It's Time To "Toughen Up" People

Last week I took part in "The Helly Hansen Adventure Series Challenge" with a few of my personal trainer buddies. It took place in Surrey here in the UK. For those of you who aren't sure of what this entailed then here's what it looked like:


10k Trail Run
15k Mountain Bike Ride
2k Kayak
15k Mountain Bike Ride
10k Trail Run

This was a 'challenge' in every sense of the word!

I know! I'm kind of crazy right? Well, maybe in some eyes. : )

The bike and run route were an absolute MUD FEST!!! (to the point where any braking was completely pointless!) Slippery forest paths, muddy banks and deep puddles all made it that little bit more interesting! I actually came off my bike after attempting to jump a muddy puddle - BMX style! I went flying over the handle bars (much to one of the stewards amusal!)

That will teach me for being cocky! : )

At one point the mud came up to our knees when we were running but that made it all the more fun. We just dug in and we all agreed that this made us EVEN MORE determined to finish the race!

The kayak was hilarious! I haven't done this since I was in the boy Scouts but absolutely loved it when we got onto the water. The wind was very strong and we really had to be on the ball when we were steering the kayak but managed it nonetheless.

I was in a team of 3 and all in all the challenge took us 4hrs and 12 minutes to complete which I thought was awesome considering none of us had done any real specific training for it.

I felt alittle bit sore from the race but not as bad as I thought I might be.

Now I know what you might be thinking!

Why Oh why did I put myself through all this pain and torture on my Sunday morning?

After all, I could have had a nice lay in like most people do right?

Quite Simply, because I wanted to test my fitness out in every aspect.

I figured of late that I'd gone a bit soft with my workouts and I wanted to "toughen myself up" abit, I wanted to challenge myself and just see how far I could push myself both mentally and physically.

I believe that too many of us stay in our comfort zones when it comes to our fitness and never really push ourselves to see how far we can REALLY go

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not telling you to perform every workout FLAT OUT from now on. This would be stupid. Nor book yourself on the next ironman (with zero training for it) or anything like that but testing yourself out every once in a while with some kind of fitness challenge is a great way to switch things up a little bit.

The human body is very durable and it can take ALOT more than we think it can.

Without running the risk of sounding "too deep" here, the human body has survived difficult and testing situations throughout the years. We've run for miles across the hottest deserts, climbed the highest mountains and explored some of the roughest seas.

I'm sure we can push ourselves every now and then with some slightly harder exercise
right? : )

Never put limitations on your expectations - Always demand more of yourself!

Give it a go, add some challenge workouts into your fitness plan and let me know how you get on and who know's you may even enjoy it! : )

Train Hard & Be Strong,

Sam Winkworth CPT, SPN

PS - If you're bored of your current workouts,are looking to add some challenge to your fitness plan or just need a good kick up in the butt then my good buddy Craig Ballantyne from Canada has a great ">30 minute bodyweight challenge workout you can try out.

Just click on the link below to go get it. I loved this the first time I did it!

">Yes, I want to be challenged!