By Claudienne Peterson & Axylum's CrossFit team
CrossFit is the 'Sport of Fitness' and not just a fitness trend or some type of exercise hype.
The founding members of aXylum discovered CrossFit on March 2013, after participating in a Tough Mudder challenge in Miami.
When researching on how best to prepare for the Tough Mudder challenge, the team came across CrossFit. "We took a master class following the completion of Tough Mudder and we were sold" said one of the members. In January of this year the aXylum Foundation became an official affliliate of CrossFit under the name "CrossFit sXm". The team(trainers) consists of the 7 founding members; Martijn Schaap, Vasco Daal, Antonio Gummels, Aaron Peterson
Dwight Williams, Alan Milton Schet and Tim Ahlip. Out of the 7, 3 are physical therapists, which is a great comfort to anybody working out with them. aXylum has also recently moved to a new location in Cayhill near to Kooyman. The larger space was necessary for the many members and to also suit the broadening schedule.
CrossFit's training method is ideal for our service men and women, who have to be prepared for anything at any time under any circumstance. As tough as CrossFit is considered, between 80% and 90% of aXylum's members are female. One trainer explained that this is because "women are usually more willing than men to listen to get results".
CrossFit can also contribute to athletes of any sport wanting to improve their performance by increasing their overall fitness level. The CrossFit sxm membership includes policemen and women, coast guard personnel, tennis players, football (soccer) players, triathletes, etc. These athletes are all more enthusiastic about their performance and results. aXylum has become a type of community, where everybody knows each other and everybody has a passion (or develops a passion) for fitness.
Fitness consists of different elements; strength, endurance, agility, flexibility, speed a.o. By putting all the different elements into a training, one can prepare the body for various challenges. CrossFit has been developed to create an overall fit person of any level, age or gender; CrossFit does not discriminate!
The Work Outs
A daily training is structured to be unpredictable; every day there is different work out with different exercises at different intensities. Of course the general (monthly) build up of the training structure is developed to strengthen and improve the elements of fitness and to prevent overload and injuries.
Training sessions are in groups with a max of 12 athletes at a time. A trainer will be there to give the instructions and make sure that proper form and technique is being used. A workout normally consists of; warm' up, flexibility, technical elements followed by the WOD (Workout of the Day). The WOD is when the athletes are being pushed to the max, by performing a certain routine as fast as possible.
The intensity (next to variety) of the workout is one of the key elements that assure an overall stimulation of the body's physiological processes.
The last key element of CrossFit is that it uses so called 'functional movements', these are movements basically related to daily activities (most common one is the squat; sitting down & standing up) and characterized by multi-joint movements. During my visit to aXylum, one of the trainers, Vasco, showed me the squat he was talking about, from a low position. He explained that many people can't even do a squat, and that is in part thanks to most humans' sedentary lifestyle (sitting in office, sitting at home, sitting in vehicle to get somewhere). Doing CrossFit will add more efficiency to your every day life; whether you want to climb the stairs to your apartment better (and not be totally out of breath), or you're training for a marathon.
CrossFit Incorporated was founded in 2000 by Gregg Glassman. Since then CrossfFit has been steadily growing. CrossfitSXM is the first crossFit box on Sint Maarten and is an official affiliate of CrossFit Inc. CrossFit Inc. requires that all affiliates have a licensed CrossFit trainer and that affiliates develop a positive role model in the community. CrossFit Boxes have been opening all over the world and since 2007 there have been CrossFit Games which can be seen on ESPN.
~in box~
CrossFitSXM community efforts:
- St Dominic High School morning workout following 24h "learn-athon".
- April 2014: Kingdom Youth Parliament work out on Kim Sha Beach
- Movember month, Cancer awareness promotion 2013
- Sponsorship and participation of November 11th Relay race 2013
- March 2014, 4 certified judges for the CrossFit Open 2014 Judging
- Member participation of Crossfit Open 2014.
- Kids Fat Camp
- Breast Cancer awareness month workout
- Formed Wolfpack Running team and arrange morning running workouts
~end box~
CrossFit Community:
They beautiful thing about CrossFit is that everyone can train together. By scaling the exercises to an individuals' capacity ensures that everyone is challenged at his or her own level. This makes CrossFit a close community; young, old, men and women; everybody trains together. One of the core rules of CrossFit is that they all motivate each other. Nobody is left behind! "Yes we challenge each other and yes we challenge ourselves to the limit, but as soon as one is done, he or she will be there to motivate the others" said another team member. There are CrossFit boxes all over the world, as being part of 1 community the boxes are always ready to welcome you to one of their classes. Go and check out the official CrossFit sXm in Cayhill, for directions, pricelist and schedules of classes please visit them on the web: www.crossfitsxm.com and check them out on Facebook: axylum.
CrossFit sXm (aXylum) is located across from the Kooyman Megastore Drive-thru on the Panther road. You will see their red colors from the AJC Brouwers road. They offer training 7 days a week and aim to provide classes on time. Being late means 1 burpee per minute for being late! Registration is required.
