Today’s guest post is written by Joe Gibson of Escape Fitness. Escape Fitness sells premium fitness products on the web. You can find everything from body fat assessment kits to yoga mats to ViPR equipment on their site. In his post, Joe details three strength building challenges that you can do with the equipment found at your local gym. If you can’t find the equipment at your gym, check out the escape fitness website.

Working out can be challenging even in the best of times, but there are times when we feel that we are achieving great results. Sometimes though, it seems that our gym routine is reaching a new plateau. Once we reach this point, we require something exciting and different to spur us on to do more training. Fitness challenges can give us more insight into our progression and ultimately inspiring us to push ourselves that little bit harder than ever before to achieve the results we want.

There are always plenty of new ideas being developed for the fitness market aimed at supporting our continuing quest for a challenge. Many of them can really help us to find out just how fit and athletic we really are, and what volume of training we need to do to reach our ultimate goal. Test out the following three challenges which will get you fired up and prepared to head down to the gym with renewed vigor:

The TRX Fitness Challenge

 
TRX is a modern, innovative total body training tool which was originally designed for transforming the way in which people train globally. It was voted ‘The Best Of 2010 Fitness Charts’ by tens of thousands of users, because the TRX Suspension trainer can provide for a holistic total body workout flexible enough to suit your individual strength-building needs. By featuring well over seven hundred and fifty different movements to try out, including exercises for the lower and upper body, the exercise regime can easily be switched about to keep you interested and make the most of your workout time. You can use the TRX to test your strength, mobility, flexibility, fitness, metabolism, suspension and much more.

The 30 Second Med Ball challenge

 
You may have heard that the Med Ball is quickly becoming one of the most popular training tools out there because of its flexibility and utility. A Med Ball gives you the opportunity to combine some of your other pieces of fitness equipment or just use on its own for building core body strength. It is a great way to measure just how far you have been progressing with your training, by giving you a constant visible measurement.

A simple way of using the Med Ball for assessing your current fitness level is to see how many power slams you can do in thirty seconds. To complete a power slam, stand with your legs hip width apart. Bend your elbows and hold the ball close to your chest. Bend at the hips and bring the ball between your legs, then swing your arms upward. Holding the ball while your arms raise and your hips snap forward, stop for a second bend the hips to slam the ball with great force toward the ground. Anybody that achieves thirty or more slams in this time is obviously a complete powerhouse at the peak of human fitness – don’t however, be put off if you don’t get anywhere near that number straight away.

The ViPR fitness challenge

 
ViPR is the item that fitness fanatics have been dreaming of, with a full body workout that burns through calories quickly and builds muscle. It’s flexibility means that it is one of the most popular current training systems available today – with more and more people discovering the great benefits of a ViPR workout to achieve massive results in a short period of time.

Since the ViPR can be thrown, dragged, stepped on, and even slammed, you really get to choose how you want to use it to customize your workout for tackling specific problem areas – or combine all of the different workouts for a comprehensive strength and fitness program. Test your strength with the ViPR challenge – how much weight can you manage to lift through the ViPR? With a range of weight from 4kgs to 20kgs, you won’t be short of options for progression and soon will be able to build up extra strength and fitness, seeing measurable results that you can measure for a great indication of progress. Twist, lift, and shift your way through a highly taxing challenge to see how your weight limit compares with other fitness enthusiasts!

Have you ever tried any of these fitness challenges? Which piece of equipment is your favorite? Let us know!