BANFF – Banff’s Liz White is on a mission.
The personal trainer and gym owner wants to bust myths about crossfit and help people achieve their best through exercise and nutrition.
When the last minute opportunity to open her own crossfit gym in Banff came up last year, White pounced and today she proudly owns and operates Bow Valley Crossfit on Hawk Avenue in the industrial area.
“I wanted to be able to create my own fitness experience,” she said. “It was terrible timing and great timing … I had to make a fast decision, but I knew I had to jump on it.”
White wants to challenge those who think they know what crossfit is about to bust some of the common myths around the popular workout.
She defined crossfit simply as constantly varied, functional movement completed at a high intensity.
“One of the things I was personally very drawn to was the constant variety of the workout,” she said. “Every day of the week it is a different workout – it is exciting, it is new and different.”
White outsources the workout programming, and focuses her skills as a personal trainer in the warmup routine to put mobility exercises onto the whiteboard.
She has developed a From Couch to Crossfit program as a four week session to introduce anyone, at any fitness level, to the workout system.
As a new business owner, White has had four things she has focused on in her first year of operations: developing the introduction program, making it a safe space, provide mobility programming and keep class sizes small.
The next part of the equation is nutrition, and that is something White wants to build upon, but she doesn’t have to go far to find a commercial kitchen preparing healthy meals.
Around the same time White was establishing her new business, Damian Liengme was about to begin his entrepreneurial journey as Mountain Fire Foods.
“It has grown and it grows every single day,” he said. “I get phone calls, I get people asking what it is all about … it is nice to know I got something I am doing right – it is a great feeling.”
His commercial kitchen is located in the same part of the industrial compound of Banff as the gym.
“It is all about fuelling your body so you can work and, or play,” Liengme said. “The food we eat is our medicine, we have been given this stuff and we have to use it properly.”
For White, it is great to have a healthy lunch options for $15 that are convenient.
“It is great to have a lunch option you can feel good about,” she said.
