Okotoks Newspaper Article

Geoff Aucoin performs a pull up during a Crossfit competition at Natural High Crossfit. Aucoin will be at the Canadian regional qualifier for the World Crossfit Games in Okotoks on May 28-30.

Expect the unexpected at competition

12 May 2010 by Rick Northrop - Staff Reporter

The best way to define Crossfit is to say it has no definition.

The athletes who participate are plenty defined, but as a rule each workout, each contest and each day in the gym is different in Crossfit.

Some days you don’t even train in the gym.

“I have no idea what to expect actually,” said Lauren Pryor, who will be competing May 28-30 when Okotoks hosts the Central Canada Sectionals, a qualifier for the upcoming 2010 World CrossFit Games.

Crossfit is renowned for the unorthodox exercises that make up the sport and the unexpected events included in competitions.

For example, during a competition last year, Pryor saw for the first time a combined event where athletes had to row for distance on a rowing machine then pound a four-foot stake into the ground using a sledge hammer.

“You can’t prepare for it because you found out about it the day before,” said Pryor, who first tried Crossfit three years ago.

Any event that involves moving her own body weight around ranks among the least favourite for Pryor, like pull-ups.

“I’m tall. I’m five-foot nine, I’m not a gymnast size.”

Pryor prefers to do some heavy lifting.

“Ones that I do like are weightlifting (events) like squats or deadlifts,” said Pryor, who said her personal best at the dead lift is 340 pounds.

To prepare for a competition Pryor follows a blog called Optimum Performance Training that posts daily workouts, each different from the last.

“There’s a whole bunch of them out there and they post new workouts each day,” said Pryor. “So you don’t know what the workout is until the day before.”

Pryor said training in this method is like competition because she can’t prepare for a workout in advance if she doesn’t know what is coming up.

Brett Marshall of Calgary placed second at the inaugural World Crossfit Games in 2007. Marshall said he shines in short, intense events whether they involve weightlifting or gymnastics.

“I won’t be one of the larger athletes, I’ll probably be the smallest athlete,” said Marshall, who is five-foot six and 150 pounds.

At that size, Marshall said he will still place well in aerobic events such as a five-kilometre run but he doesn’t do much running in his day-to-day training.

“It’s just something for me, maybe I got tired of it when I was young, it doesn’t provide the stimulation that some of the other combination of events do for me,” said Marshall.

Performing benchmark workouts often named after tropical storms like Helen, gives Marshall a true sense of his fitness levels. Yet he shies away from doing even those workouts more than once.

“My training is fairly dynamic that way,” said Marshall. “I’m typically doing different things all the time.”

The Central Canada Sectionals will be held May 28-30 and hosted by Natural High Crossfit. For more information see www.naturalhighcrossfit.ca