CrossFit Gym for Kadena set to open mid-summer

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sara Csurilla
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  This summer brings Shogun CrossFit to Kadena, a new CrossFit gym.

"We hope the gym will be operational by July 1,"said 1st Lt. Ashley Jensen, 372nd Training Squadron, Detachment 15 commander and CrossFit Instructor Level I. "The new facility will be located inside the Risner Fitness Center, across the hall from the mat room in what was once the massage room, karate room and ballet room."

The gym will include classes for group sessions on how to correctly do CrossFit workouts and special equipment for people to work out on their own with.

Tentatively, classes will be held twice a day, Monday through Friday at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. A fundamentals workshop will be held every Sunday at noon to teach members the foundational movements of CrossFit. Attendance at one of these workshops will be required before attending the Monday through Friday classes, Lieutenant Jensen explained.

"CrossFit will bring a new fitness capability like no one has ever seen at Kadena," Lieutenant Jensen explained. "CrossFit combines weightlifting, Olympic lifting, gymnastics, cardio and many other tenants of fitness to provide high intensity workouts which lend themselves to the physical demands of the warfighter."

Although CrossFit can meet the physical demands of training a warfighter, it can be for everybody.

"People should know that you don't even have to be fit before you start," Lieutenant Jensen said. "CrossFitters are ages 18 to 80, from stay at home moms, to front line warfighters. The beauty of CrossFit is that it's scalable to everyone's fitness capabilities. We alter weights and repetitions, but never sacrifice the actual movement. G.I. Joe and Grandma will both be dead lifting, at different capacities."

Shogun CrossFit is still receiving equipment and setting up the facility, but there is a possibility that the fundamental classes could start before all the equipment arrives.

To keep up with the latest news on Shogun CrossFit, visit www.shoguncrossfit.com or "like" the Shogun CrossFit Facebook page.