Heather Wood doing CrossFit (Image: Submitted)
Local CrossFit gym owner Heather Wood has qualified to compete at the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games later next month.
CrossFit is a fitness regimen consisting of constantly varied movements done at high intensity. It focuses on core strength and conditioning and incorporates ten major fitness domains, some examples being strength, stamina, speed coordination and weight training.
“A lot of people think that you have to be fit to start CrossFit, which is so untrue,” says Wood, a head coach and owner of CrossFit Quispamsis.
In an interview, Wood explained the gym’s coaches take beginners through a fundamental program, teaching them how to do movements properly and are there to help during the entire workout.
“It’s actually better to be a beginner coming into CrossFit because then you don’t have to unlearn all the bad behaviors and movement patterns,” she said.
Wood first learned about CrossFit from a friend in 2008 when she showed her a couple of workouts on Crossfit.com when she was looking for something more challenging to pursue instead of traditional gym workouts.
Heather Wood doing CrossFit (Image: Submitted)
“I loved that every day was like a new challenge and a new test — it wasn’t just the same thing every day,” she said.
Wood started her business out of her garage in 2011, beginning with a few people in her neighborhood joining in on workouts. The gym became busier and more crowded until it moved to its current location at 47 Clark Street in Rothesay. Wood then went pro with CrossFit, leaving her job at Point Lepreau to run the gym full-time.
“We have a lot of 30-to 50-year-olds,” she shared. “We’re running some teen classes now and hoping that they’re going to stay and become full time members.”
Wood had qualified for the 2020 CrossFit Games, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competition to cancel the games.
“That was my very first time qualifying, and I’ve been doing it since 2008, so it was a huge deal and a huge disappointment,” said Wood. “That’s what I’d worked toward for the last ten years and then finally it was my chance.”
Wood’s hard work paid off a year later, with her qualifying for the CrossFit Games once again, despite a recent shoulder surgery.
She ranks fifth worldwide in her Masters’ Division out of 9,000 eligible people and first place in Canada.
This year’s games will be held in Madison, Wisconsin from July 27 to August 1.
“I really, really enjoy going in and watching these people come in and they give their full effort every day,” she said. “I go in and coach the 6AM class in the morning and seeing people get up that early in the morning and come in and hit these workouts, it’s just a great feeling.”
