowhas to accept that there is a need to organise the sport today,so that events are well balanced, structured and have a common focus in promoting the gymathlete at all levels, so that the sport can evolve.

Working with charity and phased in gym challenges over a fixed period of time will be WGC’s priority to gather strength in numberrs of the sport and a article will appear shortly on WGC latest News of it’s plans.

In the meantime I would personally like to wish every single X Trainer who has supported me and wished me well via emails and small chats at events - my utmost thanks and I will continue with a small number of experienced professionals continue the fight for recognition.

Your constructive views as always are most welcome.

At the end of the month the organisers of the Grand Prix are going to decide if they wish to continue running X Training as in dependant events or unite them under a WGC prefix. An email went out to all of the organisers involved in the Grand Prix at the beginning of the month to unite the sport and create The Hall of Fame.

The concept is quite simple - Winners of each event set course records and their name then goes into the WGC Hall of Fame. Those times are published and others from around the world would try to beat them.

The reason for this is so that Sport England can see a united front on the X Training scene and that course records are established.

• Rankings would be unaffected for all other websites as each final result is published after the event.
• Splits would be availiable for full members.
• Each event would continue in the same format as expressed by the organisers.

Current organisers are free to choose if they wish to have the WGC prefix for an event, choose another outlet or remain independant.

The people who do this sport are without doubt the most important element of the sport and WGC would like to hear your views on this very important issue please contact info@worldgymchallenge.com

For the X Training to grow it has to have direction and structure. WGC wishes to expand on this and anybody is welcome to add their ideas or views.

Thank you to Will Whitmore for his recent comments on the dbmax website.

Due to recent remarks worldgymchallenge.com will not be covering events at the Grand Prix or International events unless invited to do so by the Organisers.

All the organisers have been contacted and have till the end of the month to either agree or walk away from World Gym Challenge

Gymxtc will remain as the focus point for the Gym Fit Challenge  Database

The new Hall of Fame initiative (soon to be introduced)  will carry the World Gym Challenge.logo and any Gym Challenge is welcome to take part in it. Any winner of these events in both Master and Open level for both Male and Female will be listed on a seperate page of the WGC website and be a platform to promote the incredible athletes that compete in X Training.

It is obvious that recent remarks have indicated that certain issues have to be addressed.
 

WGC would like to thank those that have publically supported its aims and ambitions and will continue to promote the incredible sport of X Training and the athletes who take part in it by those that wish to see the sport of X Training reach maximum potential in the future.

On another not if you would like to send a one line quote from the recent Ironman, Gym Iromman., Indoor Ironman - SEXI event! I would like to add it to the latest news section and if I have a picture of you - will publish that too contact sean@worldgymchallenge.com  

Regards

Sean

A prominent university was contacted today to see if they would be interested in setting up and running the WGC Challenge. The gym is very busy, but  has ideal age groups and sporty students to take part in events - or set up their own, so it will be interesting to see if this idea develops. The University X Training Challenge !

 A leading very fit celebrity was written too to see if she/he would like to take part part in the next event - The Dale Destroyer, which will be raising funds for the British  Heart Foundation.

A leading Magazine was contacted with details about The Indoor Ironman and hopefully something will be in the press soon about it.

The need to get X Training into the public yes has certainly brought out a level of debate in recent forum articles.  So with that in mind - a diary will go into the Blog Page - giving up to date information on the attempts to get X raining into gyms and promote the athletes who take part.

Another year over for the Indoor Ironman and what an event it was ! Report to follow on WGC latest News.

If you would like to add a comment on this amazing day please feel free!

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?

I do enjoy the latest series of Gladiators - but I find myself recording it , then just watching the eliminator race. Maybe it’s because it’s the closest thing on tv that mirrors a great X Training race  -  simialr to say Andy Lett’s and Ben Stroud at Fitness Xtreme. 

I think that tells me there is a future for tv with X Training