Picture this: it's shoulder season and your mountain bike is stowed away. There are weeks to go until you can break out the skis or snowboard. You want to move your body intentionally, but you're not quite sure what to do.
Maybe you could go for a run—even though the days are getting shorter, colder and greyer. Perhaps you could hit up Meadow Park Sports Centre and watch as packs of mullet-sporting hockey boys occupy every machine you wanted to use.
Would CrossFit enter your mind?
A lot of you might hesitate, or outright laugh. You may think CrossFit is a gimmick, or you may be under the impression (as I once was) that all who participate are blessed with Olympic-calibre athleticism and bodies which look like they're sculpted from granite.
Those elites represent merely part of the picture, as local CrossFit affiliate owner Jordan Glasser wants people to know.
"Nothing's really come around that I've seen more effective than CrossFit at helping people get fit for health, life and sport—from weekend warriors all the way through to Olympians, professional mountain bikers and budding athletes," said Glasser, who founded Opus Athletics in 2006. "We train in groups, and it's fun."
He added: "I've seen countless professional athletes get pushed because a mom is outworking them, and they've got to pull up their bootstraps and go to that extra level in an area that may not even be their forte. All of that really breeds, I think, an environment to help people get fit for all of their sports."
Crystal-Rose Lee concurs. The ex-professional freeskier has been an Opus regular for four years, with experience in alpine ski racing, ski cross, pole vault, javelin and sprinting earlier in life.
"CrossFit is functional training—not just one movement up and down or left to right, but a full-body experience," she said. "There are very knowledgeable coaches at most CrossFit gyms, especially Opus in Whistler. A lot of people at our gym love to play outside. The programming really sets them up to bike and ski faster and longer, to climb mountains and land big cliffs if they want to."
'We're all here to lift each other up'
Although Glasser is one of the fittest men in his late 40s you'll probably meet, he's never been a top-flight athlete. He did play all kinds of sports in his youth, and discovered CrossFit in 2004 during the regimen's early days in Seattle. Glasser then resolved to bring this new fitness philosophy home to Whistler—a place he loves for its mountains and potential for adventure.
Two of CrossFit's main pillars, according to Glasser, are establishing a robust base of overall fitness and working out in a practical manner.
"[People] who want to get good at a specific sport sometimes think of training only for that sport, and that's wrong for kids and adults," Glasser explained. "It leads us down a path with way too many overuse injuries. Smart training always involves periodization [of exercise]. It always involves timelines and progressive overload. And the strength you build in the gym is going to apply to the real world."
CrossFit workouts draw from many other disciplines like Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), powerlifting and more. Glasser and his fellow coaches mix in exercises relevant to the Sea to Sky's most popular sports: isometric strength work for skiing and snowboarding, and an Opus original spin-style class dubbed "RideFit" for biking.
Lee knows first-hand skiing is dynamic. You have to be willing and able to navigate constantly changing terrain, poised in the face of the unknown. CrossFit helps her to do just that: lateral box jumps improve side-to-side mobility, while squats, power cleans and wall ball throws develop muscular endurance so she can carry a 60-pound backpack on a multi-day ski-touring trip.
One somewhat-infamous October class featured a 10-minute wall sit. Each time you needed a break, you had to do 10 goblet lunges. Four gym members made it through the entire ordeal unbroken, proving their legs to be ready for the grind of a double-black diamond trail.
"As crazy as that is, it was only possible because of the group environment," remarked Glasser. "Someone decided that they were going to try it, and three others said: 'I'm going to try it too.' So much magic happens because we're all here to lift each other up."
All CrossFit movements can be modified to accommodate less physically-gifted or experienced individuals—including the elderly. For instance, pull-ups can be done with resistance bands and gruelling HIIT circuits can be scaled down in time or intensity. Those who are nursing a short-term or long-term ailment can also benefit from quality coaches who teach them how to move in a safe and beneficial manner.
Foundational training
You might think shoulder season would bring a temporary but noticeable influx of new clients to Opus, but attendance trends are more nuanced than that. The gym's culture may help explain why.
"Generally speaking, our clientele will just change the frequency of which they're here [throughout the year]," noted Glasser. "What we hope to do is capture someone who's looking to get ready for ski season and change their mind about what training is. Perhaps they spent the summer mountain biking. They've got a window of opportunity that they feel is time to get fit for skiing.
"They give us a call, we take them through our Foundations program and they see themselves get exponentially fitter. They're kicking butt skiing, and we really hope they don't want to lose [that progress]. We definitely have seasonal members that don't come to the gym during bike season or vice versa, but our goal is to help them realize we offer something special they can use all year round."
Opus' client base also includes pre-teens aged 10 to 12 and teenagers between 13 and 18 years old. The idea of youngsters lifting weights has long been viewed in a negative light, but Glasser doesn't believe the stigma is warranted.
"There's a lot of myths tied into exercise being dangerous for kids," he posited. "In training kids, we ask: 'what's their body awareness level?' When their body awareness is rather low, we're looking for fitness adaptations often based around jumping or plyometrics. This is a really good stress on the body that does make it want to improve, as stress is the key for improvement. As their understanding of their bodies increases, then we start introducing weights. It can vary from person to person."
CrossFit is by no means the only viable option for Sea to Sky denizens hoping to whip themselves into shape for Whistler Blackcomb's opening day, but it does provide a balanced fitness menu that translates to all kinds of progress. Whether you give it a shot or choose a different training method, be wise in your approach and consistent in your effort.
Lee emphasizes that some form of legitimate coaching is vital for success on the slopes, as is the ability to give yourself grace.
"Take it slow, be kind to yourself and set small goals," she advised. "Falling is part of it, and getting fit to take the falls is part of it. Leave your ego at the door…and take a lesson from a professional. Don't have your partner or your best friend teach you if they've never taught skiing before.
"At the end of the day, you probably won't keep up with the sport if you feel like you're trying to survive the entire time. Skiing is leisure—it's supposed to be fun, so don't take yourself too seriously."
