About Me
Looking back, I realise that the things that I was interested in as a child are, more or less, the same things that interest me today. Knowledge and a lust for knowing things was something I loved to do; whether it was reading new books, visiting museums, libraries or talking with people older than me. I’ve had a thirst for learning new information ever since I can remember, but the type of information I sought was that which I believed would be useful to me whether as a child or when I would be older.
Education
My father was a teacher, my sister is also one; my father’s brother and sister were also teachers and yet I found school frustrating, most of what I can remember about school and lessons were that they were dull and gave me little of that ‘real’ information that I thought would be useful in life. As I look back, I believe there were just few good teachers; not that they didn’t know their subjects but that they lacked the ability, or maybe desire, to communicate passionately about what they were teaching. As I’ve become older I realise that my learning was always self-motivated unless there was a great orator who also was wise that I could learn from. After ten years in academia and two degrees in History and literature I still have the same thirst as I ever did; in fact, I probably am more thirsty than ever for important knowledge that helps me understand people, so that I can understand them better, help them better and perhaps even inspire and educate them myself better.
Growing up I was always fascinated with what the body could do at its limits; whether it was watching the Olympic games or playing sports myself, I wanted to push myself to see what I was capable of and was always prepared to dedicate myself to improving myself physically whether it was running, football, swimming, tennis, I loved to practice and play. Around 12 years old I began attending a martial arts class, Shotokan Karate, which I participated in until I was 14 and then studied Chinese martial arts until I was 21. During this time I began training at a local gym to get stronger and physically bigger to be a batter martial artist; however, once I touched those weights I think I knew they would be my destiny, I loved it!
Body Building
Starting at 14 in a gym, I had already used dumbbells at home for a couple of years and having a full gym of weights and equipment was where I was happiest. Discipline was never a problem, I had trained daily for martial arts for years so training to a routine, eating well and resting properly wasn’t a sacrifice to me at all, it felt right! With my young body full of teenage hormones I grew easily but always remained lean as I was doing so much cardio with my martial arts I didn’t have to worry about body-fat for a few years. I soon began competing in local area shows and with national federations, actually getting invited to the British finals in my second year of competition.
After competing in a few shows and wining a few and placing second a few times I began taking it more seriously as I was being told I had good ‘genetics’ for the sport. I was fortunate that in my home town then, a former Olympian, Johnny Fuller, trained in a gym and after meeting him a few times we ended up training together and working together, on the doors as security, for a few years. After my first EFBB British finals in 1993 I decided I had to up my game if I was going to win a Pro card and hit the Pro ranks and big time; so, I decided to begin training in Birmingham three times a week, to Temple Gym, to be around and hopefully get to know Dorian Yates, the current Mr Olympia. The strategy worked and throughout late 1993 and early 1994 I trained with Dorian and Kenny Brown as he prepared for the Olympia and both Kenny and I prepared for the 1994 British finals, him as a light-heavyweight and me as a heavyweight.After competing in a few shows and wining a few and placing second a few times I began taking it more seriously as I was being told I had good ‘genetics’ for the sport. I was fortunate that in my home town then, a former Olympian, Johnny Fuller, trained in a gym and after meeting him a few times we ended up training together and working together, on the doors as security, for a few years. After my first EFBB British finals in 1993 I decided I had to up my game if I was going to win a Pro card and hit the Pro ranks and big time; so, I decided to begin training in Birmingham three times a week, to Temple Gym, to be around and hopefully get to know Dorian Yates, the current Mr Olympia. The strategy worked and throughout late 1993 and early 1994 I trained with Dorian and Kenny Brown as he prepared for the Olympia and both Kenny and I prepared for the 1994 British finals, him as a light-heavyweight and me as a heavyweight.
During this time I had left school, turned down an offer to go to Cardiff University to study History and Philosophy (strange how those subjects never left me!) to go to work to earn money instead. A few years after my first job I opened my first gym Mr B’s Gym, a true ‘spit and sawdust’ gym in Swindon which I still remember with find and funny memories today, it truly was an awesome place, one that I will tell stories of in many of my blogs. So, whilst competing I owned gyms, the benefits being I could train whenever I wanted, eat whenever I needed and often sleep (behind the counter!) whenever I had to also!
Retirement part 1 - life behind and without the sport
Eventually, in 1997, I retired from bodybuilding (or so I thought) when my wife and our first baby moved to Australia to enjoy the sunshine and beach life of Queensland. I carried on training but went into sales and then opened up a branch of the company in Sydney just a year and a half later. Sydney was magnificent; the people, the city and the beaches are sensational and while I was there with my factory and sales office I began charity work, eventually starting my own charity working with homeless children on the streets of Sydney and the various struggles and challenges that environment brings with it. I also began working for a life coaching company, travelling to Hawaii and Singapore to help coach at huge events with many thousands of people attending; the biggest audience I spoke to was 5,000 in Sydney one year, a task I loved but often wonder how I did it now.
Relationships
When I met my wife I was already a bodybuilder, so she knew what she was taking on to a certain extent; that her own father and mother also trained and competed meant that there was little in the lifestyle that was going to surprise her! That we had similar cultural, familial and lifestyle experiences also meant that there was little that was going to cause major disagreements; however, as with all relationships, there have been many hurdles to get over, disagreements to negotiate and resolve and throw in four children to the mix and it’s truthful to say we, I in particular, had to learn to re-prioritise my life frequently and thankfully I was always open to learning new skills….neither parenting nor relationships ever come with a ‘how to’ guide. We both partly used how our own parents brought us up but also decided that there were areas in which we both wanted to become better parents than how we were parented. Again, books helped a lot and talking to friends and other parents did too. I’m still learning how to be a better father constantly and husband, and now grandparent!
Relationships, good ones, need work and lots of it. They also need courage; courage to address little issues before they become big issues and the humility to accept that you, as in everything else in life, are liable to be wrong now and then! The gift that is family and true friends, those friendships that go back twenty/thirty years and more is something of great value and so I learned to treat them like anything else of value in my life, I give myself the time to give to my friends, I try and uplift them but I also keep them accountable to their own purposes. I am blessed to have what I have.
“Anything that must yet be done, virtue can do with courage and promptness.”
Seneca, Moral Letters, 31.b-32
Comeback
Returning to the UK in 2002, I had come back to begin some type of charity work, I had even done some lay preaching at some churches in Australia before I left and felt a need to return for a ‘cause’. As life often does, it brought me back into bodybuilding again; a preacher of a local church wanted to set up a gym and asked if I would equip one and run it for him which I accepted and once again found myself returning to the competitive stage again at nearly 40! The human body matures in terms of muscularity with age and I found that not only was I getting in better condition but I was looking better than when I was in my 20s; and the results proved it was happening. Winning the overall British finals and top three at the Europeans was followed by another national win and an invite to the World Championships the year after where I made the top 5, taking 4th place at my heaviest ever bodyweight on stage at 118.08kg.
Accident – What to Do?
I then went into full-time personal training, something I had done on a part-time basis nearly all my life and had a wonderful career helping others in various sports and others simply to get into great shape. Then, one morning as I was coming down the stairs in my house, a stair-tread dislodged at a turning point on the stairs and I fell through leaving me with damaged hips and spine and a whole new life………
He can’t serve in the military? Let him seek public office. Must he live in the private sector? Let him be a spokesperson. Has he lost the duties of a citizen? Let him exercise those of a human being.”
Seneca, On Tranquillity of Mind, 4.3.
I was now disabled and my world was turned upside down; my most testing period of my life eventually brought me opportunities and perspectives I would never have had otherwise. I couldn’t squat 20kg let alone 200kg anymore; it was time for me to train and work with my mind rather than my physique now.
Return to Education
My years in academia were a result of that accident and so, too, did my quest begin for what I believed were certain fundamental truths in life that I could see repeated in many thousands of books; different stories but certain archetypal characters always emerged, certain stories had theme similarities, situations and challenges and ultimately outcomes. This fascinated me. So, my journey began to find some of these, so called, truths, that I could perhaps re-tell them in stories myself from scenes of my life or even repeat the books themselves which have been forgotten or passed over in this age of internet speed, memes, materialistic and consumeristic desires.
Welcome
I am no genius, I don’t have the answers….but I may have some clues as to where we can find some of them. From bodybuilding to philosophy; if it’s to listen to some old-school bodybuilding tales, stories from The dungeon, Temple Gym or from Mr B’s Gym and tales from the greats of the sport; or whether you are here to listen to listen to my understanding of Hemingway, Jung, Aurelius, Woolf, Homer or the Bible, you are welcome. I hope you find what you are looking for.
Welcome, my friend,