They’re used to pushing through grueling, high-intensity workouts at the gym, but this weekend they were in a bigger venue — one with a crowd cheering them on.
In teams of two, members of the CrossFit community showed off their strength and endurance before a couple hundred people at the CrossFit Fort Vancouver Championship at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds.
The average man can do between one and 12 chinups at a time, according to Men’s Health magazine. On Sunday, men’s and women’s teams in the Chip event started their physical trial with 100 chest-to-bar pull-ups each. The pairs followed those with a combined 125 weighted barbell lifts, 100 one-legged “pistol” squats, 100 burpees, and some barbell lunges toward the finish line. It’s called Chip because it’s the kind of workout one needs to chip away at before being able to do it all in just 25 minutes.
Fast-paced music filled the event center. An announcer kept spectators updated on which teams were in the lead.
Adam Neiffer, owner and head coach at the CrossFit Fort Vancouver gym, and his competition partner, Allan Dunlap, were one of the first pairs to finish in their heat. They celebrated briefly, and as the clock neared 25 minutes, Neiffer walked back to another team that was almost done. He followed their tense trek toward the finish line, and encouraged them to keep going.
Later, Neiffer compared the CrossFit program to climbing a mountain. People try to do it “because it’s there and because we can,” he said. Athletes who work out through CrossFit are “a bunch of people doing their best to be better,” he added.
The event, staffed by about 100 volunteers, allowed people who normally work out in CrossFit gyms to compete against each other. Sixteen women’s teams and 16 men’s teams tested their abilities in several fitness challenges over the weekend, including a lap-swimming event Sunday morning at the Clark County Family YMCA. Championship winners went home with money and other prizes.
The local competition is in its third year, Neiffer said. “Every year, I don’t think it can get any better, and it does. … This was an incredibly talented group of athletes, men and women.”
Some pairs traveled from across the region to compete in the workout trials.
Cameron Pernich of Gresham, Ore., and Sun Chang of Boise, Idaho, were partners during the first men’s heat of the Chip event. Chang started working out through CrossFit about six years ago, and he mentored Pernich, who began about three years ago.
Pernich started CrossFit because “initially, I wanted to get abs,” he said with a laugh. But it became more than that. “The community keeps you going.”
Earlier that day, the young men shouldered the same weighted barbell as they lunged in unison toward the finish line — the first to cross it in their heat. The two collapsed on the floor. Their solid finish “makes it all worth it,” Pernich said.
“That’s the fun part,” Chang said of winning.
“A little bit of glory goes a long way,” Pernich added.
Andrea Roozen of Portland competed in the women’s Chip trial.
“It was hard, but it was a lot of fun,” she said. “Anything with a 25-minute time cap you know is going to be brutal.”
She called herself a “dinosaur” in the CrossFit community; she first got involved about nine years ago. There are thousands of CrossFit gyms across the country, and many participants on Sunday said that CrossFitters form tight bonds and push each other to reach their fitness goals.
“You suffer together. You sweat together,” she said.
Her advice for someone who might want to explore CrossFit, or working out in general, is: “Don’t be intimidated. Remember that everybody starts somewhere.”
