Evan Haines ’19 has found his niche in a unique sport.

The first three words that you see when you go to Crossfit’s website are “Forging Elite Fitness.” Freshman Evan Haines must like that slogan, because he is one of the few people who have the audacity to take on the challenge Crossfit presents.

Haines recently took part in a CrossFit competition in Miami and is currently working to qualify for the CrossFit Games in Los Angeles.

The CrossFit Games is the biggest Crossfit event in the world. In this competition, they test the participating athletes and try to determine “the fittest person on Earth.”

Haines is currently involved in the first stage of this process.

“The first step is 5 weeks of training,” he said. “[Crossfit] releases a workout every Thursday, and the top 20 go to in each region go to regionals.”

Haines also said that if he does well enough in the part of the qualifying process he is in, he can go straight to the CrossFit Games and skip regionals. If he is top ten in the world, he would go straight to the Games.

This is no easy task, however.

Many people have probably heard of Crossfit, but don’t really know what it is. According to Haines, “Crossfit is combining all different gym movements into a workout. Instead of just doing your normal pushups, situps, pullups, etc., it’s combining all of these exercises into one thing.”

According to the CrossFit website, all CrossFit workouts are based on functional movements that derive from gymnastics, weightlifting, running, rowing and more. CrossFit workouts employ a constantly varied approach to training, driven by recording data in order to build measurable intensity.

“It helps to have an athletic background,” Haines said.

Haines is very passionate about Crossfit. He said he got into it because of his brother, senior Brian Haines, who started just a year before he did.

According to the Malvern Strength website, Malvern Prep became a non-profit CrossFit facility in 2007. The school uses CrossFit principles in sports team training, and is one of only four non-profit school CrossFit sites.

Mr. Erik Miller, head of the strength and conditioning department here at Malvern, was a huge part in bringing CrossFit to Malvern. He was introduced to it by a student back in 2006, and he was very impressed with what it had to offer.

“It totally destroyed me; I struggled big time,” Miller said. “Then I thought, ‘There’s something to this.’ Then I started to get into it a little bit.”

Mr. Miller also incorporates some of the movements that CrossFit promotes in workouts with Malvern students.

“I definitely use some of those elements, but I don’t incorporate a specific Crossfit workout where the workouts change constantly,” he said.

When asked about Evan, Mr. Miller had nothing but encouragement and support for his road to the Crossfit Games.

“Evan works his tail off; he’s very good, and I’m hoping for the best for him,” he said. “I always keep up to date on the scoreboard and leaderboard and see how he’s doing.”