Roman Atanasov is ready to reach his limits. He likes to make people go out of their comfort zone to see what they are capable of and how much they can achieve in the gym and beyond. Meet Roman in the next few rows.

You’re… Roman Atanasov, a CrossFit coach, born in Sofia, married to my wonderful wife Stela, with whom we will soon become parents for the first time.

You started practicing CrossFit… in 2010, alongside my brother Koko. At the beginning, I liked the atmosphere and the competitive spirit that is created by the training, but then I realized that the community that is the heart of CrossFit, the support and the energy that you receive from the group of friends around you, makes me feel like being at home.

The community in CrossFit is… one of the best things. It doesn’t matter what you look like, what you are and where you come from. What matters is if you contribute or help someone at any point in time. In CrossFit every time you find something new about yourself or the others. And this happens every day, in a very natural way, and the energy that is being passed on to people is something that makes it really different from everything I’ve tried so far.

The difference between fitness and CrossFit for you is… big. Fitness is an aesthetic methodology, very often you train alone, it is uniform, very often you are unwilling and influenced by the fact that there is no incentive to get you moving. CrossFit is something quite different, as if from another planet. You’re always surrounded by people, there’s always someone who can motivate you in one way or another to try doing more than you have expected. Every time something new and unexpected happens. So the differences are huge, and you can always learn something new in CrossFit, something I cannot say about fitness.

You decided to become a coach… at the beginning accidentally, but then I realized how good it was. You can help people who come to the gym and want to change. To be able to make the world a better place through the people around me or the people I train is my main mission and to get someone go out of their comfort zone or to believe in something that they couldn’t do until yesterday, to change, to face the challenges…this is what makes me really happy.

People who practice CrossFit… become totally transformed. They become more energetic, more positively set, they communicate and approach the challenges of life more confidently. And this change can actually be seen within a few months. I have a few examples in my head – these people, to me at least, made a very good change. I don’t know if they realize it.

Some of the hardest workouts in CrossFit have names. If you were such a workout, you would have been… The hardest workouts in CrossFit are test workouts with hero names. And the most complex of them are those with male names. They are a test of the will because they are very long and they want to challenge you. If I have to define myself as a workout, I have a favorite. It is quick, it’s done before you realize it, but then it takes five times longer to recover. The workout is called Fran and I don’t know to what extent it describes me, but that is my favorite training of all the girls and all the hero workouts.

CrossFit Serdika is… my dream, which I ‘ve been waiting to realize since 2012. My desire to work as a coach and be part of a gym is a goal that I’ve been pursuing for a long time. I would say that the best is yet to come! Everything I do, I do it with ease and pleasure because I put my heart and soul into it.

Your biggest achievement…I would say it’s ahead of me. I’m expecting a first child very soon. And if we talk about sport, I have achievements that I’m very proud of. One of them is a victory at an amateur weightlifting championship. I won a victory at CrossFit Open Bulgaria – “The fittest in Bulgaria”. In professional terms, I think that a person should try to do their best every day, which also complies with the CrossFit spirit. Not only in the gym, but everywhere.

To everyone who enters the CrossFit Serdika gym, you say… I tell people they have come to the best community in Sofia, and I’ll be glad to help them with guidance and attitude from our professional team.