What We Already Know About FitFest

Photo Credit: Rafael Paredes

Contributions from Rebecca Birch

In terms of what we know already…. and this is all from the FitFest social media – no insider info… 

From the overall event side, Strength in Depth and NFG (National Fitness Games) merged and have put on a number of events already in 2023 including SiD Origins, the UK Championships, and a new competition format called the ATHX Games.   

ATHX is a functional fitness pairs (mixed or same sex) competition put together by Marchon – think Hyrox but more linear and with breaks – with three set workouts:

• Strength
• Endurance
• A Metcon

These workouts are separated by two recovery zones and preceded by a warm up zone. The whole thing is a two and a half hour long event when put together, with workouts staying the same for all competitions in 2023 (and presumably then changing for the new season in 2024 to keep people coming back). 

The ATHX season started at the SiD run UK Championships in July this year and continued with events in the North & South of England through September and October. At FitFest, Saturday will be an ‘Open’ event while Sunday will be the ATHX finals.  

Also at FitFest will be the British Indoor Rowing Championships (Saturday and Sunday), the English Weightlifting Championships (Saturday only), the SiD Triple Threat competition (same sex teams of three – Saturday and Sunday) and the Elite Athlete Showcase (Friday through Sunday). 

Friday there  is a VIP event where the pro athletes will be running some CrossFit workshops in Lifting, Ergs, Handstands, and Gymnastics, followed by a Question and Answer session with photo opportunities. Following this session (at 7:30pm BST) the pro athletes will take on the endurance workout from ATHX as their first event of the weekend. The ‘pro’ version of this from the ATHX website is:

• Part A – 5km run on curved treadmill (or max distance within a 25 minute cap)
• Part B – 1KM ski erg + 2k row + 5k c2 bike 

Each part is worked on simultaneously, with athletes splitting the work as required. 

We don’t know any other workouts yet, but the schedule for the pro’s has been released.  

• Saturday they will be competing between 11:30-2:00 and 6:30-8:00 BST 
• Sunday between 11:30-1:00 and 4:30-6:00 BST. 

We can safely expect a minimum of four more event, one each (but possibly more), during those 90 minute competition windows.