Meet The Team: Jonny Pain

Hey! I’m Jonny Pain (yes, that is my real name) but perhaps simply stating that begs the question - ‘who da f**k is dat guy?’ *said in McGregor voice.

Well, there’s a lot to unpack here and perhaps over the coming months we can dig deeper but for now, let’s keep the disappointment as a drip-feed shall we and just provide the cliff notes.

I’ve been an NSCA Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and a Performance Nutritionist (working towards a PhD in the latter) for over 20 years and have had the privilege of working directly, in person, with hundreds of clients in many different fields. I’m also incredibly lucky to have built an online coaching business that has now seen me work with over 7000 clients internationally.

I also wrote and taught the Strength and Conditioning Degree Program at the University I studied at, which was oddly awkward!

As an athlete (if that isn’t stretching the bounds of the truth), it was in the field of combat sports that I spent much of my early career. Initially I competed on the underground and unlicensed circuits and sought out the mentorship of experts in the field of self-protection and I’m proud to have qualified under the legendary Geoff Thompson as Scotland’s only Registered Self-Protection Instructor in ‘The Reality Combat System’  which was taught internationally to operators at the sharp, pointy end of law enforcement and Special Forces. 

Although persistent injury stopped me from competing in MMA, I went on to ply my trade with international standard amateur and professional boxers, world champion jiu-jitsu players, MMA fighters competing at the highest possible level and Olympic and Commonwealth Judo players most notably being appointed as Strength and Conditioning Coach and consultant to boxing’s elite working with Billy Joe Saunders and Tyson Fury as well as top UFC contenders.  

As a specialist area of delivery, after many years in and out of the military like a broken yo-yo (a story for another day), I’ve worked closely with military operatives internationally and have a keen interest and a great deal of experience in preparing candidates for specialist selection in ‘niche’ military and law enforcement settings.

Competitively, I now concentrate on setting endurance firsts and I’ve taken part (both successfully, and also failed miserably!) in some of the worlds toughest extreme ultra-endurance events. 

As a father of 4 children it really is a nice bit of down time!

So, what the hell has that to do with Built For Athletes?

Well, as some of the above might have suggested, I pride myself on a certain standard.

I expect the same of all the athletes and professionals I work with but I also expect it from my kit.

Kit should be robust, intelligently thought out and it should add value to the user and the environment they might operate in. BFA are producing equipment that meets those needs while continuously working to improve and expand based on the ever changing needs of those users.

And I’m here to try and break it.

How?

Stay tuned…