“I met my boyfriend doing burpees!” - Find love at BMF

When a friend at work recommended she try a military fitness class at her local park, Nicole Casey had no idea that she would be lunging her way to love. However, that’s exactly what did happen when Nicole, 32, started attending British Military Fitness classes in 2011. It was while doing sit ups during a fitness session on Clapham Common that Nicole met her partner Adam Teszke, 39, and after rekindling the flame at a BMF social at a pub a few weeks later, the pair have been inseparable ever since.

Nicole, originally from Washington DC, commented:

I’d always been into fitness, but back in 2011 I was more a gym person than anything else. However I was starting to get really bored of the same old exercises, so when a few of my colleagues started raving about British Military Fitness, I thought I’d give it a go and soon after I met Adam. Never in a million years did I expect to meet my future boyfriend doing burpees! Running around in the park covered in mud is not exactly where you imagine meeting someone but now I couldn’t imagine a more perfect place, there is no time for awkward or forced conversations and you can really get to know people and have fun.

Adam, now part of the British Military Fitness Race Team, added:

I’d been attending BMF sessions for a few years, after my flatmate recommended I give them a go, when I met Nicole. We have a few disagreements on how we actually met. My version – the correct one! – is that we met while doing sit ups on a rainy Saturday morning, but Nicole insists we met at a social a few weeks later. Either way, I asked her out on a date at that social, and the rest they say is history!

Nicole continued:

BMF classes were a great way to get to know each other at the start of our relationship, as it was a common interest and gave us lots to talk about. Getting to see each other was also an added motivation for both of us to get out of bed and down to the park on those rainy mornings! Even now that we’ve been together a few years, we still go to classes together, which gives us something to do that we both enjoy and makes sure we both stay fit. We’ve also made so many mutual friends through the classes, and it’s great to be able to all hang out together with like minded people.

Adam added, "working out in a group is a great way to get fit and stay that way. Training with other people is miles better than being on your own or at the gym, and you can always count on others to give you encouragement – even when you’re struggling through that final press up! I think the best part though is meeting people from all walks of life, careers, countries and backgrounds, who come together to exercise, have a laugh and share some well-deserved drinks! It certainly made getting to know Nicole a lot easier, and going to classes and keeping fit together definitely makes our relationship stronger."