Community gym takes on fitness challenge

Two Kanesatake Community Fitness (KCF) members credit their training at the Kanesatake gym for achieving a strong finish time in a hyrox fitness challenge in Vaudreuil-Dorion.

The Kanesatake gym is taking on more fitness challenges to make connections with other gyms and to attract more people to work out at the KCF and join in on future events, said Samantha Wenniseriiostha Pepin, KCF manager.

“I’m proud of them,” said Pepin of the two KCF participants, , Véronique Daniel-Raîche and Stéphanie St-Jacques, who took part in the half-hyrox fitness challenge on April 11 at the André-Chagnon Multisports Centre.

“This sparked the conversation to see what other challenges we can do in the future, and what other members could join us, even non-members, that could join us in upcoming events that are down the road.”

Hyrox, an indoor fitness competition, has participants repeat eight cycles of running one KM followed by an exercise at a work-out station.

The April 11 fitness challenge was a half-hyrox, a shortened version of the cycle with eight half-KM runs interspersed with functional exercises, such as rowing and walking lunges.

Advanced-performing women complete a full hyrox challenge in between 1:26:00 and 1:38:00, according to a 2025 HyroxDataLab study. Elite women athletes complete the challenge in under 1:26:00.

The two KCF participants did the half-hyrox challenge in 38 minutes.

“We were proud, we did well,” said Daniel-Raîche, who is also a coach at KCF.

“We’re in the first third so it’s pretty good for women at our age. It’s very good, it’s a good time, and we can do better.”

Daniel-Raîche, 43, and St-Jacques, 51, have developed a close friendship in working out together.

“We have a name for our team: it’s Sweat Sisters,” said Daniel-Raîche.

They made red t-shirts with their team’s name and the KCF logo for the fitness challenge.

“And we put on our back, ‘Aquarius as F,’ because we’re both Aquarius,” said Daniel-Raîche.

Both have been preparing for the challenge since November and felt ready to showcase their skills.

“What we’re doing at the gym is very similar to what it was in the competition, so we were very prepared,” said Daniel-Raîche. “We knew all the movements and the sequence, and we just felt that it was like we could put all this training to the test.”

And they felt the KCF’s gym community helped them in participating in the challenge.

“It was great to feel that the gym supported us. I mean, I think that was the best part of it, that we really felt that all the community was behind us,” said Daniel-Raîche.

Pepin, the manager, hopes to build more relationships with other gyms in the future. This is part of the gym’s strategy after rebranding itself from a CrossFit gym to a community gym that features a variety of different exercises, such as hyrox classes, functional fitness, mobility, and core and glutes.

“As a gym that’s been in existence for nine years, this experience opened my eyes to what’s possible for our members. It reinforced that events like this are accessible, and that anyone willing to commit can take it on. That’s the message I ultimately want to bring back to KCF, not fear, but excitement. We want people to feel inspired to try, to grow, and to see their own strength,” said Pepin.

Daniel-Raîche hopes to inspire more people to come to the gym.

“Me and Stephanie, we’re everyday people. We’re moms and we have full-time jobs,” said Daniel-Raîche.

“If we can do it, everyone can do it. It’s accessible - come and train with us so we can all go together.”

[email protected]

Hadassah Alencar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter