TRAINING NOTES.

One hundred and four Pac athletes registered under CrossFit Porirua for the 2026 CrossFit Open. No other New Zealand affiliate had more. That line is easy to turn into a headline. But the headline is not the part that matters most. The Open only shows what has already been built. THE FLOOR REVEALS THE GYM Once a year, the CrossFit Open puts the same workouts in front of affiliates around the world. The workouts are released. The standards are set. Scores are judged and entere

Pac began in Porirua in 2013 with CrossFit at the centre of the floor. The roots still matter. Coached functional movement. Broad fitness. Sessions that can challenge an experienced athlete and still make sense for someone starting from the beginning. A room where people train together without needing the same load, pace or version. More than a decade later, the programme has grown beyond one class name. The standard underneath it has not. THE FOUNDATION WAS CROSSFIT CrossFit

Youth strength training should not look like an adult class with smaller people in it. The goals are different. The attention span is different. Bodies are developing at different rates, sometimes inside the same age group. A good programme understands that and builds the session around it. For parents, the most important question is not how much weight a child will lift. It is how the programme teaches them to move, learn and progress. STRENGTH TRAINING CAN BE APPROPRIATE FO

Olympic weightlifting can look like a sport of force. Watch it closely and the first thing you see is timing. The bar stays close. The feet arrive. The athlete receives the weight in the right place. Strength matters, but strength without position has nowhere useful to go. That is why a first Weightlifting class begins with technique, not a test. TWO LIFTS. A LOT TO LEARN. Olympic weightlifting is built around the snatch and the clean and jerk. In the snatch, the bar travels

A HYROX race is simple to explain. Run 1 km. Complete a station. Repeat that sequence eight times. Simple does not mean easy. The challenge sits in the accumulation: running after the sled, settling the breathing after burpees, holding technique in the lunges and arriving at the wall balls with enough control to finish the race well. Your first HYROX build should prepare you for that whole sequence, not just make each station feel hard in isolation. KNOW THE TEST The official

Fitness has become good at naming things. CrossFit. HYROX. Strength. Engine. Weightlifting. The names are useful when they tell you what the training is built to do. They are less useful when they become teams you think you have to join forever. Start with the goal. Then choose the training that gives that goal the right amount of attention. CROSSFIT: BUILD A BROAD BASE CrossFit is built around constantly varied functional movement performed at relative intensity. In practice

Group training and personal training are not two levels of seriousness. They are two ways of organising coaching. One gives you a programme, a room and a fixed rhythm. The other gives more of the session to one person, one schedule and one specific need. Both can be effective. The right choice depends on what the goal requires and what helps you keep showing up. WHEN GROUP CLASSES WORK WELL Coached group training suits people who want structure without training alone. The ses

The mind remembers the old numbers. The bar you lifted. The pace you held. The version of you who could walk into a session without wondering how the next day would feel. After time away, that memory can be useful. It can also make the first week back harder than it needs to be. You are not starting from nothing. You are starting from now. EXPECT THE FIRST SESSIONS TO FEEL DIFFERENT Fitness does not disappear in one clean line, and it does not return in one either. Strength,

The perfect training week usually exists on paper. It has the right balance of strength, conditioning, skill and recovery. Nothing runs late. Nobody gets sick. Work stays quiet and sleep arrives on time. Real weeks are less obedient. The useful question is not how much training you could survive in an ideal week. It is how much good training you can repeat in an ordinary one. START WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE Training has to sit beside work, family, sleep and everything else a

Training can look busy without going anywhere. New movements. New formats. A different sweat every day. Variety can keep a session interesting, but variety alone is not a programme. A programme gives those sessions a relationship. What you practise this week supports what you will be asked to do next. Strength is built across repeated exposures. Skills return often enough to improve. Conditioning changes in a way that develops more than one pace. The surface changes. The dire

A clock can run a class. A whiteboard can list the work. Neither can coach the person standing in front of it. Good coaching begins before the first rep. It starts with understanding what the session is meant to develop, then making that intent clear enough for a room of different people to train towards it. The experienced athlete does not need to be held back. The new member does not need to be left behind. Both need a coach who can see what is happening and make the right

Most gyms can give you equipment. Not every gym gives you a plan, a coach and a reason for what comes next. That does not make one model universally better. It means the choice should be based on what you need, not which room has the longest equipment list. If you are comparing gyms in Porirua, start by separating two things that are often sold as though they are the same: access and coaching. WHAT A 24/7 GYM DOES WELL A 24/7 gym offers freedom. You can train early, late or i

Thinking about starting CrossFit in Porirua? See what your first coached classes at Pac look like, how scaling works and what you need to begin.

When people talk about fitness, they often mean looking leaner or lifting heavier. But true fitness goes deeper. It is about building an engine that can handle anything. That is where interval training comes in. At Pac Gym, we use interval work to push both endurance and power. It is not random. It is structured. And the science behind it is clear: training in intervals develops cardiovascular capacity, muscular endurance, and efficiency under fatigue. What Is Interval Traini

There are plenty of gyms out there. Some look slick. Some talk big. But when it comes to actually getting results, most fall short.

Introduction: Aerobic conditioning is a crucial aspect of fitness that enhances cardiovascular health and endurance. At Pac Gyms, our Engine class focuses on building a strong aerobic base. The Science of Aerobic Conditioning: Regular aerobic exercises improve heart health, increase lung capacity, and boost overall stamina. This type of conditioning helps your body utilize oxygen more efficiently, allowing you to perform better and recover faster. Overview of Engine Class: Cl

A common misconception about CrossFit is that you need to be in great shape to start. At Pac Gym, we believe CrossFit is for everyone,...

Introduction: Weightlifting is more than just lifting heavy weights; it's about building strength, power, and confidence. At Pac Gyms, we...

At Pac Gyms, we believe that consistency is the cornerstone of any successful fitness journey. Whether you're aiming to build muscle,...

Rugby demands strength, speed, agility, and endurance, all at once. CrossFit training, when applied with precision, hits every one of those areas. That is why it has become the foundation of strength and conditioning for rugby athletes at Pac Gym. Training here is led by Mitchell Bernard, who came through rugby himself and knows how to apply CrossFit principles to sport at the highest level. CrossFit’s varied, functional movements translate directly to the game. Squats, press