Brennand - Be the Fittest Your ultimate 12-week guide to training smart, eating clever and learning to listen to your body

Medical disclaimer: The content of this book is for your general information and use only. Your use of any information is entirely at your own risk, for which neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that information in this book meets your specific requirements. Before taking part in any form of exercise, change of diet or consumption of a nutritional supplement you should always consult your doctor.

Publishing Director: Sarah Lavelle

Senior Commissioning Editor: Cline Hughes

Designer: Katherine Keeble

Photographer: Martin Poole

Food Stylist: Kim Morphew

Prop Stylist: Tamzin Ferdinando

Head of Production: Stephen Lang

Senior Production Controller: Nikolaus Ginelli

Published in 2020 by Quadrille, an imprint of Hardie Grant Publishing

Quadrille

5254 Southwark Street

London SE1 1UN

quadrille.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders. The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Text Tyrone Brennand 2020

Design Quadrille 2020

Photography Martin Poole 2020

eISBN 978 1 78713 559 8

My story

I have been interested in physical fitness for as long as I can remember. When I was about seven, I loved martial arts and was obsessed by reading martial arts and body building magazines. I would always try to copy Bruce Lee and other martial artists and the moves they did. I instantly gravitated towards the way they looked and was massively impressed by their physical presence. From then on, I became fascinated by the idea of pushing myself to achieve real results and to change my own body.

I grew up in London, living with my mum and sister. My mum had to work two jobs and money was very tight. I remember it as a time of eviction notices and having to ration food because we were struggling to pay the bills. It may sound tough, but at the time it was ok because I didnt know any different. I never knew my dad and I still dont know who he is, to this day. When I was 24, I found out that my sister was only my half-sister. This came as a real shock. Looking back at my childhood, my overall feeling about it is that it was fun, and I liked how things were, even though it wasnt the easiest.

At school I only really enjoyed doing sports and art. I remember going to my first gym class in school when I was around 13 years old. I wasnt particularly strong compared to some of the other kids that were in my school, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Another memory that sticks with me is that my teacher in Year 10 told me I would be a failure and that he would have the last laugh. My friend Nathan and I still talk about this and I use it as inspiration.

My teacher in Year 10 told me I would be a failure and that he would have the last laugh. My friend Nathan and I still talk about this and I use it as inspiration.

I left school with five GCSEs. At the time, I wanted to earn some money so I learnt how to cut Afro hair and started working in a barbershop on Sundays, while going to college during the week.

I remember skipping a lot of classes to go back to my house where I had made a home gym with a York bench and a few weights. Training was my real passion. After college, I went to art school but dropped out after only a few months.

I didnt have much guidance from my mum during this time, as she had lost her own mum (my grandmother), and had spent a lot of time abroad. My sister was at university, so I really didnt have anyone to answer to. I could just do what I liked. There were only really two things I wanted to do: to make money and to train. Growing up in London is weird on one hand there is so much opportunity and on the other hand there is an immense amount of pressure from society, which brings with it doubt and fear of failure. It is also a city with a real mixture of rich and poor. A lot of my friends growing up were finding ways to make their own money, and not always by legitimate means. I was surrounded by this I saw the glamorous side of money and the lifestyle it can bring but I also saw friends going in and out of prison and getting into life-threatening situations. I fell deeper and deeper into this lifestyle, and a few years later I found myself getting into a very bad situation. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up in serious trouble. My life changed in an instant, for the worse. I was in a really bad place. I was left with no hope, my life felt empty and the worst (and scariest) thing was that I didnt really care.

At this point, the things that really helped my mental health were exercise and training. I also had my first experience of yoga. I was given a book about it I tried to read it but didnt really understand it. I was, however, drawn to the pictures and began to practise the moves that were shown.

At the same time, I started reflecting on things a lot and really wondered what I wanted to do with my life. I felt trapped in the world I had been living in. The only real passion I had (and my saving grace) was for training and exercise.

When I was 24, I found out that I was going to have my first child. That was what made me decide to make a conscious effort to start my own business. I didnt know what the business was going to be at that stage, as none of the little jobs Id had working for other companies had really resonated with me. But I knew I had to change my life around.

Over the years I had been training with friends and lots of them had said I would make an amazing personal trainer. Not in a million years did I want to do that at that time the typical personal trainer would work in a gym for a company and that just wasnt me. I did start to think about having a fitness blog, or a fitness video platform, but nothing really grabbed me at first. The thought of becoming a trainer kept on coming back to me and eventually I realized I could start my own personal training company and offer a unique service and be better than anyone else out there!

I came up with a name for the business, Be the Fittest. From there, the journey really started. I knew I could leave my previous life behind. However, I didnt know how to start a business, nor did my mother or any of my friends. I had heard of The Princes Trust, which helps young people with starting businesses, among other things. So I approached them and was able to go on a business starters course. On completion of the course, I went away, built the business and ended up going on a panel interview with them, which I passed! They agreed to mentor and train me and I launched my business in 2014. I built a website and started promoting it. I literally had no clients and didnt really know where to start but I learnt about SEO (search engine optimization) through another Princes Trust workshop and started implementing it into my website. It started to work. I then launched my Instagram account initially just posting videos of me training the clients I had got through my website and this brought in even more clients.