The 'Cosfit Games' tested eight teams - consisting of 32 participants - across a broad spectrum of functional fitness — The Cosfit Games tested eight teams – consisting of 32 participants – across a broad spectrum of functional fitness (Picture: Jessica Stewart)

Sport

The COSfit Games: Royal Air Force PTI launches her take on the much-beloved sport

At the core of every branch of the Armed Forces lies physical fitness, essential to both recruit training and operational service.

Morning runs, afternoon physical circuits, and the ever-popular 'Sports, Make and Mend' provide the foundations for maintaining military fitness.

Step up another rung on the physical ladder, however, and you enter CrossFit territory: functional, varied movements performed at high intensity, which is precisely what Corporal Jessica Stewart set out to replicate in her iteration of the much-beloved sport.

The sport of fitness

Held at RAF Cosford and organised by Cpl Stewart, the COSfit Games challenged eight teams – comprising 32 participants – across a demanding range of functional fitness events.

Event one tested the participants' overall strength, beginning with a one-repetition maximum (1RM) complex of an Olympic lift.

"The complex was a ground to shoulder, two front squats, and three shoulder overhead - and they had 16 minutes between them to build up the heaviest complex they could," Cpl Stewart told BFBS Forces News.

This was followed by a maximum-effort strict pull-up, testing competitors' relative strength, which is their ability to lift their own body weight against gravity.

Competitors were required to perform strict pull-ups, as opposed to the standard kipping technique — Competitors were required to perform strict pull-ups rather than the more commonly used kipping technique used in standard Crossfit (Picture: Jessica Stewart)

Next, it was the Hydro Event, which, as the name suggests, tested competitors in the pool, with additional exercises completed to the side.

The goal of the event was to complete either five, six, or seven kilometres on the SkiErg – an indoor cardio machine that simulates the motion of Nordic cross-country skiing – depending on the category in which competitors were entered.

"In the meantime, they had to complete a 30-metre sprint to the pool, climb out, perform 15 squats, then swim back. They also had to complete five heaves on the side of the pool before tagging their teammate in and out," Cpl Stewart added.

"Each competitor had to complete the sequence twice."

The Hydro Event tested competitors in the water (Picture: Jessica Stewart)

Home straight

With little time to recover, the engine event saw teams work together on a 'chipper' workout, using ergometers such as the rower, SkiErg and BikeErg.

For those unfamiliar with CrossFit terminology, a chipper is a sequence of different exercises in order, where competitors 'chip away' at high repetitions of each movement before moving onto the next.

The longest event of the day, the teams had to complete it as quickly as possible while ensuring a 50kg sandbag did not touch the floor.

And if that wasn't hard enough, the fittingly named lactic event closed off the event.

The short, anaerobic relay event took place on an athletics track with some Hyrox movements thrown in for good measure.

Cpl Stewart hopes next year iteration of the COSfit games will be bigger and better — Cpl Stewart hopes next year's iteration of the COSfit games will be bigger and better (Picture: Jessica Stewart)

Describing it as a "fun day of phys", Cpl Stewart hopes the event can grow year by year, with aspirations of developing it into a tri-service competition in the future.

"I had some really positive feedback; people loved the events and were excited to come back and do it all again," she said.

Offering advice to those interested in taking part, she added: "Don't be concerned about who else is going to be there, or question if you're good enough.

"We keep it low level, so if anybody is interested, get a team together and come down and give it a go."