The Underdog Gym

People are often surprised that I’m a Personal Trainer who also paints and loves to garden. The different endeavours seemingly appear polar opposite and these passions may have nothing in common.

That’s probably why I do it. In between my busy triathlon, marathon and Hyrox scheduling, I use painting as a means to recover from my over-stimulated central nervous system and gardening to keep me grounded.

The quiet ritual of mixing paint, mark making, stepping back to ponder, stepping away to sleep on it - it’s the antidote to the intense and overwhelming noise that comes with taking part in race after race after race…

Meanwhile the innocuous act of digging, cutting back, watering and waiting for nature to do its thing, it’s a reminder there’s more to life than collecting medals and Hyrox velcro patches.

So while training and fitness builds up the body and challenges the mindset, painting nourishes the soul, while gardening with my muddy hands restores and reminds me to keep everything in perspective.

Yes, once again I’m taking part in this year’s showing my abstract paintings inspired by life next to the wetlands and marshes.

I’m coinciding this during the same time as the weekend on Saturday 13th June and Sunday 14th June. Open from 1pm to 6pm.

Fitness,
Art,
Gardening.

Body,
Mind,
Soul.

Pop in and say hi 👋🏽

10 years ago I was getting ready for some work dinner black tie thing. I remember that day because no shirt fit me properly and I was so uncomfortable with what I saw in the mirror. This was some industry award ceremony with clients. I also recall that evening someone asking me to take their drinks order because I obviously looked like a Chinese waiter. (This was the casual racism I sometimes encountered in the very white world of luxury branding).

But if you had said one day I’d leave it all behind, retrain to start my own PT business that even produces its own merchandise, wearing my own branding to race my 21st Hyrox after having run Paris marathon and London marathon 19 days before…

The 49 year old today thanks the 39 year old a decade ago. All those things had to happen to make me a better human, to make me a better coach, a better husband, a better personal trainer.

1% better each day.
That’s all we need to do.
The compound effect 10 years later.
Becomes an evolution unrecognisable.

What a week it’s been eh, Walthamstow.

Well done to our weekend groups who survived a pretty brutal strength and engine session! 😂🫣

Also, congrats to our borough making history 💚

It’s been an incredible 19 days:

🇫🇷 Paris marathon 12th April
🇬🇧 London marathon 26th April
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Hyrox Cardiff open men’s 29th April
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Hyrox Cardiff men’s doubles 30th April

These comedy socks kinda sum it up.

But when I say I was disabled in 2009 and I’m now almost 50 making up for lost time, I’m not joking.

I’ll take “everything hurts” because this,
this is a choice I’m making.

The cards I was dealt tried to break me.
The cards I now hold make me feel unstoppable.

As we age, our choices are this:
You can be weak and in pain.
Or you can be strong and in pain.

It’s never too late.
And I’m proof we can rewrite our stories.

This is for those who walk their marathons.
I have nothing but respect for you 🫡

Previously I could run marathons between 3:45 and 3:59 but after the Paris Marathon two weeks ago, my left knee blew up 10km into my London Marathon yesterday. I found myself needing to walk intermittently for more than 30km. It turns out 13 days isn’t enough rest time between marathons when you’re 50.

My usual 5.1 min/km race pace fell off a cliff and I was averaging 8.4 min/km limping across the finish line, taking 5:17 hours. My slowest and my toughest experience ever.

I had no choice but to settle into my pain and keep one foot in front of the other while my mind started to think about all the people who willingly chose to do a marathon knowing that walking was going to be part of their plan.

Marathon elitism still exists and we saw it in Nike’s spectacular fail last week with a poster that proclaimed “WALKERS TOLERATED”. The running community came good and was having none of it. Nike had to pull their BS message.

There are all types of people doing the marathon, from the mum who has to stop to breast-feed her baby, to guys on crutches willing their bodies to keep going, to folk with stoma bags needing to change bags halfway, we don’t see the invisible heroes because our algorithm only feeds us the incredible sub-2 or 3 hour human feats.

The truth is, none of us take on this endeavour alone, and all of us do it to lift ourselves and each other up. This is why all pace deserve to be in the race.

So this one is dedicated to you, the incredible Ana and Liam, who knew the task ahead was going to be hard, but they chose to do it regardless. And the tens of thousands yesterday whose resilience was put to the test… If you finished your marathon in 6 hours or more because you had to walk it, oh my god, the determination to keep going, it’s a whole other level of courage. I’ve never experienced 42.2km that took so damn long. It’s another kind of hell!

Well done all of you,
you’re my definition of STRONG.
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

“Instead of aiming for our best performance, something that we can only accomplish rarely,
shoot for improving your best average.
The aim is first to be consistent”
- Brian Zuleger, Sports Psychologist

Usually in marathons I run a reverse split - “start like a turtle, pull like a dog, finish like a hare” - as we say.

But this one was all about seeing how consistent I could hold a 5.1 pace from start to the end. Turns out by 34km in, things went pear shape. Cobblestones, gradient inclines, route narrowing, congestion, slowing down caused the knee pain to kick in.

Nonetheless, I’m proud of this one.
A sub 4hr for someone nearly 50 years old with double knee keyhole surgeries. I’ll take that even if it is no longer the 3h45 I used to manage.

Because confidence is doing difficult things, sometimes failing, seeing where we are, and then going back to quietly do the work.

Congrats to our beady-eyed Easter Egg Hunt winners! 👀

Have a lovely Easter break everyone 🐣🐰🍫🥚

We’ve had quite a few new followers last week. Thank you Everything E17 for the lovely mention 🫶🏽

If you’ve just discovered us, hello and welcome to Underdog💛

We’re a micro boutique gym that’s big on community 🙌🏽

We’re here to help you discover the joy of movement.

We want to build resilience in all bodies so that age is just a number.

We’re here to reclaim our bodies from when we were never picked on the team.

Strength knows no size. This is why we value doing hard things over shrinking our bodies.

Whether it’s one-to-one bespoke PT, couples training, small group classes, cancer rehab or our popular Hyrox performance coaching, we start where you are.

And because no one’s fitness journey should be alone, we’re here to lift each other up 🙌🏽

The finish line is not the goal.
Who you transform into during the process is.

It’s been a bumper weekend fielding our awesome Hyrox crew who raced at Olympia last week.

Massive congrats to Clare, Rob, Steve & Liam for putting in the work these paste few months, crossing the line and enjoying their victory lap! 🏆

At Underdog, we always say: “The finish line is not the goal, the person you transform into is”

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

I’m on the train home bound from Manchester and I’m kinda emotional.

I think one of the reasons I have embraced Hyrox so hard is because this is essentially PE for adults.

Hear me out…

Today as I was running around doing the doubles with my mate Jani, it struck me that this is my way of reclaiming the relentless bullying I’d experienced in PE lessons when I was a kid.

Too fat, too short, wonky neck, curved spine, gay and girlie with a high voice… all the things that made me always the last one to be picked.

The best stories that come out of Hyrox aren’t the elites who break records in 55 minutes. Who cares. It’s their job, they literally devote all their existence to this.

No, the best stories that come out of Hyrox are the 66 year old grandad who did it with his daughter Joy, the former drug addict who did it to show his family he wants to be a better dad. There’s the woman with Parkinson’s who knows one day she won’t be able to do this anymore and then there’s the blind chap who, well, what the actual f**k, manages to get it done.

Yesterday I met two adaptive athletes that I’d been following for a while, here on instagram. One was born with a leg missing. The other was born with cerebral palsy. They both race on crutches. I went up to them and told them they’re my inspiration. The old me would never have had the courage or confidence to just go up and say hi to someone. We hugged, we fist bumped and we wished each other a good race.

I tell you man, if my dad could see me now.

I want all of us to reclaim our bullied experiences. To say, ha, look at me now as****es. We might be the underdogs but at least we are in the arena.

It doesn’t even have to be about Hyrox. It can be your first 5k, your first marathon, your first 100% bodyweight deadlift. Your first courageous box jump! It doesn’t even have to be about fitness. It could be walking out of your career you’ve done for 20 years and wanting to do something better.

Our word for 2026 for every Team Underdog client is SELF-BELIEF. I want you to dream big in your own way. Because if your dreams do not scare you, they’re not big enough.