KGN are super excited to announce that this Saturday we will be taking on Tough Mudder again. For the last 8 weeks our KGN Tough Mudder team has been training super hard to take on this challenge. For those of you that don’t know what Tough Mudder is – “it is a 10-12 mile Boot Camp mud and obstacle course designed to drag you out of your comfort zone by testing your physical strength, stamina and mental grit. With no podiums, winners or clocks to race against, it’s not about how fast you can cross the finish line. Rather it is a challenge that emphasizes teamwork, camaraderie and accomplishing something almost as tough at you are.”
At KGN we love teamwork and we love a challenge so Tough Mudder sounded like the perfect event for us. Over the last 8 weeks the team have been led by personal trainer and KGN owner, Keegan Hargreaves, who has been putting them through their paces week in, week out. The team have been training together twice a week, on top of their own personal gym routines and private training sessions. They have shown up to each session, dedicated, motivated and ready to take on whatever Keegan throws at them. Keegan made it clear that “come rain, sunshine, snow or asteroid showers – training is still on” and credit to the team they showed up and gave 100% no matter what the conditions were.
The weekday sessions consisted of outdoor training on a Tuesday in Boot Camp style sessions, designed to get the team use to training in an open environment and getting dirty. These were intense sessions, consisting of traditional Boot Camp drills combined with spontaneous jogs and sprints. On top of this we challenged the team with resistance bands, carrying an industrial tyre and running with a Bergen bag. On Wednesdays the team trained indoors at our Body Blast sessions where they endured HIIT, strength training and aerobic conditioning. We are proud to say that each and every week our team stepped up and took on whatever was thrown at them, rest assured anyone caught slipping on the odd occasion (after all they are only human) was given Keegan’s favourite burpee punishment! We can’t fully reveal what this is – but you’ll find out when you come and train with us!
Whilst we have faith in each and every one of our participants these weekly group training sessions were particularly important to us at KGN as we knew they would not only physically prepare the team but also mentally boost morale, increase motivation and create that all important bond between the participants. And true to our belief we now have a strong team, all with different strengths and abilities. Within the sessions they trained as a group, as partners and as individuals but at each and every step they encouraged each other and kept the team spirit alive. It’s fair to say each session was fun and challenging at some points even painful and gruelling but the team held it together and made it through with their special mix of banter, love, determination and that all important bond.
On Saturday they will be attending Holmbush Farm to start their 9am challenge and make their way through the 23 obstacles that stand between them and the finish line. Keep an eye out for out post-event blog letting you know how the team got on.
In the meantime here’s how some of them are feeling in the run up to the event:
Laila: So this is the second time I'm doing Tough Mudder with Keegan and the team. The first time was more of a last minute thing for me but when the day came we all faced some fears and conquered some hard challenges too, but was amazing how we did it together and built such a bond between ourselves, we were a proper team! This time round Keegan prepared us 2 months prior with serious intense workout and training sessions with his outdoor Bootcamp classes and indoor body blasting classes. I have to say he has trained us all so well that I actually feel way more confident to face Tough Mudder this time round and Keegan even managed to gather some more recruits to join us, which has made this whole process a lot of fun too and made our team bigger and stronger!
Emma: In the run up to Tough Mudder I'm feeling really excited. Training with the KGN Team has been a great motivation for staying on track with training and I feel confident that we will all pull together and help each other out.
Cailin: When I first started training with KGN my fitness levels were good but my physical ability in terms of strength and conditioning was poor. By participating in the body blast sessions I have improved my muscle mass/capacity and have really felt a difference in my workouts. The body blast sessions have been an amazingly fun and productive way to improve my strength as well as interact and meet new people. I've really enjoyed seeing the changes in my body and feel well prepared and focused in the run up to Tough Mudder. The work KGN has put into our boot camp session have assured everyone has improved their fitness and strength so that we are all able to participate and enjoy the physical challenge of Tough Mudder, which we are all so excited for.
Salma: Really looking forward to the event on Saturday and feeling confident that all our hard work will pay off. Training with KGN in the weeks running up to Tough Mudder has me feeling strong, healthy and ready for a challenge. I would definitely recommend the classes to anyone preparing for an event or anyone who generally wants to get seriously fit. Keegan has definately put us through our paces to get us fully prepared and the team as a whole have gelled really well. I have every confidence we will make it to the finish line together.
Like all good leaders Keegan will also be taking part in the event and here is what he has to say before the big day:
Keegan: As a personal trainer one of the most important parts of my journey is to keep my clients motivated, focused and challenged. So 8 weeks ago I decided to book Tough Mudder and invited all my clients to take part and really take themselves out their comfort zones. It took some convincing but 8 clients later we had a team.
Now that I had my team I had to focus on getting them ready for the massive task ahead – a 12 mile mud run consisting of 23 obstacles to get through! 6 team members are already regular clients who takeone-on-one personal training sessions with me personally so I had a pretty good understanding of their fitness levels and strengths and weaknesses. The 2 additional team members quickly realised our training sessions were intense workouts that will get you seriously fit and were hooked pretty much straight away. I decided to use the KGN Boot Camp and Body Blast classes to get the team together twice a week and train them in a group environment.
Having completed Tough Mudder myself earlier this year, I knew what to expect and what we needed to do so throughout the weeks I focused on team building exercises and created workouts that brought the team together and made them work together and push each other, at first it was challenging as many of the members were at different fitness levels but over the weeks I could start to see everyone pushing each other, building friendships and some of the fitter members were dropping back and helping the guys at the back so all tasks were finished as a group. There was a real sense of camaraderie and this inspired confidence through the whole team.
I am happy to say we are ready! I couldn’t have asked for a better team, they are all healthy and at a very good level of fitness, they are motivated and ready for the weekend. Feedback from my team has been a particularly rewarding aspect for me personally and has really made me proud of how far they have all come. We are all enjoying training and feel at our best and I am am confident we will do well. I have no doubt each and every one of us will make it across the finish line and I know we will achieve this through a collective team effort in the real spirit of the Tough Mudder challenge.
Good luck guys!
Are you interested in participating in our next challenge? Or do you want to get fitter, healthier and stronger? Why not get a taste of our KGN Boot Camp and Body Blast classes. Start with our unbeatable classes offer and become a part of the KGN community today. We look forward to seeing you soon!
