Super Teams has finally arrived! I’ve really been looking forward to the event for a while. I’ve never done anything quite like it, so it will be interesting to see what it’s all about and how it works. One of the great things about doing something like this is it does get you out of your comfort zone and for me I really need that. I need to ensure I’m growing and I’m challenging myself.
This is an opportunity to test your fitness levels and be involved in a friendly competition. It’s like an adult’s sports day! I’m not going to lie, it did get my competitive juices flowing, but I was trying very hard to keep this under control and not let this take over! The competition wasn’t about the winning; it was about being there, getting involved and taking part.
The competition was broken down into two stages, lifting and general fitness.
The event started at 5pm and once everyone had arrived and we’d done our own warm up (foam roller, leg swings, body weight squats, stretches etc). The coaches ran through all the exercises and how it would work. Everyone would do one event at a time and then we’d move round in the same order. The event would start with dead lifts and then push press, before moving over to shuttle sprints, monkey bars etc.
I’d partnered up with Andy a really nice guy who does weights with me on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We named ourselves the S & A Team. Not a very original name!
This was the first time I’ve done an event like this so I was a little nervous at the start. I wasn’t sure how I’d get on. The main thing was not to let Andy down!
Andy went first in the dead lifts, he’s so strong, he just nailed it, he kept on going, every time the coach said lift, he picked up the weights like they were nothing, he was storming ahead past the competition. Thirty dead lifts at a weight of 120kg WOW!! What a fantastic start! This was the second highest number of reps for the guys; the guy in first place did thirty-two.
My turn came and I headed up to the platform, assumed my position and got ready to lift. The rest of the room just disappeared, I bent down, grabbed the bar in each hand, rolled it in towards my shins, took a deep breath, got my back flat and away I went. I honestly had no idea how I kept lifting the weight (70kg). It must have been the atmosphere, the energy and the adrenaline pumping through my body. I kept on going, every time the coach shouted lift, I would lift and to my surprise the bar would come up! I kept on going; I couldn’t hear the cheering or the clapping behind me.
I was too focused on just lifting the bar; controlling my breathing and trying to make sure I kept my form as best as I could. This gets much harder as you continue, your leg muscles have nothing left to give, so you start to use other muscles to make up for it, so instead of using my glutes, I ended up using my arms and back for the final few, which is not the best. But I was so happy with the result - I managed to get 20 reps out!
Next was the push press, Andy again was amazing, he smashed out eighteen reps at 60 kg which was the highest across all the teams, and I was really pleased with my thirteen reps at 30 kg.
We both put in another strong performance. By the end of Stage 1 we were in first place with 81 points, with the next team behind us with 78 points.