Who are you?

Ben Canning.

What got you into training?

Truthfully I was on a path of self-destruction, too many weekends visiting the on-street pharmacist and searching for the meaning of life at the bottom of a Hennessy bottle were taking their toll. Luckily the guy that I shared the majority of these weekend encounters with enjoyed training his biceps enough that he wanted to become a PT. He needed a first client and after my initial 6 weeks, I was hooked. 

I went from skinny fat to just skinny – but I felt more confident and found myself a much more productive use of my time.

What things have you struggled with?

With training? Eating enough, eating too much. Knowing if the program was right for me. Self-doubt. Comparing my progress to others. Growing my calves. Time management….the list is endless – I have had my share of struggles but the main one, for me, has to be keeping the goal the goal – I would chop and change from cutting to bulking. When I was lean I would feel skinny and when I was bigger I would feel fat – I was never happy with where I was at.

With business? Imposter syndrome. Loneliness. Knowing what direction to take things. Time management and prioritising the wrong things.

What are you afraid of?

Honestly – the thing that I fear the most is, never reaching my full potential. The thought of only ever being able to take something so far.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

The knowledge that I have the potential to make someone’s day at least 1% better. I speak to a lot of people across a lot of platforms on a daily basis and if I can help just one of them make a change that will improve their quality of life – that is enough for me.

What do you value?

Hard-work, Growth and Humility.

What is your coaching ethos?

All I ask is commitment. To make a promise to yourself to be better every day. And to keep that promise.

One person you admire and why?

My mum.  She taught me hard work and resilience, everything I am today is because of her.

Something that training has given you that you didn’t foresee?

A career for one lol. But the two main things are discipline and confidence. For the longest time, I used to say, as a coach, that if your training and nutrition are in line, everything else in life is in line – because that is genuinely how I felt. Looking back, what I meant was, that discipline is a transferable skill – if you can teach yourself discipline in one area of life, it will filter into every other area of life.

The confidence piece is confidence in myself and my ability to do things – train at a specific level, do a photoshoot, start a podcast…all of these things grew from that first day in the gym.

What is the difference between you and other coaches?

If you have made it this far, you should already know.