James McFadzean was my very first trainer for my introduction to CrossFit, and underneath the intimidating muscle is a guy that really wants the best for you in relation to fitness. James has continously worked hard to question and develop his understanding of fitness, and I wanted to see how far he’s come personally and in his career:-

What does “healthy” or “health” mean to you (include mental and/or physical aspects of your belief)?

I can’t answer what is ‘health’ without fitness being involved, whether it is a mental, physical, spiritual fitness.
I once read an interpretation of what fitness is to health: “Fitness to Health, is Weather to Climate”- Unknown Source.
Both health and fitness to me seem to be varying degrees of the same reality – we use different measures to understand each. When I think of ‘health’, I think measurable attributes e.g.

• Physical health – blood pressure, body fat percentage, other risks of heart disease, etc.
• Mental health – depression, anxiety, disorders, etc.

When I think of ‘fitness’, I think measures of fitness attributes e.g. strength, flexibility, power, speed, endurance, etc.

I think the proof of your ‘health’ is judged by the amount of ‘fitness’ you have, which brings me back to the quote “Fitness to Health, is Weather to Climate”
Have you always been fit and healthy?

I have always been involved with sport, starting young with Aussie Rules and then changing over to American Football in my teens. I’ve always had a passion for fitness, which I chose to pursue as a career after high school. I enjoy every bit of it! I wouldn’t say I’ve always chosen the healthiest choices growing up, but I have always had a passion for sport and fitness which encouraged a healthier lifestyle.
What are some of your greatest achievements – I heard you have a ‘claim to fame’?

My claim to fame has been representing Australia a number of times in the sport of Gridiron (American Football). The sport gave me the chance to travel to Germany/Austria, United States, and across Australia. I will never forget playing in the IFAF 2011 World Cup at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, Austria in front of thousands of spectators, with previous and potential NFL players representing their countries.

Incredible effort!! So how did you get to CrossFit?
I switched to CrossFit in 2009 after my boss at the time wanted to go down that path of training, I stuck by it and never looked back! There is so much but also so little to say about CrossFit. It has a reputation for itself, that’s for sure. It really just depends on what side of the fence you stand. I choose CrossFit because I’ve taken the time to understand it. It took me a good 3 months to take in CrossFit’s Philosophy/Theory of fitness, health and wellbeing from a non-biased standpoint. I was confused, for example, at how the ‘10 rounds for time’ and ‘as many rounds as possible in 20 mins’ was a good idea when trying to achieve injury prone exercises like handstands, muscle ups, heavy deadlifts, etc and all at a ‘so so’ fitness level at the time. I knew I had some practice but my bodybuilding specific training wasn’t based upon performance but aesthetics.
Seeing the elitist athletes (non-competition) move so well and have amazing skill sets in gymnastics, would make me question their weightlifting ability, until I saw their lifting stats! And then I questioned their cardio fitness in a 5km run … Hmmm, I’ve ran out of queries and wondered what was the catch… I love the raw, logical, simple, honest progressions the CrossFit method puts across.

What does a general day in your life look like, from start to end?

5:20am: Get disturbed by that stupid over heard phone tone.
6:00am: Work, Classes / Personal Training until mid morning, midday

(fitting in some important food and homemade coffee somewhere in there)
12:00noon:Train/Lunch
3:00-4:00pm: Eat/Clients/Train
8:00pm: Home/Eat/Plan following day
10:00pm: Bed
How are you helping other people in their journey to improve their quality of life & why is this important to you?

The realisation I come to when starting CrossFit (from what my tunnel vision idea of ‘fitness’ was) was huge for me; a really big light bulb moment for me! I love talking about fitness, what is fitness, what is health, how the human body is designed for play and leisure and moving in functions predominantly, not for body part per day activity. There are a lot of things we can live without, and we are slowly but very much becoming useless beings! We also ‘take a pill to fix this, use this to fix that’ – quick fixes! I want to encourage people and help people who will let themselves have the same ‘light bulb’ moment I did and then enjoy better health, fitness and wellbeing, and of course as a result a happier lifestyle.

What is your view on natural and complementary options available for assisting people to make change?

I think if you can help it, stick to as natural as possible! When you notice you want something more than 2-3 times you start to wonder why? Is our body designed for this? What’s this going to be like long-term? As I said above, we are becoming too reliant on quick fixes! Yes we are busy, but do we keep making these quick fix options just to get through a short-term problem, to then do a circle, warranting yet another fix?
A funny quote I read years ago has stuck in my head and which I put on the back of my first work shirt:-

“what is good and easy, won’t be fast;
what is easy and fast, won’t be good;
what is fast and good, won’t be easy”

I love it!!!! So what advice do you have for anyone wanting to make changes in their lives?

It ain’t magic, just do it!!!!!!!

Can you share with us one very valuable lesson you have learned on your own personal journey?

Be true to yourself – you live for you first!

Who are your inspirations?

Parents, family is a beautiful thing. And a good friend of mine from Geelong, not going to name names because I won’t hear the end of it!

Thanks so much for sharing your journey with us, and congratulations on your achievements today (personally I’m very jealous you got to play a sport you loved at an international level, as I used to dream of that for netball). Wishing you continued success and for anyone that wants to contact James click HERE.

Wishing you all an abundance of health, healing and absolute love.

Xx Chantelle Xx