CrossFit for Hope at Whaling City CrossFit

Whaling City Cross Fit, or WCCF is the first full-time CrossFit training facility in New Bedford and the SouthCoast. They CrossFit training for all fitness levels and ages.  No matter what your current fitness level or previous fitness experience, whether Grandma or student, athlete or couch potato, WCCF is endeavoring to raise your fitness.

Husband and Wife team, Erik and Tess Hedblom, opened Whaling City CrossFit in April 2012.  “Erik had been wanting to get into the fitness business for a long time,” recalls Tess, “and when we discovered CrossFit, he knew he had found what he’d been searching for.”  Not long after beginning the CrossFit program himself, Erik became a Level 1 Trainer and Tess his first student.  Now, as a trainer team, they are very passionate about helping others change their lives with CrossFit.

What is this CrossFit program that seems to be spreading across the globe?  According to CrossFit HQ’s website (crossfit.com), the CrossFit program “delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.

The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.

The needs of Olympic athletes and our grandparents differ by degree not kind. Our terrorist hunters, skiers, mountain bike riders and housewives have found their best fitness from the same regimen.”

Currently, there are over 3,500 CrossFit affiliates operating “small box” gyms worldwide, with new ones popping up every day.  “CrossFit ‘boxes’ are completely different from traditional gyms,” Erik says.  “There are no machines where you can leisurely read the tabloids while getting your workout in.  In CrossFit, we teach functional movements; movements that, done correctly, can improve your ability to do anything, from getting out of a chair to climbing Mt. Everest.”  Types of exercises found in CrossFit includes running, rowing, biking, gymnastics, weightlifting, and kettlebells.

But CrossFit is also more than a fitness program, according to Erik, its a community.  And the CrossFit community is coming together on June 9th to help St. Jude and children suffering from Cancer.  If you’d like to make a donation to help WCCF reach their fundraising goal, please visit https://hope.crossfit.com/sponsor?id=A3700.  100% of the proceeds benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

And, if you’d like to find out more about CrossFit, or would like to give it a try, visit http://whalingcitycrossfit.com.