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 weig...