#crossfithongkong

[denisgino]

What the coaches look like each morning in front of the whiteboard. #morninggym #715 #crossfithongkong #darkhumour #imnotamorningperson

[denisgino]

New stickers have arrived!!! Come free with any purchase on www.pumpedhk.com #pumpedhk #stickers #crossfit #crossfithongkong #organiccotton #awesomeness #inside

[classcruiser]

Introducing...Coastal Fitness

Boasting 7,000 sq. ft. of space in a prime location overlooking the skyline from a North Point-of-view, Coastal Fitness is undoubtedly one of Hong Kong’s premier performance training facilities and perhaps even second home to many of the city’s most dedicated (Cross)fitness enthusiasts.

We had a chance to sit down with the founder, Ed Haynes—whose brother and mother are also regular faces ‘round these parts as a trainer and client respectively—as he explained to us the growth and direction his business has seen over the years, and how Coastal has become his livelihood in every positive sense of the word.

Hi Ed! Please tell us a bit about yourself. I grew up in Hong Kong—I went to school here and then moved away to go to university in the UK. The dream was always to work in the fitness industry so as soon as I graduated, I moved back to Hong Kong and set up Coastal Fitness within the first 6 months of graduating. That was about 6 years ago now. Was Coastal Fitness always a Crossfit idea? No, not at all. We still don't call ourselves a Crossfit company. Crossfit was a service/methdology—a sport—that we stumbled upon 3 years ago. When we first started out, we were only doing PT. Then we first started our group training service when we launched our "Smack" program back in 2010/2011. Did you open Coastal with your brother, Ant? No, I actually opened and set up Coastal on my own and ran it by myself for the first 15 months! Then I employed Ant and Andy (Bratsanos) at the same time. Now we have 9 full-time trainers. Why "Coastal?” The name “Coastal” first originated because at the time I was living on the Gold Coast with my parents.

So how did you discover CrossFit? So a bit of background on myself as an athlete is that I used to play rugby—I played for the Hong Kong team for 6-7 years so a lot of my education was in classic strength conditioning. And then obviously I was always looking to learn more and discover innovative ways to train myself and clients. I stumbled across the methodology of CrossFit in 2011 (through online research—Andy introduced me to it) and that led me to want to learn more!

And how did it develop from there?

We signed up for the first-ever CrossFit Level 1 Certification in Asia in Singapore in 2011; it was more of a way for me to get my foot in the door and learn more about it. Now, not only are we using CrossFit as a training methodology but we actually compete overseas as well, including the regionals in Australia which is the biggest competition on the CrossFit calendar. We're really pushing the envelope with performance within our facitility. What’s it like to work so closely with your brother? We've developed a really healthy working relationship. When we set foot in the gym or if it's anything business-related, we have those hats on, but when we step out of the facility, it's a brotherly relationship. We've managed to maintain a healthy relationship since Day 1. Have you always been in this space? Yeah, since we've owned the facility this has been our space for the last 3 years.

How have you seen the CrossFit industry grow in Hong Kong? If you look at the number of affiliate gyms, you can see that there are 8 or 9 now. Each facility has a growing membership which has been a great thing. The more awareness and the more people that are doing this means a bigger community, which allows us to leverage off of it like organizing events, bringing people together, and raising awareness of health and fitness. The fitness industry in terms of education, what's available to the consumer, and the amount of people partaking in exercise has come a long, long way since I first started. What does CrossFit bring into your life? Well, it's my livelihood, really. As a business owner, CrossFit is a very large part of what we offer here at Coastal Fitness and running a business which offers a CrossFit service. And I guess the second for me, using CrossFit and the ideas of its methodology, I'm always learning new things, I'm constantly improving and the cool thing about it is I get to compete IN it against people around the world. It's replaced that bubble from competitive sport to be able to compete in a different sport. I've always been into competitive sports. How much of Coastal is CrossFit vs. regular workouts/PT? It’s hard to quanify because CrossFit is a group class membership but we have over 70 PT clients here at Coastal who are all training more than twice a week with us, plus we also have individual clients who train overseas and around Hong Kong where we actually do program design for them. We have clients all across the UK, Guam, Philippines, New Zealand...we work with athletes in a vast array of sports from rugby to tennis to swimmers to power lifters.

That’s incredible! How do they find out about you? Research is one way but if you look at the history of our marketing strategy, a lot of our business comes from word of mouth. It also helps that all of our coaches come from athletic backgrounds—that has a potential allure to other athletes as well. What do you do in your downtime? Personally, I'm at home to eat and go to bed. That's my downtime. When I get home I'll probably spend the first hour doing admin work, program design work—any work I need to do to finish off the day, but my policy sf that I try to do anything to do with technology by 9. After that, the computer screen gets turned off and I don't watch TV. From 9 p.m. on it's chill-out time or sleep preparation. I read books, listen to Podcasts (note from editor: that’s technology, but we’ll let it slide!), stretch...I'm currently enrolled in a course in business systems so that's taking a lot of my time. I'm typically in bed before 10. Any guilty pleasures in terms of food? I love burgers. I'm just a burger guy.

Fair enough. Where’s the best burger in Hong Kong? I'm a big fan of Stone's in Tai Hang.

The staff at Coastal are some of the friendliest in the city and the music they play is always on-point. We highly recommend heading over to their facility and taking a class with these guys. For their schedule, services, and plenty more information, check out their website.

[denisgino]

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[bohemian-black-man]

Oh my, look at the time. It's Friday so it must be happy hour at the bar. I'll take 150kg for 3. Please and thank you. @crossfittyphoon #Crossfit #PRcity #CrossfitHongKong #CrossfitFamily #Fitfam #Workout #Fitness #BendingBarsAndHittingPRs #LiftHeavyEveryday

[bohemian-black-man]

1st #Open in #Crossfit done! I've seen great improvements & short comings in my workouts. I'm glad to have been a part of this year's event & even though I'll never make it to the games, my goals still remain to be the best I can be. Thanks for all the help guys. This community is truly amazing. @ksujan90 @kjohnsoncf @porkrollz @crossfitower @9dragonsfitness @crossfit0260 #fitness #CrossfitHongKong #CrossfitFamily #Fitfam #Workout #15.5 #NeedRest (at Progression Highway)