After hearing about this year’s annual bench press competition at Algonquin last minute, fitness and health promotion student Tim Gorr decided to give it a shot.
“I literally only found out about it earlier this morning,” he said. “So I signed up and came.”
It proved to be successful. Gorr finished the March 16 competition with a win and an outrageous max weight of 405 pounds.
“This was my second competition like this that I’ve won,” he said. “So it definitely feels good.”
The organizer of the event, fitness and wellness coordinator Megan Beauregard left the event feeling just as satisfied.
“It’s so much fun,” she said. “We all get closer after these events, so it’s like we become a gym family; training together and talking more and stuff.”
The annual competition has been going on for about eight years to help motivate members to train harder. Beauregard says it’s important for people to know they have something to train for and can be excited about having a membership with the college.
As a result of her own love for events like these, and members coming to her asking for these competitions, Beauregard hopes to start doing something like this at least once a semester.
Although Gorr was the overall winner, other competitors happily walked away as well.
“I enjoyed myself,” said Thomas Lovitt, another participant. “We had a good amount of people that came out and had fun so it was definitely a good time.”
Even with this being his first bench press competition, Lovitt was able to hit a new personal record of 245 pounds.
“Nobody gets angry or too competitive,” said Beauregard. “Everyone seemed to have a good time and some people walked away with prizes, so I think it was an overall awesome event.”