About me.
The short version: I'm a personal trainer in Cork. The longer version is below.
I started in the gym at 13 because I had to.
I was always the heaviest kid in my class. I got bullied for it. "Whale" was a regular name I copped. So at 13, I started going to the gym. Not because I had some grand plan, but because I wanted things to be different.
It didn't change overnight. Nothing worth doing does. But session by session, habit by habit, it started to change. By the time I was an adult, the gym wasn't a place I went to fix something. It was just part of how I lived.
A decade later, the thing that's surprised me most is how much of what changed wasn't physical. The weight came off. But the bigger shift was in confidence, mental health, how I showed up in the rest of my life. That's the part most people don't talk about when they talk about training, and it's the part I care about most as a coach.
Australia. London. Cork.
I qualified as a personal trainer in Australia. Certificate III and IV in Fitness (the Irish equivalent is EQF Level 3 and 4). I worked with clients in Victoria for about two and a half years, mostly heavily-interrupted-by-COVID years, racking up roughly 2,500 hours of coaching and a hundred-plus clients in that time.
From April 2022 I spent eighteen months in London working in a hostel and figuring life out. Then I came to Cork on a Working Holiday Visa, to live with my partner who's from Douglas. I worked here for a year on that visa, spent most of 2025 travelling and living in Corfu, and moved back to Cork properly in October 2025 to put down roots.
So if you're wondering: yes, I'm Australian, and no, I'm not just passing through. I'm here to stay.
Why I train clients at Phenom Gym.
I trained at Phenom during my Working Holiday year, gave it a go because I knew a few people there, and it ended up being the most open and friendly gym I've ever been in. It also has equipment that most commercial gyms in Cork don't. Proper bars, plates, racks, the lot.
When I came back to Cork in October 2025 I knew it was where I wanted to be based. The actual decision to start coaching again came a few months later. In May 2026 I went home to Australia for a month to see family and friends, and somewhere in that trip I made up my mind. CJPT in Cork started there.
A quick note on how I fit in at Phenom: I rent floor space there as an independent PT. I'm not on the Phenom coaching team. The coaches who run the place are some of the best powerlifting and strongman coaches in Ireland. If you're prepping for a meet or you want serious competition-level strength work, get in touch with me and I'll refer you on to the lads at Phenom. I coach everyday people who want to get stronger and fitter and build habits that last. Different job, same room.
What you're paying for.
I'm honest about this on the home page and I'll repeat it here: I'm not the smartest coach in the world. What I am good at is communicating with my clients, keeping them accountable, and building plans that actually fit their life.
A few things I believe strongly enough that they shape everything I do:
Most PTs are glorified rep counters. Not me.
Counting reps is the easy part of this job. The hard part is figuring out what's actually going to work for someone who's spent ten years sitting at a desk, has tried and failed at fitness before, and is showing up nervous because they don't know what they're doing. That's where the real coaching happens, and that's the work I care about.
If I don't know something, I'll find out.
When I started coaching I had a lot of female clients ask me questions about menopause, PCOS, and endometriosis. I was 23, male, and my knowledge gap was honestly embarrassing. So I went away and filled it. Today I know a surprising amount about all three for a man my age, not because I expected to, but because clients needed me to. If you ask me a question I can't answer, I'll tell you I don't know, go and research it properly, and come back with a real answer.
The qualifications are too easy to get.
I have them, and I'll tell you straight up that getting them was not a meaningful gatekeeper. What matters is the hours, the reps with real clients, the ongoing reading, and the willingness to keep changing your approach when something isn't working. I've done the hours. I keep doing the reading. I keep changing my approach.
Short-term results are a trap.
A lot of PTs optimise for fast transformations because they look good on Instagram. But most people who lose 15kg in 12 weeks gain it back within 18 months, often plus more. I'd rather you lose 10kg over six months and never put it back on than 15kg in 12 weeks and be heavier than you started two years from now. The goal is the long game.
You should be able to leave.
If you still need me after six months, I haven't done my job. The end state is you being your own coach, with the knowledge and habits to keep going on your own.
The stuff that doesn't show up on a scale.
People ask sometimes what the best results I've had with clients are. The honest answer is that the kilos lost and the deadlift PBs are the easy part to talk about. What I've actually loved seeing, and what I think is the real point of this work, is the stuff that happens in the rest of someone's life once they've started showing up for themselves in the gym.
Clients who left jobs they hated to pursue something they actually wanted to do. Clients who left relationships that weren't right for them. Clients who moved to a new country. Clients who finally had the confidence to make a big change they'd been putting off for years.
I don't take credit for any of that. Those decisions were always theirs. But there's something about the act of showing up consistently, doing hard things on purpose, and proving to yourself that you can do what you said you'd do, that bleeds into the rest of your life. I've felt it in my own. My mental health has improved dramatically since I started training. The gym isn't the whole answer to that, but it's been a meaningful part of it. I've watched the same thing happen with client after client.
That's what I'm here for. If it resonates, the structured PT plans are where most clients build that kind of momentum.
When I'm not coaching.
- 01
Travelling and exploring new places. Part of why I ended up living in four countries in my twenties.
- 02
Business. I like reading about it, thinking about it, and slowly building my own.
- 03
Sport. Cricket and AFL from home, basketball and golf almost as closely, and I've recently started getting into hurling now I'm living here. Not good at any of them. Enjoy watching people who are.
The official stuff.
- 01Certificate III in Fitness (SIS30321)
Australia
- 02Certificate IV in Fitness (SIS40221)
Australia. Irish/EU equivalent: EQF Level 4 Personal Trainer.
- 032,500+ hours of coaching
With 100+ clients.
- 04Based at Phenom Gym
Monahan Road, Ballintemple, Cork.
If any of this resonates, let's talk.
Every client starts with a free 30-minute consultation. No pressure, no sales pitch, just a conversation. Or browse the PT plans if you'd rather see options first.
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