Cardiff Sports Nutrition Sit Down With Dragon CrossFit

  Crossfit is the word on everybody in the fitness industries lips, and at Cardiff Sports Nutrition we pride ourselves on, not only keeping up on the latest in the supplement world, but also keep ourselves at the forefront of training.   Dragon Cross Fit was the first specialist CrossFit gym to open in Cardiff and still remains one of the most popular, dynamic and well equip CrossFit gyms in South Wales. We asked co-owner Andy Edwards if he would mind sitting down with us for an interview, and without any hesitation agreed to answer the questions we put to him. So we’d like to say a big thank you to Andy for giving us his time.       Cross fit has been growing in popularity at a rapid rate in the last 3-4 years. How did you get in to it and how long have you been doing it?In 2009 I was living in Sydney playing Rugby for a Team called Eastern Suburbs. A fellow Player mentioned that he owned an affiliate and invited me down, our first session was under Sydney Harbour Bridge. He then suggested I take part in a competition held at CFX Australia's first CrossFit affiliate.   I went down assuming the majority of the guys there would be aerobically proficient and not particularly powerful, what I found some seriously strong guys.Since you started CrossFit how you have seen the sport evolve?The competition in Sydney had 50 athletes in total both male and female, and in the same year a UK competition had 10 competitors. Now the London Throw down in January every year boasts 350 competitors. The 'sport of fitness' has definitely made an impact on the fitness industry.  When I first started, it was all about the metcon's. But over the last 2 years there has definitely been a focus on shifting heavier weights,Which has lead to people wanting to follow strength specific programs.Have you ever competed in competitive cross fit and do you intend on competing in the future?Since my first competition I'v been hooked on the buzz of competing. I qualified for the Australian Regional when I lived there and Qualified for the last two European Regional also. This year will be harder with only 42 spots open. I try and compete in UK competitions regularly and so far been lucky enough to make the podium a few times. I think I'll continue to compete as long as I enjoy it. Do you utilize the Paleo Diet that is so common in the Cross Fit community?  To an extent I do, I like that it teaches to eat clean and go for quality. I've only ever been strict Paleo for 8 weeks and in that time I did see a drop in body fat %. I found that Wheat/gluten wasn't good for me & I sit on the fence with dairy, if you need good calories and want to put weight on you can't beat it, it's one of the most natural anabolic substances on the planet. I guess it depends on the phase of training.We recently had an interview with PurePharma supplements. They are known to be a very CrossFit friendly supplement company. Do you use their products and what other supplements do you utilize? Yes we stock all of Pure Pharma's range at the gym, they are a high quality supplements and  have had good results from the products. I would recommend them to anyone.Personally I try to mix up my supplementation to pre and post workout. as an examplePre- Beta alanine, BCAA, Caffeine, Electrolytes, Centreline malate Post- Whey Protein Isolate (of choice), creatine HMB, Carbohydrates, more BCAATake D-aspartic Acid 8 week cycles Joint formula's D3'sWhat gave you the inspiration to open Dragon? The amount of fun I had while in Australia. I hadn't seen anything like it in the UK. There were a few UK gyms and even a few dotted in Wales. I couldn't believe there wasn't one in Cardiff. So I decided to pack my bags and leave Swansea for good and make a go of Dragon. I keep pinching myself at how far we have come in 2 years.  It was obviously a very open market when you opened up and since then a lot of Cross fit gyms have been popping up around South Wales, but Dragon seems to still be the No1 word on everyone’s lips when it comes to crossfit gyms. What do you think keeps you are the forefront?   Pursuit of Excellence. We have built a strong community ethos at Dragon. We continue to up skill and advance ourselves so we can give our members the best service we can. Our mission plan when we set up DC was 'Creating a community that transforms an individual’s view of Health, Fitness and How to achieve it' If we find that something deviates from this we change it. So far So goodWith Crossfit’s popularity only growing, what does the future hold for Dragon? Do you have any events or competitions coming up? We would love to get involvedThe Future is set to be busy we are holding 4 competitions in 2013. Masters, Pairs, Individual and Weightlifting. This year we are all about growing the community and making people outside of Cardiff and CrossFit aware of what the Dragon brand stands for- Results driven from quality training in a supportive environment.   We’d like to finish off by once again saying a massive thank you to Andy for giving us a great interview and would advise anyone that hasn’t already done so to take a look at Dragon’s website – www.dragoncrossfit.com  and pay them a visit to get a real taste of what DC is all about. I’ve got to say that when I went there I found it to be a very comfortable environment. I had never been there before but was welcomed like I was a regular and immediately felt like I could join the DC family.