Chris Videos

Here are a few videos relating to my fitness activities – featuring me and some of my very best friends in fitness.  Some in the gym, some out and a few on the contest stage.

And ending with some non-gym and non-cardio activities, triathlon – cycling – running – all of which I enjoy with my wife, Jenny.  Just to show I exist outside the gym occasionally!

In this first video, top fitness professional Rob Riches talks about me – starting from our first meeting in Gold’s Venice in 2008.  Rob explains how I actively sought his advice, eagerly put it into practice and now help others meet their fitness objectives.  I have always massively valued Rob’s coaching and mentoring, and it is interesting and gratifying that he puts his thoughts in this Rob Riches video.

As you may know, I’m a Personal Trainer, and I very much enjoy helping others in achieving their their own fitness goals.  But I also get trained by other trainers, and then I’m on the receiving end of advice, encouragement and instruction.  Here’s a video of top trainer Russell Lee of Reel Health and Fitness putting me through one of his PT sessions.

I’m a fan of travelling to LA and training there at Golds and Muscle Beach gyms, both of which are in the Venice Beach area of the city.  To give a flavour of gym life there – particularly to those that haven’t been – here are two videos featuring my training partner Dan Wynes and I sharing workouts, one at Muscle Beach and one (taken by a sneaky hidden cameraman!) in the secluded and prison-yard like area of Gold’s Backyard.  And, again with the two of us, here is a further video of us getting some intense cardio in at the famous and unique outdoor fitness location of the Santa Monica Stairs.

Also at Gold’s, I was there at their 50th Anniversary in 2015 and decided to mark the occasion with a record of some of the particularly weird, unusual and downright vintage training machines they offer.  See them in the Unusual Gold’s Machines video.  You won’t see many of these in other gyms!

Finally on travel, to show I sometimes go to other places apart from LA, here is a video of my workout including a chat with the owner of the small but Intense Gym in Umkomaas in South Africa, just down the Natal coast from Durban.

One aspect of my fitness life is that I like to get a professional photoshoot occasionally – usually just before a contest when I’m in good shape.  To see what this is like, here is a video going behind the scenes at a full gym Photoshoot plus a separate interview with top fitness photographer Simon Howard.  And talking of contests…

With a great deal of nerves, and not at all sure I was doing something sensible, I entered my first ever contest at age 55 – the British Championships  organised by Miami Pro.  I entered both Fitness Model and Muscle Model classes in the over 50’s age group (of course!). See how I got on by viewing the Miami Pro British Championship video.

That was the British Championships, a year on and let’s now try the Miami Pro World Championship – was that a good idea?

Move the calendar on a couple of years, and despite having retired from the stage (umm, twice actually), I come back to the fitness model stage one last and final time to see how I can compete against those younger.  This was the Pure Elite show, an alternative federation to Miami Pro.  Find out how this version of retirement turned out by checking the Pure Elite first Championships video.

A further couple of years go by, and I decide to enter my very last competition – and this time I meant it.  As far as contests in the UK are concerned, at least.  This was my last Pure Elite, and I tried to go out with some success.  Did I achieve it?  See my Pure Elite final Championships video to find out.

I’ve proved to be lousy at retiring and, coming right up to date, I’ve now been in 10 contests, the most recent being in Venice Beach in California at the end of 2017, where I was coached for the event by Dan Wynes.  See the highlights of my attempt to compete in the USA in the Muscle Beach Championships video here.

Changing tack and to end this already far-too-long page, here is a video from running in South Africa at Thousand Hills – a Parkrun, a weekly series of 5k runs which my wife Jenny and I have been doing for a few years at home and sometimes abroad.  And also combining the running with some cycling in a Duathlon.  I actually do loads of these, just don’t video very many.  As I said right at the start, I don’t always live in a gym!