A new fitness competition, WOD for the Ages, was created at CrossFit Hawaiʻi for teams of adults of all ages. It's planned for Saturday, Aug. 3.
The WOD, or workout of the day, is a prescribed workout that everyone does in a CrossFit class.
The idea for the competition came from Anne Namba, a local fashion designer and world-class CrossFit competitor.
"Basically, because I am in the older category, and I wanted to compete with the younger people, and this is the only way I could because there's not that many older people in my age group that I can compete with locally or have the chance to," Namba said.
CrossFit Hawaiʻiʻs fitness competition started last year and has three different workouts.
"So the difference is, not only are there different age groups and that it's all across the board, but people come into the competition with a different attitude, of it's just to have fun, and not so much, it's woah we got to create the winning team that's going to end up on the podium at the end," said owner Kimo Kockelman.
The four-person teams must have two male and two female athletes, and each member must fall into one of four age ranges: under 30, 31 to 44, 45 to 54, and 55 and older.
Because there are fewer Crossfitters over the age of 50, they have become more valuable to those looking to form a team. Kockelman shared that most of the older members were former athletes.
"I think there's a lot of give and take because I guess the assumption when you hear about the competition is that the young ones will be the ones that are the dominant athletes, and the older ones are trying to pick up the slack," Kockelman said. "There are teams where it's the opposite, the older athletes are the dominant athletes, and the younger athletes are the ones that are going to have to kind of keep up with the older athletes."
Separately, the 2024 CrossFit Games starts next month in Texas. Hundreds of athletes from around the world will compete for the title of “Fittest on Earth.”
This interview aired on The Conversation on July 12, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
