A new fitness program is catching the province by storm, and this week culminated in a regional competition at Quest University.
CrossFit claims to "forge elite fitness" through an intense strength and conditioning program used by the United States Marine Corps, the Canadian Forces and dozens of police training programs across the continent.
CrossFit 麻豆社国产gym co-owner and Games co-organizer Jesse Bifano said CrossFit is an intense workout that dramatically changes people's physiques.
"It's a program that sees results. People don't show up and fiddle away at it for months and then quit. With CrossFit, about a month in, you're like 'Oh, god. My body is changing,'" he said.
One example is 20-year-old Quest student Soraya Jung, who lifted hundreds of pounds and rowed 2,000 metres in record speed to prove she is one of the top five physically fit women in the province during the CrossFit Games over the weekend (March 27 and 28).
Jung competed against 25 other women, including one other 麻豆社国产athlete, Melanie Lamoureux.
As one of the youngest female competitors at the weekend event, Jung started training at the CrossFit 麻豆社国产gym a few months ago and signed up for the Games after some encouragement by Bifano.
"I originally agreed to do this just for fun," said Jung, who hails from Salmon Arm.
Jung said she's very pleased with her fifth place finish at the sectional Games because she broke a few personal records. She shaved a whole 30 seconds off her fastest row finishing with a time of 7:46.2 and broke every personal record she had for her lifting by 10 to 50 lbs. because she managed to lift a combined weight totalling 765 lbs.
"I've never gone against anyone other than the women in the gym, so I had no idea what to compare myself to. There's definitely some women here like [top provincial competitor] Emily [Beers] who blew me out of the water, but I'm still happy," Jung said while ripping a bloody callus off her palm.
"It showed me what I could work on and also how good Jesse's training is."
As a long time runner and relative newcomer to CrossFit, Lamoureux said the Games were a great experience, even though she finished back in the pack at 20th place.
"But that's OK because it's a great place to bring my skills to the test," said the Timmins Ont. native. "Although you're competing against each other everyone cheers you on."
When Lamoureux wasn't busy competing against Jung, she was cheering on her fellow three CrossFit 麻豆社国产gym mates, Mike Rafferty, Troy Angrignon and her boyfriend Matt Kompass.
Rafferty, Argrignon and Kompass were among the 55 men who participated in the U.S. Marine Corps inspired fitness competition showing off their strength, agility, flexibility and stamina by completing a series of four gruelling workouts over the two-day event.
The first workout required athletes to power lift as much weight as possible using four lift techniques a power clean, back squat, bench press and a dead lift.
"The standards are strict. Each athletes has a judge on every single thing they do to make sure they doing the same range of motion as everyone else," Bifano said
According to Bifano the 2010 麻豆社国产CrossFit Games co-organizer, Richmond's Isaac Payne successfully dead lifted 600 lbs weights, giving him a combined total of 1,640 lbs.
The remaining workouts required athletes to complete a variety of intense and challenging activities including as many sets as possible of kettle bells swings, box jumps and burpees in a seven-minute time frame and a 2,000-metre timed row.
"So it's a pretty broad spectrum to go from a guy who lifts 600 lbs to the same guy, six hours later getting on an erg [commonly known as a rowing machine] to do a 2,000 metre row," Bifano said.
Only Jung qualified to compete at the regional CrossFit Games in Calgary Alta. in May, with Rafferty finishing in 34th place, Kompass in 35th, Angrignon in 52nd and Lamoureux in 20th.
Jung said although she's happy about qualifying but might not compete because the regionals might interfere with her work-training program for her wildfire management job with the provincial Rappattack program.
Anyone looking to ratchet up their workout can contact Bifano at www.crossfitsquamish.ca.
