For many, exercise involves doing the same thing over and over again, day after day, year after year. No wonder boredom steps in after a while.

CrossFit is something completely different. Based on constantly varied, high intensity functional movement, the programme challenges the body in different ways all the time, while using movements and building skills you might actually find a use for in real life.

Having started as a garage-based counter culture exercise movement, CrossFit may have become more mainstream over the years, but still maintains an approach that makes it easily accessible, in spite of the elite performance tag attached to it. Although everyone completes the same basic workout, the workouts are scaleable, which means that you can have a 60 year old grandmother completing the same workout as an elite athlete.

“We record all the times of our workouts. The reason we do it is that’s how we define fitness, that’s how we look at getting fitter,” says Carl Brenton of CrossFit Seven Mile.

“When we bring people in we do a baseline test with them, most people will take seven to 12 minutes to do their baseline test the first time they join with us. If we have someone do it in 10 minutes when they join with us and in two months they do it in eight minutes we know that they have improved,” he says.

Carl refers to this as evidence based fitness – you know you are improving through measurable parameters.

The exercises within the workouts are constantly varied, as is the length of the workout.

“It’s amazing how a five minute workout can just destroy you,” laughs Carl.

CrossFit does not rely on the use of machines, so the movements are much more functional than most gym routines, leading to strength and fitness you can actually use.

The exercises are also conducted at high intensity.

“It means that you are going to be working as hard as you can each day,” says Carl.

“When we compare people doing our 10 to 20 minute workouts at high intensity to someone spending 40 minutes on the stairmaster reading a magazine, the results are just completely different because of that high intensity.”

According to Carl, after spending 2011 improving the gym and helping people get their training right, a big aim for 2012 will be to focus on diets.

“People see great improvements with the exercise, but with the right diet you can get three times the results,” he says.

“It’s very hard to make a huge change like that, so we’re going to ask people to make small changes. Every two weeks we’re going to ask them to make another small change.”

For more information on CrossFit, visit crossfit7mile.com or call 925-1456.