To no one’s surprise, I met my wife Sophie at the gym I was working at back in 2012. Together, we’re a team and have accomplished some crazy things over the years.

• Our twin girls were born in 2015, completing our family of six
• We have supported each other through multiple competition preps and walked away with world titles.
• We have opened our own strength and conditioning gym together on the Gold Coast: Hold Your Own.
• We have created our own fitness program called THE BOD that has transformed the bodies and lives of thousands of men and women.

I have loved the outdoors and sports since as far back as I can remember. My first love (sorry Sophie, haha) was AFL. I played all through my teenage years, but it wasn’t meant to be. I searched for something else to channel ‘my all’ into – and I didn’t have to look for too long. My dad has owned his own gym and weight trained his entire life, so it felt only natural to follow in his footsteps.

The gym is now my second home. There’s nothing better than an empty gym, music roaring and hitting a lifting PB.

For most of my career, I focused on bodybuilding and took out the Australian Nationals overall. I then went on to win the Natural Mr Olympia Amateurs, turned pro and the very next day placed third in the Pro Division.

In more recent years, my focus has shifted to powerlifting. I pride myself on performing drug and enhancement-free. Whether the end goal is to bring a proportioned physique to the stage, or to lift as much as I can – this is a mantra I will always live by.

At Hold Your Own, we are committed to educating and empowering our clients with the right information to make lifelong changes. Myself and the other coaches at Hold Your Own follow the same protocols I have used for years to help my clients reach their physique goals. I am still coaching today, with the hope that every single one of my clients will walk away with more knowledge than when they first started.

I am one of the only Recomp Certified Specialists in Queensland, and all coaches at Hold Your Own also hold ISSN Sports Nutrition certifications.

Sophie and I developed THE BOD, our 12-week transformation nutrition and training program knowing that there was a gap in the market. There’s only so many clients I can take on at one given time. With so many cookie cutter programs and one size fits all approaches, we knew there was a huge demand for a program that could cater to specific fitness levels and nutritional needs. The Bod is the program for the athlete who wants the detail of a customised plan and the experience of a coach.

I love preparing home cooked meals and getting my creations taste-tested by my biggest critics: my kids. It was only last year that I realised my following on social media wanted my recipes as much as everyone at home. My butter chicken has been recreated in thousands of kitchens Australia-wide – that fact alone was enough to make me decide to take the leap and develop Fast Food for Fit Dads.

There’s nothing like sitting down together at the dinner table each night and sharing good food. Home cooked meals are a constant in our household. It’s important to me that the entire family eating fresh whole foods is the norm and eating out is a rarity. Cooking meals from scratch means you know what you’re feeding your loved ones – you’re aware of every single ingredient.