Crossfit Image: Lyndon Marceau / Incite Images

FIRST TIME

“You’re always going to be nervous going in the first time – newcomers might think they’re not going to be able to do it. And that’s our job as coaches. We have introductory sessions where we’ll go through the whole thing. You’re given a  basic workout to get a taste of it, and then you come back for a session. It’s definitely a journey for those first few weeks, and it does take a lot of compassion from the coaches to support people through that because it does take time. People are always worried about what others are going to think; we reassure them that everyone was in their shoes when they first started. But I haven’t yet met anyone who cannot do Crossfit. I haven’t met anyone it doesn’t suit. You can see videos all over the internet of people doing Crossfit – some with injuries or disabilities. You work around that. Give anyone a chance, let them enjoy something different, push all stereotypes and assumptions out of the way, and they enjoy it and stick by it.  The amount of people who have said it’s changed their life ... I’m one of them.”

COMPETITION

“Around October last year, Brian came to me and asked if I’d like to join him as a coach – I had realised that this is something I’m going to do for the rest of my life – I won’t care how slow I’m doing it. I think he saw that. It wasn’t planned – just meant to be.

“There’s always a healthy amount of competition in the workouts, but it’s to a different level. It’s fun. People like to push against each other, and if they didn’t have that class environment then I guess they’d struggle to get to new levels. You might not compete directly against the people around you, but you compete against the achievements they’ve made and try and make that same level.

“Around the country, gyms have comps to promote themselves or get the Crossfit community together. It’s all in the spirit of fun, and if someone wins, you just appreciate how hard they’ve worked because you know yourself how hard it was.

“I’d only been going three months or so when I learned about the open, online, worldwide comp last year. They release one workout a week for six weeks. You do each of them, get your times validated by your gym, and then the top 60 men and women go on to Regionals. Brian said it only costs five bucks to register, so give it a crack and see where you’re at. Well, I made it into the top 60 and went down to Sydney and competed there. I faced a whole new world of challenges. But I used it as an experience, and finished 19th. I didn’t qualify for the World Games, but I definitely got a fire in my belly after that.

“I’ll never forget one of the workouts that I had. The deadlift was much heavier than anything I had ever achieved in training; you have to complete the one exercise before you can move on to the next workout, and there’s usually two or three to complete in total. I had to do 21 of those deadlifts at a weight I’d never lifted before. I really struggled with it, but I just pushed through it and learnt so much about myself. It was a real challenge for me, but I didn’t have a choice but to try my hardest. I had girls cheering me on who I’d never met before; the entire crowd was cheering me on – and from then on I knew that this is what I wanted to do.”