FITNESS SPORT No 1 year 2007

Interview with Paul Underberg

„I want to be a role model and come across as authentic – that‘s why I got my Strenflex Fitness Sport badge.“

INTERVI EW

First of all warm congratulations are due to Paul Underberg on achieving his GOLD fitness sport badge. He is once again one of the industry‘s first VIPs who, despite a full schedule, has taken advantage of a personal test appointment agreed with us in advance. His calendar entry for today is certain to have read „15.00: Strenflex Fitness Test – today I‘m going to get the fit ness sport badge,“ followed here by an exclamation mark – there‘s no way he‘d put a question mark here! And that‘s exactly what happened – everything was completed in just over 20 minutes: I collected him from his office, he made one quick tele phone call and we walked together across the yard into Injoy Dorsten (his sporting home for almost 20 years). Next we completed the test question naire (Paul‘s DOB: 7.5.56) and then the serious work began… Test exercise 1 : Cardio step test in the gymnastics room: 3 minutes of con centrated stepping up and down at a medium speed (96 beats per minute, with the rhythm set by a metronome, a 30cm high step, alternating the legs every minute to warm up ( „… thanks to my regular cardio training my rest ing pulse rate is under 50“ , says Paul). A pause after this bout of obviously strenuous effort – sit down and get your breath back. My final pulse rate check (1 minute) returns a excellent result of „76 beats“. The 1st test exercise is complete with a „Gold“ result. A look at the evalu ation table shows that, for Paul‘s age group (M4) 97 beats would also have been sufficient for Gold. Following on from this very successful initial test we then moved on to the gym, both of us positively motivated, set the chin-up bar to the correct height for continuing the test – plenty of time to do this in the prescribed

pause interval of just 1 minute between the individual test exercises. Test exercises 2 and 3 in the weight room: here Paul completed the require ments for GOLD (10 chin-ups, 20 dips) with almost no effort; when he‘d done 15 chin-ups I really had to slow him down before he got to his feet again. Test exercise 4 (push-ups): Here too, Paul cleanly completed these exercises with ease – the prescribed 30 repetitions for his challenging goal of the GOLD fitness sport badge. With straight hips, nose reaching the floor and a few extra thrown in for fun (perhaps for the ben efit of the spectators?), Paul again easily exceeded the requirements. All in all a really impressive performance: 3 strength sets (upper torso, shoulders, arms) with over 70 individual repetitions completed successfully in only 5 minutes! Test exercise 5 (lying crunches): This was the only test exercise that caused Paul some difficulty beforehand – due to an ongoing genetic back problem over a number of years (Spondylolisthesis in the lumbar region), but which he now manages successfully thanks to compe tent medical help and most of all regular loosening and strengthening exercises. But, with a bit of effort, he managed despite his back problems, to fulfil the test requirements (a total of 80 repeti tions). Test exercise 6 (sit & reach exercise): Paul also successfully completed the last hur dle of the test – oh so very carefully and without any jerking motions (because of his back problem). Overall result: 6 test exercises – 6 x GOLD requirements met. The logical result is the GOLD fit ness sport badge. Many congratulations! After the test Paul had also set aside time for a 15 minute rest which I promptly exploited for a short but very enlighten ing interview with him. We talked over a delicious coffee in the club bistro:

Paul Underberg receives his Fitness Test certificate from Dr. Rolf Krempel

Rolf Krempel : Paul, many congratula tions on achieving your Gold fitness sport badge. With such excellent test results my first question has to be about your sport ing past. Tell me a little about it. Paul Underberg : I‘ve been doing fitness and strength training since 1975, I‘ve played squash for 10 years and have par ticipated in mountain biking and motor sports. RK : How have you kept yourself fit over the past years for career, private and maybe even for new sporting challenges? PU : Sport 4-5 x per week, 2-3 x strength training; 2-3 x cardio training on a machine, sandbag training or mountain biking. „No time“ is no excuse for me. When I‘m travelling I take advantage of gym co-operation agreements and train there or in my hotel. RK : Why have you only just decided to gain a fitness sport badge? PU : Because I‘ve only recently consid ered the idea more seriously and because I want to come across as a believable role model. RK : I‘m under the impression that because of current trends such as well ness, function training, therapies, lifestyle, etc. the sporting ideal at many gyms has been lost and possibly many owners and instructors no longer feel that they are able to actively promote traditional sport ing disciplines such as chin-ups, dips, push-ups etc. Wouldn‘t a renaissance of these classic strength training exercises, such as strength training itself (see the magazines Focus, Spiegel) be a positive contribution in terms of the core com petencies of our industry? Would it not somehow represent the regaining of our industry‘s self confidence?

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