The amazing people behind Central Ground Athletics in Bonifacio Global City

E-Sports International kicked off the SKILLMILL Road Show at the grand opening of Central Ground CrossFit in Bonifacio Global City on July 22.

Designed by Technogym, the world’s leading wellness and fitness company, the SKILLMILL is a groundbreaking non-motorized equipment that delivers power, speed, stamina and agility training in a single solution. Powered solely by the force that a person applies, it allows users to perform several functional training movements, making it ideal for honing maximum athletic potential.

CrossFit athletes and guests at the launch got to try the Technogym SKILLMILL

A Natural Fit

Using the body’s own power is also a key tenet of CrossFit, which is why facilities favor non-motorized equipment like pullup rigs, parallettes, kettlebells and barbells.

According to Operations Manager Lester Guevara, the SKILLMILL is a sensible choice for CrossFit facilities

Lester Guevara, Central Ground CrossFit’s Operations Manager, believes that the SKILLMILL is consistent with CrossFit’s philosophy: “It didn’t feel like the SKILLMILL was running me; I was doing the running. One of the things we say about CrossFit is that we don’t have machines here—we are the machines. So having the SKILLMILL in a CrossFit box makes sense, because you are the one powering the equipment.”

According to E-Sports Sales Manager Marvin Navarro: “Many of us at E-Sports do CrossFit, and we know it’s very similar to sports training—it’s about doing increasingly challenging things in shorter amounts of time. The SKILLMILL is a perfect complement to CrossFit, and that’s why we thought of launching the SKILLMILL here at Central Ground CrossFit in Bonifacio Global City.”

The SKILLMILL also offers conveniences that CrossFit operators will surely appreciate, as co-owner and elite athlete Benny Ledesma points out. According to Benny, the SKILLMILL provides a space-saving but equally effective way of doing exercises that normally require a lot of space.  One such exercise are prowlers and with the SKILLMILL, it allows boxes to maximize every inch of their facility. “The beauty of this product is that you can stay stationary without giving up functional training,” Ledesma says.

Elite athlete Benny Ledesma was impressed by how space-saving the SKILLMILL was

Putting It into Practice

Co-founder and Coach Job Wi had ideas on how to incorporate the SKILLMILL into workouts of the day

Central Ground Co-Founder and Coach Job Wi shared ideas on how to incorporate the SKILLMILL into a typical workout of the day, more typically known to CrossFitters as the WOD: “We can program a basic 10-minute workout, where members do 10 rounds of 10 deadlifts, and then hop onto the SKILLMILL and do 150 meters of regular running or 50 meters of a resistance run. They’d do 10 rounds of that, then we measure the amount of time they take to finish those two movements.”

Chino Roque, the first Filipino astronaut and a coach at Central Ground, says that the SKILLMILL can help users improve their running stance: “I like the SKILLMILL because it’s correcting your form with every step—you can see that you’re raising your legs better, you’re making bigger strides. When you tilt your body and place your weight right in front of you, the SKILLMILL helps you get in the best running form.”

First Filipino astronaut and CrossFit coach Chino Roque says that training on the SKILLMILL can improve one’s performance during WODs

Chino adds that training on the SKILLMILL can also develop important aspects that can help members perform better at CrossFit. For example, paced runs enable users to develop their stamina, while resistance runs will develop their speed. The sled push is also similar to staple CrossFit exercises like the prowler, which is designed to improve power.

Know More About Technogym’s SKILLMILL

The SKILLMILL will also be showcased at various fitness facilities around the country

The opening of Central Ground Athletics is proof of CrossFit’s growing popularity in the country. And with the SKILLMILL finally available in the Philippine market, box operators can now install this non-motorized piece of equipment that delivers a workout that is effective, convenient, and consistent with CrossFit’s mantra of high-intensity and highly varied workouts.

If you want to learn more about the SKILLMILL, get in touch with E-Sports International, the exclusive Philippine distributor of Technogym equipment, by e-mailing info@esports.ph or calling (02) 807-9813.

For those who missed the SKILLMILL at Central Ground CrossFit, here are the upcoming dates and venues of the road show:

July 31-Aug 3: Fairmont Hotel Makati