CrossFit Gloucester, a fitness gym, opened recently at the White Marsh Shopping Center. Mike Vogel performs a back squat, with encouragement from coach and co-owner Bill Strack. Photo by Bill Nachman

A grand opening celebration will be held from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19 for CrossFit Gloucester, located at White Marsh Shopping Center.

Bill Strack, who owns the business with his wife Emily, said they will offer discounts on memberships during the grand opening. Also planned that day are free barbecue and other refreshments and exhibitions of various exercises by CrossFit staff and members from the new center and those from sister centers in the region.

The local center, which opened Jan. 2, is an affiliate of Santa Cruz, Calif.-based CrossFit, Inc., which has more than 5,000 gyms worldwide. CrossFit specializes in individual and small-group fitness training, Bill Strack said. Instead of relying on machines, he said, CrossFit coaches participants in how to maximize their bodies to become fitness machines.

Six classes are offered each day, Strack said, each with a central theme. Warm-ups are followed by a specialty technique for the day, such as back squats with weights.

Sessions include weight and strength training, Strack said, as well as endurance training. Weighted balls, large tires, stretch bands and other apparatus are used for specific exercises. Coaches also offer nutritional counseling.

Strack most recently owned and coached at a CrossFit center in Williamsburg, which he later sold. Previously, he worked for many years in the construction business and was president of Henderson Construction in Williamsburg.

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