Lifestyle

Fit fam, see how strong you are at Under Armour Combine!

The fitness competition makes its debut in Manila, pooling in a total cash prize pool of P680,000

Published

September 10, 2023

MJ Jucutan

Heads up, all athletes and fitness freaks!

Under Armour’s COMBINE — the largest fitness competition that benchmarks an athlete’s performance — is back for a second year. The successful debut last year brought in over 1,200 participants across four countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia.

This year, Under Armour expands the competition, pooling athletes from diverse sports and training disciplines in the Philippines.

Testing your limits

UA COMBINE will see competitors testing their limits in a total of eight physical and mental tests devised by Under Armour‘s Global Head of Athlete Performance, Michael Watts.

Each test challenges an athlete’s agility, stamina, vertical, power, endurance, strength, speed, and cognition. The eight tests will focus on the following:

Agility Star Drill (Agility)
Pull-up Beep Test (Stamina)
Vertical Jump Test (Vertical)
20m Sled Push (Power)
20m Beep Test (Endurance)
3RM Bench Press (Strength)
40 Yard Dash (Speed)
Reactive Intelligence Wall (Cognition)

A glimpse of your strengths and weaknesses

Under Armour has been hosting Train to Win sessions in the Philippines before the inaugural COMBINE event slated in November. On its fourth leg, Under Armour and Avantgarde Fitness mounted a fitness test at Activate Sports where I got invited to participate. The event also invited athletes from various disciplines such as CrossFit and Obstacle Course Racing.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jaye (@hemjaye)

The session covered seven out of eight tests, pushing athletes to top their benchmarks through shuttle runs, wall balls, bench presses, max height box jumps, strict pull-ups, and burpee box jumps overs.

Going through various tests made me realize what I’m good at and what are my deficits. My stamina, endurance, and vertical are quite good, and I’ve been exceptional at speed and agility — thanks to my background competing in obstacle course racing.

However, I’ve been struggling with strength and cognition which gave me insights on what to work on before the actual competition.

Tweaks and then some

As part of the brand’s continuous efforts to better define athletic performance, the UA COMBINE 2023 will see significant tweaks made.

As opposed to a more traditional sargeant jump from last year, the standing vertical leap test will have competitors assessed through force plates. This accurately measures an individual’s upward propulsion force.

The cognition station will also use the Reactive Intelligence Wall used by professional athletes in Formula 1 and the NBA. With six light pods positioned on a vertical wall, participants will be tasked with tapping out as many blue pods as possible in 30 seconds. The test will measure reaction time, decision-making, and attention skills when doing so.

Happening in November

UA COMBINE 2023 is slated to happen on November 19, 2023, at the SM Megamall Megatrade Hall. The competition is open to 350 competitors and all participating athletes will receive a full set of Under Armour competitor gear on the event day.

Points will be earned for each completed test and athletes will be ranked according to their final result, with medals and cash prizes of PHP200,000, PHP100,000, and PHP40,000 awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place athletes in both the men’s and women’s divisions respectively.

Moreover, Under Armour lowers the entry age to encourage younger athletes aged 16 to 18 to compete. Under Armour products worth PhP 50,000 for the top male and female youths await.

For those who want to compete as a team, participants are encouraged to form a group of four. The scores of each individual on the team will be totaled to a team score. Then, the highest team score will bring home PHP80,000 worth of Under Armour gear.

For further information on UA COMBINE 2023, including competition rules and how to register, please visit the official website www.uacombineph.com, or follow @underarmourPH on Instagram using #UACOMBINEPH.

Entertainment

UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony gets two more shows

Both shows will be held on the next day.

Published

August 21, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

The Philippines has an unquenchable love for game-based concerts (so *wink wink* please bring more of them). Though these concerts do generate a lot of hype, the drawback is that they often sell out way before most fans can grab tickets. If you’re an UNDERTALE fan, that experience might be rocking you right now, as both shows have already sold out. But fear not: UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony has just opened two more shows.

Late last month, Film Concerts PH, in partnership with SOHO Live, announced UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony happening on October 17. As expected, both shows, at 3pm and at 7pm, sold out very quickly after sales opened.

Today, the concert experience is opening two more shows on the next day, October 18. Like the original date, the two shows will happen at 3pm and at 7pm, allowing more fans to experience the concert.

The concert will be performed by the Filharmonika Orchestra and conducted by Thanapol Setabrahmana. Personally curated by creator Toby Fox and developed by Lambert Jackson with Materia Music, the concert experience showcases the game’s most recognizable tunes laid over gameplay footage playing simultaneously. Plus, for the world tour, the experience will have expanded scoring.

Tickets are available through Ticketmelon. Both dates will be held at The Proscenium Theater in Makati.

Entertainment

Here’s what you should watch before Avengers: Doomsday

The road to Doom begins here.

Published

August 18, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

As of today, the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will take around 650 hours to watch. So, if you wanted to catch up with everything before this December’s Avengers: Doomsday, you would need to allot around 5 hours per day to watch content from Marvel. For a lot of us, that sort of commitment is completely untenable. Thankfully, Marvel has released an official watchlist, paring the list down to something much more manageable.

Before the MCU got as big as it is today, it was fun to do a movie marathon heading into a major Marvel release. For example, when Avengers: Endgame came out, some theaters held continuous marathons lasting a few days. Take note that this was before Marvel officially included every TV show and legacy movie (like the X-Men universe).

Now, heading into Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel will not ask you to devote the rest of your year just for homework. Instead, here’s an official list you can use to catch up:

X-Men
X2
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Endgame
Loki
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Captain America: Brave New World
Deadpool & Wolverine
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Thunderbolts
The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Compared to the extensive list of everything Marvel, this official list is much more manageable, especially since there’s only one show (Loki). It’s also a veritable who’s who of the MCU, so it’s hard to get bored.

The official list as seen on Disney+

There are, however, a few surprises and spoilers. For one, if you’ve been avoiding the teasers and trailers, the X-Men films might be a shock to you. Likewise, the inclusion of the critically panned Brave New World is interesting.

The exclusions are just as noteworthy, too. Though the two earliest X-Men films are included, the list doesn’t add Days of Future Past, one of the first Marvel films to use time travel. Thor: Love and Thunder isn’t on here, despite Love, Thor’s adopted daughter, appearing in the trailers. Brand New Day is also missing, but that’s likely because the movie isn’t on Disney+ yet.

Avengers: Doomsday premieres in cinemas on December 18. Four months should be enough time to catch up on these titles.

Entertainment

Marvel Studios unveils new X-Men cast

Adam Driver, Inde Navarette, more join Sadie Sink for film set for May 2028

Published

August 17, 2026

GadgetMatch

Courtesy: Marvel

At the D23 Disney fan event, Marvel Studios has officially unveiled the cast of the new X-Men movie, which has been announced for a May 5, 2028 premiere.

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and director Jake Schreier were joined onstage by Sadie Sink, who made her debut as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, for the showcase.

The trio then welcomed Sink’s new co-stars: Kit Connor as Scott Summers/Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, and Maya Boyd as Storm.

Finally, Adam Driver crashed the panel with one final video surprise, where he revealed that he will be playing a very sinister figure named Nathaniel Milbury, a.k.a. Mister Sinister.

Mister Sinister has been a recurring antagonist throughout various X-Men media, including in Season 2 of the 1992 animated series and in the first season of X-Men ’97.

Now, he will serve as the main villain in the new X-Men film that jumpstarts the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Mutant Saga.

Given the initial cast, this X-Men reboot will be set in the earlier stages of the team’s lifecycle, taking audiences back to how the school built its foundation for a faithful setup based in the comics. Although within the MCU chronology, it will be set in the present day.

The rebooted X-Men film is now the third confirmed feature film in the post-Multiverse Saga MCU, after Black Panther 3 and Ghost Rider.