Newcastle University owns the leaderboards in Precor AMT 3 Challenge
After a nail-biting finish, Newcastle University came top of the leaderboard in Precor’s AMT 3 Challenge, winning a brand new machine for the university’s fitness suite.
The event, which ran for three weeks in September and culminated at Leisure Industry Week on Wednesday 23 September, saw 46 health and fitness clubs across the UK compete to travel the furthest on an award-winning Precor Adaptive Motion Trainer (AMT).
Precor even offered complimentary AMT loans for the duration of the challenge, enabling 943 participants to race against the clock, totting up more than 834km in their 1,215 attempts to beat the highest score – the equivalent of 20 marathons, a round-trip from London to the Netherlands or 94 times the height of Mount Everest!
Newcastle University has been presented with one of Precor’s state-of-the-art AMT machines for its club, while the winning male and female members won a selection of prizes, including an exclusive bundle of sporting goods worth over £1,000 from top brands Salomon, Suunto and Wilson.
The men’s overall winner was also from Newcastle University – 24-year-old member David Graham, a student studying Economics.
Facilities Service Manager for Newcastle University, Nick Beall said: “The AMT 3 Challenge really grabbed everyone’s attention as a fun yet competitive way of exercising. Many of the participants were members of our sports teams who came back before the start of the academic year to begin their training schedules.
“As well as individually competing with each other, our Rugby Union Team challenged the Rugby League Team, who in turn challenged the Rowing Team, who then challenged the Football Team and so on!
“Overall the AMT 3 Challenge provided a fun and innovative way of getting our students exercising in a friendly but competitive way. The fact they could compete against each other individually, but also to represent the University in a national event really grabbed their focus and attention and we were ecstatic to win both the club and men’s titles.”
The full list of 2015 AMT 3 Challenge Champions are:
Gym
1st: Newcastle University Sports Centre –24.95km
2nd: University of Edinburgh (CSE) –24.68km
3rd: University of Dundee –24.51km
Male
1st: David Graham (Newcastle University) –1.08km
2nd: Chris Corcoran (Regency Park Health Club and Spa) –1.06km
3rd: James Quartermaine (Spiceball Leisure Centre) –1.04km
Female
1st: Hannah Strudwick (Spiceball Leisure Centre) –1.02km
2nd: Rebecca Drake (University of Edinburgh) –1.01km
3rd: Alexandra O’Connor (Regency Park Health Club and Spa) –0.99km
Due to the personalised workout features of the AMT, participants could step, climb, stride or sprint during their three minutes, adding a strategic element to the challenge.
Winner David Graham discovered setting the right resistance was crucial to increase distance. He said: “Using your arms – right at the top of the levers rather than holding on to the side – also helped, and in the last 20-15 seconds when it got tough, rather than stopping or slowing down, I lowered the resistance slightly and kept going. It’s definitely a test of mental toughness as well as physical fitness. The leaderboards helped as you have a target to aim for.
“The AMT is a great machine as it has a more natural range of motion and works both upper and lower body. Also in terms of calories burned per minute it scores pretty well, meaning that time is spent more efficiently in the gym.”
Precor’s UK Marketing Manager, Jonathan Griffiths, said:“The AMT 3 Challenge proved a fantastic way for gyms and health clubs to engage their members. There was furious competition between the top five clubs that lead to a nail-biting finish and just goes to prove the value of a challenge in getting people to work together.”
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About Precor:
Manufacturer of the AMT, Precor designs and builds premium fitness equipment for effective workouts that feel smooth and natural.
With a passionate focus on ergonomic motion, proven science and superior engineering, the company continually advances the home and commercial fitness industry with breakthrough new product categories, including, EFX Elliptical Crosstrainer, Adaptive Motion Trainer “AMT”and Preva Networked Fitness. Precor is a subsidiary of Amer Sports Corporation, the world’s largest sports equipment company, with internationally recognised brands Wilson, Atomic, Suunto, Salomon, Arc’teryx and Mavic.
More about Precor’s Adaptive Motion Trainer (AMT):
The cutting-edge technology of the AMT offers users unlimited workout possibilities allowing them to target multiple muscle groups with a single machine. Using modern, swipe screen technology, the AMT switches quickly between the stepping, climbing or running function, giving users a completely personalised, varied workout.
Particularly popular is the function that allows users of all sizes to adapt the machine to suit their stride length whether they are jogging, or sprinting at max effort.
For further information contact:
Abigail Harris at Big Fish Public Relations
Tel: 07738 331019
Email: abigail@bigfishpublicrelations.co.uk
