How it started
BMF was founded in April 1999 by Major Robin Cope as an alternative form of fitness training to gyms. Robin's idea was to get people of all fitness abilities outdoors training in parks, with motivation provided by military trained instructors. It was never the intention to make this a ‘boot camp’ but a fun and effective form of training using the highly professional skills learnt in the military to get people fit.
A highly decorated officer, Robin left the army after 16 years service. Given his reputation, Robin was immediately in great demand as a military consultant and worked with, amongst others, Russell Crowe on the movie ‘Gladiator’ and Tom Hanks and Matt Damon on the movie 'Saving Private Ryan'. On both these movies, Robin was asked to train all the actors in the fighting scenes and to provide advice on how to act in a military style.
In April 1999, Robin decided to focus his knowledge and skill into the launch of British Military Fitness in Hyde Park in London. The first session saw just three people turn up but week by week, the numbers grew as the people being trained enthused to their friends and work colleagues about what an amazing experience it was, and others simply walked up in the park and asked to join in. By the time they reached the first winter, BMF had 200 members but was contemplating closing for the winter months. The members’ pure passion indicated that they wanted to continue through the dark, cold months and that has been the case ever since!
Soon BMF was spreading across London as people asked for classes to be set up in parks near them. Very soon it had moved beyond the capital, and is now in over 100 venues across the UK.
In terms of the future, the plan for BMF is more of the same! More parks and more classes, with potential for new products such as BMF holidays, BMF kids classes and families activities. Whatever we do, we are aware that the single most important element to retain is to ensure the standard of classes stay the same and that our professional instructors keep providing fun and challenging classes for all our members.
