Seven students and a judging panel later, we have a winner. Sophomore Anthony Napolitano won FAU’s first bench-press competition with a lift of 405 pounds.

The competition, held on March 25 in the Fitness and Recreation Center on the Boca campus, was broken down into two categories.

First, the students were separated by sex. Then, they were grouped by their strength and ability, which was determined by the level of FAU weight classes in which they were enrolled. These specifications enabled the competition to be as fair as possible.

Winners of the competition were determined through the ratio of how much a person weighed to how much that person lifted. Whoever got the highest ratio, in each category, won. Each winning contestant received a T-shirt and a certificate of completion.
“It’s just what we do,” says overall bench press winner Napolitano, a criminal justice major, on why lifting is a lifestyle for him and most of the other competitors.

The lifestyle of lifting isn’t as easy as it seems. Competitor Peter Fernandini, a junior in economics with a record of lifting 305 pounds, says that, when training, he often has to consume up to 4,000 calories a day.

The entire bench press competition was sponsored by Met-Rx Supplements, which provided giveaways and samples of their nutritional supplements and nutrition bars.
“The purpose of this event is to get more people involved in campus recreation, and it’s more directly fitness-related,” says Sarah Samad, an FAU fitness graduate assistant and an organizer of the bench-pressing event.

Future Fitness and Recreation events include the Fit-Fest in mid April, which will showcase all of the fitness activities on campus and provide hands-on work with FAU physical trainers, and a possible FAU Strong Man Competition in the fall.