Michael Marlow opens new business Crossfit Awaken in Alma St Rockhampton

The increasing popularity of crossfit has seen another gym open in the Rockhampton CBD. Meet the man behind Rocky’s newest gym here.

For Michael Marlow, there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing people achieve what they never thought was possible and now he gets to see people do it every day.

Mr Marlow opened his new gym Crossfit Awaken in Rockhampton this week which already has more than 30 members, surpassing his early business plan.

Mr Marlow has been involved with fitness since his schooling days.

After finishing high school in the United States, he became a scholarship student for college.

He then moved to Australia in 2017 and jumped straight into personal training until he found and fell in love with Crossfit.

“I had a history in powerlifting and someone told me about crossfit and I did one and it really messed me up, so I got motivated to get better at it,” he said.

“I liked the feeling that it gave me, I liked the feeling of success afterwards and that was when I was training on my own.

“I started coming across crossfit gyms and noticed there’s a community of people just like me who also like that feeling and we get to share that feeling with one another.

“When I found this system I knew it was the one, this is the system that changes lives...our goal is to get people off couches.”

Mr Marlow said during a crossfit session members often achieved more than what they believed they were capable of.

“They’ll see the workout on the board and they’ll just assume they can’t do it because it has high level gymnastics or the weight level is more than their body weight, and it’s important to get people to understand that’s the high level,” he said.

“We have a top-down hierarchy so everybody can achieve the same workout but we write the standard from the top down and not the bottom up.

“When they say ‘wow I did this thing I didn’t think I’d be able to do’ it’s amazing, it’s a feeling that is second to none as a coach and as a business owner.”

He said crossfit’s increasing popularity came down to its community and diverse programming.

“You think about going into a normal gym facility, you walk in, scan you card and go do what your program says or what you feel like and you walk out and you might have only had one interaction in the gym,” Mr Marlow said.

“The second you walk in here, there’s interaction everywhere whether it’s the coach or the people.

“The other thing is the programming is diverse...they (crossfit) have model that is very inclusive whether you’re an amputee or 78-year-old, whatever the case we can help.

“That’s why I think crossfit is popular, outside the scary looking workouts or thinking they need to have six-pack it’s actually really simple and can be done by anybody.”

Crossfit Awaken is located at 155 Alma St.

To find out more you can visit its Facebook page.