If you haven’t encountered yet a kind of physical activity with full, intensive workouts, functional and constant movement beyond the usual exercise, then why not try CrossFit? This is one of the newest forms of exercise especially in shaping your body in different ways. This includes calisthenics, Olympic-style weightlifting, powerlifting, Strongman-type events, plyometric, bodyweight exercises, indoor rowing, aerobic exercise, running, and swimming.
According to most accounts, CrossFit began in 2000 in the USA with Greg Glassman with the inspiration of becoming better not just as a gymnast, but as a well-rounded athlete. Despite the fact that there’s no official record when it started in the UAE, it can be considered as one of the most favorite hobbies of different people in the country nowadays.
Derek Dale Bayquen, 25, and working as a Physical therapist in the UAE for two years got interested in this kind of sport. He recently joined the CrossFit Community Abu Dhabi last January 2019.
“Our community “Vogue Fitness” started in 2014. It was founded by Billy Graham and Patrick Hegarty, and brought it to our company Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi (CCAD) in 2018,” Derek said.
“Since then, our mini CrossFit community has expanded…we’re a good 20-30 people perhaps who love doing CrossFit classes done by our coaches,” he added.
Derek also said that for some, it might be a new concept when you talk about heavyweights and high-intensity since most of the people tend to instantly get taken aback which is totally valid.
“Why would someone like to catch their breath every day during workouts, right? But the thing is, it’s only that starting workout, the first one that is the most challenging of all. Once you start and you get into the groove, you’ll find your own rhythm and make it as a habit,” he emphasized.
Sharing the lifestyle with others
The goal of CrossFit activity is to inspire one another to become better than they were yesterday and to share the fun in working out, hence building a community of people who share the same lifestyle.
“Being in the healthcare industry, most of us share the same level of pressure, demand and stress at work, so these CrossFit classes really help us find and keep our balance,” Derek explained.
“Be it a pre-shift workout to pump energy throughout the day, or a post-shift workout to prepare for a good sleep, our workout lifestyle surely keeps our health in check, not just physically, but mentally as well,” Derek added.
Usual workout struggles
The skills they want to unlock for example are the individual struggles they regularly encounter. From handstand, pull-ups, weights, speed on benchmark workouts, to create abdominal muscles are usual issues, which are real points in training.
“Our weakness today will be our room for strength tomorrow. That’s what keeps us passionate and fired about it – constantly improving and moving forward from the level of fitness where we’re at now,” he said.
Achievements
According to the group, a couple of the members of the community have joined different competitions. Every year, the international CrossFit community does an event called CrossFit Open. This is a 4-week event where people all over the world who do CrossFit gets to try the weekly-released workouts and submits their score online with videos for verification.
Those who are in the top got to participate in the CrossFit Games, which in fact has just concluded in August 4.
“This year, I have joined that event and earned the 73,907th spot among 195,562 participants worldwide, 67th among 282 in the Philippines alone, and 34th out of 77 in the Vogue Fitness community,” he expressed.
Recently, Vogue Fitness also had its own version of CrossFit Open, the Vogue Fitness Open. It was a 4-week qualifying workout as well open to the international community too.
“I’ve been blessed enough to land 58th among 300+ participants,” Derek proudly shared.
In February this year, the entire Vogue Fitness community in the UAE also had its Team Throwdown (competition with workouts as well).
Apart from that, they had a Fitness Festival amongst the community members in March where they spent a day with multiple workouts open for anyone who wanted to join.
“That day was special to me because I was awarded as the “Spirit of Layaqa” (Layaqa being our gym/community), which as they said meant for being supportive and hardworking in the gym. I’d say that was my greatest feat because getting to share the love for the sports with the people around me means so much,” he said.
There are a lot of other gyms out there where anyone could do CrossFit. From Yas, Marina Mall, Al Raha, and many others. In fact, anyone could do it at home. As long as it is functional, it should work.
“There’s a lot of CrossFit boxes in the UAE for sure, not just ours. The key is to find your community where you could share your goals and work together to achieve them,” Derek added.
Inspirational advice
“I suppose human bodies are meant to move, so if we keep moving and remain functional within our daily activities, we still embody some form of fitness. It also doesn’t have to be CrossFit too. It doesn’t have to be expensive. You can always find a way to get that body moving regardless of what form of exercise it is as long as you have the desire to do so,” he said.
For Derek, he believes in the struggles of OFWs. But for him, working hard is not always the end all be all.
“I believe working smart is better. This means being able to take care of your body, listen to it and respect it, while you work here for your family back home. At the end of the day, cliché as it may be, health is still wealth,” Derek said.
