BY DANIELLE FEIST
Special to the Tribune

Club 1 Fitness in Great Bend hosted the kickoff event for its fifth-annual Battle of the Bulge on Thursday evening with a showing of more than 100 members.
The eight-week competition is a wellness challenge for members and nonmembers that results in three winning teams competing for prizes in excess of $1,000. The challenge invites anyone from the community to join a team of four to participate in Club-sponsored activities such as Fitness Bootcamps, team training, and trainer-designed wellness plans.
The winning teams will compete for most inches and most pounds lost. Sounds like a typical weight loss challenge seen at gyms nationwide at the beginning of every New Year? Well, not exactly, said Club 1 Membership Director Chris Berger. This event isn’t just a weight loss event. It’s a community-anticipated, New Year resolution challenge.
“The community has come to anticipate the event as a fun way to compete with friends, coworkers, and family to achieve a variety of wellness goals,” Berger said. “But also, it’s become a way to enjoy each other’s company, support each other, and have fun together.”
Anyone can ask a friend to go to the gym to work out. But what keeps you accountable? A friendly competition that might result in a prize of fitness equipment or gift cards to a local retailer could do the trick. “We see this by the way groups plan for this event,” Berger said. “They anticipate it for months now. They get together and have strategizing sessions, and they come up with some great team names, like the Great Bend Farm Equipment team is named Gang Green. Come on, that’s awesome.”
Team members pay an entry fee for the challenge priced according to member or nonmember status. They have full access to all gym amenities along with the special activities designed for challenge members only.
“I’m doing it because my coworkers asked for some support, and it sounded fun,” said Gang Green Team member Chris Feist . “Plus, I don’t have to try to figure it out on my own.”
That’s the point of the challenge, after all, Feist said. “Why do it alone? Goals are so much easier to meet with support and bragging rights.”
For more information on Club 1 Fitness events, contact Chris Berger at chrisbergerclub1@yahoo.com.