This is not an average Korean gym. It is a rubber mat-filled room, with neatly organized Olympic bars, medicine balls, dumbbells and kettle balls along the perimeter.

In the center of this room, where exercise machines would typically be, is a still warm puddle of sweat and tears from the last group of students.

This is a CrossFit gym in Gangnam, where people of all shapes and sizes put themselves through a grueling regimen to achieve not only a better-looking body but a healthier one.

The CrossFit Journal, published by CrossFit Inc., describes the regimen as “movements that largely mimic and reproduce natural efforts like standing, throwing, lifting, pulling, climbing, running and punching.” A representative example of this would be the squat, what many describe as the “backbone” of CrossFit.

As the 4:30 p.m. class gets ready at Crossfit Gangnam, their instructor and former K-1 fighter Lim Su-jeong explains their workout of the day, or WOD.

The WOD, dubbed “Cindy,” is five pull-ups, 10 pushups and 15 squats, which sounds easy enough. But as CrossFitters, they will see how many sets they can crank out in 20 minutes without a break. This is but one of many masochistic workouts that have taken the fitness world by storm.

CrossFit is a training regimen developed in the U.S. in 2000 that strives for functionality through short, powerful bursts of movement, otherwise known as high intensity interval training. And since its start, the program has developed an almost cult-like following spreading to some 4,000 affiliated gyms worldwide with almost minimal marketing.

After a quick rundown on the movements involved, Lim starts the clock and immediately the gym explodes in a flurry of pushes and pulls. With music blasting in the background the scene is reminiscent of the training scenes Rocky Balboa endures while listening to “Eye of the Tiger.”

After just five minutes in people are beginning to grunt and perspire through the movements.

Ten minutes in and the students have slowed down considerably. Some close their eyes as if to zone out the pain.

After the fifteen minute mark, the students are looking to themselves for inner strength, tuning into their own inner Coach Mickey to push them through the last stretch.

After twenty minutes, the rubber mat is once again covered in sweat while everyone is struggling to catch their breath after the brutal punishment they took.

For Kim Dae-joon, 27, this torturous regimen has been the only way he has exercised for the past year, and has definitely seen results.

“I used to attend a regular gym on my own and although I thought I was physically fit, on my first day here I got last place,” he said.

CrossFit has yet to hit the mainstream here but, according to experts, that is soon to change.

“Lets say four years ago there was nothing,” said CrossFit Asia Regional Director John Frankl.

“Since then, however, it’s really caught on and it’s growing really fast,” he said.

It has grown so much so that one CrossFit gym attracted 300 patrons in just three months. CrossFit Gangnam runs at full capacity and has begun a waiting list for hopefuls.

“Korea is the biggest in its region in terms of numbers.”

The popularity of the sport here could be why Korea was chosen to host the 2012 CrossFit Games Regional Asia.

From last Friday to Sunday, some 100 contestants from all over Asia including India, Afghanistan, and Japan competed to see who is the fittest in Asia.

On Sunday, the strongest men and women in the region competed on to finish up the region’s last events at Kyung Hee University’s Graduate Institute of Peace Studies in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province.

In the individual men’s category, Daniel Hershey with CrossFit Misawa in Japan took first place, while Seoul’s own Joseph Rank from Reebok CrossFit Sentinel took second.

For women Christen Wagner with Reebok CrossFit Asia placed first, ahead of Candice Howe from CrossFit LifeSpark in Dubai.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)