I help successful businessmen in their 40s and 50s to build a body that’s strong, fit, healthy and mobile so you get to enjoy more from life, for longer. 

I want to share my story with you. 

To paint you a clearer picture of why I am the person you need in your corner to help you overcome the gripes, aches, pains, physical weakness, middle-aged spread, and other problems that we often (wrongly) associate with ageing.

At 31, performance was everything to me as a world champion powerlifter. I looked great and performed even better. Yet looking good and performing well masked the fact that I was living with tremendous pain daily, living on ibuprofen and riddled with severe and (some) permanent injuries.

One morning I found myself on the floor, unable to get up, stuck like a turtle on its back.

“Fuck! What am I going to be like when I’m old?” I thought. “You know, like 40”.

That moment planted the seeds of change in my life. 

Fast forward to 39, I became a father and became starkly aware of my mortality. I knew I wanted to be an active, hands-on dad. More than that, I didn’t want my daughter to EVER be embarrassed about my age. I would be approaching retirement by the time she graduated from university. There's no way I would allow her future boyfriends to view me as a weak, fragile old man.

And more than that, I wanted to lead through example and show my daughter how to respect and take ownership of her physiology.

That moment was the catalyst, it watered those seeds of change, and they were about to sprout.

I was still strong by any standard, but I would be kidding myself if I said I was fit or even, healthy. I didn’t move well. I was flexible but not mobile; I had all the grace of C-3PO caught in a rainstorm, huffing and puffing in the process.

Suddenly those seedlings of revolution inside me began to grow at a rapidly accelerated rate. Through trial and error, formal training and development, and coaching, I slowly rebuilt my body, greatly improving my fitness, how I moved and my health. Doing this meant I regained the movement ability I’d lost during my 30s. 

Now 49, I frequently hear, “It’s alright for you; you’ve never had a serious injury.” I empathise with them, and I understand how it appears. As you know from my story, I have been exactly where they are (maybe even worse), so I really do empathise.

I’ve done the work to rebuild my body and reclaim my health and life to ensure that I am in the best position to be the best possible father to my daughter.

My aim now is to lead by example, through good movement standards, aerobic fitness and real-world strength, along with nutrition, sleep and stress management strategies to exude health and to help other men join the revolution; to redefine what is possible for middle-aged men, and to challenge the status quo of middle-aged mediocrity.

Whilst ageing is inevitable, “how” you age is a CHOICE.
 

Toby
Toby Swallow Coaching Limited