Jon Gibson is one of the most physically-fit people on the planet. Literally.
Gibson, 24, competes in CrossFit and recently finished a five-week challenge in which he ranked first in Western Canada and 14th in the world.
"It's pretty humbling - kind of surreal," said Gibson, a local resident who trains and coaches at CrossFit Prince George. "Last year, after doing [the sport] for six months, I think I was 1,275th in the world, which I was extremely happy about [considering there were] 100,000 males competing. This year, 14th, and seeing my name up against those guys that you watch on YouTube - the Rich Fronings and guys like that - it's pretty cool. It's just a lot of hard work paying off, in and out of the gym."
Froning, from Tennessee, has been the men's CrossFit world champion for three consecutive years.
CrossFit is a form of cross-training that can be done for improving basic fitness or as an actual sport. Gibson's definition of CrossFit is "constantly-varied functional movements performed at high intensity."
A CrossFit workout -- or box, as it is known -- could include any form of exercise imaginable. Common disciplines involved are calisthenics, Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, strongman exercises, plyometrics and exercises that use a person's own body weight. Endurance events like rowing, running and swimming are also a fit for CrossFit. Each day brings with it a new box.
"Routine is the enemy," said the six-foot-two, 225-pound Gibson. "Everything's not random but you could do something on Monday, do something completely different on Tuesday and then the next week's all brand new. It tries to prepare you for real-world... with functional movements and at high intensity. And high intensity really varies from athlete to athlete. Someone who is just beginning, their intensity level is going to be different from someone who's been doing it for a year."
Gibson did his five-week challenge at CrossFit Prince George. He accessed each workout (one per week) from the international CrossFit organization, which was founded by American Greg Glassman in 1995. Glassman launched a crossfit.com website in 2001 and began affiliating gyms in 2003.
In the recently-completed competition, Gibson and other participants performed each week's assigned workout in front of video cameras and then posted their scores (as determined by on-site judges) on the CrossFit website.
As one of the highest finishers in the world and the number one man in Western Canada, Gibson will now be the favourite to win a western regional competition May 9-11 at the Richmond Olympic Oval. A top-two result there would send him to the world championships, July 25 in Carson, Calif.
Last year, Gibson was ranked 13th heading into the western regionals, which required competitors to finish seven workouts in three days. But, he couldn't complete the last event of the third day - a 15-foot rope climb in front of about 3,000 spectators - and that killed his chances to advance to the world meet.
"My hands were pretty shredded and my technique wasn't great on the rope," he said. "I didn't end up placing so that was kind of the trigger [for this season]. That was not a nice feeling. I kept falling and falling and falling and missing the target by a foot or something like that and everybody in the stands was still cheering me on and the competitors came over and were trying to egg me on. That community of CrossFit is pretty special."
This year, Gibson is determined to qualify for worlds. To give himself the best possible chance, he has dedicated himself completely to his sport. Every week, he trains from Monday to Saturday, and not just for an hour in the morning.
"I'm training about three times a day, doing two to three met-cons (metabolic conditioning sessions), plus two to three strength [workouts] a day," he said.
"There are a few different strategies. A lot of guys will only work out an hour a day, six times a week, some guys do it twice a day. The top guy in the world [Froning] works out eight times a day. The guy's a machine so I'm trying to emulate him in a sense: if you feel good, go to the gym. There is so much stuff to master in CrossFit. You don't have to be the best at one thing, but you have to be good at everything."
Prior to becoming a CrossFit competitor, Gibson was a hockey player. He skated in junior for the Prince George Spruce Kings and Hamilton Red Wings and also played for one year on an athletic scholarship at Neumann University near Philadelphia. When he finished with puck-chasing, he started looking for a new athletic outlet and happened to see a feature story on CrossFit on TSN one day.
"I wondered if we had a gym here and we did," said Gibson, who had always loved the off-ice training that went along with being a hockey player. "I went in and started training there and realized I kind of had a knack for it."
CrossFit Prince George is located in the Nicholson Centre and was co-founded in June of 2012 by local chiropractor Travis Morgan and his wife, Quintina Morgan. Both Morgans also qualified for the upcoming regionals.
Gibson is one of about 100 CrossFit Prince George members. One day soon, he'd like to show up at the gym as the world champion.
"I want to go to the worlds and compete against the fittest guys on earth and come out on top," he said. "That's really the goal. It's pretty crazy but it's what I want and what I know I can do if I put in the effort."
