When you see Maria Nahri, you don't think “tomboy.”
When she was a teen, though, the name applied. Nahri spent her formative years heavily immersed in track and field, training three days per week at York University even when still in elementary school. Her father, an Olympian, pushed her into sports and kept her committed. When she was a teen, she walked away from track. “I wanted to be a girl,” Nahri says. “I was getting too muscular.” Turning to modeling, she found quick success.
Modeling and acting are much different than being an athlete. “It's a whole different beast,” she says. “You don't have time to eat. You can get a call tonight at 9 p.m. saying, 'You have to be in a bikini tomorrow. Oh, and be blond, too,'” she laughs. “Looking good on the outside is so much more important than feeling good on the inside in that world.”
When she met the owner of CrossFit Markham, Chris Cristini, she was frequently eating only candy for dinner. “I just couldn't prepare meals. I was always so tired,” she says Nahri.
"Strength brings out your femininity. We're all feminine in a different way; train hard.”
Credit: www.allumski.com
Cristini invited her to try CrossFit at his box. “I can't tell you what CrossFit is,” Cristini said to her. “You have to see it.”
“The first workout was box jumps and kettlebells. I was a former competitive jumper. I thought, 'You want me to jump up and down on a box? No problem,'” she recalls.
When she couldn't even do 15 box jumps, though, she was discouraged. “I didn't think this was for me. But I made myself go back a second time, and then the community brought me back a third time,” she says. “I had to believe in it, because all these other people loved it so much. Like anything in life, when you try something once, you don't get the full essence of it.”
Now, she's competing in the Open.
But she won't be at Regionals, no matter how well she finishes. Maria Nahri will be competing that weekend, on a different stage. First, at the Miss Universe Canada pageant. If she wins, she'll go on to represent Canada at Miss Universe 2012 in South Africa. Her goal is to win “Best Body,” and she's using CrossFit to get her there.
She's also spreading the word within the modeling community. “I always post my workouts on Facebook, and they're always asking me where my abs came from,” she says. “I tell them about CrossFit and they say, 'You're crazy.' They're worried they'll get bulky, but they need to be educated. They're going to get leaner, healthier and toned, but they're not going to look like a man.”
When competitors ask how she can be so toned, but maintain her femininity, she answers, “We're feminine by nature. Strength brings out your femininity. We're all feminine in a different way; train hard.”
Nahri is increasing her strength, too. She just had a deadlift PR of 200 pounds.
One of the mysteries of CrossFit she hasn't unlocked is how anxious she gets in competition. “I'm very excited about doing the Open; it causes me anxiety. I'm shaking, nervous, cheering for other people. It's crazy. It makes me train, even after long day when I just want to sleep.”
These days, her father – who pushed her into sports through her childhood – trains with Nahri and her brothers at CrossFit Markham. “It's brought us all together. I see them every day in the gym,” she says. “It's changed all of our lives.”
She is working hard to change misconceptions about weights and the female form – her profile on the Miss Universe page (http://www.beautiesofcanada.com/muc/contestants/2012-finals/maria-julia-nahri/ ) talks about CrossFit, and she is grateful to the CrossFit community for helping her get this far.
