CrossFit approach works

EL DORADO HILLS — Roughly four weeks ago many of us made a resolution or two on or around New Year’s. Get organized, spend more time with family, go back to school and countless other goals were considered before the ball dropped and we rang in the new year.

Likely, the most prominent — and important — of those resolutions is to get in better shape. Everyone wants that beach body but that’s hard to obtain and often becomes a resolution that’s reused over the years.

But with the arrival of CrossFit Bios in El Dorado Hills, there’s a new approach to better fitness. Owned and operated by Peter Santos, CrossFit Bios aims to change the way workouts are done by combining, among others, strength, speed, endurance, coordination and balance.

“Five years ago I was working as a firefighter in Tucson and they introduced the idea of CrossFit to the station. I started doing it at home, and my overall fitness improved almost immediately. I decided to get my Level 1 CrossFit certificate, and moved to California a couple years ago. I started training at another CrossFit gym, and decided to open my own,” Santos said.

CrossFit Bios currently runs two fitness classes, and one yoga class. But what makes CrossFit unique compared to traditional gyms is how CrossFit adjusts for each individual.

“A huge part of CrossFit is focusing on the idea of basic human movement. Instead of doing isolated movements as part of a workout or doing the same motion for a long period of time, we do shorter, high-intensity workouts that improve your core and your body’s cardiovascular and respiratory capacity,” Santos said.

The wave of CrossFit is sweeping the nation but there’s still many who aren’t familiar with it and hesitant to leave their traditional fitness methods. However, Santos says that CrossFit Bios works for every level of fitness.

“It really doesn’t matter what level you are at when it comes to CrossFit. We’ve had people come in that are just looking to get in better shape, and we’ve had people that are athletes looking to improve. Everyone has their own goals and aspirations when it comes to CrossFit, and we help them achieve them.”

CrossFit Bios has also done away with some traditional gym workouts and replaced them with exercises that Santos says “increase functionality rather than form.” Pull-ups take the place of curl-ups, lateral raise is replaced with push-presses, and squats are used instead of leg extensions.

While the business of fitness has remained fairly stagnant when it comes to growth over the past few decades, CrossFit Bios is changing the way their members think. By combining conventional workouts to strengthen the core with new exercises that improve the overall performance of one’s bodies, CrossFit is here to stay.

CrossFit Bios is located at 4930 Hillsdale Circle in Unit 2 of the El Dorado Hills Business Park. Their phone number is 530-645-2467, and can be contacted by email at peter@crossfitbios.com.