The challenge:
The Royal Lancers, based at Catterick, needed a strength and conditioning facility that could genuinely serve the demands of an active army regiment. Physical fitness is central to operational readiness, and the unit's Strength and Conditioning team needed a space that could accommodate large groups training simultaneously - up to 60 soldiers per session - without compromising the quality or intensity of the training taking place.
The available location was a surplus tank hangar: a vast, raw industrial space with the footprint to accommodate the ambition but none of the infrastructure of a training facility. Turning it into something functional, purposeful, and genuinely impressive required careful design thinking, the right equipment brief, and a partner who understood both the scale of the project and the specific demands of military fitness training.
The Royal Lancers worked with Mike Scott at Origin to make it happen.
The solution:
Mike Scott engaged with the Royal Lancers Strength and Conditioning team throughout the design process, taking time to understand precisely what the unit needed to achieve and how the space would be used in practice. That understanding informed every decision that followed - from the overall layout to the specific equipment choices and the bespoke flooring design.
The centrepiece of the facility is a large performance rig configured with multiple lifting stations and adjoining pull-up bars, creating a significant number of individual user stations within a single structure. The rig was designed to support both solo training and squad-based workouts simultaneously, with integrated storage keeping essential kit within reach during fast-paced sessions. This was the anchor around which the rest of the layout was built.
Strength and free weights provision was specified to support the compound and Olympic-style lifting that forms a core part of military conditioning, with equipment and storage arranged to keep the floor clear and sessions running efficiently even when large numbers of soldiers are training at the same time.
Functional training is a significant part of the circuits performed in the facility, and the equipment selection reflected that - covering the kind of varied, high-intensity work that translates directly into operational physical capability.
For cardiovascular conditioning, high-intensity equipment was selected to push soldiers to their limits during HIIT-focused sessions. TANK sleds are integrated into the training environment with a dedicated red sprint track running through the centre of the gym floor, providing a purpose-built surface for resistance speed work and conditioning drills.
The flooring was one of the most considered elements of the installation. High-impact tiles were specified throughout for durability and equipment protection, with red flooring strips defining the central sprint track - a design detail that gives the facility a striking visual identity while serving a specific and deliberate training purpose. The system used allows the flooring configuration to be adapted over time if the unit's training needs evolve, giving the facility genuine long-term flexibility.
Origin managed the full delivery and installation, transforming the hangar from empty industrial space to fully equipped training facility.
The outcome:
The completed facility gives the Royal Lancers a training environment that matches the ambition of the original brief. Up to 60 soldiers can train simultaneously across the different zones, with strength, functional fitness, and high-intensity conditioning all properly catered for in a space that feels purposeful and distinctive rather than improvised.
The transformation from tank hangar to training facility is a strong example of what Origin's design and installation capability can deliver when the brief is demanding and the space is unconventional. Getting a project like this right requires more than good equipment — it requires a partner who listens, understands the specific demands of the environment, and stays engaged throughout the whole process. That is exactly what Mike Scott delivered, and exactly what the testimonial from the Royal Lancers reflects.
Testimonial
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