Meet Brad, founder - StrongHouse
My name is Brad and this is my recollection of how I came to owning and running a personal training home business in Melbourne. I was Born in a typical Australian backwater town where I grew up playing football and cricket before discovering my enjoyment in playing music. I moved to Adelaide as soon as I was 18 and soon after got into the security industry primarily doing Armed Guard work for the next 11 years. Around 2012 in my early twenties, I was 67kg and had no 'natural' strength in me whatsoever, one day I wanted to change that (I have since peaked at 103kg, 50% gained). I began doing bodyweight workouts in my house of all I knew pushups, about 5 times a week until one day I worked up to over 300 in a night. I then purchased a all in one adjustable bench and squat stand, one of the ones where you had a cross bar between the bar holders and would adjust the bench incline by lodging the crossmember higher on the uprights and had the plate loaded leg extension at the end of it. I used to train on that 5 times a week in my house following a basic 5 day split. I then moved to Melbourne in 2013 to pursue musical endeavours and walked into my first gym that same year after not having enough weights at home for my lifts. At first I always felt out of place but I was doing something for my health physically and mentally which was of more importance than my feelings of discomfort so I continued.
I would say it was about late 2013/2014 I learnt of strength sports (Strongman and Powerlifting) and the legacy of some strongmen from Iceland, particularly Jón Páll Sigmarsson (RIP) I was amazed at the feats performed. I was hooked instantly on the pursuit of strength.
It wasn't until 2015 and I had had enough of paying to use a gym that was overcrowded and didn't value their members so with that years tax return (and the previous one I had not yet done) I invested it all into a upgrade for my meagre home gym setup and purchased commercial quality dumbbells and a bench to train at home with before getting a powertec rack and barbell to be able to squat and bench safely without human spotters.
Training solely from home I put my passion on the platform in 2016 and did my first powerlifting meet, 3 in that first year. By this time my passion of training exercise and strength sports would make me talk to my friends about it in a positively infectious manner for them to also begin making a difference in their lifestyle to be healthier. It bought me huge satisfaction to see people do better for themselves and I knew it was what I wanted to do. After years of building up my home gym with every dollar of every payslip I earnt, researching obsessively over all kinds of training equipment and philosophies and getting qualified in the fitness industry I finally hosted my own Powerlifting competition at StrongHouse in 2018 and quit my fulltime security job in 2019 to focus on my passion and desire to be able to share the benefits that exercise can bring to your life.