I love seeing people transform and become fitter, healthier and happier, mentally and physically. I started helping people over 35 years ago and I’m even more passionate about it now than I was then!
I started training with weights the summer I turned 14. My Dad bought me a 6 week membership at a local health club and although I didn’t know it then it was the start of a life long passion. I was your average anxious insecure teenager and as you can see from the picture I was far from a natural athlete! I was overweight in my early teens and although I loved playing football my enthusiasm far outstripped my ability and I never made the team.
I enjoyed going to the gym but when I saw the picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger on the front of his The Education Of A Bodybuilder I was mesmerised! Inspired by his story so I set out to follow in his footsteps and become a professional bodybuilder. I devoured everything I could on weight training and nutrition, overloading myself with information! My naturally anxious disposition didn’t help, rendering me prone to over analysis and leading to years of frustration with very little progress to show for my efforts. I didn’t quit though. I’m terrible at quitting! It’s one of my greatest strengths. And my greatest weaknesses!
Everything changed when I started working with Mike Pratt, one of the finest performance coaches on the planet. People are often surprised when I tell them I have a coach but I’m equally surprised that they often don’t! The most successful athletes and businessmen have coaches, often several so why on earth wouldn’t I, I’m far from genetically gifted!
I met Mike when we were teenagers and I’d known him for 10 years when he started coaching me. With his guidance I learnt how to train effectively and my physique improved to the point where I competed as a bodybuilder, taking 2nd place in my first competition! Still under Mike’s watchful eye I did my first professional photo shoot at the ripe old age of 48 with the internationally renown Chris Bailey of Bailey Image in August 2015 and I loved every minute of the experience! When I got the opportunity to work with Mike as his Head Coach at Built4Life in 2020 I jumped at the chance and that’s where you’ll find me today. It’s given me a new lease of life and I’m loving every minute!
Outside of the gym I love to talk and travel and eat out and have a beer. Beavertown Gamma Ray A.P.A. is my favorite. And pizza and burgers and ice cream! Fuck I love ice cream! And miniatures and fireworks and Medellin. I play games on my laptop to express my inner nerd, strive to trigger myself daily in the interests of self development and I’m fascinated by how we quite literally create much of our reality ourselves with our own thoughts! I’m blessed to call the most amazing people I’ve ever met my friends and family, fortunate to enjoy robust health and at 55 I’m still in an almost constant state of awe at the wonder of creation!
