Competitors warm up before competing. The Festivus Games brought a large crowd to CrossFit Thunderhawks gym in Rio Rancho. Photo/Daniel Zuniga

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My favorite workouts are pull ups, and handstand push-ups. If you don’t know how to do it, just practice — preteen CrossFitter Atiana Tenorio.

 

As competitors compete, owners Antinelly Soto Hernández (left) & Cesar Javier Hernández (right) pose for a quick picture. Photo/Daniel Zuniga

 

Music blasted, sun tents were set up in the parking lot, and people loaded with energy competed for a spot on the podium at the Festivus Games in Rio Rancho.

Some 8,000-10,000 athletes competed worldwide at various host sites, while hundreds gathered in Rio Rancho at the CrossFit Thunderhawks gym recently.

Among them was CrossFit competitor Jocelyn Shade.

“My crew and I already said we want to be 70-year-olds doing burpees in a circle,” Shade said. “That’s the cool thing about fitness, you can always do better, there is no age.”

According to the Festivus Games website, The Festivus Games is a worldwide functional-fitness competition for beginner and intermediate athletes. And yes, the name originates from the Seinfeld episode “The Strike” in which Frank Costanza creates a holiday to compete with Christmas, and created such traditions as the “feats of strength.”

The CrossFit community came together to compete, and featured competitors of all ages including CrossFit Thunderhawks’ own Preteen squad.

“We decided since we have a family gym, and we have a solid kids-youth program, to include them into the competition,” said CrossFit Thunderhawk owner Antinelly Soto Hernández. “So, we came up with adding a preteens division to the original Festivus game competition.”

Hernández, and her husband Cesar Javier Hernández, are the owners of the gym. Both have active M.D. licenses in New Mexico. According to the CrossFit website, in 2016, their gym was the first to offer a CrossFit kids program in the city of Rio Rancho.

One of the the preteens WOD (workout of the day) for the Festivus Games included a five-minute running clock, a buy-in of Russian Kettlebell Swings followed by an AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of Chin-Over-Bar Pull-Ups or Ring Rows and burpee box overs.

Did you follow all that? Workouts like these are the norm for any CrossFitter.

“My favorite workouts are pull ups, and handstand push-ups,” said preteen CrossFitter Atiana Tenorio. “If you don’t know how to do it, just practice.”