“Who wouldn’t want to be beasted by Dieter?” said Richard. Well, as it happens, despite his initial enthusiasm it was the mighty Quinn himself that bailed at the last minute! All during the day the excuses were coming in thick and fast: “man flu”, ‘have to work late”, “oh, is it tonight?” “I’ve caught the Zika virus” But, five courageous (possibly foolhardy) members pitched up at Clewer Green School, Windsor on Tuesday evening, not really knowing what they had let themselves in for. Rippers, (not so) Speed Steve, Lee Thomas, Mylo and Ironman Scott Belcher warmed up first with a short game of indoor football. As finally tuned cyclists bodily contact had to be kept to a minimum but it was quite obvious why some of us had taken up cycling rather than football!
Then, after a quick demo of the exercises we were off! Three circuits of old school exercises including ‘favourites’ such as squat thrusts, press ups, sit ups, dips and step ups followed by a series of sprints at the end of each circuit. A quick two minutes rest and then back on it! Okay, we didn’t look like a finely tuned, perfectly choreographed gym class, the type you see at Virgin Active clubs and some of the techniques were a little dodgy, but the lads put absolutely everything into the session. A final set of longer sprints outside, followed by a good stretch and it was all over. Forty minutes of fun and a little pain.
I quizzed Treve the following day to see whether he was feeling the effects and he came back with: “I feel like I’ve been abused! That said it was a great session and it’ll grow in popularity.” Job done! Personally, as a former Royal Marines PTI, I’ve taken hundreds of circuit training sessions with some of the world’s fittest young men and women but I was blown away with the effort put in by Ripcor Five.
We have seven sessions left, so no more excuses, make sure you’re in next week.
7.30pm at Clewer Green school, Hatch Lane, Windsor.
It’s all (painfully) good!
Sergeant Major Data Loraine
