THOMASTON — Unless you live under a rock you have most likely heard of the newest exercise regime called CrossFit. This is an exercise program with a lot of talk surrounding it and some very dedicated people making it happen here in the Midcoast. 

The CrossFit Crossover in Thomaston held its first In-House Throwdown March 9, when roughly 35 athletes competed with well over that number in attendance to support their box mates, friends and family.  It was an all-day event with everyone sharing a healthy meal or treat to keep the athletes fueled.  It was a success on that front, but the real "best performance" of the day was from all of the athletes. (Click on the link below the photos on the right for the final results from the Throwdown.)

"The ages range from 13-55, some entering any form of competition for the first time," said owner Jason Foster. "To watch them surpass any expectation they had is truly an emotional moment for me.  Because it was such a big success, we plan on having events like this on a regular basis."

CrossFit was founded in 2000 by Greg Glassman, who started CrossFit Inc. as an exercise program. According to Wikipedia the first affiliated gym was CrossFit North in Seattle, Wash.; there were 13 gyms by 2005 and more than 4,300 today. There are currently 15 CrossFit Inc. affiliates located in Maine. CrossFit.com allows people to work on their own instead of belonging to a club, or "box," as they are called. The problem that has been noted by this is that these exercises, like all exercises, need to be performed correctly to help keep injury from happening. By belonging to a box, you not only get the camaraderie of other CrossFitter's helping with positive encouragement, but also the help of certified trainers that can and will make sure you are doing things correctly.

CrossFit routines are typically short and intense. These workouts will push you to the brink of all-out physical exertion depending on how much you are willing to push yourself. They combine elements like sprinting, rowing, jumping rope, climbing rope, flipping tires, weightlifting, carrying heavy objects and many body weight exercises; equipment used includes barbells, dumbbells, gymnastics rings, pull-up bars, kettle bells, medicine balls and boxes for box jumps.

These elements are mixed in numerous combinations to form prescribed Workouts of the Day, or "WODs." Classes at a local box will typically include a warm-up, a skill development segment, the high-intensity WOD, and a period of individual or group stretching. At CrossFit Crossover there are different boards around the box that list people's best times in specialized routines.

CrossFit is used by numerous police and fire departments, other law enforcement agencies, colleges, professional sports teams and thousands and thousands of everyday people just trying to be healthier. One of the boards at CrossFit Crossover is a board of specially designed workouts named after military, fire and law enforcement personnel.

CrossFit exercise, while it can look daunting, is 100 percent scalable. That means that every exercise has ways to accomplish it by scaling to an individual's needs. If one can't yet do standard pull ups, they can do jumping pull ups. Still having issues? Use a stretch band that simulates pull ups. Can't swing a 35- to 50-pound kettle bell? Use any comfortable weight. Every routine has that scalability built into it, allowing the most out-of-shape individual the opportunity to improve their overall health.

One of the members and a Level 1 trainer at CrossFit Crossover is Angelica Gaudreau, a nutristionist and massage therapist. Gaudreau has in the last nine months become engulfed in CrossFit.

"You know, I decided to get into shape after having my children and my husband and I decided to train for a Tough Mudder, which is a pretty challenging obstacle course," said Gaudreau. "And it was exciting for us. My husband happened to talk to Jason [Foster] and started understanding what CrossFit was and it was really exciting. After coming from something like a Tough Mudder we kind of knew that we wanted something exciting as an athletic sport to keep us going and CrossFit definitely fits the bill. It's just — it's not just a workout, it's also a sport. And so, that's what's really exciting. So you get to be rewarded from your hard work here at the gym every day, in competition. So if you do well here in the gym and you push yourself, you have a venue to see yourself. That part's exciting."

Why try CrossFit? One of the many benefits is better health, but more importantly everyone says the same thing, it is scalable to fit each person's abilities — from start to finish.

"I think there are so many reasons why it's a really good fitness regime," said Gaudreau. "Coming from my background as a massage therapist for 15 years, I've seen a lot of physical imbalances in people and physical weaknesses that lead to a lot of posture distortion, and one of the things that I really like about CrossFit is that its blueprints are done and work in such a way that you're really trying to overcome those postural imbalances and those physical weaknesses, so not only do you end up a more fit person, but you end up more physically able into your later years. It really helps get people out of those pain patterns and overcomes flexibility issues and overcomes physical weaknesses that end up, quite frankly, getting people into the nursing home. You know, if you can take care of yourself, your body, in such a way that you can stay physically strong, fit, flexible, you stay out of the nursing home, and that's one of the things that's exciting for me. And it's promoted here at CrossFit in competition, we have the Masters Divisions, starts at age 40+, 45, you know, we have 70-year-olds competing. And these 70-year-olds are in amazing shape. That's exciting."

It's scaled, every routine, every exersice, they can all be scaled to fit individual needs.

"So you know, you have these tough looking workouts that you'll see on the board every day, but we scale them down to whatever each person’s level is at," said Gaudreau. "So if you're a very new person and you have no fitness capabilities, might even be quite overweight and quite out of shape, you start with something more simple. And it will be the same movement, but modified a bit so that you’re doing it to your physical ability."

Two things that members talked about constantly is that every exersice is scalable and the camaraderie with other members in the box.

Rick Bagnall is a member who swears by CrossFit exercise and what is has done for him as well as why it is good for everyone. Weight loss, body toning, energy, and confidence are some of the important aspects of CrossFit, said Bagnall.

"Crossfit has really made me a whole, new, better person," said Bagnall. "Like you mentioned, lost a lot of weight, toned up a lot, but I think first and foremost is it just gives me more energy, every single day you get done with a workout, you just feel like you have more energy throughout the entire day. You feel in better shape, feel healthier. One of the most important things that I've found from CrossFit, is just simply the camaraderie and the family atmosphere that you get from things. You're in the workout and you want to finish ahead of everybody else and when you finish you turn around and you cheer on the next person that’s working just as hard as you are. It's not really a one versus everybody type of thing. Everybody’s working for their own goals to get better and to really strengthen themselves and just get better in the long run. So it's not you against everybody else. It's you against yourself and trying to do better every time you do it."

After 10 months of being part of CrossFit, Bagnall talked about how this can change a person, not just physically, but mentally as well.

"Absolutely, I would agree with that," said Bagnall. "Definitely, I think you feel — when you feel more confident in something, and you're able to do something that maybe others are afraid to do at first, it sort of gives you a confidence to help them out, to really push them along. I tell you from day one, Jay had me laying on the floor, couldn't do a lot of push-ups, pull-ups, couldn't even do two or three pull-ups at a time. So it really humbles you and wants you to see where you start off. And I want to really tell everybody else, I was at that point not 10 months ago, and if you work hard enough, you improve."

Hunter Grindle, a senior at Oceanside High School, was the first person to get involved with CrossFit exercise with Jason Foster, back a couple of years ago.

"A couple of summers ago he just read about this CrossFit thing and he put together this workout and it was like 95 degrees out. We went to the high school gym and it was just like kettle bell, run a mile, run up the field around, anyway, the first time I did it and it sucks," said Grindle "But we did it together, we started talking about it after. He told me he had this idea for a gym and didn't really know if it’s really gonna happen, but I knew that's what he always wanted to do."

"So we kind of just did cross together. We didn't always work out together, but we’d always be talking about it. Throwing different ideas at each other for different workouts. So yeah, Coach Foster? Started off as my coach in basketball my seventh-grade year, and then we kind of started working out together and I guess through that, I mean he's more of, like a best friend almost a mentor."

CrossFit has now become a way of life for Grindle as well as many of the members at CrossFit Crossover.

"So mentally, I think that's helped me more," said Grindle. "I've always been a competitor. I don't like to lose. But now, I’m not so much focused on beating the other person. I'm not worried about the other person, I'm just worried about myself, you know. So when I'm running sprints in basketball practice and so and so is faster than me, I forget about it, I'm doing what I can do and I'm not going to get stressed out. I’m trying my hardest, that's all I can do. I mean, I still don't like to lose, but that's how my mindset has kind of changed. Physically, it's made me better in every way. I've learned, you know, instead of just doing normal body building stuff, I've moved to way more functional movements that I use in everyday life. I do more gymnastic stuff now, I'm more flexible, I've moved to Olympic lifting, which I never did before. I'm a lot stronger. My muscle endurance is better. I'm just a better athlete overall."

Grindle would like to see more high school kids get involved as he sees first hand how much it has helped him as a high school athlete. But Grindle does not stop there, he would like to see anyone that wants to improve themselves get involved.

"I would recommend it to any kid in high school, or really anyone," said Grindle. "Because as long as you have a proper coach who understands how to do it safely, because there are coaches that can do it in an unsafe way. Anybody can do it. If you can't - it doesn't matter, this other guy can squat 400 pounds and then have an 80-year-old lady beside you who's just doing a squat with 5-pound PVC pipe and that's the cool thing, you know. It's universally scalable, that's what they call it. If you can't do a pull-up, do jumping pull-ups, if you can't do jumping pull-ups, there's a huge monster band that you stand on, it's an elastic band, it helps you. You can't do a push up, you go on a wall, and if you're a high school kid it's going to make you a better athlete and if you're not an athlete, although you're going to be an athlete if you do CrossFit, whether you play sports or not. But you know, if you just want to learn to be healthier, feel good about yourself, it's going to give you better self-esteem."

One of the Local boxes

According to Foster, CrossFit Crossover is primarily focused on filling their box (aka gym) with encouraging, supportive, like-minded people who want to make the most of their available time training and improve their health and fitness using the CrossFit method. They want to build a community of people who are willing to train hard, but want to have fun while doing so.  They want to get their athletes into the best shape of their lives in a safe and supportive environment.

"This gym has been a dream of mine for a very long time," said Foster. "I have always enjoyed my time in the gym, but was starting to grow bored and missed a sense of competition. Being a collegiate athlete I found I needed, wanted more. I found CrossFit through a friend and have been hooked ever since.  Opening this box allowed me to share this love with my community."

Foster is a Level 1 trainer who is also CPR and First Aid certified. In August he will be going for his CF Olympic Lifting certification. Co-owner and Jason Foster's wife, Teel Foster, is also a Level 1 trainer certified in CPR and First Aid. Teel will also be going to get certified in August for CF Olympic Lifting. Gaudreau and her husband, Rich, are also trainers at CrossFit Crossover.

"Our mission is to provide the best coaches and training methods in the Midcoast," said Teel Foster. "We want to continue to provide a safe place for our athletes to continually grow and improve their health and fitness, for life.  We do envision this as a lifetime profession. Yes, technically this is a profession, but honestly this never is a job.  We love coming into this box every day.  Sharing this with our children, each other, and now our extended family...life is good"

Earlier it was mentioned that there are 15 CrossFit Inc. affiliates in Maine. Here in the Midcoast there are three: Thomaston, Rockport and Belfast.

There is CrossFit Crossover in Thomaston at 23 Elltee Circle, 594-1665; in Rockport it's Stone Coast CrossFit, located at 16 Rockport Park Center Road, 662-213-1015 and in Belfast you can find Belfast Bay CrossFit at 98 Waldo Ave., 338-4969.

Click here for the Photo Gallery from the Throwdown

Ron Hawkes can be reached at sports@penbaypilot.com.