“So you do Crossfit?”
A question I was asked the other day by a guy who had heard about the gym and followed me on social media.
My training philosophy and style has developed over the years and at first glance you would probably look at what I do now and describe it as ‘Crossfit’.
Although I’ve never done Crossfit I have always had a keen interest in it, more so in the early Garage Gym days. I remember the Crossfit Journal article on the garage gym which I think was published in 2002 that detailed how to create the perfect Garage Gym environment.
http://journal.crossfit.com/2002/09/the-garage-gym-sept-02-cfj.tpl
This coincided with my journey to becoming a Personal Trainer and setting up my own garage gym at my mum and dad’s house.
My initial fitness qualifications were done through WABBA qualifications, which was the World Amateur Bodybuilding Association, and as expected the main content on these courses was bodybuilding and strength training.
I was also heavily influenced by the Rocky movies and always wanted to train like he did in Russia in Rocky 4.
At this time there was no Facebook, Instagram and other social media and not as much online as there is now regarding training and exercise.
Other than my fitness qualification manuals and a few magazines, there wasn’t much information out there and most of the information on training was focused on bodybuilding.
My training and how I trained clients at the time became a hybrid of bodybuilding, Rocky and the early Crossfit days, or at least the information I could find on it. I think the first Crossfit affiliate opened in 2005, don’t quote me on this though.
My papa Jimmy actually made me a plyo box so I could do box jumps, which certainly weren’t in the WABBA personal training manual. I actually still have this box at our gym to this day.
My training and those I trained would consist of a bodybuilding section and finished with some sort of cardio. My qualifications would encourage slow and steady cardio on a bike, elliptical or walking. However, I preferred what Rocky was doing and what the Crossfit guys were doing for their ‘cardio’. Now known as metabolic conditioning.
I would combine traditional dumbbell and barbell exercises with a circuit type session to finish. Boxing, Burpees, jumping, sprinting and I even had a few Kettlebells back in the day before they became cool.
Over the past years my training has really evolved, I’ve been fortunate enough to train and learn with many of the top coaches around the world and I have learned so much from the likes of Andy McKenzie and Marck Goran, who I consider good friends and mentors. I take ideas from various sources and adopt what I feel will work for me and my clients.
My training philosophy has evolved into my Harder to Kill system, which you can read about here:
https://brianmilliganpt.wordpress.com/2019/04/05/harder-to-kill-2/
I encourage people to move better, become stronger, build muscle, improve their cardiovascular fitness and become better at life.
Despite not doing ‘Crossfit’ it certainly has influenced my training philosophy right from the start, before it was a multi million pound business. I loved the initial concept behind it and the type of training that you could get done in a small ‘hardcore’ garage. As has traditional bodybuilding methods.
Crossfit has exploded over the past 15 years and has done more than any other training modality to encourage people to lift weights, which is a good thing. They promote hard work and have helped millions of people across the world live a healthier and more active life.
So to answer the question – no, I don’t do Crossfit.
However, yes I use Barbells, Kettlebells, Gymnastic Rings, Burpees, Ski-erg, Airdyne Bike all in the quest of becoming Harder to Kill.
This is not Crossfit.
This is not Bodybuilding.
This is not Circuit Training.
This is just how I train.
Coach Milligan 