Plymouth Crossfit Coach to Compete in National Event

Mike Kerul has a dream of competing against the fittest athletes in the country, and he will get his chance next month during the second annual Wodapalooza Crossfit Competition in Miami, Florida.

The 27-year-old Plymouth man was one of 30 male athletes chosen from across the U.S. to compete in the elite fitness event.

Crossfit is a popular strength and conditioning fitness program that focuses on various workouts, functional movements and high-intensity programming.

Kerul, a former football player at Adrian College, got into crossfit five years ago while looking to fill the void from the competitive sport. 

"What I liked about it the most is that I was making gains I had never made before," he said. "I was getting stronger, I was getting faster with just the simplest form of exercise and fitness. And what made me even more involved with it was the competitive side."
 
Kerul is now a certified crossfit coach and has been an active competitor in Crossfit competitions across the State and around the country for the past several years.

In spite of a shaky qualifying workout that involved a video interruption due to a non-urgent phone call from his wife who was shopping at Target, Kerul still managed to rank 12th out of the top 30 men heading to Wodapalooza. 

But qualifying may have been the easiest part. Getting to Miami will be more difficult. 

For Kerul, who is the father of a 5-year-old boy and 2-year-old twin girls, flying to Florida with his family is going to be expensive.

So to help cover costs, Kerul, his wife and both Plymouth and Northville Crossfit locations are sponsoring fundraisers and have set up a GoFundMe website to help supplement the costs of travel.

People can either donate directly on Kerul's GoFundMe page or by pledging funds toward two strength-based weightlifting and fitness challenges, which be held at Plymouth Crossfit on Tuesday and Thursday.

The first fundraising workout will take place during a regular Crossfit class at 5:30pm on Tuesday. Participants will have an opportunity to pledge a dollar amount toward the total weight Kerul will lift for three different Crossfit movements.

The second pledge will give those interested the opportunity to make a donation toward his completion of any selected number of burpees – a high intensity full body squat-thrust exercise – from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday.

"It is horrible," Kerul said about burpees. "You basically fall to the floor, absorb your impact and then bounce of the floor and jump up into the air. And doing a lot of those is horrible. So people saw that and just gnawed at it. They're waiting for Thursday to come around just to see me suffer." 

For more information, or to make a cash donation, call 734-259-9131, email mike@xlr8athletix.com or Kerul's Facebook page.