Dozens of musclemen crowded Bale Kota Mall in Tangerang on Saturday for Indonesia'€™s inaugural workout competition, dubbed the Indonesia Street Workout Championship.

Four sets of steel jungle bars of different heights were installed in the middle of the shopping center, which became a playground for the jocks, wearing plain shirts, sweatpants and exercise shoes.

Held by Workout Embassy and supported by Street Workout Indonesia, the competition was touted as the first of its kind in Indonesia.

Workout Embassy is an exercise enthusiast community whose members seek free workouts using public facilities. Founder Adhitya Lesmana, who works as a banker, said that the competition aimed to gather all the exercise enthusiast communities in Indonesia. Thus far, he said, 48 communities have joined.

'€œWe want to meet all the street workout communities in Indonesia. We also want more people to know about our activities and join our community, because exercising is useful for the human body,'€ Adhitya told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the competition.

The competition has two categories: maximum repetition and freestyle.

'€œThis week is the maximum repetition competition. In maximum repetition, participants would be tested by how many dips, pull-ups, push-ups and muscle-ups they can do. There are specific sets of rules for these, for example, their legs must always be straight during the repetition, and so on,'€ he said.

Next weekend, participants would be tested on their freestyle abilities on the jungle bars and judged by Malaysia Street Workout champion Captain Joe Barragazz. Seven winners will have a chance to participate in the Asia Street Workout Championships in Singapore in June. They will also earn medals and a cash prize.

'€œThere are participants from all over the country, such as from Padang, Lampung, Pontianak, Balikpapan, Makassar, Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Malang, Yogyakarta, Bogor and Bandung. We'€™re excited to meet everyone,'€ Adhitya said.

Thirty-four-year-old banker Victor Agustono Putra came from Surabaya, East Java, to compete in the championship.

'€œIt'€™s very exciting because this championship is the first of its kind in Indonesia. My friends and I are staying at a nearby hotel. We'€™re excited to meet communities from other cities because thus far we'€™ve only talked through social media. For example, I met Adhitya through Instagram and we'€™ve only communicated through WhatsApp,'€ Victor said.

Victor is a co-founder of a Surabaya street workout community known as Draconian, which has been active since 2013.

'€œHopefully, more and more people will recognize our activities and join us, because street workouts are not only healthy, but also free,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, 25-year-old Moehamad Reza, a hotel cook, came from Padang, South Sumatra, to compete this week. He said he would return to Sumatra for work and come back to Jakarta next week for the freestyle competition.

'€œIt doesn'€™t matter if I win or lose. I'€™m already really excited to be here with people who share the same interests,'€ he said.

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