“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had times in my life where I was so strict, I had my blinkers on. But I don’t agree with that now.”
Hang on a minute. Isn’t this the guy who, as Commando on Channel Ten’s The Biggest Loser, scares overweight people into performing seemingly impossible physical tasks? Steve Willis, the 36-year-old with the camo pants, the banging bod and the hard-man persona is, these days, big on moderation – although for some of us his idea of balance sounds positively abstemious.
“I’ll got out to dinner with friends and enjoy a beer or a couple of glasses of wine and share dessert,” he says.
“I don’t mind a black coffee, maybe a couple of pieces of really dark chocolate. But I don’t overindulge in those things – it’s balanced and it’s a treat. Something I allow myself to have from time to time.”
His dedication to moderation shows. You can’t help but be perplexed or overawed at how someone can look so good but, as has been driven home throughout The Biggest Loser, you don’t get that way by sitting on the couch and jamming your cakehole.
It should be no surprise that a guy nicknamed Commando has a military background.
Willis grew up in Brisbane, but his family moved to Hervey Bay just before he started year 11.
“It was hard,” he says, “being taken out of that environment, away from my friends. I may have done some things differently if I’d remained where I’d grown up. But I was like, ‘You know, I don’t really like where I am, I don’t know anybody’. The next best thing was to join the army.”
He was just 19 at the time and, after a year in the infantry, joined the Counter Terrorism Team.
“You learn a lot about yourself and a lot about life and living on the edge,” he says of his time in the Special Forces unit.
“It really helps with decisionmaking, especially on the spot. Not that you always make the right decisions, but you learn not to dwell on it or beat yourself up about it.”
Willis left the army in 2004, and about that time was introduced to an exercise program that would become his game-changer.
CrossFit is Willis’ challenge of choice. Both a company and a style of exercise, it was founded by Greg and Lauren Glassman in the US in 2000.
Combining strength and cardiovascular exercises in high-intensity sessions designed to improve an individual’s functional movement and work capacity, it is, quite simply, hardcore.
“I’d spent nine years in the military as a Special Forces soldier,” says Willis. “Now I do a 20-minute workout and it absolutely annihilates me?! It pretty much handed my own arse to me on a platter.”
Inspired, he became a qualified coach and opened his CrossFit affiliate in Sydney. (He came fourth in the 2009 CrossFit Games in California. Check it out on YouTube – it makes Tough Mudder look like a tea party.)
About the same time, a friend who knew the casting agent for The Biggest Loser suggested he try out for a new role as the tough-guy trainer, who would be brought in as the ultimate punishment for hard-headed contestants.
“The no-nonsense, no-excuses, in-your-face, one-dimensional, ‘not worried about your ailments or your other things that are going on’ guy,” he says.
Thankfully, for both Willis and the viewers (although the contestants might be less enthusiastic), he’s now had a few seasons working in a considerably expanded role as one of the full-time trainers alongside Michelle Bridges and Shannan Ponton.
But while his role has changed, his fundamental philosophy has not.
“The whole ‘no-excuses’ thing is essentially about not putting blame on external factors,” he says.
“We can’t all be bullet-proof and we have to approach it from different angles and be smart about how we do things, but what it comes down to is saying, ‘I understand that this has happened or it’s part of your life, but you can focus your energies on some other area’.”
Willis practises what he preaches. After reeling off a litany of injuries – “I’ve had both knees operated on, I’ve busted my back parachuting, I’ve had an ankle operation, I’ve had a lot of dislocations of the shoulder” – he swears he’s fitter and more mobile than when he was in the army.
Plus, he has to fit in his own training around The Biggest Loser, its publicity demands, his training and bootcamp business, and spending time with his wife and three children, Brianna, 14, Ella, 5, and Jack, who turns two in July.
When the show is in production, he gets up at 4am, trains, then heads off for show commitments.
“The reason I train in the mornings is that I have time in the afternoon for my kids,” he says. “To take them to their activities, go for a swim at the pool, all that kind of stuff.
“It’s hard. But I think it comes down to the quality of time, not the totality.”
As for his persona away from the camera, Willis insists he’s not nearly as tough as his TV image.
“I am a big softie,” he says, laughing. “The methodology and mentality and application towards life and training [you see on the show] remain the same. It’s quite rigid but I truly believe in balance, and I’m a very easy guy to get along with.
“I really enjoy all the facets to life. I like training hard, working hard, playing hard.”
The Biggest Loser: The Next Generation airs Sunday to Tuesday at 7.30pm on Ten.
For Commando Steve training tips and information, visit commandosteve.com.
