Brian Wilkerson

Two young men standing together after a race, smiling at the camera. They are wearing race bibs and athletic clothing, with one holding a water bottle. One has his arm around the other's shoulder, and there are buildings and other people in the background.

Celebrating graduation at Albertsons Stadium with students in caps and gowns, large crowd in stands, and cloudy sky.

Two young men standing together, one wearing a gray shirt and the other in a colorful shirt with a yellow collar, both smiling. The man on the right has headphones and there is DJ equipment in front of them. They are indoors with curtains and lighting in the background.

Hey, Brian Wilkerson here, owner of CrossFit Casual.

Throughout my childhood, sports were my life. As I grew older, I gravitated toward basketball, and after high school, I moved to the Bay Area to play for Menlo College. However, the COVID-19 pandemic sent me back home, and I had nowhere to work out or play hoops. A buddy of mine had a garage gym where he did this thing called “CrossFit,” and with nowhere else to train, I figured I’d give it a shot. I quickly fell in love with it.

Shortly afterward, I moved to Idaho to finish my undergraduate degree at Boise State University. I joined a local affiliate when I moved here and started taking CrossFit pretty seriously. I began training solo, with dreams of competing at a higher level. But after months of long, grueling training sessions, I became burned out. CrossFit just wasn’t fun for me anymore.

I started joining classes again and placing fewer expectations on myself, and CrossFit became enjoyable once more. I realized that “keeping it casual” and enjoying the workouts—and the company—was far more rewarding than taking the workouts too seriously.

That’s how the idea for CrossFit Casual was born: a gym focused less on the competitive side of CrossFit and more on the community side.

Outside of CrossFit, I’m an avid runner and have completed multiple marathons this past year. I’m also a coffee connoisseur, so you can often find me at local cafes around town. As a big EDM fan, I spend weekends DJ-ing dance music at some of the bars in downtown Boise.