Athens -- The exercise wasn't humiliating, but it was humbling for several members of Georgia's football team.

The task was to hold a handstand. The object was to hold it longer than anyone on the gymnastics team. Former running back Danny Ware held his longer than any of his teammates. Then Courtney Kupets started to play dirty.

AP (ENLARGE)

Courtney Kupets and her Gym Dogs teammates schooled UGA football players in the weight room.

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With Ware struggling to maintain balance and composure, Kupets started lifting her right hand and touching her left shoulder and lifting her left hand and touching her right shoulder, all with her legs straight in the air and a grin on her face.

Ware never had a chance. Neither did the rest of the football players when it came to the "Challenge of the Champions," a weight room competition put on two years ago to find out which team was stronger.

"I definitely think it was eye-opening for the football players," gymnast Abby Stack said. "They were a little bit faster runners. But I think strength-wise, pound for pound, we got them every time. More push-ups, more pull-ups, more jump rope, more leg lifts, more handstands, just every thing."

"They are unbelievable," cornerback Asher Allen said. "The things that they could do. We dusted them in sprints, but everything else, man, they are awesome."

What the gymnasts are is a group of the smallest athletes on Georgia's campus -- many hover at or below five feet and at or below 100 pounds -- who are the strongest athletes on Georgia's campus. The Gym Dogs will show off that strength again today at the SEC Championships going on at the Gwinnett Arena.

"Pound for pound, they are pretty special," Georgia football coach Mark Richt said. "They are muscled up now. When you see them from about the 20th row you don't really get a gauge of how strong they are unless you are sitting right there at the floor or you see them in the weight room. You can tell they are built."

Not in the way that linebacker Dannell Ellerbe or running back Knowshon Moreno is built. There is no question when it comes to lifting or squatting, football is going to have the strongest athletes. But when you consider what the gymnasts can accomplish given their size ...

"Anything that is body-weight orientated they are going to dominate," said Josh Rucci, the Gym Dogs' strength and conditioning coach.

Like sit-ups, for instance. In that competition, former safety Kelin Johnson managed 60 in a minute. Kupets had 63. Pull ups? Nobody on the football team could make 20. Kupets hadn't broken a sweat at 20.

"For us it is a different type of strength," sophomore Grace Taylor said. "A lot of people will ask you how much do you squat or bench press and all that. I just know those terms; I don't really know what that is because I have never done it in my life."

What she has done and what every other gymnast at Georgia has done since they were 6 is work out. In football, maybe in high school a coach takes the time to implement a proper weight training program. In gymnastics, if you are an in elite program, you have been weight training since age 6, working to get lean muscle mass.

"It's kind of like boot-camp environment every summer since you are 6 years old, where people are crying and wanting to go home and it's like, 'I don't know who does this?' or 'Who lets their kids do this?' " Taylor said.

Then, like now, there were no weights involved. Only the gymnast's body weight is used. If weights are involved it might bulk up the athletes and steal some of their flexibility. But sometimes as a child, Taylor, who as a sophomore is a sinewy 5 feet tall, had to put the littler kids on her back as she went through conditioning drills.

Gymnastics coach Suzanne Yoculan said it was also important to consider the fact that every time a gymnast goes through practice, every muscle in her body is getting a workout. And these gymnasts have been practicing since they could walk.

"Just doing the sport itself is like bodybuilding," she said. "A football player has to go to the weight room to build pecs and build lats. You don't necessarily build pecs and lats by throwing a football. But you build pecs and lats doing uneven bars every day. So we have the weight room and the sport itself to body strengthen and condition."

They also have motivation that might be unparalleled.

"You should see them in here when they do exercises," said Rucci, who has worked with other sports at Georgia and the Chicago Bulls. "They are sprinting around in here. Their heart rate is up the whole time. They are the most intrinsically motivated people I have ever dealt with."

Which is why the gymnasts are looking for a Challenge of the Champions rematch. Only this time, Taylor said she had a better plan.

"We need to have a field day with all the athletes here to get rid of some of those false notions about who thinks they are strong and who actually is strong," she said.