Over the last weekend, 10 of us from Running Department chucked our running shoes aside, and participated in Test of Will 2019, an event hosted by Under Armour. In it’s 4thedition this year, Test of Will is an urban fitness challenge, consisting of four 1-minute exercises, with 20 seconds rest in between each exercise. The four exercises this year were, double battle rope slams, battle rope Russian twists, reverse lunges, and battle rope pulls.
Here are some snapshots from the four challenges.
The battle rope slams, probably the hardest exercise of the event. I was ready to call it quits after this! (Photo credit: Glendys)
The ladies going strong at the Russian Twists. (Photo credit: Zhi Hao)
Reverse lunges, which we were most confident about, but to do them continuously for 1 minute was a different ball game all together. (Photo credit: Terence Teo)
Lastly, the rope pulls, which were so much harder than it looks. (Photo credit: Glendys)
Garmin Singapore had set up a booth at the event, to allow Test of Will participants to try out their heart rate monitor watches. So, as if the Test of Will challenges were not enough for us, we joined Garmin for a simple workout of another 4 exercises. Thankfully, the workout was nothing like the Test of Will! It consisted of jogging on the spot, lunges with side stretch, push-ups and mountain climbers.
Doing some more exercises at the Garmin booth. (Photo credit: Terence Teo)
All the exercises combined left us really spent! These high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts were not what most long-distance runners were used to, and most of us were surprised and humbled at how winded we felt after, not to mention how much our arms were trembling. I could not even hold my score slip after! However, I think that it was a nice change to the usual hours of running we put in weekly, and I felt as if my muscles got an ‘awakening’ after that. Valerie, one of the runners who participated, said that this experience with HIIT helped her realised the muscular weaknesses she had, and will try to adjust her training accordingly.
Us riding on that post-workout endorphins. (Photo credit: Terence Teo)
We are very grateful to Under Armour Singapore for giving Running Department the opportunity to get our wills (and muscles) tested that afternoon. It was such a humbling experience which all of us will not forget for a very long time.
