At 30 years old, if you were to ask me about my life, I would have said it was pretty perfect. At home I had been married for the past five years, we had two fantastic boys a nice house and I had a secure and successful career. I had been a police officer since the early 2000s, pushing myself in my career and becoming a sergeant. I had worked hard becoming a traffic sergeant. The highlight of my career to that point had been being a police escort motorcyclist on the Olympic Torch Relay at London 2012. Life was good.
From a young age, I had started to lift weights. In my childhood home I would lift small dumbbells and as I grew older and joined the gym, my passion for bodybuilding was spurred on from iconic images of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was a keen natural bodybuilder, competing and qualifying for nationals. My fitness levels were good and aesthetically I was in good shape.
Then, in September 2012, came an event that would change everything for me. Whilst riding my motorbike to work I was involved in a collision. I sustained multiple injuries and was on life support.
The injuries I sustained were multiple and serious; a bleed to the brain, a broken leg, fractured pelvis, spiral fracture to my arm, dislocated shoulder, broken ribs, ruptured spleen and Pneumonia. I had to have a metal pin in my leg and a plate in my arm. I developed severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of what had happened as well as having numerous surgeries on my arm and leg to recover full use.
I was steadfast in my desire to return to work as quickly as possible. Despite my injuries, I returned to work in a little over four months, where a lengthy recovery process would commence. Due to my injuries of which, without doubt, the brain injury has had the most profound effect, I was unable to perform any front line policing roles. This led to me assuming an office role.
I tried many different roles; I studied and qualified as a Detective and even got promoted. These were momentous achievements considering the difficulties I was, and would still, experience with my brain injury.
Sadly, with every role, I would reach a point of burn-out. My mental health would tumble, PTSD symptoms would rise and it became impossible to function with my brain injury. In April of 2018 – five and a half years after my accident – I was signed off sick from work, never to return to policing.
For me, bodybuilding and training in the gym was always my form of release but I could never get back on track since the accident. I had been consumed with constantly pushing myself at work to try and prove to everybody and myself that I could do it – this played a huge detriment to my loved ones and to my health.
In January of 2018, I had reached the point of being in some of the worst shape of my life. All my clothes were tight, I was unhappy with how I looked and I had lost most of my strength. Over a glass of wine in the lull between Christmas and the New Year, my wife and I had decided we must do something about it.
We both signed up for different body transformation challenges. We each had our individual diet plans and stuck to them. Going through the challenges together inspired each other. I started noticing positive changes in my body composition and my strength was returning. My mind-set and mood was lifting and I was feeling better in every way.
Whilst I had the support of a group, it was very evident that all of the plans were generic as were the diets. As such I altered my diet and training plans, drawing upon many years of experience of both training and manipulating nutrition.
To keep myself on target I committed to doing a photo shoot at the end of my diet plan. This spurred me on and drove me to push myself to get in the best possible condition. It didn’t dawn on me at the time that I was using my exercise and training as a way of coping with the amount of stress that I was under. For so many years I had been in denial about what had happened to me and the impact this had on my work.
I pushed hard and completed my first ever photo shoot. At the time I thought I had attained reasonable condition.
Completing the photo shoot, I would go on to binge – as many do – for a couple of days. I then regrouped and decided I wanted to do another shoot. This time to bring in much better conditioning and doing it alone – using the skills that I had learned over many years and my own approach to my diet.
Discovering my fitness again truly fired my passion for the fitness industry. By this point, I had been off work for some months and – due to the effect and symptoms relating to my brain injury – conversations had started about a medical retirement. This meant that a long-term career in Policing were highly unlikely.
I have thrown myself into fitness, qualified as a personal trainer progressing on to a Level 4 Strength and Conditioning coach. I am retired from the Police and now realising my dream of being able to help others reach their potential.
To achieve your potential it is crucial to building strong foundations. There is no point in having a good-looking body if everything else is a mess. For me, coaching is more than skin deep. It involves making sure everything is as good as it can be, this includes mental health, mindset, sleep patterns, stress management and nutrition.
I have been to the brink and with the help of some truly amazing people have clawed myself back. Here at SPEROFIT, it is my mission to inspire hope, provide support and help people fulfil their true potential, both physically and mentally.
