I was born in 1958 in Stockton-on-Tees, England. I started resistance training at age 14, when I got a set of chest expanders. In 1973 I started weight training, in a gym at a local community center. That became the focus of my life until, in 1978, I went to college in Liverpool, England, where my single-minded dedication to bodybuilding continued. This included working out at a bodybuilding gym where one of Europe’s leading physiques trained. We often worked out at the same time.
This man helped me to learn a major lesson. He was on bodybuilding drugs and, generally, was a genetic phenomenon for bodybuilding. But I had better calf development even though I was drug-free and had been training for far fewer years. He even asked me for advice on how he could improve his calves. The explanation for the difference in our calf development was solely in our heredity. I had better genetics for calf development, but he was much better off in all other bodyparts. I trained my calves like I trained my arms, chest, and shoulders, but my calves were much more responsive than those other muscle groups. And he hadn’t neglected his calves. He knew they were his weakness.
Muscles were more important than everything else in my life. I craved to be a professional bodybuilder. School work, social activities, and sport were neglected in my quest to build a great physique.
Despite 100% commitment to bodybuilding, my initial gains were only modest. After getting even more “serious” about my training—increasing its volume, frequency, and intensity—progress came to a halt. Then started my appreciation of “hard gaining.”
I learned that there was much more to account for bodybuilding success than effort and dedication. As well as the critical role of heredity, I also learned about the need to use training routines appropriate to the individual, and not to imitate the training methods used by people who have great genetic advantages for bodybuilding. Then, instead of further years of stagnation and frustration, I had years of training progress, and satisfaction.
I was motivated to share these lessons with others. I wrote my first article while at college, and had it published by Peary Rader in the June-July 1981 issue of IRON MAN, an American magazine. In addition to writing many further articles for IRON MAN, I started writing for a number of US- and UK-published bodybuilding magazines.
I graduated in 1982 but was unable to find a teaching post in England. I sought employment overseas, and in January 1983 I started teaching at an international school on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
In 1989 I founded CS Publishing, and started my own magazine called THE HARDGAINER (later changed to HARDGAINER). During 1991 I finished writing BRAWN. In 1993 I gave up school teaching and worked solely for CS Publishing. Over the next seven years I wrote THE INSIDER’S TELL-ALL HANDBOOK ON WEIGHT-TRAINING TECHNIQUE (the first edition), THE MUSCLE AND MIGHT TRAINING TRACKER, BEYOND BRAWN, and FURTHER BRAWN.
In 2001 I started BUILD MUSCLE, LOSE FAT, LOOK GREAT, and completed it in late 2005. In early 2004 I retired HARDGAINER. Then I had the time required to maintain book production yet broaden my interests and activities beyond training, including becoming a provider of Active Release Techniques®.
And since starting in 1981 I’ve continued to write articles on a regular basis for international training magazines.
I had wanted to be a professional bodybuilder, but it was an unattainable goal because my heredity didn’t provide me with the potential to build huge muscles. Furthermore, I was unwilling to take bodybuilding drugs. But the lessons I learned did, nevertheless, enable me to transform my body.
I didn’t become a professional bodybuilder, but I did make a career out of my passion for training, and physique transformation. And the lessons I learned, many of which are detailed in this book, can enable you to transform your body.
I continue to live in Cyprus with my wife and our two daughters.