In a scratch-and-claw competition to become the “next Herox”, the field is getting crowded: Deka Fit, an indoor race from the creators of the Spartan Race. There’s the ATHX, which is a slightly longer Highrox from Adidas. There’s METRIX, a UK-based Hyrox clone with fewer stations. And now, there’s Zenom, the “decathlon of fitness” in partnership with CrossFit.
Zenom competitions last two days, in which athletes are scored on a standardized 10-pack of CrossFit-inspired disciplines: they ride fan bikes, do handstand pushups, and barbell cleans and snatches. The event’s creators hope to give everyday CrossFit enthusiasts the same experience they’ve seen CF professionals enjoy at the CrossFit Games – bright lights, professional photography and a spotlight moment in a huge arena.
At the first event, held at the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility last month, Brian Kent got the headlines he deserved: The 33-year-old won the 30 to 34 age group in the “RX” category, Zenom’s name for the non-elite, regular-male group.
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“It was probably the best competition experience I’ve ever had,” says Kent, who lives in the Dallas area. “The experience, the vibe, the setting was amazing… It’s a CrossFit Games experience for your more average, good athlete who isn’t elite, and isn’t trying to do this for a living.”
Calling yourself “average” is a bit of an undersell: In the competition, Kent performed 31 barbell cleans in eight minutes, with a max 88-kilogram (194-pound) snatch, and completed 223 burpees, which she rated as the most difficult of the two-day event.
“It was 12 minutes of bike, ski, burpees, bike, ski burpees,” he says. In the event, competitors had to do 30 lateral burpees on a line, burn 30 calories on a ski erg and 30 calories on a fan bike. After doing that trio of burpees three times, they could use the remaining time to do as many lateral burpees as possible. Kent had time for 163 of these bonus burpees. “It was just how hard can you push yourself, and how hard do you want to push?”
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A five-round, two-step workout that works anywhere
Kent trained to do all this while being a regular guy with a regular job: a father of two, a bank examiner, auditing banks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and further afield. He does most of his training in his garage gym, where he gets in WODs and other workouts crossfit mayhem.
But when he’s on the road for work, as he was when he talked to her men’s journalKent wants his workouts to be fast, efficient, and doable with minimal equipment. His favorite is a five-round cardio and strength combo workout that alternates between running and dumbbell thrusters.
“You’re going to hit the whole body, and people are really going to feel like, ‘Hey man, I really, really did something. I got a good workout today,'” Kent says.
workout
To do this, grab a pair of dumbbells and repeat these steps for a total of five rounds:
- After warming up, run 400 meters (or .25 miles) on the treadmill.
- Move Over 15 Dumbbell Thrusters
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How to do dumbbell thrusters
- Bend the dumbbells over your shoulders and stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, toes pointed slightly out.
- Place your weight on your heels and squat down, pushing your hips back until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor.
- Push through your heels to return to standing and press the dumbbells overhead until your elbows reach your ears.
- Bring the dumbbells back to your shoulders and sit again.
To take this workout further, you can always use heavier weights for thrusters. But if those aren’t available, Kent says, time yourself and try to do it faster over time. Increase your running speed, and move faster through thrusters with fewer breaks (without breaking any form).
