Stay tuned for the rest of my bio!
Formerly I managed the RekDek Gym – a private Gym that services the 5 exclusive Apartment Towers on the Lorimer Street side of Docklands, Melbourne, Victoria. I still personally train a wide range of clients from those Apartments but now at PUSH FITNESS! in the ANZ Buiding just over from the Apartments.
After 2 years, and my illness, I’ve moved on within the RekDek and now devote all my energies to personally training individuals. In my time here (managing the RekDek) the experiences have been extremely rewarding, working with a range of abilities and conditions from Residents who have had transplants right through to the elite athlete and almost every possible permutation inbetween.
My journey into Personal Training started in my youth when I purchased the Charles Atlas “don’t want sand kicked in your face” course in body building. An interesting lesson that has its parallels in some of today’s internet marketing.
I went on to graduate as a Physical Education teacher and taught in High Schools for 5 years. My sporting career encompassed Australian rules, Cricket and State League Basketball – an interest that became a later goal to represent Australia in that sport at Masters level. A snapped achilles tendon in 1999 and the subsequent contributing effect of the injury eventually resulted in an almost total denudation of the cartilege behind the kneecap, at the top of the tibia and the bottom of the femur. In 2006 following a MRI a knee replacement was recommended to stop the pain. Like most people I found that distressing in terms of the surgery but more so in the apparent ending of my sporting aspirations. Fortunately two close friends – one a determined, successful business man and the other a World Champion Natural Bodybuilder laid down a two pronged challenge – train your way out of the knee replacement, which I did with hours of muscle strengthening exercises that stabilsed the knee joint – and set a goal to represent Australia in Natural Body building which I also did, a year later almost to the day in Greece, where I picked up a Bronze medal in my 1st International – the Natural Olympia, the pinnacle of Body Building.
I’ve now represented Australia on stage 37 times for an Olympia 2 Silver and 2 Bronze, a Universe 2 Silver and Bronze, 2 World Titles and an Open Category Forever Natural Silver plus a World Cup Gold, Silver and Bronze. In November 2011, I was awarded the INBA’s inaugural Member of the Month. You can read this interview by clicking here. My plan is to return for the 2013 Olympia in Reno, USA.
Natural bodybuiding is very much at the cutting edge in terms of training and diet. Natural bodybuilders compete under the same strict requirements as at the Olympics and all competitions are subject to drug testing by the Government testing authority ASADA in Australia or Internationally WADA.
The experience I have gained at this level is the major contributing factor in my Personal Training abilities. I don’t just have the theory side from my qualifications I have the practical side from doing, personally, exactly, what I teach in regard to training and diet.