“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away” – Pablo Picasso
My name is Matt. I am a husband, new dad, cancer survivor and a fitness lover!
I’m on a mission to help everyday people transform their health and fitness, by sharing my knowledge and experience with people worldwide. My goal is to positively impact and change people’s lives like I have my own! To teach people how to have the body they’ve always wanted, overcome adversity and bring mindfulness into their life.
As a former professional athlete, I was fortunate to travel around the world doing what I loved from the age of 15. From the age of about 6, I was involved in almost every sport there was, from basketball to athletics, swimming to long distance running and everything in between. I loved being on the move and keeping healthy and active – that was my passion.
At the age of 22, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer, requiring an operation to remove the tumor and a round of chemotherapy. Being told you have cancer at any age is obviously a shock and something I wish no one on the planet ever has to be told in their lifetime. However, to a young man in his prime, seemingly healthy and full of confidence, having an operation to remove a testicle can definitely dent your confidence and sense of identity. Digging a hole and never coming out seemed like a good idea for a split second, but I quickly snapped out of it. I wasn’t raised to have negative thoughts. I was competitive – extremely competitive, so I decided to view the diagnosis as a challenge, for me to see this adversity as one of life’s challenges and in turn, teach me to help others see that too…
Mindfulness is defined as A mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations.
If it wasn’t for a feeling inside of me that something was wrong, then who knows if I would be telling my story today? The doctor I went to for a check-up told me everything “felt fine” and I was wasting my time wanting to get a referral for an ultrasound. Knowing everything wasn’t “fine’, I persisted and had an ultrasound (against his belief). A few days later the doctor confirmed what I had known myself, through being in touch with my body and recognizing the tiniest details of how I felt. The lump was cancer.
Being diagnosed put a dent in continuing to pursue my career as a professional athlete, something I had worked towards for the best part of 10 years. Identity crisis hit once more. It was all people had ever known me for. What would I do with my life now? There were definitely some dark times, I felt lost and didn’t know what I would now do with my life.
Chemotherapy is a word most people have heard before- it’s mainly associated with fear, death, and baldness. I remember associating it with a painful yet crucial challenge, but not much else. I wasn’t to lose my hair from one session of 6 hours (but I wasn’t going to feel too great) and I was very confident with the fact it wasn’t my time just yet, however, the fear of the unknown was still there. One of the biggest fears was not being able to have children one day, something chemo and testicular cancer greatly diminish.
I have two huge moments from this period in my life which I think will stick with me forever; 1: Sitting in the big armchair with an IV drip in my arm pumping the chemo drugs into me and the burning/fire sensation it gave my body as they do a “flush or blast” for the final moments of the treatment. And 2: jumping on the exercise bike at my friend’s house 2 days after the treatment and lasting barely 2 minutes before I felt like I was going to faint and be sick! These two moments are something I often think about when life seems like it’s hard. The fact there are millions of people out there who have gone/are going through worse than I ever have, help put every day, smaller worries into perspective.
Fast forward a few years where I felt lost but settled, with a regular full-time job in the family business in the building industry. Somewhat happy but not satisfied, this life wasn’t for me, not after everything I had experienced, learned and overcome. I knew I had to share my experiences to help others.
My passion for fitness and health had never left me and throughout this time I still exercised as hard as ever.
Eventually, motivation stalled once again, this time from the same boring gym workouts, wrestling for use of machines and equipment at overcrowded gyms, paying for expensive lock-in contracts and feeling trapped by being constantly indoors. Due to this, my progress and results stalled and I hit a plateau where no matter how much gym work I did, nothing changed.
In January 2016 I married my amazing wife and became a father to a beautiful boy for the first time in November the same year. With a new family, full-time work and studying online, exercise time was limited. I no longer had hours to spend in the gym every day, nor did I want too! Family time, lack of sleep and everyday life gets in the way and exercise can take a back seat.
So…
That’s when I decided to use all the knowledge I had learned through 7 years as a professional athlete plus another 10 years of training to help transform my fitness, to help others do the same with my personal training business. I created the business based on what had become so successful for me – ditching the gym, getting outdoors and working with my own body weight – to give clients complete freedom and independence with their exercise regime. People love it and the results my clients are achieving are nothing short of incredible.
My sense of fulfillment in helping others gives me what I was looking for, a sense of satisfaction and purpose. I needed to reach more people – help others see adversity as something anyone can overcome. Whether it’s from illness or injury, a busy work life or the stresses of parenthood, I designed Bodyweight Built with all this in mind – to be able to help and teach people that there are no limits to creating a healthier life for yourself and those around you through exercise.
In May 2017, I launched my website- www.bodyweightbuilt.com allowing me to reach people worldwide, with the view to helping to transform not only their bodies but their lives as a whole. I offer customized monthly programs, as well as a 12-week body transformation program, 8-week program and a 6-week chest and abs focused program all revolving around bodyweight workouts and not needing any gym equipment. Both require no access to a gym, fancy equipment or machines.
Launching this business right before my 30th birthday recently makes everything I went through feel like a lifetime ago. Cancer and the bouts of depression and identity crisis are no longer front of mind. My business has allowed me to rediscover my purpose and the reason everything that happened – because it was meant to happen. I believe this set me on a path to give back to people all I had learned; through my experiences, from what I overcame and from my health and fitness journey.
Flexibility and freedom are key to anyone adhering to an exercise regime. The easier exercise is to fit into your daily life, the greater chance of success you give yourself! I’ve found that when people are busy, stressed, tired or all of the above – exercise takes a back seat.
This is where Bodyweight Built comes into its own!
Bodyweight Built is a lifestyle – it is functional fitness that helps with everyday movement – no machines stressing your bones and joints with unnatural movements and causing injury – super time-efficient workouts that combine cardio and strength, increase flexibility, challenge any fitness level, dramatically increase your core strength and TORCH FAT FAST! The workouts can be done anywhere, without needing a gym membership, giving you the flexibility and freedom required to succeed in your exercise regime.
I am incredibly proud to be able to share this experience with you; to watch you gain back your time, independence and health and fitness – in addition to a greater sense of overall happiness and confidence in YOURSELF! If you want to bring freedom to your fitness and change the way you’ve viewed exercise please go to www.bodyweightbuilt.com
