My WHY…..
My journey towards the 14th year of owning AFSCrossFit has been a long and complex one. My reasons WHY have evolved over the years but ultimately I did it because I love the gym life. Here is my story of how I began training, my ups and downs of training and how life has twisted and turned on the path to where AFSCrossFit is today.
It’s 1996 I we are living in Hohne, Germany. Our apartement/flat looks out over a 5-a-side football pitch with white square goalposts and the bumpiest pitch you have ever played on. I spent everyday on this pitch with my friends and brother, football was my life. One day my mate Tom Gallagher knocks on my door and asks me if I want to go for a game of Two Touch in the gym. The gym was about 400m away from my front door so I said yes why not. The weather was terrible and playing indoors was a welcome change. We walk into the gym and the sports hall is busy. Off to the right is a weights machine area. We head over attempt to lift the stacks on all the equipment and my love of lifting heavy shit was born. On my work experience the following year I applied to work in the gym. Other than play a lot of football I hit the weights every day. No plan, no journey, no clue just lift as heavy as can everyday. That’s how I have continued to roll ever since (Injuries permitting🤣).
Now the last time I really walked into a globo gym to train was 1998 at Andover college. I did a sports course that had gym training as part of the curriculum. We used the leisure centre facilities which at the time had a great meat head space. James, my best friend of 30 years who now owns Sarum CrossFit in Salisbury was always my training partner. He was a sprinter who had developed an awesome six pack from doing sit-ups since he was in nappies. He was, however blessed with long levers which meant the strength stuff always slightly favoured me. During our sessions we always hit the leg press and tried to do the stack. I can’t remember the exact weight but it was somewhere around 300kgs. Some would say that’s never changed 🤦♂️. I remember 1 particular day our teacher Hugo took the challenge. He jumped on the leg press and hit a set of something like 6 or 7 reps. I jumped on and smashed him. We were soon ushered out of the gym.
The next few years were a right off for weights as I started working towards joining the army in 1999. During my selection to get into the army I had to drop from 13stone (82kg) down to 12st7lbs (80kg). I resorted to the tried and trusted method of running. God it was boring but at least The Oasis album of Definitely Maybe had been released and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s album Doggystlye was loaded into my walkman to keep my going. It took 4 months but I got there, I even had to run in black bags to sweat the weight off but I got there. I eventually managed to start basic training in November 99 straight after a lads holiday with James to Faliraki. During my medical I was told I would always struggle to keep my weight down which I thought was a bit cheeky at the time but as it turns out it the doctor wasn’t wrong. During Basic training I actually put that 1/2 stone back on while everyone else dropped in weight WTAF?? Nothing but marches and crap circuits defined the next 2 years from November 99 to September 2001. This period was also a time when I had my first battle with weight. I got diagnosed with a hernia and told to rest. No football and no PT. After getting operated on in early 2001 it took another 12 months before I was fit again. My weight went upto 15stones (95) and I wasn’t in a good place. Constant stomach pains and no support from physios or doctors meant my rehab was non-existent.
An example of a session would be a team/squad run. I, as the slowest at the time would start at the front and off we went. After 15 months out you can imagine the pace dropped and I started falling back. As I got closer and closer to the back all the Old wankers would start shouting at me to try harder, get back up there, your weak and other such highly motivational messages to drive my self confidence. Once all the way at the back the pace was slowed and I was ushered back to the from to repeat the process. This was an awesome way to give someone who was now 2 stone heavier then he had ever been, hadn’t run in over a year the motivation to keep going, and to cap it all off I was suffering from the fallout of an 8 inch scar across my belly. Now some would say this was toxic masculinity, but that’s just how it was. Only the strong of mind and body would survive. Thank god for Kosovo and Pete Armour!
In September 2001 we deployed to Kosovo for 6 months. Now I’m not saying I wouldn’t have got in shape had this not happened but this was when weight training really did become a huge part of my life. Pete was a mountain of a man. He was a 6ft4, 17 stone, and a rugby league player who could lift heavy but also run 1.5miles in 7:30 AKA the BPFA. So a beast. He came to me one day and said did I want to hit the gym with him? He would help me get in shape. Luckily the weather in Kosovo was awful. Heavy Snow and temperatures down to -20 meant there was no chance of getting outside for PT. Plus the gym facilities were small so we were all told we had to do our own phys. Pete was now what I would call my accountability coach. This meant I turned upto the gym everyday to meet Pete no questions asked. I didn’t want to let him down or make him angry 🤣. I remember our first session like it was yesterday. We did the Alpha male thing of bench press and chest day. We loaded the bar with 40kgs and I hit a heavy 5. And off we went. I managed to hit a PB of 60kgs and I was fucked. My arms nearly fell off and what very little ego I had at that time was blitzed by this behemoth hitting 100kg for 5. I got back to my room absolutely done. However the challenge had been set. I was hooked. I went back in with Pete everyday. We trained traditionally so legs, back and bis, chest and tris and Shoulders and abs was our routine. The first couple of weeks were awful. I needed to learn all the techniques, establish my baseline and start from the bottom. All the while my training buddy smashing out some huge weights.
Within 2 months I had matched Petes lifts and it wasn’t long before I was beating him on everything. Pete got his own back on me when the weather began to clear up taking me on a few runs. To say it was emotional would be an understatement. And I never got anywhere near 7:30.
The rest of my time in the army was a bit crap for training. Another tour of Kosovo meant another 6 months of lifting but In 2005 I left the Army to pursue a career in Personal Training. A 12 week course in Costa Del Trowbridge was my resettlement package. The information just soaked in. I was hooked. I met some great people who have gone on to do great things. Ramsey now runs a personal training business in Bristol and Stu who went on to be a big part of BoxFit. A few great nights were had and memories that will last a lifetime for. None more so then achieving the qualifications to get this journey proper started.
My First job in the Fitness Industry was at the Basingstoke hotel. I had to travel 45mins each way to get there and then spent 12-15 hours working in the gym. Teaching classes, conducting 1-2-1s and generally putting a proper shift in. It became very apparent very quickly I wasn’t cut out to work for anyone. I also wasn’t cut out to earn 14k a year with a family to feed. I got the chance to interview for a Communications Engineering role in Iraq. From Arriving in London for the interview on the Friday morning, to getting offered the job on the train on the way home, to quitting my job in the hotel, to heading to Newport for a fast track passport on the Saturday to being in Iraq by the Tuesday afternoon. It was quite the whirlwind.
Iraq was hot, dusty and surprisingly homely. I spent my first year in the Baghdad International airport on the American camp. Tasked with ensuring all the teams could deploy with working Comms to clear the Countries ammunition storage facilities I had a busy morning and a busy mid afternoon but other than that I had a lot of free time. So long as the teams went out and I didn’t incur $1,000,000 / day fine everything was golden. The camp had a Pizza Hut, a Burger King, Coffee Shops and salsa clubs. It also had a gym that probably cost 10million pounds to kit out if not more. Dumbbells upto 100kgs, Hammer Strength kit which is gym porn of the highest calibre and a free weights area that you could do anything your imagination could come up with. Every night I would jog the 800m to the gym. Spend a couple of hours doing bro sesh weights and jog home. I would read every issue of Muscle & Fitness and one evening in 2006 I had the moment my life changed for good. An article on CrossFit Los Angeles.
Fran, Nancy and the Filthy Fifty WTAF were all these workouts. I had never done on overhead squat, never done a thruster and never thought about doing 50 reps in one go ever. This CrossFit thing intrigued me so I copied the workout to my phone and headed to the gym. The Filthy Fifty was my chosen work out:
For Time
50 Box Jumps (24/20 in)
50 Jumping Pull-Ups
50 Kettlebell Swings ( 16kg)
50 Walking Lunge Steps
50 Knees-to-Elbows
50 Push Presses (20kg)
50 Back Extensions
50 Wall Ball Shots (9kg)
50 Burpees
50 Double-Unders
28mins later and I was dragging my ass back to my room well and truly nailed. I got back, started looking at CrossFit.com and began following the main site everyday there after. 4 Years I spent in Iraq in various locations. The gyms ranged from the Full Scale super gym to the old York plates and skinny bar setup you would have in your garage. At least back then you would have. Now the garage setup can be extremely awesome. Check at my home gym guide here for that.
Throughout the 4 years it became harder and harder to be away from home. Coupled with that I had left the Army because I didn’t like the culture or the leadership structure and although I was getting paid considerably more it didn’t negate the same issues. It was also very evident that my interest levels had hit rock bottom and I was just treading water. I needed a change and change came. I working on a project to deploy to Afghanistan in 2008 when I was called into the project managers office. He was an ex foreign legion officer with quite possibly the hardest handshake i’ve ever come across. Cut a long story short we parted ways. I didn’t want to work for the French and he didn’t want me to work with them. I was sacked. Never a nice feeling I took it on the chignon up, shook is hand again gingerly and made my exit. I walked 4 paces to the door, got to the threshold and AFSCrossFit CrossFit was born.
I first went through starting up a conventional globo gym. Treadmills, Machines, SpinningBikes, and free weights. I started contacting suppliers, getting floor layouts and costing up everything from changing, rooms, to gym flooring to coffee machines for the reception. It soon became pretty clear that this project was going to be in the 100’s of thousands and way out of my budget. It was also becoming more about building a gym that didn’t actually do what I was doing, CrossFit. I love CrossFit, I was spreading the word about CrossFit to my friends and they were starting to train with me. One day I thought how much would a crossfit gym be to set up? Back in 2010 I had to find equipment suppliers in the U.S and Europe as there was no-one doing it in the UK. This added costs of shipping etc but after I got over the logistics, found a UK company building rigs in BeaverFit I got the whole lot for less the 100K. Still a shit load of money and it still took me another 2 years to be able to open the doors but on the 19th April 2010 the doors opened and the true AFSCrossFit was born.