"The Trend Toward STREND"
(Men's Fitness, April 1998)

You can stage your own strength-and-endurance event at your gym by simply benching your body weight and then timing yourself for three miles on the treadmill. For each successful rep, deduct 30 seconds from your running time. If you don't like competing against yourself, organize a contest with a few of your fellow gym rats.

Or you can make it more complicated and challenging, as former Delta Force member Edward Bugarin did when he developed STREND: the Strength and Fitness Challenge. "I got tired of getting beaten in road races by guys who could run but couldn't do anything else," says Bugarin, 48. "So I said, 'I'm going to invent me a sport that will test overall fitness and put these guys in their places.'"

What a test it is: Competitors are grouped into basic, open, and elite categories and must perform five upper-body exercises--benches, wide-grip pull-ups, military presses, reverse close-grip chin-ups and dips--followed by a three-mile run on the track. "I focus on functional muscles," Bugarin says. "Bench pressing 400 pounds doesn't impress me."

But the scores of last year's STREND champion will. Sonki Hong is a 27-year old, 140-pound U.S. Army Captain from Honolulu. He was allotted three minutes per exercise, including rest. Read these totals, and either weep or use them as motivation to get in shape:

• Bench press with 115 percent of his body weight: 24 reps
• Wide-grip pull-ups wit 115 percent of his body weight (an additional 21 pounds strapped to him): 17 reps
• Seated behind-the-neck military press with 60 percent of his body weight: 29 reps
• Reverse close-grip chin-ups with 115 percent of his body weight: 13 reps
• Dips with 125 percent of his body weight: 33 reps
• Three-mile run on the track: 17 minutes, 24 seconds

STREND competitions are held five to seven times a year in Hawaii and Germany, culminating with a championship event in October. For information, visit the www.strend.com website. Or write STREND, P.O. Box 25518, Honolulu, HI 96825.