'In shape' a relative term

From skipping and jumping to pushups and sit-ups, these basic physical activities are what we were taught from an early age as healthy exercise suggestions. So why is it that a routine encompassing all this and more without the use of standard gym equipment left this writer, who had previously considered himself in decent shape, completely and utterly exhausted? Maybe because what I, like many others, consider ‘in-shape’ isn’t quite what we thought it was when we compared it to our daily schedule.

When you imagine your local gym, you’re probably like most people who envision rows of treadmills, a variety of weight machines, and of course, bench presses and dumbbells. It could be your 24-hour fitness or even the YMCA down the street. This is become the imprinted idea we’ve come to know as exercise and path to life-long fitness. Although it may be the default for many, a spin on the traditional workout regime has emerged across the country in recent years, and as of this week the Northland will have a location for those looking to switch their fitness routine up a bit.

Crossfit Northland is a new training facility that provides programs based on the strength and conditioning brand, CrossFit, which incorporates a wide range of sports and fitness training. While basic definition of CrossFit can be simply described as varied, high intensity, and functional movement, the basic idea involves having a program designed around things you actually do in the real world.

“Every day you bend down and pick things up, you put things over your head, squat down, stand up, run after your kids or jump over a puddle. CrossFit prepares you for all that and then some by performing those exact movements into our workouts,” said Brian Martorana, one of three founding partners for the Northland location. “When was the last time you saw someone walking down the street doing dumbbell flys?”

Martorana along with partners Dustin Sollars and Manny Catano, all in their mid-30’s, were looking for something different from their regular workout routines so they attended several classes offered in downtown Kansas City where their interested was sparked. The group sessions include between 15-25 people on average and combine exercises from areas like weightlifting, gymnastics, track and field, plyometrics, and strength building.

“Here’s how I look at it. I was paying $40 a month at the ‘Y’ without any results. I looked into a trainer, but it was really expensive especially over the long-term. If I did that weekly, it could be close to $50 a session in certain cases,” Martorana said. “This is really a happy medium.”

While Sollars, an English teacher, and Catano, a firefighter, were already familiar working with athletes as head coaches of the boys and girls soccer teams at Park Hill High School, Martorana knew the key to success would first be an interest and motivation to teach.

“It wasn’t about just starting a business, turning on an open sign, and hoping people showed up. I wanted to see if I actually liked teaching first,” Martorana said.

He was hooked immediately just like his college classmate and fraternity brother Sollars, who had an early realization.

“It’s addictive. I felt real bad after my first workout, because I thought I was in good shape, but it was a different kind of training than I’d ever done before,” Sollars said. “Most people feel like they can do certain exercises pretty easily. Once you go through it though, it’s actually pretty humbling. I got the bug to get better.”

Not only do the principals full-heartedly buy into the program, they have a core group that’s stuck with them since casual workouts started earlier this year and continue to show up on a regular basis now that their facility has opened in Platte Woods.

“I think it’s one of the more attractive things to people. I mean a trainer will give you a set routine, it’s pretty much the same handful of exercises from week to week, but here we won’t have the same workout for maybe three months,” Sollars said.

Since the CrossFit brand took off in 2005, physically demanding professions like firefighters, police officers, and members of the military have taken to this type of training as it parallels the work they do daily.

“A lot of those institutions receive grants to update or build places to work out and they turn their facilities into CrossFit gyms,” Martorana said.

The programs are intended to be scalable based on each participant’s fitness level, but simultaneously provides group motivation.

“We (the trainers) are going to give you the fundamentals and be there with you throughout the workout,” Martorana said. “Some people like a person to be with them like a personal trainer the whole time, while others in any given session, we won’t even need to talk to because they’re comfortable with the workouts and pushing themselves on their own.”

CrossFit Northland hopes to position themselves separately from other well-known gyms by maintaining that they don’t measure weight, bench press, or mile time. Those are all by-products, not ultimate goals, of the workouts.

“We feel like if you stick with us for three months, you’ll look different, you’ll feel different, and you’ll be stronger than you were before,” Martorana said.

With several membership packages to choose from and uniquely named workouts such as Barbara, Fran, and Nancy, variety is not lacking when it comes to CrossFit routines. There was even a workout named 31 Heroes after the 31 service members who lost their lives in Afghanistan last month. All a part of the unique fitness culture the new owners of CrossFit Northland hope people will try first hand with the opening of their new location.

“I mean you can play in recreational basketball leagues to get into shape and other things, but it’s not quite the same,” Sollars said. “This is just more exciting to be a part of; it makes you feel like an athlete again.”