Congratulations to Mishkeegogamang's Davery Bottle!

The Grade 9 Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School student is the grand prize winner of the Daily SEVEN Fitness Challenge.

“I didn’t do very good at the first test,” Bottle said after being told he was the challenge’s first place finisher. “I did all the exercises three times a week as was asked, so yeah I’m really happy all that work paid off.”

The challenge’s winner was determined based on three factors: strength, endurance and flexibility using a series of five tests that were provided by Lakehead University’s School of Kinesiology. The tests included, the Queens Step test to measure cardio strength and endurance, the V Sit and Reach test to measure flexibility, the Partial Crunch test to measure core strength, Right Angle Push Up test to measure upper body strength, and 90 Degree Wall Sit to measure leg/lower body strength.

“For me, the wall sit test was the hardest,” he said. “My legs started shaking and burning right away, and the other thing I learned from doing that first test was that I need to work on my upper body strength so I started doing more pushups.”

Aaron Guthrie, who opens the school’s gym and weight room for the students as part of an after school program, said Bottle was a regular fixture at the school in the evenings after classes had let out.

“He was diligent about getting in to work out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” he said, adding Bottle would stay for the hour-and-a-half that is allotted for the school’s program. “He’s very conscious about his health.”

The School of Kinesiology was able to determine the challenge’s winner by plotting the initial results of each participant on a graph and comparing their initial test results against their final test results at the conclusion of the seven-week challenge. The race amounted to what one person could accomplish in terms of building on their personal strength, endurance and flexibility from the time they were first tested to the time of their last test and then having their progress compared to all the other challenge’s participants, said Glen Paterson, Kinesiology program co-ordinator.

“Compared to the second, third and other place finishers, this young man showed the most progress,” he said after all the results had been tabulated. To put it in layman’s terms: if it were a horse race, Bottle would have come in first and then a minute or so later, the second, third and other place finishers would have come in within seconds of one another in a pack.

“There was quite a difference between the first place finisher and that of the remaining finishers,” Paterson said.

More than 30 people had registered for the challenge.

“The final results represent the biggest, hardest workout that I have ever done in my life,” Bottle said, adding there were points during the testing where he wanted to give up. “But my two buddies who came to watch me take the test pushed me by cheering me on so I gave it all I got. This challenge showed me that if I put my mind to something that I can achieve what I want. It’s a good feeling.”

Daily SEVEN Fitness Challenge would not have been possible without the overwhelming support and leadership of Keewaytinook Okimakanak Health.