Casey Inglis Tops Canada West

March 12, 2013

Quin Siah

“I told my coach that it didn’t look hard. He just laughed and said ‘OK’… and then I died.”

Photo by: Kyle Bailey

Casey Inglis is atop of the Open Leaderboard in Canada West.

In 2012, he finished 173rd. A follower of the region could be forgiven for wondering, “Who is this guy?”

Ignlis, a 33-year-old Coquitlam native, finished 13.1 with a score of 191, 15 reps ahead of the pack.

With a background in team sports and weightlifting, he was a competitive bodybuilder for five years before he walked into Rocky Point CrossFit only a year-and-a-half ago.

“My first workout was the Filthy Fifty. I saw all the movements on the board and got all cocky,” he recalls. “I told my coach that it didn’t look hard. He just laughed and said ‘OK’… and then I died.”

Inglis learned quickly there is no place for ego in the sport of CrossFit. From that moment, he was hooked.

When Inglis formally joined Rocky Point CrossFit in January of 2012, he had never heard of the CrossFit Games. When his coach, Tom Smith, asked him to sign up for the Open in 2012, he decided to give it a shot.

“This is where my love for CrossFit blossomed,” Inglis says.

Being competitive can have its downfalls. Inglis attempted each 2012 Open workout three times. He placed 173rd in Canada West and was disappointed. But he was asked to join the Rocky Point team for the Canada West Regional.

“Being a part of Regionals made me thirsty to become a better CrossFitter.” he says.

After Regionals, Inglis channeled his determination to become better at everything for 2013. First, he changed his lifestyle — eating and sleeping better — and then began focusing on the technicalities of Olympic lifting.

He believes his coaches at Rocky Point have helped him become a better lifter, increased his work capacity, and, most importantly, have pushed him to get over his obstacles.

In the weeks before the 2013 Open, Inglis refrained from his ‘go-to’ heavy lifting training and focused more on metabolic conditioning. Far from his comfort zone, Inglis began swimming and doing the Grouse Grind — a 2.9-kilometer trail up the face of Grouse Mountain — three to four times per week. He spent two hours at the gym every day.

“I knew there were going to be burpees, so I started doing a lot of burpees,” he says.

To his favor, burpees and snatches made up 13.1.

The snatch is one of his weaknesses, and with the final weight of 210 lb. in 13.1 being his previous one-rep max, Inglis was worried before the workout.

“I never expected this workout to go the way it did,” he says.

He was the only male in the Region, and one of only 15 in the world, to snatch 210.

Inglis, now in Hawaii for a vacation with his fiancé, says he’s worried about what the travel will do to his training. However, he remains postitive.

“It will be hard to train and eat well while I am vacationing, but there will always be bumps in the road.”

As far as the 2013 Open season goes, Inglis has high hopes.

“I am looking forward to Regionals this year whether it be individual or team. Either way, I am having fun of being a part of a great sport.”