ARE YOU FIT ENOUGH TO PASS THESE TESTS? Think you're fit? A Gym Badass? Try these four tests fro

Scott Acorn
Jul 28, 2016
2 min read

There are your typical fitness challenges, like the 2 minute push-up challenge or the max rep pull-up test – and then there are these four crucibles in mental toughness, courtesy of Gym Jones, an elite training facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. You may recognize the name- this is the same gym that whipped Gerrard Butler and the cast of 300 into Spartan shape, and most recently, have had a hand in morphing both Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot into Superman and Wonder Woman for the movie Batman v. Superman.

These four tests have been known to make even the fittest men sweat waterfalls, collapse from exhaustion, speak in tongues, and even weep. But if you have the physical and more importantly, the mental fortitude to make it through them, you’ll come out stronger, fitter, and better on the other side...

- So pick one from the list, put your head down, and just go for it!!!

1-Minute Sprint

“A minute might not seem long, but it is if you go hard enough,” says Gym Jones’s Training Director, Rob MacDonald. "This will reveal how far you’re willing to push yourself. If you’re not crushed at the end, you held back.”

Directions: Hop on a Airdyne (fan bike) and try to burn as many calories as possible in 60 seconds. (The bike will display your result.) Average is 45; the Gym Jones record is 89.

2,000-Meter Row For Time

“This is a classic Gym Jones test,” says MacDonald. “When you do circuits for time, you can cheat form and cut corners. This is just you and the computer: no cheating, no shortcuts – just objective feedback staring you right in the face.”

Directions: Program the distance setting on a rowing machine for 2,000 meters. Try to complete the distance in less than 7 minutes.

10-Meter Murder

“This test has you face 'the moment'—the point in a workout when you either persevere or quit,” says MacDonald.

Directions: Grab a stopwatch and head to a track. Set it for 1 minute and run 10 meters, resting for the time remaining in the minute. Next, run 20 meters, resting for the remainder of the minute. Keep adding 10 meters until you can’t beat the clock. Your goal: 200 meters.

Death by Burpee

“You don’t need a gym or any kind of special equipment to take this test,” says MacDonald. “All you need is a willingness to suffer and a desire to discover what you're made of.”

Directions: Record the time you take to do 100 burpees, touching your chest to the floor during the press-up and jumping at the end of each rep. Try to finish faster each time you do it (every few weeks).

Keep a record of your achievements/times on these four benchmark tests, and repeat them every few weeks with the focus on improving each time.