Planet Infinity's Planet Games

Last Week (08Jun2013), I was supposed to explore the trails of Porac, Pampanga for the #Explorac invitational trail run together with Primer Group and other runner-bloggers. It was already a mindset more than a week before, but another invitation from our Company's HR for the same date came, of which I cannot decline in any way, whether I like it or not, and for the good sake of my career (lol, just exaggerating)!

The event was a Fitness competition by Planet Infinity gym dubbed as the first Planet Games, and it was also our Company's first participation for a fitness competition that was represented by 6 employees. I wasn't actually supposed to be joining because of the mentioned #Explorac run, but two (2) other officemates who are more qualified than me weren't also available for the said date.

Before the event day came, we were briefed about the routines and about the event at Planet Infinity gym in Mother Ignacia, Quezon City, accompanied by Atty. Liezel Chico -- our ever supportive HR Manager. From there we were carefully chosen and got qualified according to each of our capacity.

The Planet Game was much like the easier version of what we did at the 2nd Leg of Immuvit's Metafit Challenge (click the link to know the story). I only said easier because the exercises were done in relay style for the team division and since this is our first time to join, we signed-up for the Novice/Silver category where we were only required to do lesser repetitions than the Elite/Gold category. There was also a Teens category but we never knew about it until the event day (if I only knew I could've signed-up for this category instead, lol!).

To give you an idea, here's the set of workouts for the Team division that we have to accomplish and finish with our bestest (as required).

20 Burpees (30 for Elite category)
60 Squats (100 for Elite category)
40 Lunges (60 for Elite category)
50 Push-ups/Modified push-up for Women (100 for Elite category)
50 Toe touches (100 V-ups for Elite category)
125 Jumping jacks (250 for Elite category)

Muscles and lean bodies are almost everywhere upon our arrival at the track field of Amoranto Sports Complex in Roces Ave., Quezon City. Everyone was competitive and in high spirit right from the first team up to the last showdown of the Elite teams. Even the teens category were also as competitive as the most bulked-up participants minus the muscle. In contrast of the other teams to our team, only Gino and Chino have the body muscle that can intimidate other participants and make the ladies drool, while the rest of us, we are the intimated ones. But of course, our team is more than competitive than they are (*wink*)!

The team competition started at past 7 AM. Each team were divided into two and positioned in opposite sides of the track field. The relay was done by executing the member's assigned set followed by a 200-m run towards the opposite side of the track. The next team member will start his set once the other member has arrived and has tapped the waiting teammate's hand.

I was the 5th in our team to go and was assigned for the toe-touches. The requirement for all the participants is just to properly execute the routine, else, the count will be invalidated. In my own counting, I did a total of 52 repetitions before I was given signal to run, which means that I have 2 invalid execution of the toe touches.

Here's the video of us during the team competition:

A few minutes before the last few teams finished their turn, the host announced that everyone who listed for the Individual division must re-register as some have already backed-out. I was pumped-up upon hearing it (bitin pa kasi) so I went to the registration area to try if I can still enlist. There were already a few names listed for the Elite category but there was still nobody from the Novice category listed, I was the first. We weren't allowed to switch to Elite because our Team was in the Novice category (oh, that's better actually)! Gino, Chino, and Leo enlisted also after a few minutes of convincing, and that makes only four (4) of us competing for the Individual-Novice category thereby assuring three (3) of us will get the podium places (hehehe, or so I thought)!

The mechanics for the individual is different, as each one will perform 5-exercise routines as fast and as many as they can in 1-minute each with a few seconds of rest in between. Here's the set of workouts:

1-minute Burpees (30-secs. rest for Novice, 15-secs. rest for Elite)
1-minute Squats (30-secs. rest for Novice, 15-secs. rest for Elite)
1-minute Push-ups (30-secs. rest for Novice, 15-secs. rest for Elite)
1-minute Lunges (30-secs. rest for Novice, 15-secs. rest for Elite)
1-minute Toe touches (30-secs. rest for Novice, V-ups and 15-secs. rest for Elite)

The competition for the Individual division started after around 30-minutes of announcements, intermission/song number from one of the Gym instructor, and further explanation of the mechanics. When the participants were called-in, we were shocked to see that almost everyone who joined the Team division were also participants for the Individual division. Well, there was no backing-out anymore!

We were called-in for the 2nd batch and we're briefed again about the proper execution of each exercises. My weakness was the burpees but fortunately this time, it was the first exercise (while still strong) and we're not required to jump and push-up. Watching the video, it seems that I haven't properly executed about half of the burpees and toe-touches that I did, wasted effort!

Watch us in the Individual competition from the video below:

Although I wasn't able to tread on the trails of Porac, Pampanga, the turn-out of the day was still fulfilling as our team grabbed three (3) podium awards (that's unexpected, yyebaa). Check out some of the photos taken during the event: