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FITNESS

‘We’re not a cult; we’re a group of people that enjoy working out’

Meet ex-rugby player Anthony Sullivan, now running a gym in Stockholm.

'We're not a cult; we're a group of people that enjoy working out'
Anthony Sullivan, left, helps a member of his gym. Photo: Evolve Fitness

“Evolve Fitness is the name we use because we focus on progress, change and development,” Anthony Sullivan explains. “Evolve is the word that encapsulates that the most for us.”

An ex-professional rugby player from the UK with a very successful career, Sullivan moved to Stockholm four years ago for a change of scenery. “I had some friends that work here, so I came to try it for a little bit.” Working as a trainer at a Crossfit gym, he opened his own business, Evolve Fitness, when the owner left and Sullivan could rent the space.

“This is the third year as our gym, and since January we've been in this location,” says Sullivan, speaking to The Local at their new premises in Solna, north of Stockholm.

He runs his gym in the spirit and philosophy of the Gym Jones style of training. It is similar to the more widely known Crossfit, but not identical. “There are a lot of things we share, but we're just different. Some of the Crossfitters go to the Gym Jones guys to learn about the programming, because that's one of the things we focus on a lot at Gym Jones,” explains Sullivan, stressing a more individualized, tailored approach to training.

Anthony Sullivan started his career as a rugby player. photo: Evolve Fitness

Sullivan began playing rugby in his hometown – Hull. He played for Hull KR for five years before recolating to St Helens, where his career really took off. Among his sporting highlights are representing both Great Britain and Wales in the rugby league, and victories in three Challenge Cup finals for St Helens RLFC.

“Those are the memorable moments, that's what you play for, or that's what I played for. I wanted to represent my country because that's what I felt was the pinnacle of my sport,” he says. “You can't replace that kind of emotional feeling, being with 20 or so of your friends, playing a fairly tough contact sport, and knowing you've spent the last few years working towards something… There's something really rewarding about that,” reminisces Sullivan about the big games he played. “For me, those are the good memories.”

Due to his rugby prowess, Sullivan was recently chosen for the St Helens Hall of Fame.

“It's nice to have that recognition,” he claims. “I don't go back very often, so to get the invite to go back and do that was special.”

After Sullivan retired in 2003 he turned to coaching for a while, but in need of change he then decided to turn away from rugby altogether. “I got to a point where I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing that. I've spent an awful lot of time there and I wanted a change from that environment.”

However, before fitness Sullivan tried out a few different, non-sport-related jobs. “I tried financial services for a short period of time, the other one was working in the building trade, before I realized that I like the sporting environment. Throughout that time I was always training. I wasn't coaching, but I was always training myself.”


The gym. Photo: Evolve Fitness

In helping some of his friends with training Sullivan found his true calling. “That underlying theme of a coach/trainer, whichever phraseology you like to use, manifested itself again when I started to do that with people in the gym, helping them make progress. When you see people improve, that's why you do that.”

While training in the UK, Sullivan was introduced to some Gym Jones workouts by a friend. “I thought I was really fit. I did a couple of the workouts and realized I wasn't where I thought I was or where I wanted to be,” he says. After all, by that time a few years had lapsed since he had been a professional athlete at the top of his game.

“I started to do a little bit of research on the internet and found Gym Jones,” he notes. “It's almost like a rabbit hole, once you're in you start to delve deeper and all this stuff starts to open up, all this knowledge, and then you want to find more.”

After some digging Sullivan took the required Level 1 and Level 2 seminars in London, aiming to become a Gym Jones instructor himself. In 2015 he left for Salt Lake City to complete the final seminar and get his certification.

Gym Jones, a US gym, gained recognition after the movie '300' was released. Director Zack Snyder and Gym Jones founder Mark Twight collaborated and Twight ended up responsible for getting the '300' cast in shape and camera ready.

“When the movie came out there was obviously lots of press and hype about the condition the guys are in, and people wanted to know more,” explains Sullivan. “Gym Jones are now famous for training Henry Cavill (Superman) and they were involved in training the recent cast of 'Wonder Woman'.”

But why, as a certified instructor, is the gym not also called Gym Jones? “This is a complicated thing,” answers Sullivan. Apparently, Gym Jones does not actually have affiliate gyms like Crossfit does for example, only certified instructors. “This is the closest you can get to being an affiliate,” Sullivan finishes.

Even though the gyms do not share names, Sullivan keeps to the training philosophy in which he was instructed. “The idea is there are some principles, and you're encouraged then to develop your own work using those principles,” he explains, talking about planning workouts at Evolve. “There's a huge library and a huge reference of workouts, but we don't choose randomly. There are certain things that work for a particular aspect that we're looking for and we try and implement those based on rules around strength and conditioning that exist.”

Planning the workouts for members, Sullivan as the instructor has to be able to do them all himself. “I wouldn't give them things that I'm not willing to nor capable of doing,” he says. “Some of our members have got to a point where they're better than me at them, and that's absolutely the way it should be – if we're doing our job, they should be getting better than us too.”
Of course, Sullivan's intense sports career, which had not left him unscathed, has to do with this as well. “A better part of 20 years of rugby can leave you with some movement issues. I struggle a little on some of the movement mobility work that we do, and the flexibility.”

A member of the gym, Sandra Eloranta jumps in to defend him, claiming it's tough to compete with the younger members. “It's hard to compete with a 25-year-old. But it is a very competitive group of people also,” she tells Sullivan. “If they see you do something, people will want to try and beat you.”


Anthony Sullivan. Photo: Evolve Fitness

Competitive or not, it's all in a healthy team spirit. “People that come through the door enjoy their training, enjoy the environment that we've set, the company that they keep, in terms of having like-minded people that are also pretty focused on their training, so there's that social, community aspect. We're not a cult; we're a group of people that enjoy working out.”

Ranging from team workouts, high-tech equipment and row machines with monitors for Sullivan to gauge progress, to barbells and kettlebells, training at Evolve Fitness finds ways to challenge everybody. “One of our strengths here is we have a reasonably small gym in that respect. We have around 30 members and a really good relationship with the guys individually, so I kind of get to know their limits, what their expectations are, and know them reasonably well. So, not every workout is hard, every workout is challenging appropriate to the individual.”

Planning training programmes 12 months ahead, with each 12 month block being broken down to a three month block, then one month, week and day, Sullivan really puts a lot of work and thought into it, which also concurs with the Gym Jones philosophy. “We have a black programme and a red programme,” he describes, claiming the red programme is more advanced for members who have been there longer. The two programmes then have individual variations based on the person training them. “A lot of thought goes into our programming, into each of your workouts, and we always find a way to tailor those workouts to suit an individual.”

However, those who aren't members need not despair, for Sullivan and Sandra have also developed a workout phone app. “It's more for people who don't have the chance to come train with us here in Stockholm, or who have a gym membership somewhere but feel they don't really know what to do in the gym,” explains Eloranta.

The app also contains a month of detailed workouts for members. “We just tried to find a way we could communicate the workouts to the members, because they often wanted to know days in advance what kind of workout was coming up,” finishes Sullivan.

When asked if he misses rugby, Sullivan shakes his head. “I think it was time for me to stop. When I go back and catch up with friends whom I played with, sometimes I miss those guys. I mean, you spend ten years with the same people and you get to know them fairly well, you've shared some highs and some lows too, you miss the camaraderie and the team. But the actual playing? I've had enough.”

For members

WORKING IN SWEDEN

How to switch to a career in Sweden’s booming gaming industry

Sweden's gaming industry is crying out for top international talent, but the skills shortage also creates opportunities for professionals in other fields to switch to a career in gaming. Senior experts share their best tips with The Local.

How to switch to a career in Sweden's booming gaming industry

Home to world-famous gaming studios like Mojang, King and DICE – the creators of Minecraft, Candy Crush and Battlefield, respectively – Swedish games have been downloaded nearly seven billion times. Every fourth person on the planet has played a game made in Sweden.

And the number of new gaming companies and employees is only increasing, despite concerns about the impact of the pandemic, according to a report from Sweden’s gaming industry association

In 2022, Swedish gaming studios increased turnover by 18 percent to 32.6 billion kronor, setting a new record. Combined, the turnover of the 23 listed computer game companies amounted to 61 billion kronor – a threefold increase since 2020 and almost twice as much as in 2021.

However, the talent shortage is an ongoing struggle, and the industry relies heavily on foreigners to plug the gaps.

“There’s a massive skills shortage, especially on the technical side, due to the sheer amount of coding required. I think the industry wants to do more to keep growing the Swedish game phenomena, but the talent shortage hinders us,” says Ludvig Moberg Edenbäck, people experience partner at Mojang Studios.

But if you’re a gaming newbie, how do you make the switch?

Bringing a fresh perspective could be your ultimate ability

Magdalena Björkman, a senior producer at Arrowhead Games, has a background in linguistics and started her career in the manufacturing industry back home in Poland.

“The gaming industry needs people from different backgrounds more than ever. We really need to encourage people who bring different perspectives to the table to come in,” she says.

After studying Japanese, Björkman worked as a translator and coordinator, acting as a conduit between Polish and Japanese engineers. One day she stumbled across a job ad for a Polish games developer looking for an assistant producer who could handle localisation, and eventually started looking for opportunities outside of Poland, landing a role at King in Sweden.

“Swedish and Polish work culture is totally different. I had to get used to not having to be the loudest person in the room to get my opinion across, which I actually really like. It was really, really nice working for King. It was a lot more collaborative. In general, Sweden felt a lot more progressive than Poland.”

Björkman knows other linguists who switched to gaming too and says being able to interpret and translate what people are saying to others is a crucial skill, especially as a producer.

“Whatever you do, you always end up working with people, communication and translation. I’ve always been trying to connect people, and as a games producer, being able to translate different perspectives to help collaboration. Gaming is also a multinational crowd. So if you come from linguistics and you know how to work with different people and cultures, it’s a good fit.”

You don’t need to know how to build games – but you need to be passionate about them

Luis Cascante, currently chief of staff at Rovio and head of the board of education for Futuregames, stresses that this is an industry that values passion. “If you don’t care about games at all, don’t bother,” he says. Gaming isn’t just a business, it’s a creative art form, and you’re unlikely to get hired if the interest and passion aren’t there.

“I’ve worked with studio founders who basically tell everyone they expect passion, whatever their role is, and if they don’t have it, there’s no place for them in their studio,” says Cascante.

Around half of Mojang’s staff have a technical background, and 30 percent are foreigners. Photo: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebank.sweden.se

Mojang’s Moberg Edenbäck, who is an avid gamer, agrees that demonstrating an interest in gaming helps, although it’s not a strict requirement for all roles.

“At Mojang, we’re in a unique spot because we’ve been around for 15 years and a lot of people that reach out to us have grown up with Minecraft. Sometimes Minecraft is even the reason they started coding, and working here is basically their dream job,” he says.

“But if that’s not the case, one thing people can do to demonstrate interest is to have hobby projects. A lot of people create games in their spare time, or designers and artists create characters just for fun. If you do that, it’s definitely a positive.”

Identify your transferable skills to help you level up

Like any other industry, there are plenty of transferable skills that make your application more desirable. Coders have a slight advantage, as games are built using programming languages (specifically C++ and Java), putting experienced coders in high demand.

“If you’re a C++ developer and you have some experience, even if it’s not with games, you will always be on the map. There is absolutely no shortage of roles that you can apply for,” says Luis Cascante.

Many blockbuster games are built using C++, and experience with 3D creation tools like Unreal Engine and Unity provides the easiest entry points if you come from a technical background.

Cascante says data analysis is another sought-after skill: “It’s not necessarily part of hands-on game creation, but data analysts are definitely in demand. At Rovio, none of our data analysts are from Europe, because we simply can’t find them.”

“If you’re good at maths, statistics and SQL, studios are more likely to pick you up, even if you’re slightly more junior because there’s such a demand right now,” he adds.

DICE, headquartered in Stockholm, is one of the major players in the gaming industry. Photo: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebank.sweden.se

But it’s not all about coders.

“Producers, artists, designers, marketers and HR practitioners are all needed to successfully build, launch, and market a successful game,” adds Moberg Edenbäck.

Project management, product management and UX design are also highly transferable skill sets, with many people bringing this kind of expertise into gaming after starting out their careers in other industries.

Network, get a mentor and look for internships

Some practical tips Magdalena Björkman shares for those wanting to switch to gaming are to network, look for mentors, and keep an eye out for internships.

“People are very friendly in the gaming industry, so just talk to them! It’s easy to reach out and approach people as mentors, which can help a lot. Also, look for internships, and go to networking events,” she says.

“There are more opportunities now compared to ten years ago, with boot camps and such. I work with a producer at Arrowhead now who had a background in publishing, but he did a course, and now he’s a full-time game producer.”

However, she urges people not to take the decision to switch careers lightly.

“Gaming can be tough. You need to love what you’re doing, take care of yourself, and have other hobbies outside of gaming. It’s easy to get consumed,” she says.

Get an education in gaming

For those who are truly committed to switching to a career in gaming, studying at one of Stockholm’s specialised gaming schools may be an option (they also offer evening classes).

Unsurprisingly, Futuregames’ Cascante is a big advocate for gaming schools and believes they’re a great pathway into the industry for people with the interest but not the experience.

“I’m chairman of the board of education at Futuregames, and we see people in Stockholm are actually taking courses to break into the industry,” he says.

“They take around two and a half years, which sounds like a lot, but you get a lot of training and professional internships in studios. The schools are really good at matchmaking between companies and students. Often the students stay on after their internships, and if they don’t, they still get at least six months of real experience in the industry.”

Minecraft has sold more than 300 million copies, making it the best selling game ever. Photo: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebank.sweden.se

Other schools include the Sweden Game Area and The Game Assembly, which offer courses in everything from agile project management in gaming to game design and 3D modelling for artists. Most of Sweden’s gaming studios offer internships regularly, including Mojang.

Swedish universities also offer part-time remote modules in for example coding. It’s free to study at university in Sweden for EU citizens and for non-EU residents who are in Sweden on another permit than a student permit, so for example work permits or spouse permits.

Ride the post-boom wave

The gaming industry has a historic reputation for only hiring people with gaming experience, but Björkman believes this mindset is changing.

“In the past, the industry has been a little elitist. It used to be that you needed ten years of experience to get into gaming, but now that’s changing and it’s becoming more open. This is great because we need experience from different industries to bring new know-how and knowledge. We don’t need to do things the same way all the time,” she says.

This is no surprise. After substantial long-term success, it makes sense that a talent-strapped industry has to start casting its net a little wider.

The conclusion? As long as you’re passionate, proactive, and can offer a valuable new perspective, it’s definitely possible to switch to a career path in Sweden’s burgeoning gaming industry.

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