HOW I TURNED MY PASSION INTO A CAREER

Tell us a little about yourself.

I‘m a huge fitness enthusiast and have been throughout my life. As a child, I’ve always been fairly active with basketball and football as my initial introduction to sports. I lifted some dumbbells for leisure but had no intentions of taking it seriously.

It wasn’t until late 2011/12 did I have a change of heart and signed up to my local gym. During this time I was enrolling into A levels, so my time was fairly limited since I had to balance school, team practices and gym sessions. Unfortunately for me, I injured my foot during one of my college tournaments. That led me to making the hard decision of retiring my dreams of attempting to qualify for the NBA (no, I'm not joking lol).

Through my undergrad and postgrad years, I used lifting as an avenue to relieve stress from my studies. Eventually, in 2015, I participated in my first physique competition and have been competing actively since then. My latest accomplishment was defending my title as the Men’s Physique Class and Overall Champion in 2019 under the United Kingdom Drug Free Bodybuilding Association (UKDFBA).

What made you decide to become a coach?

I can’t recall when I saw this video on YouTube, but I remember the contents of it extremely vividly. It was a video of a former paratrooper who, due to the number of landing he’s done through the years, suffered from severe knee and back injuries that left him wheelchair bound and obese over the years.

Despite the doctors he’d consulted telling him he would likely never walk again due to his conditions, one of the coaches he met took upon himself to help this man in need. This led to some incredible improvements over months which eventually led to his eventual ability to not only stand but run on his own unassisted. This is the story of Arthur Boorman.

This video showed me how much of an impact a coach can have on one person. It is not an exaggeration to say that this video literally changed my life as I’ve diverted my career to pursuing fitness. My goal is to help as many people as I can and hopefully make an impact in my clients health, be it physically or mentally.



How would you describe your coaching style?

I would like to think that I’m very methodological and scientific with my approach to training. That is not to say that unless the science backs up a practice, it is unusable. I believe that the science helps us avoid ambiguity by providing answers to certain questions to assist and guide us in making sure that we make the most informed decisions when training and programming.

As the coach, my role is to study the theory and research, use my experience and apply what’s most suitable to my clients situation. Working hard requires us to also work smart.

What has your role as a coach taught you about yourself?



That education and knowledge is extremely humbling. No matter how much a person thinks he/she knows, there is more knowledge to be sought. And though this may be daunting at times, more often than not, I find this to be rather exciting and humbling.

No one client is identical to another and that makes finding & learning what is applicable a challenge at times. Nevertheless, that is also why getting the results can be one of the most rewarding feelings for both the client and the coach.

Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

Hopefully and ideally I would have attained my Pro Athlete status by then. Since I started competing, this has been one of my greatest passion apart from coaching. To be able to take my competitive career up a notch and possibly compete against the worlds best and top natural bodybuilders would be an absolute honor. More importantly, I hope to have pursued and possibly completed a second degree of my choice.

What would you say to someone who is looking to start training under you?



If you’re willing to give me nothing less than 100 percent of your effort to learning and achieving your goal, I will give you no less in effort to helping you reach it.