WEST Vancouver's Richard Roston hates burpees.
Who wouldn't? Get down on your belly, face pressed to the ground, then clamber up to your feet and jump up into the air. Then drop right down onto your face again and do it all over.
"Burpees are just gassing," says Roston. "There's nothing nice about them."
There he was a month ago, however, ripping off burpees for seven straight minutes at Evolution gym in West Vancouver while a crowd of onlookers cheered him on. It obviously wasn't just for fun - burpees was workout No. 1 of the 2012 Crossfit Open Games, a unique event that allows athletes from around the world to compete against each other in identical fitness workouts. Five different tasks are introduced over a five-week stretch and competitors have a short window to complete each workout - verified either by a certified trainer or through video review - and submit their results to a website that tallies up the scores in categories ranging from open male and female up to age 60+ masters.
Roston popped up and down 103 times in seven minutes to begin this year's Open Games.
"Everyone has a strategy," Roston says about repetitive events like burpees. "You're pretty good up until about
the four minute mark, five minute mark - you can keep it pretty steady. But at that point everyone hits the wall and it's just a matter of whatever you can do to keep getting up and jumping each time."
Over the following four weeks other workouts tested the world's fitness freaks, including such favourites as powerlifting, box jumps, wall balls, jump rope doubleunders, and pull-ups, some done on their own and others as part of a set of tasks to be repeated over and over. When the weeks were up Roston was the top Canadian finisher and second in the world in the 55-59 age group. North Vancouver's Terry Peters finished 15th in the world in the same category and West Vancouver's Troy Straith placed seventh in the world in the 50-54 age group.
Finishing inside the top-20 in the world has earned all three athletes a ticket to the World Crossfit Games scheduled for July 13-15 in Carson City, Calif. The three competitors show just how varied crossfit athletes can be - while Straith is a trainer and owns Evolution gym, Peters is the managing editor of the North Shore News.
"Terry's nickname is Bull because he's a bull of the woods, he won't stop," says Roston with a laugh. "He just keeps on going no matter what."
Roston's day job is as a dentist. He's practiced out of an office in Park Royal Shopping Centre for the past 20 years. Both Roston and Peters came to Crossfit after years spent in martial arts - pursuits that led to some questions from Roston's dental patients.
"I think they kept an eye on me once I started the martial arts and I used to come in with my black eyes - they were kind of wondering what that was about," he says. "But my patients are very supportive. They know what I'm doing and I get a lot of encouragement when they come in. It's exciting."
Other North Shore athletes in the open male and female categories will get a chance to join the three masters at the World Games by competing in the Canada West Games scheduled for April 27-29 at the Richmond Olympic Oval. For that event the top-60 Open Games competitors from British Columbia to Manitoba will battle it out for two berths in the World Games.
The Canada West Games are the big show for most local Crossfit competitors, says Dave Kitchen, the owner of Deep Cove's Pure Athletics gym who is also in charge of running next weekend's event at the Oval. Spectators are encouraged to come and watch the family-friendly action with tickets costing $25 for the weekend or $10 per day.
On the men's side Corey Auger, Mike Waugh and Scott Tasaka from the North Shore will all be competing at the Canada West Games while on the women's side Mandy Gill, Kaitlyn Chernomas, Ainslie Kehler and Romayne Stewart have all qualified for the regional.
The strength of the crossfit games lies in its inclusiveness and communal spirit, says Kitchen. That will be on display next weekend at the Oval.
"I don't know any other athletic sport where, when the athletes are competing . . . and one of them finishes first and they've won, they then go over and cheer on the other people, like right in their face, to coach them and encourage them to come in sixth place or 10th place or 20th place," says Kitchen. "It's all about everybody succeeding."
The sport's exploding popularity validates those philosophies. Approximately 25,000 logged on to register their scores for last year's Open Games. This year the number was around 68,000. ESPN will livestream the World Games on their website and provide television coverage for some of the events.
"People are starting to move away from traditional forms of exercise because they need more support - going and doing things by yourself is not a lot of fun," says Kitchen. "The idea with crossfit is that anyone can do it. Everything we do, although some of it may be difficult, is scaleable to the individual. We don't want it to be based on what people can afford or how far people live away from gyms."
There's also, obviously, the fitness benefits.
"I think I'm probably in the best shape I've ever been in," 58year-old Roston says. "With Crossfit you can actually go full-out, and are encouraged to go full-out, every time you do a workout. It's quite challenging to be able to put everything you've got into it, every single day you go out. It's a bit of a rush."
The Crossfit movement, particularly the Games, has some lofty goals.
"They've got some buzz words for it, but basically it's 'who can do the most work over varying distances and times?'" says Roston. "What they're really trying to test for, eventually - and this is what the games are aimed at - is finding the fittest man and woman in the world. That's one of the reasons it's so inclusive this time, trying to get everybody involved."
For more information on the Crossfit World Games, Open Games and Canada West Games visit the website games.crossfit. com.
