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Dipti Nair
Doha
In the last few years, Qatar has been promoting sports and physical activity and this has led to an influx of a lot of different and new fitness forms and (thankfully) awareness about staying fit. These have not only found acceptance with the people but are also encouraging people to compete on global levels.
One of these new forms that has recently interested many in the country, is CrossFit Erada and for the first time, a person from Qatar has qualified to participate in the regional level contest of the CrossFit Games.
At 24, Stephanie Chung is not only one of the youngest CrossFit athletes in the country, but she is also the fittest woman in the country and the only person to ever qualify for the International CrossFit Games Competition from Qatar.
Chung started gymnastics at the age of three and has been a competitive gymnast for 18 years. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts in the United States, after completing her graduation in biological sciences and nutrition, Chung arrived in Qatar to work as a Teaching Assistant at Weill Cornell Medicine.
"This was a part of the world that I had not been to, so when I saw the recruitment mail, I applied and was lucky to be offered the job in Qatar. So far it has been an amazing opportunity and it had turned out to be a very good fit," said Chung.
After teaching pre-medical students at the university for two academic years, she decided to go back to her initial love of athletics. Chung who had started CrossFit in her hometown in 2013, to stay tuned for gymnastics, joined CrossFit Erada, the name of the Qatar gym or box as it's called.
"I've always loved working out and love the constantly varied, high-intensity nature of the workouts at CrossFit and the never-ending opportunities for improvement. I always wanted to work with athletes and getting hands-on experience, so when I was offered a full time coaching position at CrossFit Erada, I jumped at the opportunity."
CrossFit is a functional fitness programme that aims to improve health and fitness by breaking away from traditional methods. The theory of CrossFit is based on different movements that varies constantly and are performed at high intensity. The movements include weight lifting with barbells, push-ups, pull-ups, box jumps, burpies, etc and mono structural movements like rowing, running, jump rope, cycling etc. A CrossFit workout usually lasts between seven to 10 minutes and every workout has a different mix of these movements performed at full strength.
"Our workout structure varies constantly," says Chung."Everyday a new workout has been programmed by the head coach and we rarely repeat the same workout twice, ensuring that you get a complete and different stimulus every time."
The International CrossFit Games competition is divided into three stages. The first stage, known as the open, is accessible to anyone who wants to participate. Over five weeks, a different workout is announced each weekend and athletes have four days to complete the workout and enter their time-scores online. Athletes are ranked against one another based on their scores for all five workouts, and the top athletes from each region around the world qualify to compete on the Regional stage. Of the few athletes that compete, only five men and five women from each Region qualify to compete at the CrossFit Games, the final event for competitive athletes.
Stephanie Chung has been chosen to compete on the regional stage and will soon be competing against the top CrossFit athletes from the Middle East, Europe, and Africa in a packed stadium in Madrid, Spain.
The last year had been very challenging for Chung as she was participating in numerous competitions in the region including the Dunes CrossFit Throwdown in Dubai, Circuit Plus CrossFit's Battle of the East in Kuwait, Reebok CrossFit LifeSpark's FireStorm team competition in Dubai, The Dubai Fitness Championship and CrossFit Delmon's WOD Mayhem in Bahrain.
But the CrossFit Games Open had been her main focus and she has trained numerous hours for it.
"Competing in the Open is very challenging but also highly rewarding. For most CrossFitters, the Open is an opportunity to test their fitness each year and see how much they've improved. It's both physically and mentally challenging, as everyone wants to perform his or her best. I tried to follow the CrossFit methodology in my training and tried to be well rounded in both weightlifting and gymnastics," said Chung.
"I'm very happy with my placing both in the Africa Region and in Qatar. Given the increasing difficulty of the sport and high calibre of competitive CrossFitters, it's an honour to be called the 'Fittest In' athlete of any country."
Chung says that though the Regional stage is the stepping stone for elite athletes on the way to the CrossFit Games stage, Madrid is the ultimate goal for her.
"I hope to do my best. I have specific goals and targets for each individual workout, so if I manage to hit my goals then I'll be thrilled regardless of my overall standing on the leaderboard."
A family-oriented person, Chung is very excited that her mom is flying to Madrid to watch her compete at the Regionals.
"My family has always been very supportive of me, whether competing in gymnastics or in CrossFit. My parents and brothers came to watch every gymnastics meet that they could attend, even those that required hours of travel. I feel really lucky to have their support and constant encouragement."
For Chung, a typical work day involves five hours of training with her personal coach Robert Anthony, who is also the head coach of CrossFit Erada, followed by three to five coaching sessions a day. Having trained in nutrition, she follows a strict diet plan called as the paleo and zone diet.
"The whole mantra is to eat like the cavemen did, like our ancestors did. My diet involves a lot of meat, vegetables, some fruit, nuts and seeds. I usually follow that regimen but I also weigh and measure my food as per the zone diet. I do have a treat meal once a week though. Usually we are very strict with our food but that one day a week I just let myself go."
Stephanie Chung believes that health is a combination of both nutrition and fitness.
"I think, to be healthy, you must have some aspect of physical fitness as well. Simply being not-sick doesn't mean you are healthy. For me being healthy means you have to come to the gym, workout and really enjoy what you do, but you also need to eat healthy."
"The cool thing about Qatar is that there has been a boom in fitness here. I think the opportunity to get people, who have never walked into a gym their whole life, involved in something different like CrossFit, is really unique here. I think there is a good opportunity for us as trainers to really build that community and fitness culture, get people interested to work out and include it in their lives. So I think it is really cool as a coach and athlete to be here at this point in time," she said.
