Family opens up new CrossFit gym
The new CrossFit in Hobsonville Point is very much a family affair.
Jess Greenland and her aunt Phyllis Nicol opened the doors of their new CrossFit gym in late January. It’s a fusion, Greenland says, of her aunt’s desire to do something health-related and Greenland’s passion for olympic weightlifting and CrossFit.
After a health scare in 2011, Nicol talked with her niece via email about opening a health farm. Greenland, then based in London where she was coaching CrossFit alongside a full-time job, helped brainstorm some ideas with Nicol.
‘‘The dream was a big piece of land with health facilities including gyms, healthy eating and massage, and everything else that goes with a health farm,’’ Nicol says.
‘‘[But] when I saw what Jessica had written [about CrossFit], I thought, ‘Wow, we could do that, and we could start right there.’
Nicol asked Greenland if she would come back to help run a CrossFit, to which she readily agreed. Her niece arrived back in New Zealand on the gym’s opening, and taught three classes the same day.
Greenland, 38, head coach at CrossFit Red Dragon says CrossFit Red Dragon encourages a community atmosphere.
‘‘A lot of people have said to me this is the only thing that they’ve ever stuck with,’’ she says.