Athlete Profile: Greg Pettypiece

Pettypiece2I was first introduced to crossfit approximately 3 years ago by my friend and co-owner of Superior Crossfit in Thunder Bay. He was fairly new to it as well, but had told me I would love it and joked that I wouldn't be able to keep up with him. I accepted the challenge to join him in a WOD on a Saturday morning due to the simple fact that it was quite different from my old ass sorry routine that I would often do at the local globo gym. After our warm up and a 12 min AMRAP of pushups, air squats and what seemed like endless laps in a pool. I finally heard someone yell out time TIME!! I was exhausted, gasping for air, and still in the pool. After nearly drowning and struggling to make my way out, I couldn’t believe how awesome that was .I quickly became more than hooked to this new "fad” of working out called crossfit.
After only a few months of doing crossfit in Thunder Bay, I moved to Peterborough for firefighting school. That is where I truly realized the affect crossfit had on me. In the first week of school, we had to run a 1.5 mile race in gym class for time and marks. I was in shock when I finished first with a perfect score. Running or doing cardio during my workout was never really a priority or even enjoyable to me until doing Crossfit. It greatly improved my strength and endurance as a runner.
My journey of crossfit really began after I had finished school and moved back home. My friend and co-owner of Superior crossfit Kevin Dzijak convinced me to get my certification and become a coach at his box; they just opened and were getting busy. After passing my cert, I couldn't believe how much knowledge I had gained. It was an incredible feeling and I couldn't wait to pass it on to others. After 2 years of doing crossfit and over a year of coaching at Superior Crossfit in Tbay, I am always reading up on ways to become a better athlete and coach. That’s the beauty of crossfit; you never stop learning and gaining knowledge. Even though I’m not coaching here in the Sault, I still enjoy helping athletes at Catalyst from time to time. It is such an awesome feeling when you see the look of happiness on someone’s face after simply giving them a quick cue to help them achieve a lift or be more efficient. Whatever the case may be, I always look forward to helping.
Lately, I have just been focusing on getting back into the gym from an extended Christmas break.
PettypieceI’ve been working on basically everything from my weaknesses like deads and box jumps to Olympic lifts which I love. I am also still trying to pursue my career as a firefighter weather at my current job at the steel mill or for any city that’s hiring. I'm extremely excited for the open this year with Catalyst, and really pumped to see what everyone can do. Last year was my first open competition and I couldn’t believe how much fun I had. I’m sure this year will be just as good and am looking forward to it.
I have a lot of good crossfit memories I could probably write a book, all the crossfit events I have been to over the years have all been unreal. Never though I would ever have fun at an event called Fran Fest after doing 2 1/2 rounds of fran, but I did. One of my favorite events was Hoover Ball, just one of the events at SC in Tbay. Playing beach volleyball with a medicine ball is not only a blast but great work out. I believe it’s the people and comradely that make crossfit what it is, witnessing all the pr's, cheering on someone’s first muscle up or rope climb, meeting and getting to know all the amazing people are all special memories to me. But my favorite memory by far was getting my level 1 crosffit certification in St. Paul Minneapolis. Meeting Chris Spealler and all the other athletes and learning from them was an incredible experience and plan to take more courses in the next few years.