Calgary Crossfitter Emily Abbott gunning for world title

When Emily Abbott first walked into a Crossfit gym five years ago, she could barely do a pull up.

How things have changed.

Now in her fifth season of competition, the Calgary athlete is once again heading to the Crossfit Games going Aug. 3 to 6 in Madison, Wis., where she will be looking to improve on an eighth place finish in 2015.

"I'm hoping to podium for sure," said Abbott.

"I'm lean, I'm confident, I'm in the best shape I've ever been in. I don't want to get too fired up but I'm ready to compete and feeling like I'm going to be on fire."

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Crossfit, says Abbott, "is a mixture of endurance, Olympic weightlifting and gymnastics skills all wrapped into one."

"It's functional movement at a high intensity and it constantly varies," she said. "Any day you walk into the gym there's a workout on the board called a Workout of the Day [WOD] and it can be a combination of any of those three modalities, in any order."

Before an athlete can get fast, they have to learn the proper technique, otherwise injuries occur.

"When someone's starting Crossfit, it's all about technique," she said. "First technique, then consistency of technique, then you can add volume, then you can add speed, then you can add weight. I just happen to be really good at technique."

You also need strategy to be successful at the highest levels.

"I happen to be a heavier athlete, I'm competing against girls who are 30 to 40 pounds less than me, so when it comes to gymnastics skills I have to hold on and do my best, when it comes to pure strength and pure work, I can blow people out of the water," she said.

"For me, it's just mitigating the damage on events I'm weaker at. The person who wins is typically someone who is kind of average at everything, not super good just at one thing."

Training for this year's Crossfit Games began last September, and qualifications began in February, when Abbott completed five weekly workouts as part of the Crossfit Open which were filmed moving her on to the Crossfit Canada West level.

The Top 20 from there moved on to Crossfit Regionals, where Abbott faced the best in western Canada and the northwestern United States, finishing third, qualifying her for the Crossfit Games.

If competing head-to-head against the most athletic people in the world wasn't pressure enough, the Crossfitters won't actually know what the workouts they'll be doing are until the event begins.

"It's training for the unknown and the unknowable," she said.

Some info does leak out beforehand, though.

"There's going to be a run-swim-run event, but we don't know distances, we don't know where, we don't know when," she said.

"Then they announced there's going to be some kind of obstacle course. This is what's great about the games and where I tend to shine is because it comes down to adaptability and athleticism That's why I love competing and testing myself and seeing what I can do in hard situations."

Her training regime isn't for the faint of heart.

"I typically train five days a week, two to three workouts a day," she said. "Then weekends I usually chill out or do something out of the gym, go hiking, or go for a bike ride, do some fun stuff, balance is key."

Known as Abbott the Red to her fans and on social media, the 28-year-old former basketball star who captained the University of Windsor Lancers totwo national championships started in Crossfit in 2012 after returning home from a post-graduation trip to Europe.

"It was a way to get back in shape after eating and drinking a bunch and I totally fell in love with it," she said.

"I love the idea of pushing myself really hard and going to my perceived [limitations]of what I'm capable of physically and mentally."

Positivebody image

As her fan base grows, Abbott said she tries to be an inspiration for other women, at the same time working to change perceptions around body image.

In February, a social media post Abbott made in response to a rude message from a would-be suitor on a dating app went viral.

"My thing about body image is that a woman should look however the hell she wants to look and not get criticized for that," she said.

"And if she does get criticized, maybe have a group of people behind her saying, 'No, however you want to be, and if you're happy the way you are then that's fine. I don't think everyone should be doing what I'm doing because it wouldn't make them happy, but it makes me happy.

"To me, lifting weights and having great muscles and expressing myself this way is authentic, it makes me really happy."