BILLINGS - A new Billings gym calls itself an alternative to the normal fitness club. No treadmills or ellipticals, no televisions to watch, just an intense workout with personal attention from the trainer.

When Clint Hull enlisted in the Navy after 9/11 he discovered a passion he didn't know he had as a former stockbroker. In training for special forces he discovered CrossFit. A fitness philosophy that became his business once he left the military. "CrossFit is a philosophy, a mentality. You want it to be brief and intense," says Hull. Hull and his wife just opened Alternative Athletics in Billings.

To prove the merits of the workouts, he put me through the introductory routine. "The work-out's easy, and when I say easy, I mean easy to remember," says Hull. It's a 10 minute circuit of rowing, box jumps and squats with a 10 pound medicine ball.

The exercises mimic every day movements. "If you're doing a bicep curl, it moves just one joint. When in the real world is there any point when you're going to sit down at a preachers bench, and do this? If you're doing any kind of curl in the real world, you're using your back and moving your shoulders. With the box jump we're working our knees, ankles and hips." But the workout is meant to be more intense than a normal workout, for a shorter amount of time. "If you think about it genetically we've been industrialized for 10 generations, but we were cavemen for 10,000 generations before that. This is the fight that we don't have anymore."

There's a different workout laid out for you every day at the gym. Hull leads you through it. He and his wife plan to keep classes small so you always get individual attention. "We really want a sense of community in our gym. It's hard enough for people to want to go to the gym. So you have ownership in the gym." Part of that ownership is your own spot on the wall to keep track of your progress, records, or whatever you want. The record for the introductory routine that I did, is 5 and a half rounds. I almost finished 5.

Alternative Athletics is on Central Avenue and planned its grand opening for the last weekend in March. There is one other CrossFit gym in Billings, called CrossFit Billings on 24th Street.