The team at KB CrossFit are embracing the competitive spirit of the sport in their new surroundings by making a spectacle of the Open workouts, no doubt giving the town something to talk about.
Australia’s coal mining town of Moranbah in Central Queensland is one of the country’s hottest regions, where it’s not uncommon for temperatures to average above 40 degrees (Celsius). Yet despite scorching conditions, CrossFitters in the town are accustomed to tackling the Open workouts outdoors.
For the past two years, Ben Watkins, co-owner and head coach of KB CrossFit, has exhausted his imagination trying to accommodate the Games season on the open fields of a rugby oval, even if it meant transforming a shed into a pull-up rig.
But this year athletes from KB CrossFit have had to acclimatise to a new environment for the 2013 Open. Gone are the days of using grass as rubber mats, because KB CrossFit now has a place it calls home.
After teaming up with the town’s local Australian Rules Football Club, Watkins was able to turn his outdoor affiliate into a ‘gym,’ in the early months of 2013.
“We converted the clubhouse into a box,” he says. “It’s not your traditional style box, we have a kitchen at one end and a bar at the other end. We share it with the AFL club and I also train them.”
So far the change of scenery has had its advantages, with members exceeding their previous personal records on Olympic lifts. Watkins attributes this success with the barbell to the surface of his indoor box, adding, “The rubber matting has been sensational, we can lift a hell of a lot heavier, which has been great for the Open.”
While the inside venue has proved extremely beneficial for KB CrossFit, Watkins can’t let his creativity slide just yet.
“We’re not allowed pull-up bars and we’re still waiting on a pull-up rig, which our local engineering club is constructing, so in terms of the Open, we’re not home free,” he says.
After years of training in the outdoors, the crew at KB CrossFit are well prepared for the unknown. This year, all 17 members registered for the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games Open will look to a shipping container to perform their bar work, if movements like pull-ups make their way into the workouts.
“If pull-ups turn up this week, we’re going to struggle,” Watkins says with a laugh. “One of my coaches husband does a bit of welding and he’s actually cut our shipping container into pieces, in case something like pull-ups comes up. He used the bars out of that and welded them straight to the top of the shipping container.”
“We’re going to have eight pull-up bars of one meter length hanging out of the top of the shipping container, and you’re going to need a box to get up. Some of the girls might even need two boxes. So that’s going to be interesting.”
In a sport where pushing the boundaries of convention is the norm, KB CrossFit have managed to put their own signature on the CrossFit style, executing workouts on the most unlikely equipment with minimal tools.
Week three of the Open was no exception to this trend with members performing their muscle-ups underneath an outdoor shelter.
“Only one of us made it (to the muscle-ups) and we set the rings up in the rafters of an outdoor awning,” Watkins says.
The team at KB CrossFit are embracing the competitive spirit of the sport in their new surroundings by making a spectacle of the Open workouts, no doubt giving the town something to talk about.
“We run the Open on Friday nights, and we call it ‘Friday Night Lights’ and anyone can come down to do the workout,” Watkins says.
“We’ve got judges for the athletes and it’s open to spectators and for families and friends to come down to support the athletes.”
Once all reps are counted and equipment is put away, Watkins then opens the doors of his affiliate to anyone keen to celebrate the end of yet another Open workout for 2013, proving that the sport of fitness is as much social as it is athletic.
“We open the bar up after the workout. So we have a little bit of a gathering as well,” he says. “We’ve got a whole heap of people watching, cheering and encouraging us, which is really different for us and it’s nice to celebrate with them afterwards.”
