Baggies can hit PEAK fitness levels! EXCLUSIVE TASKMASTER DAN UNVEILS EVEREST TEST TO ENSURE..

Byline: BY ANDY WALKER 

ALBION fitness guru Dan Harris wants the Baggies to conquer the Premier League - but not before they've tackled Mount Everest!

Since joining Tony Mowbray's men from local rivals Birmingham City in the summer, head of sports science Harris is on a mission to make Albion one of the fittest teams in the land.

The Cheltenham-born trainer is behind a state-of-the-art fitness set-up at the Hawthorns which is helping Mowbray's men remain in peak condition and avoid the treatment table.

And when the 28-year-old is finished, mighty Manchester United will seem like a walk in the park because the Baggies will be able to take on the world.

To help keep Mowbray's squad motivated, Harris has introduced a gym-based challenge known as the 'Seven Wonders of the World'.

To get Albion prepared for the might of the top flight, Harris wants to see the players climb Everest, cycle a mountainous route of the Tour de France and row the English Channel.

But that doesn't involve worn-out players jetting abroad in between games, the testing tasks are all done on exercise equipment at the club's Great Barr training ground.

"We've set out a challenge down in the gym which is a bit of fun as well called the Seven Wonders of the World," said Harris, a Loughborough University graduate.

"It involves the players using the bikes, treadmills and rowing machines to run through several different challenges.

"They include climbing Everest, cycling from the Hawthorns to Wembley, rowing the Channel, running around the pitch at every team in the football league and various others.

"The players can choose which one they tackle and then their results go up on a chart in the gym.

They all seem to enjoy it once they get into it and it gets quite competitive.

"Rather than just spending a set amount of time on a treadmill, this is a way of keeping them motivated. It's especially good for the injured lads who are forced to spend a lot of time in the gym.

"It's a good way of the lads comparing each other's strengths and it's just something a bit different, it seems to have gone down well."

Harris, who works under the maxim 'quicker, stronger, fitter, more resilient', has been putting the Albion squad through their paces for the last three months.

When the players aren't imagining that they are climbing the world's highest mountain, they're back to basics with good old fashioned running on the training ground.

So Harris, who has also worked for Peterborough United and Coventry City, has a pretty good idea of who leads from the front.

But he refuses to single out the fittest member of the squad and instead describes the Albion troops as a mixed bag.

"We've got a squad that are very mixed, some players are very quick and perhaps can't run so much then you've got lads who can run all day long. It would be hard to put your finger on one person as the fittest.

"What I look at really is: can we help these lads reach their potential?

You can't put in what God has left out, what I can do is try and help these players reach their potential.

"Whether that is one of the youngpros just breaking through and can we help him be the best he can be physically or just an older pro where I think can we help him recover quickly in between games. I don't set standards and say everybody should reach these standards.

"Some players can be far better than they are now others are probably at their potential now. I have to treat them as individuals and get them there."

Albion are sitting in the lofty position of ninth during the current international break after an encouraging start to their return to the Premier League.

With three wins, a draw and three defeats, Albion boss Mowbray couldn't have asked for more in his first season in the top flight of English football as he attempts to steer the club away from relegation.

Harris believes that superhuman fitness levels can't guarantee you survival but he is confident that the Baggies will still be boinking in the Premier League this time next season.

"I would say to everybody I speak to and the manager would back this up, we are not looking over our shoulders as a football club. That comes from the chairman through to the manager, to the technical director and right the way through to the staff.

"We firmly believe this is a football club that can go places, we are starting to buy that. We don't believe that simply surviving in the Premier League should be ceiling of our targets.

"I'd like to think that this football club can become an established Premier League club for years to come and who knows where that takes us?

"The manager is preaching that philosophy and the chairman and board have been very forward thinking in terms of investment to the club."

andy.walker@ sundaymercury.net

CAPTION(S):

FIT FOR PURPOSE: Dan Harris puts the Baggies players through their paces