Burnley muscle man looking to build on debut success

Man mountain Andy Ellis made an immediate impact on the competition circuit after impressing judges with his toned, statue-like physique at the NAC event held at Middleton Arena in Manchester.

It was the 30 year old’s first ever contest after embarking on a strict training regime in Blannel Street’s Fitness Factory Gym 12 months ago. “I’ve been training properly for a show for 12 months,” he said. “I’ve always been in to the training side of things because I had more than 50 fights as an amateur boxer at Sandygate. But Colin Tyson, my coach, approached me and encouraged me to have a go at competing.”

He added: “It was the first show I’d done. We could have entered a smaller, more local show but Colin wanted to test me so he threw me in at the deep end with the UK Open British Championships.”

Though the Accrington Road competitor has worked and dieted hard over the last year in search of perfection, he credits Colin, the reigning Mr UK, as the architect behind his sculpted appearance.

“I’ve loved it so far,” he said. “I’ve always loved training. It’s gone really well for me and I’ve taken to it like a duck to water. Without Colin though I wouldn’t be half as good. His knowledge and experience has really helped me; he monitors all my training and does all my dieting and nutrition.”

His 12-week diet consisting of seven portions of chicken, fish and rice per day, which saw him shed two-stone, really paid off though he still felt aggrieved to be beaten by eventual victor Roberto Santos from Portugal.

Andy, who trains twice a day, six days a week, said: “There were eight competitors in my class. My aim was to finish in the top three so finishing second was great. I only got beat by one point as well but I thought I deserved to win. I got robbed really but it will make me more determined to go back bigger and better next year.”

And 2012 has already been mapped out for him. “We are training towards the World Championships in Italy in October then the NAC show again in November,” Andy added. “I’ll start training properly again after Christmas where I’ll do six months of bulking up followed by three months of dieting.”

Andy would like to say thank you to Fitness Factory owner Michael Coupe as well as trainers Colin Tyson and Fred Ashworth who have all contributed time and effort to help him to achieve his goal.