I was born in London, but moved to West Sussex when I was nine. It was here, surrounded by countryside, that my love of sport and fitness was born.

I started playing football for the school team and a local side, Bognor Town. I had always played in midfield, until one day when our goalie picked up an injury. The coach turned to the tallest lad on the pitch - me - and said "Go on, give it a go. Just make yourself look big and shout lots." Seeing as we were 3-0 down, I guessed I had nothing to lose. The final whistle blew and I'd made a clean debut, despite only being between the sticks for 15 minutes. Still I guess they all count... more luck than judgement though if I'm honest!

When I was 16, my parents decided to wind down after many years of hard work and move to sunny Spain. After much persuasion, I went quietly.

It turned out to be a great decision, as I scored a trial at a Spanish first division team. So there I was, a young English lad, armed with factor 40 and only "Hola" in my vocabulary bank, sat in the changing rooms at Real Murcia, wondering what the hell I'd let myself in for. Seeing as I didn't understand a word they were saying, my first training session went pretty smoothly. I just wished I'd spoken the lingo so I'd have understood all those big signals and gestures the goalkeeping coach was giving me!

My Spanish vocabulary bank boasted double figures, when horror struck one scorching afternoon. I heard a very ugly sounding crunch. The knee surgeon broke the news that I had snapped my lateral collateral ligaments, damaged my meniscus and cracked my kneecap. I was distraught.

But in many negatives, there's an opportunity, and my injury allowed my passion for learning about health and fitness to come into play. I learnt a great deal about injury rehabilitation, muscle building and strengthening, and stretching techniques during the months of rehabilitation. When I finally got back to playing 1st division, it happened again. Same surgeon, same knee, different ligament, and the end of my footballing career.....

I made the decision to return to England and put my love of health and fitness into practice, embarking on a career as a personal trainer. Since then I haven't looked back.

I graduated from the UK's highly renowned 'Premier Global', having learnt everything there is to know about being a high impact personal trainer. This included the nuts and bolts of fitness instruction and first aid, the intricate details of anatomy and physiology, comprehensive health and fitness assessments, personal training program design, biomechanics, special populations and key techniques for keeping people motivated and on track with their goals. You name it, I learnt it!

The nutrition section gave me a great insight into the key principles of weight loss, sports performance and health and vitality. In Sports Massage Therapy, my knowledge of anatomy and physiology was taken to a whole knew level - I had to learn virtually every muscle, its origin and insertion, function and action. As there are 600 muscles in the body, it's fair to say that was some what of a challenge but, after relentless hours of studying, it all sunk in!

I make sure that I keep fully up to date with all the latest health and fitness research in our ever evolving industry, and keep learning. I recently went on a CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coaching course - what an unbelievable experience that was - where I learnt the very cutting edge techniques of advanced training principals, nutrition and stress management. I then went on to do Scientific Back Training and Scientific Core Conditioning, which really gives me a head and shoulders advantage over 99% of other trainers when it comes to conditioning a client's core, and alleviating back pain.

If that wasn't enough, I also specialize in boxercise (I did a lot of boxing cardio training in my football days and always found it a great way to condition and tone), and the fantastic new vibration training bar, 'Flexi-bar', which we use in our Getfitter.com workouts, and really hits those deep core, stablising muscles

Since I started personal training, I've successfully trained everyone from celebrities, to pre and post-natal mothers, Harley Street surgeons, teenagers, senior citizens and everyone in between and beyond!

I am really passionate about Getfitter.com and look forward to personally training the nation in the comfort of their own homes.

Phil

Click here to contact GetFitter.com