THE ANGRY MAN OF FITNESS
THERE ARE TIMES WHEN WE SHOULDN'T EVEN BE THINKING ABOUT MONITORING OUR FOOD, LIKE CHRISTMAS
Fulfilling the brief of his Men’s Health photo shoot requires James Smith to bite into a number of nutritional bad guys – white bread, milk chocolate, ice cream.
It would be enough to send many fitness professionals into meltdown, but Smith doesn’t seem bothered. In fact, he gives the impression of savouring every mouthful. It’s a peek into how the 30-year-old online PT, who these days splits his time between Sydney and his birthplace of London, has kicked clear of the pack. Smith wouldn’t even call these foods bad guys. “In every happy marriage you need a break from your partner,” he says. “And you need to do the same with your diet.”
Smith is thriving on the digital fringes of an industry he routinely disparages. His straight-talking approach to fitness and nutrition has resonated with hundreds of thousands of gym-goers, reflected in his burgeoning social-media following (440,000 on Instagram) and the success of his online-training enterprise, jamessmithacademy.com (7200 subscribers). His first book – Not A Diet Book: Lose Fat, Gain Confidence, Transform Your Life – hits the shelves on January 20.
The secret to his success, Smith reckons, is his dissimilarity to most PTs. He isn’t obsessed with being ripped. Nor does he have a vested interest in any particular diet or system of training. What he does have is an antennae for bullshit – as well as a blunt, often coarse, style of calling it out. You, however, tape rolling, he is on his best behaviour.
