MY STORY
Hi. I’m Magnum Phoenix.
4 years ago, I struggled to stand.
Walking was near impossible.
I weighed 31 stone (200KG).
SINCE THEN, I'VE LOST HALF OF THAT.
GAINING THE WEIGHT
Never in my life would I have predicted I'd work in the fitness industry. As a kid, I hated P.E. I would do anything to get out of it. As for sports day... forget about it.
I was the fat kid. Bullied at school, bullied at home.
Food was my thing. Still is. Turns out, a lack of physical activity combined with eating yourself into a food coma everytime something makes you sad causes... obesity??? Whoever made that rule needs a hearty slap tot he back of the head.
In my teens, I managed to lose weight unintentionally when I discovered I really liked to act. That became my passion for several years - and I slimmed down considerably. For the first time in my life, I had faintly visible abs!!!
There's not much money in acting. Unless you're super lucky. Between various miserable odd jobs, I became less active. I got depressed. I began gaining weight. I trained as a teacher. That went well! Until COVID - 19. I was laid off as our acting lessons went online - last hired, first fired.
I loved that job. But, shit happens... and my weight ballooned to a colossal 200KG. I could barely stand, and walking felt like a death march.
I needed help.
The "lightbulb" moment for me was when my sister gently suggested that I invest in a mobility scooter. I was 30 years old.
I was at my lowest point in my life at my biggest point in my life. Knowing I had once been fat, then slim, then fat again felt humiliating. I didn't see it as a positive "oh, I did it before, I can do it again", I saw it as a failure. I needed help, but what was I supposed to do? Go to the gym? Go to the gym and be pointed and laughed at? I don't think so.
So, I tried diffewrent diets. I tried intermittent fasting. That wasn't very successful. So I tried just fasting outright - 7 days I went without food, just water... and no vitamins, supplements, nothing. Huge mistake. By the 7th day, I was so weak I thought I was going to die. All I did was sleep, and I felt awful. But the numbers on the scales had decreased, so surely it was worth it? No. It is possible to successfully do a water fast - with guidance! Not blindly as I did. Next I tried the keto diet. This was the most success I'd had thus far with losing weight. However, it was expensive and boring. I ate so much cheese and meat - at first it was heavenly. But after a few months, I hated it. So I then tried carnivore. Meat ONLY. Nope, that was even worse.
I felt so lost. The gym was looking more and more like a viable option... If only I had someone to go with who could shield me from any potential criticism... and so, finally, I turned to a personal trainer for help. However there was another hurdle - the gym was at the top of a steep hill... and I couldn't walk.
So, I got lifts from friends, I paid for taxis - I got there however I could.
LOSING THE WEIGHT
Over about 6-8 months, I regained the ability to stand for longer than 5 minutes, walk, and lost significant amounts of weight. I wasn't particularly consistent - I would eat well for a week or so, get bored, then eat garbage for a few days, before standing on the scales and sulking about the weight I'd regained. Then I would eat well again... get bored... and the cycle continued. Unfortunately, it's a cycle/habit I still can struggle with even to this day.
During those months, eventually I decided to try and walk home - that meant downhill, and that was supposed to be easy.
45 minutes. It took 45 minutes to complete a 10 minute journey. Mainly because I had to keep stopping and sitting down to catch my breath.
Over time, I got quicker. Had to rest less and less. Then, one day, I decided to try to walk to the gym - uphill.
It was like starting all over from day 1. But I persevered. I wanted to be slimmer more than it hurt to walk uphill. My back hurt like hell - well, it always did, but this was worse. Same with the sweat - by the time I would get to the gym, it felt like I'd already completed my workout.
Eventually, the walks were the easiest part of my routine. They served as a good warmup. I began researching different workouts for when I wasn't with my trainer. I looked into food, macros, and got a grip on nutrition. It was all so much simpler than I had once believed. It can be so easy to complicate fitness - trying to hit absolutely perfect macro splits, workouts, optimisation, science-based lifting, supplements - I made many, many mistakes along the way, but it was all a learning curve.
I moved away and stopped working with my trainer, however I didn't give up on my training. I felt great, I was looking better than I ever had in my life, and I loved what I was achieving. A friend of mine noticed the weight loss and asked if I could help him. So, I did. I taught what I'd learned from my trainer and from what I'd learned. He also began losing a significant amount of weight. That's when it hit me - I might be kinda good at this? And... I enjoyed it.
I got my personal trainer qualification, and invested in a number of other training - kettlebells, circuit training, nutrition - I was someone who had the life experience of being huge and then slimming all the way down (again), but now I was backed up by actual theory.
FIT WITH PHOENIX
iI've always loved to work with and help people. Being a teacher was so rewarding - so going into Personal Training felt very natural.
When creating Fit With Phoenix it was important to emphasise the idea of change, of bettering oneself, of being reborn. Fit With Phoenix had to reflect my own morals, my own beliefs of how fitness should be.
No yelling:
I would have hated that if my PT was like a drill sergeant, so I would never be like that. I would encourage and cheerlead for clients, but I would never pressure them.
No shame:
I would never shame clients for mistakes, for not reaching calorie goals all the time. I know that if I was shamed by my PT for overeating during my diet, it would have made me want to quit.
Challenging, and relevant:
No change will happen without challenge. Of course, all challenges must be scaled appropriately - there's no point in trying to make a complete noob perform a barbell clean and press. It is my belief that exercise needs to be useful. Yes, aesthetics are great and there's no shame in training just for aesthetics (hell, that's why most of us do it in the first place) but that doesn't mean that we can't kill two birds with one stone; train functionally and look good doing it. Training for function is the saviour, it's the life-extender. It keeps you fit anf functional in your everyday life. It's perfect for anyone of any age or fitness. Movements are easily translated from the gym into real life and you, as the client, will notice how much easier it is to climb those stairs. How you never used to be able to touch your toes but now you can with ease. How carrying the weekly shop used to feel heavy, now it's light.
Additionally, I wanted to focus on the human aspect of the business and the profession. Many PTs now rely on ChatGPT for online content creation, captions, workouts, art - the profession in the past few years has exploded in popularity, and unfortunately, misinformation and toxicity online. It's a huge shame - personal training, fitness - it is one of the most personal professions out there. We are dealing with people's health at the end of the day, and people can get seriously hurt and/or unwell if fed the wrong information. However due to the nature of social media and our fast-paced lifestyles, content is quick, it's aesthetics, it's memes, it's "10 exercises to lose belly fat in a week!" Little do the general public know, you cannot specifically target areas of fat on your body and get rid of it (well, not without surgery).
Honesty and transparency is so important not only for my business, but also for me and my clients. Lying about what you've eaten or what exercise you have or haven't done will not benefit you - especially when it comes to weigh-ins. Let's say you've not stuck to the diet but you tell me you have. We weigh you, and you've gained weight. My thought will be to lower your calories or increase your activity. However, if this happens all the time, i may either suspect you're fibbing, or you have a medical condition, which can just further complicate our training.
Another important facet is effort. No one likes having their time wasted - I would rather be making a difference in someone's life than making money from someone who is putting in 10% effort. It doesn't matter if you're struggling, or making slow progress. As long as a client is putting in effort, that's all that matters to me as a trainer. Your effort, and determination. I don't expect perfection, ever!