Have you made any resolutions for 2010 that require you to build a new, healthier, fitter version of yourself?
Chances are most of us are always looking for ways to improve our health and fitness – but if you’re anything like me, this isn’t going to be achieved by spending hours on the machines in a pretty, image driven, look-at-me-I-go-to-the-gym gym, or by spending hundreds with a personal trainer. I do a lot of free-of-charge running and riding through the streets of Brisbane to balance out my love for food and beer, but this can get monotonous too.
Every now and then it’s nice to mix it up with a bit of hardcore, intense, vein-bulging, weight lifting activity with someone yelling a bit of healthy banter across a sweaty room at you. So if you are like me and don’t rate the fancy gyms around town, I’d recommend giving CrossFit Arena in South Brisbane a go.
CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program used by many police academies, martial artists, and elite/professional athletes worldwide. The CrossFit program delivers fitness that is broad, general, scalable and inclusive and the specialty is in fact not specialising. Many sports and life in general reward this kind of fitness and on average, punish the specialists!
CrossFit is the true representation of the age-old term ‘Cross Training’ and for someone who’s been involved in the fitness industry for a long time for both work and pleasure, I have to say I like what I see.
There are several CrossFit programs/centres in Brisbane, but CrossFit Arena, a little sweat-box in South Brisbane, has been my home away from home over the last seven years and I’ve seen it go through some creative transitions, the latest of which I’m really impressed with.
Jarrod Bowe is the owner/trainer of CrossFit Arena and cut his teeth in Bushikai Muay Thai Kick Boxing. Jarrod is possibly the leanest, fittest guy I’ve ever met and easy on the eye as well (sorry boys). When I first met him, he was leading a circuit class for the masters (read: oldies) swimmers and playing personal trainer to kick-boxing wannabes.
His little cement box gym has never been glamorous, it has minimal 
air flow, smells of sweat and doesn’t have fancy equipment – it’s very raw and real, but it’s always drawn a crowd. These days, while kick boxing is still close to his heart, he’s jumped head first into the CrossFit philosophy and converted his gym into a new-look, new-feel arena for his underlings to sweat it out in a bit more style, but without losing that raw, unsophisticated feeling that keeps the patrons down to earth and realistic when it comes to keeping fit.
The CrossFit Arena is a great place to meet like-minded people, work hard and have fun. CrossFit sessions are of 1 hour duration, run twice daily in the CrossFit Arena and are attended by everyday, no frills men and women who are all in this to sweat hard and keep fit while encouraging their fellow compatriots to reach their goals and never give up.
This place looks cool.. I would love to go to the gym again to workout.. I have been busy for a long time working home.. Need a workout!
It goes to show you don’t need lots of sprawlinhg space to have a fun effective workout. You don’t need a swanky cafe and shiny machines, just a good instructor a few bits of kit and some motivation!