CrossFit: Global workout tests athletes

Bayley Martin, 15, competing in the inaugural Bay of Plenty Open for CrossFit athletes, held in Ngongotaha at the weekend. Photo / Ben Fraser

Some of the fittest people in the province have taken part in the inaugural Bay of Plenty Open set-up for CrossFit athletes.

CrossFit - which is both a physical exercise and a fitness sport - has exploded in popularity during the last decade after starting in California in 2000.

CrossFit Rotorua owner Munro Waerea has started up a Bay of Plenty Open series for local athletes wanting to compete in the fitness sport.

The series began on Saturday in Ngongotaha and will feature five events over consecutive weekends.

"I wanted to bring all the gyms together and the community together and give our athletes an environment to compete in, so when we go away to bigger competitions we are not so shell-shocked," Waerea said.

"CrossFit competitions [in Rotorua] have been going for a while but this is the first time we have invited the whole of the Bay of Plenty together."

What makes the inaugural series quite remarkable is people all over the world are doing the exact same thing.

The CrossFit Games Open, which also began on Saturday, is a world-wide competition which doubles as the first step towards qualifying for the pinnacle of the sport, the CrossFit Games in America.

Every Friday for five weeks a new workout is announced online and competitors across the globe have to complete the workout within a few days, and submit their score online. Waerea said the Bay of Plenty Open was running alongside the CrossFit Games Open - using all the same workouts before submitting their scores online.

"CrossFit is about preparing for the unknown. We didn't know what this workout would be until Friday but we were training for any situation," he said.

The workout the athletes had to complete at the weekend included lunges, while holding a weight above their head, followed by burpees, chest pull ups, and more lunges. Athletes had to do as many reps as possible in 20 minutes.

Genevieve Bergeron, 21, is a CrossFit trainer in Rotorua and said it was a tough workout but a lot of fun. She said she first got into the fitness sport while living back home in Canada.

"I wanted to get fit but I could not go to a regular gym because I had no idea what I was doing."

So she enlisted a friend and they went along to a CrossFit gym to try it out.

"I fell in love with it and the whole family atmosphere of it. And you are progressing every day ... plus I like being told what to do."

All CrossFit athletes start with the same exercise routines and progress together through the different training stages. There are two official CrossFit gyms in Rotorua - CrossFit Rotorua on Old Taupo Rd and CrossFit Te Arawa on White St.

The next Bay of Plenty Open event is being staged this Saturday at CrossFit Taupo.