How to work in corporate investment and still get ripped

Working all hours, travelling with the job and benching 160kg can’t be easy.

Corporate finance worker Richie Brew works out six times a week and is usually in the gym by 5:30am every day.

While his day job might be for a big four London bank, Richie never misses a session and even holds a rowing record.

He said: “Working out is now embedded in my lifestyle and is almost like brushing my teeth or having a shower.

“I have a pretty high pressured job that involves national and international travel as well as some long office hours, so organisation is the key message here. I always say it, but failing to prepare, is preparing to fail.

 

 

The 29-year-old banker’s favourite workout is chest Sunday, but he wasn’t always so toned. A few years ago he weighed a bulky 16½ stone because of his poor technique and eating plan.

He said: “Like most people, I pretty much trained like an idiot by doing chest and arms all the time. While eating everything in sight I put on around three stone in two years.”

“I didn’t start to really take nutrition seriously though until I was in my mid twenties, and only then did I realise I was missing a serious trick. But, better late than never.”

Now Richie has fixed his mistakes and trains at 5:30am before work every day.

He said: “Being motivated to get out of bed and into the gym when it’s cold and dark outside is also a factor. If I’m getting up that early, I better make it count.”

He added: “One of the my worst pet hates about working out is when people see me enjoying myself, out, socialising having a drink or out to dinner with people and they come out with something stupid like ‘yeah, it’s alright for you, you can eat whatever you want and still look like that’.

“If only they knew or had a tiny inkling of an idea of what it takes for me to look how I do.”

 

One tip Richie gives is to be big on supplements and follow his routine.

He said: “I take so many. Multi vit. Vit D. Pro-biotic. Omega 3, creatine monohydrate and whey. I’ve been pretty consistent with these for the last two years and thinking about it, I can’t actually remember the last time I even had a cold or flu type illness. Trying to be aesthetic has its health benefits too.”

Despite reaching a point where he’s happy with his new physique, Richie is still not totally happy with his body.

He said: “I was such a skinny kid it was unreal. I still actually have no glutes and I really hate that. Plus my calf muscles just won’t grow.

“Sporting wise, I can row 500m in 1:23.2 seconds on an indoor rowing machine. It is to my understanding, that that is pretty good – I’m not a rower – and somewhere near the top 50 times in the world, certainly around top 10 in the UK.

“But it was pure brute force and poor technique that got me there.”