JOE GIMM /

After graduating with a marketing degree, I went to Seoul to be with my family and work there. I knew fitness and sports were two of my biggest passions, and I definitely knew to work a corporate desk job; so I followed my heart and joined Reebok CrossFit Sentinel in 2013.

In retrospect, joining Sentinel was one of the best decisions I ever made. At the time, Sentinel was one of the biggest CrossFit chains in the world. This meant that the coaches were exposed to many opportunities in the industry. We had the privilege of being exclusively trained by some of CrossFit’s best coaches including Austin Malleolo and James Hobart.

Since South Korea had the biggest CrossFit market in Asia, I could pursue various training opportunities. For example, I regularly trained with Games and Regionals athletes and got to witness their training styles and methods, and I could learn gymnastics and Olympic weightlifting from professional coaches at ridiculous prices. I took weightlifting and gymnastics for one year each, during which I was able to attain the skills relevant for CrossFit, but also observe the different training methods adopted by various age groups within those sports.

As an athlete, I competed on a team at the Asia Regionals in 2014, and went on to compete as an individual at Asia Championships in 2015 and 2016.

After leaving Sentinel with experiences as Director of BootCamp and Sentinel Youth, I went on to set up my own business. After seeing success, I changed my goals and decided to move back to New Zealand to study physiotherapy.