Olds College's athletics programmer, strength and conditioning coach Mark Oxer returned from a CrossFit team competition in Edmonton with his squad finishing fifth out of 28.
The event was called Winter Massacre and was hosted by CrossFit Lineage on Jan. 30.
Oxer's team included Des Webb, a participant in one of the classes he teaches at the CLC; Natalie Gerbrandt and her husband Brad Gerbrandt, former co-owner of a CrossFit gym Oxer used to frequent in Winnipeg.
Teams went through three preliminary rounds.
The first had athletes do box jumps (jump on and off a box), throw medicine balls against a wall and do hanging knee raises. They were given a prescribed number of repetitions to perform and had to do them in the least amount of time, Oxer said.
In the second round, Oxer said each person had to perform a snatch at their one-rep max, hanging knee raises, long jumps, kettlebell swings (swinging an iron ball with a handle attached to the top of it) and thrusters (a combination of two exercises: the front squat and overhead press).
The third round of exercises comprised of various squats, pullups and pushups, he continued.
Finally, he said the top five teams advanced to the last round, where competitors had to do as many cleans and handstand pushups as possible, each in sets of three.
Oxer started participating in CrossFit in 2008 while living in Fort McMurray. In addition to the exercise, he enjoys the positive environment that comes with the activity.
"It's not the fastest person that gets the most applause," he said. "It's usually the last person who gets the most applause because they're the ones who really struggle with an exercise everybody else is finished. What happens is the whole community gathers around them and encourages them to finish."
"It's usually the last person who gets the most applause because they're the ones who really struggle with an exercise an everybody else is finished. What happens is the whole community gathers around them and encourages them to finish." MARK OXER, Olds College athletics programmer, strength and conditioning coach
