What is Fitness Racing?
Fitness Racing is a sport where athletes race through a series of physical activities as an individual or team. These activities can include running, rowing and other modes of cardio, bodyweight exercises, lifting and carrying weights, and maneuvering over obstacles.
As touched upon briefly in the previous section, I consider there to be two main categories of fitness racing:
Conventional Fitness Racing: Races with low technicality.
Specialist Fitness Racing: Races with higher technical demands.
For me, there are Six Key Components of Fitness Racing:
Cardio: This refers to the cardiovascular activities within a race. For example, running, rowing, skiing, cycling.
Muscular Endurance: This refers to the bodyweight and sub-maximal resistance exercises that are performed for longer durations (high reps, etc).
Strength: This refers to the heavy (near-max) resistance exercises.
Speed: This refers to how much emphasis is placed on speed.
Technicality: This refers to how technical the activities are within the race.
Novelty: This refers to additional aspects of the race that are designed to be fun, scary, arduous, etc. For example, slides into water or inflatable obstacle courses.
Conventional Fitness Racing has a high emphasis on Cardio, Muscular Endurance and Speed, while having a lower emphasis on Strength and a very low emphasis on Technicality. The Novelty aspect of conventional fitness races can be varied.
Of course, strength is a vital attribute for conventional fitness racers as it will greatly improve an athlete's performance (the weights will feel lighter) and reduce their risk of injuries. However, when I say, “lower emphasis on strength,” I mean the race doesn’t include weights that are likely to be near maximal loads for the athletes. For example, the KB Goblet Squat weight in the Deadly Dozen may only be 10-25% of an athlete's 1RM Back Squat with a BB (BB).
All races will have biases towards different components. For example, a race may have a Cardio Bias and involve a lot of running. A Strength Bias and consists of a lot of heavy lifting. Or a Novelty Bias with the main aim being fun and enjoyment.
I truly believe Fitness Racing to be the ultimate “Lifelong Sport.” Everyone should aspire to include both cardiovascular and resistance training throughout their entire life and fitness racing allows people to do this with a sport that is, in essence, the most adaptable sport in the world: Sport provides goals – goals encourage consistency – consistency leads to success!
Author
Coach Jason Curtis
