Is this the fittest woman in Manchester?

Upon first glance, Sam Briggs appears to be your average gym goer. But look closer and her impressive muscle definition tells another story.

The concept behind CrossFit is you'll never be the strongest lifter or the fastest runner, but you'll be among the best at running and lifting.

Not only did Sam take the first place medal in the UK/Ireland CrossFit Games sectionals, but she went on to finish in second place at the European CrossFit Games and was the only UK female to qualify for the CrossFit World Games; where she came in at a respectable 19th position.

The CrossFit Games is the ultimate test of fitness. A gruelling two-day competition in which the world's fittest athletes compete in a variety of workouts including a hill run, dead lift repetitions up to 375lbs, rowing and a series of squats and snatches with a medicine ball.

To add to long list of personal achievements, Sam took home five gold medals from the World Firefighter Games in North Korea last month.

You’d assume from her resume that Sam is a full time athlete, but by day she’s a fire fighter, putting her athletic success down to the global work out phenomenon, CrossFit.

Sam told us: “The concept behind CrossFit is you'll never be the strongest lifter or the fastest runner, but you'll be among the best at running and lifting.”

Weighing only 60kg, Sam can dead lift more than twice her body weight and row 2000m in just over seven minutes - impressive stuff.

Sam’s CrossFit coach, Simon Jones told Confidential: “Our slogan is ‘Developing Natural Ability’... everyone here can achieve a lot, they just don’t know it yet. Every workout can be done by somebody, it will just be scaled at a different level.”

Sam added. “If you can’t do a pull up then you put a box underneath it and you jump, or you have an assistance band put around you until you can do pull ups without it”

As someone with no upper body strength, I was slightly skeptical of the idea. However soon enough I was yanking my body weight up with the help of a big rubber band.

She also demonstrated how to lift a beer keg over your head without so much as breaking a sweat, followed by pull ups and a sequence of more weightlifting that could put grown men to shame.

“I’m the only lass at work,” Sam said. “It’s always good to challenge each other and push each other and a lot of the times we'll do CrossFit type work outs with all the lads so you'll find us all in the gym setting each other stupid challenges like who can run the furthest in ten minutes. Sometimes I’ll wipe the floor with them.”

The gym looks plain and stripped back, (no fluffy towels and plasma screens here) and although it doesn’t offer the bog standard rows of cross-trainers or aerobic classes, it offers a community feel where everyone is pushed to the limit and the trainers actually know your name.

“Here there's always people pushing you, motivating you, and you do have a laugh” said Sam.”

CrossFit Central Manchester are offering three free sessions to all new starters. Visit crossfitcentralmanchester for more information.