2019
The years after
Today
The strongest I'd ever looked on the outside — and the least in control I'd ever felt on the inside.
Everyone saw the trophies. No one saw the nights I couldn't stand to be alone with myself.
These days, success isn't something I perform. It's something I build, one honest decision at a time.
You can look successful while your life is falling apart. I know — I lived it.
In 2019, I stood on stage as a South African bodybuilding champion. From the outside, that was the picture of discipline and success.
Behind it, addiction was quietly destroying everything I'd built. For four years I moved between treatment centres and hospitals — relapse after relapse — before recovery finally held.
That rebuilding, through recovery, faith, and now a degree in Theology and Counselling, changed how I define success. I stopped chasing a life that looks impressive and started building a meaningful life instead.
Today I volunteer across the Lowveld — speaking at churches, schools and rehabilitation centres about what I've learned. Amino is where that same rebuilding process becomes available to you. Not because you need to have hit rock bottom — because everyone needs the right building blocks, and someone in their corner.
My relationship with exercise has changed just as much as everything else. Bodybuilding taught me to chase a look. CrossFit and ultra marathons taught me something different — that exercise is a celebration of what your body can actually do. Your body wasn't made just to look a certain way. It was made to carry you further, lift heavier, move faster, and do things you didn't think you were capable of. That's the version of performance I coach now.
