Michael started his strength training journey in high-school to add on some more muscle while playing club (with Coach Manning funnily enough) and school rugby. Like many of us he didn’t really have much of an idea of what he was doing so just followed along with forums and the like, training on and off for a few years. Eventually he stumbled across Stronglifts 5×5 and fell in love with training barbell movements and getting stronger.

Michael enrolled in his Exercise and Sports Science degree at USYD in 2019 and will graduate at the end of 2022. While at Uni he completed units that are the equivalent of an ASCA S&C level 1 accreditation.

While completing his degree Michael started to take training more seriously and got more into powerlifting. During the lockdown in 2020 with nothing better to do, he began training and coaching his brothers and competed in his first Powerlifting competition in November of that year.

“I loved the hype on the day and the competitive nature of the sport so signed up to state qualifiers, bought a membership with the APU and decided to see how far I could take it. I did my first APU competition at Limitless Lifting for the 2021 State Qualifiers.”

Since then, Michael has been coached by Amir and came 3rd in Nationals 7 months after getting in a serious bike accident wherein he underwent several months of rehab exercises with very limited abilities.

Michael is the head coach of Penrith, a branch with a lot of lifting history within its walls.