Making the Case for Getting Fit

Some had run in marathons, while others had barely if ever exercised.

Now this wildly diverse group of County employees, many of them from the District Attorney’s office, works out together during their lunch hours at the County Complex in Vista. Some work for the Sheriff’s and Probation Departments.

What brought them together? An interest in getting fit. Their vehicle to do that is CrossFit, an exercise program that builds both strength and endurance through ever-changing routines. Workouts can vary from running and weight lifting to striking sledgehammers against tires, as the group did on a recent day. The point is to mix it up, working a variety of muscles and keeping the exercise interesting. Routine is the enemy, said one of the group’s founders, Keith Watanabe, a Deputy District Attorney in the Vista office.

“You make yourself do things you wouldn’t otherwise do,” said Hung Bach, also a Deputy District Attorney in the Vista office and a member of the group. “It builds confidence. It makes you think and wonder what else can I do? It’s addicting.”

Now an affiliate of the CrossFit company, the group officially goes by the name, “CrossFit Aequitas.” Aequitas means justice in Latin.

The group’s roots go back to 2010, when a Superior Court judge based in Vista invited some of the Deputy District Attorneys to do a CrossFit workout together. Watanabe and Deputy DA Garret Wong joined him and quickly got hooked.

Over the years, more employees started participating in the workouts. They chipped in to buy equipment and installed a few pull up bars next to the complex’s parking lot. Employees even paid for Wong, a former personal trainer, to get his instructor certification through the CrossFit company. It offers gyms around the country affiliate status for a few thousand dollars a year.

Wong said a police officer he knows told him public agencies can become an affiliate for free under a special nonprofit status through the CrossFit company. So last year, Wong worked to arrange that.  

Wong said their status as an affiliate gives the group more caché. He runs daily lunchtime CrossFit workouts at the County Complex in Vista, with about five to 10 participants per session. He also sends daily workouts by email to a list of 150 people, who are spread around the County. About 25 members are active at the Vista location, and DA employees at other locations around the County follow the workouts.

Wong recently led about a dozen employees in a challenging but fun workout in the parking lot behind the Vista County Complex. They met about noon on an unseasonably warm day, starting out with a warm up of jogging, high steps and stretching. Then they moved into the heart of the workout, a circuit with four stations that would have them running while carrying each other piggyback, jumping rope, lifting kettle bells and striking sledgehammers against a huge tire. Wong split the employees into teams of two or three and asked them to try to make it around the circuit as many times as possible in 30 minutes. Participants cheered each other on, encouraging one another throughout the workout.

Claudia Plascencia, also a Deputy DA based in the Vista office, said she had never exercised before she started doing the CrossFit workouts three months ago. She’d heard about the workouts soon after she started the job. Now she and the other attorneys assigned to misdemeanor trials go to the workouts together a few times a week.

“I don’t think I would do these on my own,” she said.

Nikki Cassidy, a Deputy DA who also recently started the workouts after being hired, praised Wong for his patience in leading her and others through the exercises. She said she’s long been a runner but that the CrossFit workouts have helped her build strength.

“It’s totally toned me up,” she said. “It’s awesome.”   

She said that joining a CrossFit gym would normally cost $130-$180 month, but that these workouts are free.

Working out was nothing new to Dan DeLeon, Probation director in Vista and former Army reservist, when he started doing CrossFit with the group. He had run in marathons and other competitions, but said he feels better than ever now: stronger and more fit and energetic.

“This has changed my life,” he said.

For more information, visit the CrossFit Aequitas website.