Member spotlight Emma Cayton

Meet Emma, who has been a dedicated member of SCL for a decade at Swinton & Pendlebury Leisure Centre. Emma recently participated in her first ever Hyrox event on Sunday 3rd March in Glasgow. For those that don’t know, Hyrox is a combination of running and functional workouts, where participants run 1km followed by a functional workout station, like sled pulls, and this sequence is repeated eight times.

‘Five of us, friends from the gym, took part in the competition which was held over two days. Hyrox combines both running & functional workouts, where participants run 1km, followed by one functional workout station, such as a sled pull, repeated eight times.

The male and female events are different, but the women’s event consisted of the 1km runs and then 8 exercises in between including a 50m distance Sled push with 102kg and lastly 75 x wall balls with a 4kg weight! It is a very tough event, with running making up 50% of the event. Running is hard enough but after 100m sandbag lunges it gets even harder! I have been training for years but this hybrid way of training is great for both fitness, strength, and mental health.

The event was an accumulation and months of training both in the Davrox classes (Dave Parkin’s Grit classes) and alone with my coach. I was so nervous on the lead up to the event but had to trust the hours and hours of training I had done, including spending hours lunging up and down the sports hall under the watchful eye of Dave!! And I must say I was complemented by the judges on my form – so I will let him off all the times he has warned us on burpee hand placement and correct wall ball technique.

It’s a sport that will push you to your limits it’s a mix of endurance and strength, but it was amazing and crossing the finish line and earning my patch is one of my proudest moments.

The men’s and professional levels are different. Dave, John and Jason competed on the Saturday. Dave raced 2 events both with very impressive times, John Burns got his PB and Jason wanted sub 80mins and with Dave following him round the track with times and coaching him through the exercises he came in in a very impressive 1hr 16mins’.