Obi Vincent

Influencer, online coach, pioneer of ‘functional bodybuilding’

Q&A

What drew you to bodybuilding and, later, functional fitness? I was kind of overweight when I was growing up and I wasn’t really that active. I always managed to get out of PE! When I was 18 or 19, someone made a joke about my weight. That was the trigger for me. I started running and lost a lot of weight. I used to wear size XL or XXL and I dropped down to M. It’s funny, I’m back up to XXL tops now. I still have one of the hoodies I had when I was 17 and it fits perfectly again.

So, you lost the weight and then put it back on in muscle. What motivated you to walk into a gym? After work one day, I went to a bar and there was this guy there who was huge. I was really into WWE wrestling, and I always used to think, ‘How is it physically possible to have so much muscle?’ I asked how he’d got so big and he gave me the answers we’re used to: go to the gym, make sure your diet’s right… It was the first time I’d contemplated going to a gym. The first two or three months were guesswork. I didn’t want to get in the way, so I’d always be in the corner. What made you stick with it when others might have given up?

It was the fact that I enjoyed training. And I wanted to look like The Rock, I wanted to look like a WWE wrestler. After a few years, I decided to become a level 2 fitness instructor. One of the other PTs said to me, ‘You’ve done all this yourself. If you had someone to coach you, you could take it to the next level.’ It was his idea. I never wanted to do bodybuilding shows. But he pushed me. If you give me a training plan and diet, I will stick to it 100%.

Your training now is more CrossFitinspired. How did you get into that? A videographer I know who lived near me asked if I wanted to do a ‘CrossFit vs Bodybuilding’ video. I’d be up against someone else, we’d do some CrossFit stuff and then some bodybuilding. It was really fun, but eye-opening, too, because my fitness level was bad. Yes, I looked great, but I had no aerobic capacity.

The programme you teach now blends both ‘functional’ and ‘bodybuilding’ modalities. Is that influenced by your own training?

It is 100% something that I was doing myself. I started doing a lot more stuff with kettlebells and more athletic-style strength and conditioning. People seemed to like the way I trained, so I thought I’d write a programme.

What advice would you give someone looking to embark on a new fitness challenge?

Set goals that are realistic. And I always tell people to ask themselves, ‘Am I enjoying this?’ And if your answer isn’t a straight ‘yes’, you probably need to change something. We’re told we have to ‘endure the hardship’ because it’ll be worth it. But I don’t believe that any more. Train for life rather than living to train. I’m going to be doing this stuff in my sixties.

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