Can The Commando Save Crossfit?

Steve Willis still believes in Crossfit, despite recent negative publicity.

Who would you back in a high stakes clash between an elite special forces commando and a training system that’s conquered the fitness world?

Truth be told, it was never really a contest. The commando in question, that would be Steve Willis, had an ego the size of a planet. The training system, that would be CrossFit, specialises in crushing them. And so it would be, when Willis, better known as Commando Steve, first tried CrossFit back in 2004.

“When I was first introduced to it I thought I was fit enough, you know the ego thing, being a guy,” says Willis, looking relaxed in combat pants and a “civvy” T-shirt at Sun Studios in Sydney’s Alexandria. “I was like, ‘I run everyday, I train in the gym. What do I need CrossFit for? I’m Special Forces man, don’t tell me what I need.’”

GALLERY: Commando's 10-point plan for Crossfit

Twenty minutes after completing his first fateful WOD, Willis was lying on the lawn in his front yard in the foetal position. “I was like a six-month-old,” he recalls. “I was like ‘holy shit. What just happened to me?’”

What happened was that Willis got his arse handed to him. His towering ego and accompanying competiveness meant he attacked the workout with the same intensity he’d previously applied to 20-kilometre pack marches. But what Willis didn’t realise that day was that he wasn’t really competing against CrossFit. Because you can’t compete against CrossFit.

What’s more, you don’t need to, an idea Willis, who served in the special forces for nearly a decade and was used to assigning “enemy” or “friend” labels to just about everything in life, failed to grasp. He also failed to see that in terms of the mental drive and intensity you bring to it, the system that famously shuns mirrors in its Spartan, no-frills boxes, is actually acutely reflective. Willis was competing against himself. And that meant he was always going to lose.

Why? Because self-improvement is limitless. That’s what many blokes don’t get and why many don’t reach their full potential. It’s also why some are put off by the intensity of CrossFit. They’re not willing to dig deeper within themselves to bring out their best.

Make no mistake, CrossFit is tough. And, yes, it is potentially dangerous. But so is weekend footy, and that never stopped anyone. As Willis says, CrossFit remains the single greatest training system for channeling competitiveness, marshaling discipline, testing your limits and improving your physical condition.

MORE: Avoid one of Crossfit's most common injuries

As a man who’s come to terms with both CrossFit and who he is as a person, Willis is uniquely placed to help you harness the system’s possibilities, and, in turn, help you realise your full potential. He’s the man who can ensure that CrossFit makes you rather than breaks you.

The Commando Workout

“I focus a lot on training multiple skillsets,” says Willis. “If you break CrossFit down, there’s cardio, there’s gymnastics, then there’s weights, which is anything external to the body – barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags, tyres, sledgehammers. I incorporate all of them. And then there’s what’s called metabolic conditioning, which is combining cardio with a gymnastics movement and weights and doing a circuit.”

Do the following conditioning workout once a week.

Warm up
- One kilometre jog
- Dynamic stretching and mobility work
- Back squat with unloaded barbell, then 40kg, then 60kg

Workout
1. 400m run
2. 20 toes to bar
3. 10 back squats (Willis lifts 100kg)

Do three rounds (this section of the workout takes Willis around 12 minutes)

Rest 10 minutes

4. In a 10-minute window, run 1.6km, then in the remaining time do as many bodyweight squats as you can. (Willis does the run in just over seven minutes then typically knocks out 80 squats)

To scale: Do two rounds instead of three, do ab-mat sit-ups instead of toes-to-bar, and an unloaded barbell squat or weight plate chest hold instead of the back squat. Reduce the run to 800m then do as many bodyweight squats as possible in the remaining time.

GALLERY: Lewis Hamilton's Crossfit workout