ABOUT ME

Get to know my story

Hey everyone! My name is Brodie and here’s a “short” version of my story.

I grew up in a small, rough town in the Hunter Valley called Cessnock. I was always very active and played sports ever since I was young. I started playing footy (rugby league) when I was 5 years old and had my first boxing match when I was 10 which was for the NSW state titles (this was before they changed the age limit), I lost.

I have always been fascinated with the potential of a human body and how far we can push it. This started to become an obsession when I was about 15 years old when I started going to the gym seriously to build muscle. I always had the mindset with training that “if I can do this / look like this now, imagine what I could do in a year's time”.

I left school after year 10, realised I should have stayed so went back to complete year 11 and 12 a year later with a younger class but only made it halfway through year 11 before life turned into a shit storm and dropped out again.

After dropping out of school for the second time I found myself doing a few different jobs like dish pigging, roof labouring and picking grapes in the summer out at the vineyards.

I knew I needed to pull my finger out and do something about my situation because I could feel I was starting to go down the wrong path and that I was supposed to be doing so much more but just didn’t know what it was.

I had originally applied for the Army when I was 16 but they had told me to call back when I was old enough. They actually told me they would call me, which I’m still waiting for!

The thought of the Army just seemed to suit everything I was about. The fitness, mental resilience, mate-ship, different job every day, learning new skills and just finding out what the body / mind was capable of.

Just after my 19th birthday in Nov 2005 I enlisted into the Army reserves through an apprenticeship scheme as a mechanic. I had no interest in being a mechanic whatsoever, I just wanted to get into the Army and getting a trade seemed to be a smart way to do it. At this time I also had a partner that was pregnant with my first son, Seth, and was due the day I finished basic training. Luckily he came late so I was home for it all!

I decided to join the Army reserves because I was about to be a father and had no idea what it was going to be like. But as soon as I started basic training I thought “yep this is what I’ve been chasing”.

With the apprenticeship scheme that I joined we would work in at the Army barracks for 4-6 weeks every couple of months and the rest would be out in a civvy workshop. I hated working in the civvy workshops, I even got fired from the first place because I just wouldn’t turn up some days. I knew the full-time Army was where I needed to be.

About 1 1/2 years in the paperwork to transfer to full-time Army finally went through and I was off to Bandiana in Victoria to complete my Initial Employment Training (IET’s) as an apprentice mechanic.

Although that was one of the hardest things to do to pack everything up and go to a place I knew absolutely no one and nothing about. After nearly 17 years of service, I still believe it was the best choice I ever made in my life and never looked back.

I moved around a little bit but the Army was really good with the fact I had a son in Newcastle so they kept me nice and close in Sydney for the majority of my time. But even then, some years I would be away for 6+ months on exercises, operations and courses.

Outperform Fitness began early in my full time career through sheer passion for human potential. I was always at the front of the pack with any sort of physical task throughout my Army career and constantly had the need to push myself further. Soon enough I found myself running Physical Training (PT) sessions and designing programs for the units I was at. I was always seen as the PT guy rather than the mechanic. I watched, read and listened to as much I could with improving human performance and couldn’t get enough of it. It’s all I thought about, and still do.

People started to come to me for help to improve their fitness to help with their job, fitness tests or prepare for more elite roles like the special forces. The more I helped people the more I realised that everyone has the potential for high performance but they just need to learn the way to do it and the mental strength to be able to push themselves to force the change.

I started running a small PT, Gorilla Fitness, group after hours for those that wanted to reach greater heights with their fitness. Before long I even had local primary school teachers and Army partners coming along to the sessions.

During this time in Sydney I also had my second son, Kai.

My plan was to always get posted back to Newcastle so that I could discharge, spend more time with family and open up my own gym. I was just unsure what sort of people I was going to help.

One day I was sitting around at Army with a mate, Smithy. We were watching some new Army applicants going for their Pre-entry Fitness Assessment (PFA). At that moment I said to Smithy, “I know what I’m going to do!”

I remember when I went to join the Army I had no idea how I was meant to be training. I was super fit but I was still missing a lot of tools in my toolbox that would have helped me in many ways. So I decided, I’m going to bridge that gap. I’m going to bridge the gap between civilian and tactical fitness!

Now, I’m back in Newcastle spending more time with family with an online personal training business helping ADF, police and fire applicants prepare for their new careers.

Well, that’s a very condensed story of my life so far and I hope you have enjoyed the read. If you have any questions about me feel free to reach out and ask.

MY ARMY CAREER

Best thing I ever done in the Army

Spent 4 years in Special Operation doing a range of awesome stuff with them but if I could put it down to one thing it would be the Paratrooping course and parachuting into the middle of Jervis Bay at night looking over the Bay all lit up with the town lights. If you can’t do pull ups then forget about this sort of thing until you can!

Postings

  • 8 Combat Service Support Battalion (reserves)

  • Army School of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering

  • 17 Construction Squadron

  • 5 General Health Battalion

  • Special Operations Logistic Squadron

  • 8 Combat Service Support Battalion (full time)

  • 6 Aviation

  • 8 Combat Service Support Battalion (reserves)

WANT TO GET

BATTLE READY?

Specialised online fit-prep program for ADF & First Responder applicants