P.E.I. parasport athletes encouraging others to try CrossFit
CBC
Two parasport athletes on P.E.I. are encouraging others with disabilities to get involved with CrossFit.
Last month, they both competed in their first competition as part of a team at Court 6 CrossFit's Trinity Games in Charlottetown.
However there weren't enough para-athletes for their own adaptive CrossFit competition and they had to compete on a team with athletes without disabilities.
"We just sort of modified the workouts to what our abilities were. So we did basically the same movements and all the same stimulus," said Jeremy MacDonald.
"We just sort of modified the weights and the movements a little bit to fit our own particular physical abilities."
While MacDonald liked the chance to compete alongside athletes without disabilities, he would like to see more people with disabilities get into the sport.
"I'd love disabled people just to kind of get more into functional fitness as part of their everyday lives and if as a consequence of that more people want to compete then that's great for the sport," MacDonald said.
Though MacDonald is a competitor at heart, he said it isn't all about who can lift the most weight.
"One of the goals of CrossFit is to have functional fitness, so functional meaning movements that can translate into your everyday life … whether that be as a wheelchair user being able to bend over and pick something up," he said.
MacDonald has cerebral palsy. It affects his ability to stand and the mobility in his left arm — but he said high-intensity interval training helps him maintain mobility.
"In my case, where I have some ability to stand and walk that would be being able to get out of the chair, building up endurance in the leg so that I do preserve that ability to stand and walk."
MacDonald works out at CrossFit 782 in Charlottetown. There used to be a dedicated adaptive program for people with disabilities, but that was stopped when COVID first hit P.E.I. back in 2020. MacDonald said the gym helps clients modify workouts to their skill level.
"I would encourage people not to be kind of intimidated by the whole thing. Gyms can be hard for people that aren't used to them but there is no more welcoming environment in a gym than what you are going to find here."
There are other options for those who may not want to go to a gym though.
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.