Reebok. Become human: should you be afraid if you have not participated before?

For me, Become Human 2018 – is the first such race with challenges. It’s a bit like the fun runs we had at school, but the loads are much more serious. I can’t say that I’m not a sporty person, I’ve been involved in dancing, volleyball and track and field since childhood. But preparations for the World Cup, constant travel on business trips and routine office work have made their own adjustments to sports. Largely because I missed physical activity, I decided to take part in this year’s race as part of the “Championship” team.

Preparing for the race

As I mentioned above, the race implies serious tests for the body. So it is very important to prepare yourself properly, to know and feel your body. There are several options.

• Thefirst is workouts from Reebok. The company created a week-long training cycle specifically for the Become Human race. You could choose a place for training convenient to your location. You only need to sign up in the personal account of the “Reebok Parks” project. Under the supervision of professional trainers you will be able to feel your body, how it behaves when running or doing exercises with weights.
• The second way – video training with a trainer in the personal cabinet of the participant on the site. There is a basic set of exercises that will help you get in shape before the race, including a warm-up complex and stretching.
• The third option is from personal experience. Each of my days started with a morning run. Getting up an hour early and paying attention to yourself is not that hard. In addition to running, I performed stretching, knowing the complex on dance classes, did standard exercises for abs and squats with dumbbells at home.

A few tips

• Since the weather in May decided to please us, the race was held in the open sun and a temperature of 22 degrees Celsius (although at times it seemed even more). So one of the main tips is don’t forget hats and sunscreen.
• Before the start, be sure to do a team warm-up. Try running with a rope to get a feel for how to position your forces properly.

Life hack: If your team consists of four men and two girls, put three men at the very beginning and one at the end. This will make it easier for the girls to run and recover between legs.

Challenges of the race

There are a few trials that caused the Championship team particular difficulties. What were the mistakes and how to avoid them, I will describe further. It will also help to save your time.

Stage #3

The main load in this test is on the arms and abs. You can’t call this stage super difficult, but rather concentration and teamwork are important.
The task: lie down in pairs on the mattresses, take the body and legs off the ground, and in this position, without touching the mattress parts of the body, pass four times back and forth pancakes weighing from 5 to 25 kilograms. The penalty for breaking the rule is squatting.

Mistake: the team members were far apart on the mattresses. Because of this the whole team received 24 additional squats, which affected the performance of the next tasks.
How to correct: do not hurry to perform the exercise, carefully check how far apart you are from each other, try to simulate passing pancakes to a teammate. Only then indicate to the volunteer that you are ready to pass the stage.

Step #4

At the previous stage we created a problem for ourselves, because of which some guys had clogged legs and they were unable to jump or squat. And the main load in the test falls on the leg muscles.
The task: to jump the distance with a fitball over the head from a sitting position back and forth, while the team squats 10 times with a rope over the head.

Mistake: jumping out with the fitball with it pointing upwards only. This prevented the team from jumping forward to cover the distance.
How to fix it: when jumping, hold the fitness ball above you, but pointing it forward. This will make long jumping much easier for you, and you’ll save time.
Lifehacks: don’t forget to shake and lightly massage your leg muscles when you have a free minute.

Step #13

Tourniquet and rings – at the end of the entire course, this is a very powerful workout. Here you have to be as patient as you can. The qualities of real fighters are revealed.
The task: the participants must pull up 60 times on the rings from a lying position. At the moment when one performs pull-ups, the others hang on the bar.

Mistake: wet hands!
How to fix it: there are two types of tourniquets on the test. The lower ones are without bandages, the higher ones with bandages. It’s better to put a person with wet hands on the bandaged bar so that they fall less often.

Lifehack: take gloves with you, they will help not only when passing this test, but also not to get your hands dirty during the whole race.

In general, I advise everyone to try their hand and run the “Become Human” race. It is not only a sport, but also a fun time to spend with friends or coworkers. Songs and cheers can be heard along the course, and teams even help each other with cheers at times. Give yourself a challenge and believe me, you won’t regret it!